Exotic: Getac X500 BIOS unlock request

[raphidae]

Hi,

I'm trying to upgrade my Getac X500 (Fully rugged, QM57 Chipset, Phoenix BIOS). Officially it supports an i7-640M (35W) and 8Gb memory maximum.

Now, I have tried to upgrade it with a i7-940XM (55W), and the BIOS will recognize it perfectly, no problems. I can boot into DOS, do whatever I want. If I try to install Windows 8 however, half-way during the 'detecting-driver' stage the laptop will just turn off. Upon reboot it will complain it shut down unexpectedly and I should restart the installation. Now I have ruled out a temperature shutdown (keeping it cool up to that point). It is always at the same point as well.

Considering the memory, I tried putting in 16Gb (2x8mb) memory, which again is recognized normally in the diagnostics screen (16384kb). Only when I enter setup the amount of memory is shown as 0 KB and when booting, windows shuts down with the new frowny BSOD (probably also getting the 0KB memory). DOS boots fine.

I get the idea that the BIOS is not filling in certain fields (ACPI table?), not setting options or doing things for configurations not specifically enabled in it.

So I tried Phoenix BIOS Editor, but it doesn't seem to work on my bios (PSI Analysis Fail! error). So I tried phoenixtool214, which extracted its components and identified it as "Phoenix BIOS (New Style)".

I have looked through STRINGS00.ROM and it seems there are a shitload of options in the BIOS not visible to me. So I figured I'd ask here if you can unlock them.

Additionally, the laptop has two BIOS files, one SYS and one KRC/EC (This string is in the ROM file: "EC-V12.2 Copyright ITE Tech. Inc."), don't know what this is. Also, the upgrade zip from the manufacturer includes a .cer file, I hope flash updates aren't signed, since that would probably mean I'm up sh*t creek and I totally forgot to rent the paddle, right?

So, I'd be grateful if you could unlock the hidden menus in the setup to start with, and (considering this is a laptop for military use) if you notice anything weird or interresting or related to the CPU and memory not working while you're at it, please don't be shy to let me know

Once upon a time (20 years ago) I actually wrote my own BIOSes in assembler and whatnot (after soldering new crystals on the board), but sadly most of that is hazy when looking back. Additionally, apparently BIOSes now are just zipfiles full of all kinds of crap I have no idea about But I'd be willing to assist and learn again.

Ideally I would learn how to do this myself, but I don't have the time unfortunately

So any help (and any technical explaination) from you is much appreciated. BIOS-es are attached.

[raphidae]

Another problem just surfaced yesterday: After (cleanly) installing Windows 8.1 RTM the fan completely stopped working.

It comes on during BIOS, but once Windows starts loading it turns off and never comes on again, no matter how hot the CPU and case get. The Getac Utility that can be used to monitor the CPU temperature shows the temp as zero (were it did show the temp correctly on Windows 8.0).

HWMonitor does show the correct temps though, but it may be important to note that HWMonitor always shows the fan speed as zero, even when the fan did work on Windows 8.0.

Additionally, on Windows 8.0, the OS is seemingly unable to control the CPU clock speed (it's configurable in power settings in percentage) it will alternate between ~1.8Ghz (45W) and 1.1Ghz (17.5W) and the fan speed will constantly fluctuate (and run too fast in my opinion).

I'm really hoping someone with knowledge will assist me getting this laptop to be usable, otherwise I'll have to dump it on eBay or something. Thanks in advance.