(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

[TimeWalker]

I patched the L702X_A18_UNLCK.WPH with DELL SLIC 2.1 but it still don't work.

my original BIOS is L702x A17, then I updated my BIOS to stock A18, still no luck.

I flash the WPH file in DOS with the command: phlash16 /S /X /FORCE, which following this thread: http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-HO...GINAL-BIOS

then I decompressed the stock BIOS.WPH, which I just flashed using official program.
and copy it to my USB disk, the error still the same.
so, i think this error should be nothing to do with the SLIC.

I haven't touched a bit in regards to SLIC in the original A18 BIOS I had patched for L702x. You are just increasing your chances for a brick. There's a guide in the first post of this thread you need to follow and not some oblivious random stuff related to older Phoenix bioses (non-EFI)

Here is the decompression of the A18 you have been provided:

Code:

EFI / Insyde BIOS
Finished Extracting
Tiano module compression method used
Pubkey and Marker found in F33E367F-41D2-4201-9CB7-AFA63DCCEEC9_0_5.ROM at 36135C
Pubkey and Marker found in F33E367F-41D2-4201-9CB7-AFA63DCCEEC9_0_5.ROM at 3614AE
OEM/Table IDs identified are:
1. DELL  QA09    
Pubkey and marker (2.1) (DELL  QA09    ) (x2)

You see the last line? It mean SLIC was found in the rom.

Why would you be flashing your BIOS in DOS when this laptop uses EFI capsule to flash ? The error is actually because you are using WRONG tools to flash!

---

So far I have tried these for recovery:
BIOS1.WPH as BIOS.cap -> no result
FvRecovery.fd as BIOS.cap -> no result

With FvRecovery.fd the flashdrive blinked longer than with just the capsule, also it scanned the DVD drive a couple of time and blinked the HDD for 5 times in a row and then stopped. So the entire capsule is definitely not a proper recovery image. I'm now leaning towards the image that contains PEI and DXE stuff right away (like the first part of the fw extracted /w Phoenix Tool) ...

---

Just tried the F33....ROM as well - no luck. Will have to look up Phoenix spec of some sort to determine what's needed for recovery. I guess this won't be easy ...
Well, we kind of know what's needed there (from the Packard Bell service guide) .. but since PFlash.efi (which is an Application, not a DXE or PEI) is nowhere to be found .. we pretty much have to figure this on our own.

[dkinsano]

I've done the unlocking menu procedures on my CCE 764LE+ but only unlocked some password options but not the video memory as i wish. Any hints how to do it?

[TimeWalker]

I believe this was mentioned before, but I will repeat it nevertheless: http://wiki.phoenix.com/wiki/index.php/Crisis_Recovery
Also there's no explanation as to what the recovery capsule should contain

[TimeWalker]

Also I have stumbled upon this post:

Firstly my laptop is now recovered. The Singapore service center was able to do it for me on the spot, so well happy with that.

From my observations i can tell you the following:-

The Acer engineer used a Black plastic Sandisk thumbdrive (either 2GB or 4GB)
The file name of the firmware was JE40122.FD
He definitely used some Crisis Disk (I did ask him if i could have a copy but he said no).
It appeared that the thumb drive booted into some kind of Menu and he flashed from their.
The engineer had to remove the hard disk first (this was one step i never did).

I asked the engineer if i had simply placed the JE40122.FD file in the thumbdrive and booted without the hard disk in would it have worked. He replied "probably"

He also advised never to use Winflash and also perform BIOS updates from DOS :-)

Hope this is of help to somebody.

Source: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/568...ios-2.html

The person who started this topic reportedly bricked an Acer Aspire 4750G which turned out tohave a Tiano Phoenix bios. I have downloaded the BIOS from Acer's support page for this notebook and opened it up with Andy's Phoenix Tool. The tool was unable to tell the name for recovery image ... because the names used are the same as on our Dells: http://puu.sh/1cleD
Also I looked at the WinFlash DOS utility and the .bat file associated with it ... there are 2 rom files in the DOS folder, one is ROM the other one is WPH... the bat file uses ROM:

Code:

set UMAROM=JE40201.ROM
Pflash.exe /cvar /bbl /silent /endkey /sv /sd %UMAROM%

There is also an .exe similar to what Dell provides and the structure is identical to my Vostros .exe package from Dell, only the main bios fw size is smaller (as you can see the ROM matches in size to the 7000 file which is used by WinFlash when flashing from EFI capsule.
http://puu.sh/1cl6C

So I looked at the JE40201.ROM dump that Phoenix tool has created and looked at Pei modules related to recovery file initialization .. however both modules contain the name BIOS.cap ..
http://puu.sh/1clgC
http://puu.sh/1clic

Which doesn't really go very well with what the person was saying about the file being named JE40122.FD .. I have downloaded bios version 2.01 and the filnes in the archive are JE40201.ROM and JE40201.WPH ...according to the person it was the latest bios version available at the time of posting .. now the earlier we can get is 2.01. I was able to find the 1.22 version on the web (this forum actually, someone has posted an unlock request) and it only contains the ROM file, theres no WHP in there, size-wise it's still the same: http://puu.sh/1cluk
Again, the modules have non-standart names like ours: http://puu.sh/1clwu
Names are still BIOS.cap http://puu.sh/1clIZ and http://puu.sh/1clK4

Now we have to figure out why exactly is the recovery rom was named JE40xxx.FD and not BIOS.cap like it says in the module. Which may lead us to success ...

p.s. I have found a newer version of WinFlash .. which has an interesting feature:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2573233/wf_new.rar

[TimeWalker]

Turns out the name is takes from the Platform identifier...

Platform: Wistron HM42-DN (the same as JE40-DN) Revision: -3

Here is the research I did:

Take note of the GUIDs ... they are identical, which proves that the recovery file that should be used is indeed the first part of the BIOS1.WPH extracted with PhoenixTool ...
Please someone with spare time on their hands compare the modules included in the Acer bios to what we have (hence the size difference) .. I've got some important tests going this week ...

[kasar]

nice info

note: I think I tried to replace the logo with that long time ago, but didnt had luck >.<
let us to know if you are able to get that working.

[TimeWalker]

nice info

note: I think I tried to replace the logo with that long time ago, but didnt had luck >.<
let us to know if you are able to get that working.

Could you do
dmpstore > dump.txt
in shell ? The one I gave you?

And look for

Code:

Variable NV+BS 'E5BBF7BE-2417-499B-97DB-39F4896391BC:DmiBoardVersion' DataSize = 5
00000000: 46 41 42 31 00 *FAB1.*

I believe this to be the name we are looking for. The codename for FAB1 is Emerald Lake... Inspiron N4110 is based on this as well.
And I'm absolutely positive about that because when I first bought the laptop I came across this thread and found most of the problems I was facing in the Milestones section.
Then compared DSDTs and they were absolutely identical. Also the BIOS changelog is identical: 14R vs V3450

P.S. I have found a list of Acer laptops and corresponding platform identifiers:
http://vlab.pp.ru/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=2442
I've downloaded the Acer Aspire 4253 Service manual which according to the table has these possible platform numbers ZQE, JE40-BZ, HM40 .. and the manual says:

1. Plug in the USB flash disk.
2. Select the Fast Format option and click Start. Then click Next.
3. Click Format and then Exit to complete the operation
4. Copy the BIOS HM40X64.bin file to the USB flash disk root directory.
NOTE: Do not place any other *.fd files to the USB flash disk root directory.
5. Plug in the USB Flash Disk without AC plug.
6. Press Fn + Esc keys and hold them down, then plug in AC power. The power button flashes orange.
7. Press Power button and the system will enter crisis mode to flash the BIOS.

But it uses Insyde .. apparently HM40 is Insyde whilst JE40 is Phoenix Tiano.
However I've read on Phoenixs' spec today that the part of the firmware called Fvrecovery.fd is indeed an Insyde EFI package and is used in the loaded capsule as a backup recovery capsule in case the main fails to flash the chip.
We figured that recovery file used as a capsule should be the first part of the firmware (based on the Acer accident) .. we have to figure the platform (name) and extension then ..

P.S. From what I was able to find online apparently XPS L702x also has FAB1 as Board Version:

Manufacturer: Dell Inc. (Dell)
Product: 0XN71K
Version: FAB1
Serial: .GXXXSQ1.CNXX643XXX0386.

This was obtained from PC WIzard 2012 .. however my product number says it's A00, which is weird.

[kasar]

well, I was talking about the winflash.

I think my flasher version is even newer



about the dmpstore I didnt found FAB1 string :o, I uploaded the dump if you want to give it a check

I used your shell at this time (the one from 744 kb)

[TimeWalker]

about the dmpstore I didnt found FAB1 string :o, I uploaded the dump if you want to give it a check

I used your shell at this time (the one from 744 kb)

Woot .. yours is empty and the mobo maker is Dell themselves, whereas my maker shows up as Intel.
Could you do smbiosview -a > smbios.txt as well, please?
Feel free to cover up your service tags

[kasar]

oops hehe, my bad ^^

ok, updated the old attachment and replaced old and new one service tags with *******, and same with smbiosview

here is the smbiosview