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

[jkbuha]

let's try and break this down further.

My 15z is a UK keyboard (ie: Shift+2 = ")
@Pierob - what is yours?
@Thorbsd - what is yours?

[thorbsd]

let's try and break this down further.

My 15z is a UK keyboard (ie: Shift+2 = ")
@Pierob - what is yours?
@Thorbsd - what is yours?

I got my 15z when I was in Canada so I assume I've got an "American" keyboard.

From a completely shut off and unplugged system, I press only the right arrow key, plug in the power cord, then half a second later I remove my finger from the right arrow key and the system powers up. The fans start going full blast, and the power button is illuminated and flashing.

I used the Universal BIOS Extractor Tool to make a copy of my BIOS, and renamed it BIOS.cap and I put it on a FAT32 formatted flash drive. When the system booted up, it briefly accessed the flash drive for about half a second, but then it didn't seem to be doing anything else.

Maybe that is what is supposed to happen, but I guess I was assuming that it would read the BIOS.cap file and then proceed to boot normally.

Do I need to make the flash drive bootable with some type of recovery environment? How are you guys booting into what looks like some kind of UEFI shell?

[jkbuha]

You need to put it in the USB3.0 port on the left hand side which is closest to you. Format it in Fat32 as well.

[TimeWalker]

This is weird how the scancodes your keyboard emit are different oO

By the way, when I've stated about the 'left most port towards you' in my original post about recovery little did I know that your laptop has USB3.0 port in this place. I believe USB3.0 ports are made non-bootable after some prick at Dell decided to disable booting of off devices with no external power (at least this is the case as of A07 bios for Vostro 3450/3750 .. you can't boot say.. a flash drive or a WD Passport from a USB3.0 port), so essentially I was thinking that your regular USB 2.0 port should be used for triggering the crisis boot.

[jkbuha]

Guys - I'VE MANAGED TO ENABLE RECOVERY MODE AND HAVE ALSO DISCOVERED SOMETHING ELSE!

So:

1) TimeWalker - you were right - press end and insert power cord and release key exactly 0.5-1.0sec after (not longer) - computer powers on
2) I had put my full advanced settings on the CD ROM that kasar had created - and we now have a new menu in recovery mode - Intel Fast Startup Menu!

try it and see

Anyways - all 15z users - it *IS* the End key by itself that triggers recovery. The devil is in the exact timing

[TimeWalker]

@jkbuha Oh, finally! Congrats .. welcome to the club lol
I haven't seen any *extra* menus while in recovery mode .. and believe me I've loaded it lots and lots of times ... mind snapping a pic ? oO

[kasar]

yep, same here, what do you mean with that intel "fast startup menu"?

could you explain more in deph the procedure you made to bring up that menu?

oh and congrats for finally getting the recovery working jkbuha

[pierob]

let's try and break this down further.

My 15z is a UK keyboard (ie: Shift+2 = ")
@Pierob - what is yours?
@Thorbsd - what is yours?

My 15z is an IT keyboard and... IT WORKS!
You are right: the key is the timing. Pressing the right-arrow key while plugging the power cord and releasing it after a 0.5..1 second properly starts the recovery procedure (poweron LED starts blinking while fan runs at full speed).

[TimeWalker]

@jkbuha If you've got *this* option suddenly unlocked on your machine .. then I just wonder what's the [censored] is this anyway ? And how come it's supported if chipet criteria is not met ?

[jkbuha]

that's exactly what I have - iRST as the last option on the Advanced Menu. Some interesting options in the Intel Rapid Start Technology menu.

I just took my modded A11 and truncated the first 180000h bytes.