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

[jkbuha]

awesome writeup TW!
Thanks TheWiz for putting this up!

One quick question on this:

Flex Ratio is essentially the Plimit of your CPU, this is the highest multiplier your CPU can utilize. Please note it’s not the maximum multiplier used for TB.

What does this mean?

[TimeWalker]

Thanks @TheWiz for publishing.
The part about memory regions (related to OSX) is what I was referring to in my earlier post on the previous page - this is the cause of sleep/wake cycle breaking in OSX. It's not the BIOS fault (nor is it Dell's fault), but pure user laziness Actually some people I should thank for some hint toward this discovery are Gower and Brabbelbla.

@jkbuha If I'm not confusing it, then if you set the flex ratio to say 22 (while your actual cpu can go from 8 to 23) the highest frequency you will end up with would be 100x22 = 2.2 GHz, instead of 2.3 GHz nominal. It limits the multiplier on the cores. You can't crank this value beyond then normal (non-turbo) P-states (but you can using Clover).

[kasar]

arrgg, >_<
I'm getting really pissed off while waiting for ages for those chips, I'm getting bored with this old desktop without being able to mod anything of my laptop (currently dead now)

anyway, I'm almost sure those chips will be at home next week some day.


since I will have 5 of them, and sockets on both the motherboard and programer, I was wondering if you guys can help me with modding the image of the entire chip.

for example, I noticed timewalker got the address for all descriptor, bios and ME firmware from the chip image.

I was wondering if you guys could help me by editing the chip image, for example, by replacing the ME7 part of the firmware with a ME8 one.

since I have a backup of the entire chip and sockets to make job easier, I think nothing could be wrong at this time ^^

I think it could be interesting to do those advanced tests since my hardware is now more accesible thanks to the hardware mods I made, also by doing this, my laptop can still being the test subject for all the new UEFI and ME hacks tests

what do you think guys?

[Dc0de]

Hello all,

Has anyone tried any of these mods on a Vostro 3750 bios (which i believe is simular motherboard to Vostro 3450)? Im actually looking for Uefi Boot capabilities, other mods would be a bonus.

Ive found a program for patching and enabling Advanced menus on a Russian forum called PMpatch, but even after translating the page its very broken english and hard to understand (not sure if the patch will enable UEFI boot options on this bios and laptop). The patch seems to run fine on the Dell Bios A14 (latest) exe with no errors and says its patched as follows:

D:\Downloads\PMPatch_0.5.5_win>pmpatch 3750A14.exe 3750Pat.exe
PMPatch 0.5.5
PowerManagement module not found.
Nested PowerManagement module not found.
Nested PlatformSetupAdvancedDxe.efi at 0072BA48 patched.
Nested PowerManagement2.efi module at 006223E8 patched.
Dell RAW file checksums corrected.
CpuPei module not found.

Im just a bit wary to run the output patched bios 3750.exe incase i brick my laptop. To save taking this thread to much out of topic ive made a thread at:

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Re...ostro-3750

Please put any info that may help me there please. Thanks

[jkbuha]

@Dc0de - AFAIK this hasn't been tried on a 3750 - but if there's anyone who's successfully done this please report back!

@All - I've updated first post and reverted the intel vbios to stock (v2104) until we figure out any incompatibility differences. Hopefully this will be updated soon again, but for now we are stumped as to why the majority of 15z's work flawlessly with the newer vbios but a couple have had issues. We'll be back soon with some diagnosis, but if there's anyone who can shed some light on this (AIDA dumps, connector info differences etc) it would be greatly appreciated.

[Dc0de]

Thanks for the reply Jkbuhu, hopefully Timewalker may know something about that russian patcher as I think ive seen his name on that forum.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

[nebster]

Thanks for the reply Jkbuhu, hopefully Timewalker may know something about that russian patcher as I think ive seen his name on that forum.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

Be careful with that patcher, it doesn't patch all of the checksums so if checks are ever implemented in a firmware, flashing a modded version of it will semi-brick your laptop.
Just try booting it in recovery mode with that BIOS first. It's what I do, I haven't flashed a modded BIOS yet. Just figure out what the magic key is.

[TimeWalker]

3750 is indeed the same as 3450. If the patcher successfully finds and patches the BIOS - you are safe to flash.
It won't semibrick anything as @nebster suggests as it in fact patches the RAW checksum of the capsule inside the WPH as well as module checksums and that is what matters.
I personally have helped to debug it along with other people, because the author of the software was unaware about cheksum of RAW data at first. I have tried flashing the output and so did a couple of other Dell owners with SCT2.0. Also another person with a 14R has successfully unlocked his bios using this software just a couple of days ago... so it's up to you.

@kasar, I'm totally busy now, just taking some moment away to clear my mind a little. I have made a firmware incorporating the ME v8 firmware already, the day you dumped your chip. Not sure if you still have it around. The data was a perfect fit .. both into the header and ME region. Not sure if it's worth flashing though ..
I forgot to mention, @CodeRush has contacted me recently saying that he might hop aboard and help with ME v8 situation as he supposedly has got details about updating the firmware on v7-only desktop boards (by software presumably, he didn't go into details). He has an exam session currently, so it won't be very soon.. but it's still nice to see he is willing to assist.

[Dc0de]

Thanks all, especially TimeWalker. Just patched latest bios A14 for the Vostro 3750 with PMpatch as above, flashed, and now typing from my modded bios Dell Vostro 3750. ALL appears fine. Thank you. Just need to figure out now how to do a UEFI install of Windows 8, on this laptop as the Advanced section is now in the bios with UEFI boot options (as well as legacy etc). Why did Dell disable this????

Thanks again

[kasar]

@timewalker

thanks for the reply

well, dont worry about that, take it easy if you are busy now, all of us have their stuff and we come here when we can ^^

as for the bios backup, yeah, I have it, I have the one I initially backed up with the descriptor settings patched so I can access the regions with the laptop itself

oh, about the firmware with the ME8 image, I dont have it yet, I think you didnt uploaded it.

why it isnt worth of flashing?

I made all the sockets stuff to be prepared for this kind of tests ^^

also, if it fits perfectly like you said there are many changes it will work

so I am interested on your patched chip image.

let me know if you can upload it somewhere, I will be glad to test it and report the results when I got the chips

about coderush coming here, those are great news, the team grows like the good results ^^