[~$200 bounty]Dell Inspiron 1564 unlocked A10/A13 BIOS

[Aeny]

I had the 02F0: CPU ID: 55 No Microcode Update Loaded for Alternate Processor error after i upgraded my cpu from an i3 330m to an i5 480 m.
I flashed your modified bios and the error is gone.
Thanks a lot.
Keep up the good work

Hi cslay3r,

Could you please upload the backup of your old BIOS if you flashed using Winphlash(64) under Windows, I'm looking for these old versions.

The file should be in %temp%/winphlash(64)/FLASHABL.bak, it should have automatically have made a backup before flashing the new version.

EDIT: You could set the Extreme processor support enabled for that processor, it raises the TDP from the stock 25/25 (weird bios lock) to 55/55 and allows it to run it's full turbo 100% of the time. Have fun

~Aeny

[khing24]

BUMP!

Added a new download to the first post Recompiled the DSDT with iasl and made sure all errors (5) and all warnings (11) were gone. No other things done in that area. I also extracted the vbios and upped the clocks from 5450 levels to 5470 levels (core & ram). Be sure your laptop can handle the additional heat!
As always flashing this thing is on your own risk.
Oh and sadly, the HDD in ODD bay issue is still not fixed. Bug @DellCares about it on twitter!

~Aeny

thanks for the reply,, i found the solution,, the vents on my laptop has so many dirt,, and just put some thermal paste on cpu

by the way is there anyway to overclock intelhd? my unit was not the ati radeon type

As you may know I had the motherboard without the ATi/AMD card too. And sadly there's not much we can do here for 'overclocking' the IGP. As you might know the biggest problem the IGP will have is that it has to share RAM with the GPU thus the faster the RAM the faster the IGP will be. But these are so slow I don't really think you'll see the benefit.

There's one other way however, if you have an I5/I7 CPU then you may have noticed that your CPU has a turbo mode that ups the clocks. Your Intel IGP has a turbo mode too, but there's a slight problem with it! The chip is what I'd call TDP starved. As you may know the TDP is how much the complete core I chip can use (CPU+IGP+whatever else is on die). And these are set to give the CPU priority so it will likely turbo and the IGP never will. Normally there's a 35w TDP/TDC on these chips but it seems Dell messed up and set it to 25w in their 1564 BIOSes. BUT! I didn't know how to set TDP/TDC values in the modded bios back then, I do now but I didn't test if this will allow both CPU and IGP to turbo to their max clocks (and I'm too lazy to swap the motherboard in again at the moment). It will only be +100MHz which will not be much anyways and you may not see a difference. What we can do in the modded A10 BIOS is set the TDP/TDC for the whole core I die package to 55w and that will give it the extra headroom it needs. However, this only applies if you have a core I5 and up, core I3's do not have this turbo feature on the CPU+IGP at all.
I could post you which settings (2) you have to change to what number but I'm currently testing my 1564 for stability (as in not rebooting it ever, 7days of stressing the hardware straight and no crash yet). I'll be sure to get you these value when I get to the BIOS again one of these days.

If that doesn't give you the speedup you want then you could always opt to swap out the motherboard to the ATi/AMD GPU type, since you already opened it up to clean it, the swap is not much harder than that. I could post you the part number you will need for that (motherboard & heatsink) if you like. It should be around $150 for the upgrade but I think you're better off buying a new laptop, unless you're attached to 1564's as I am

PS: Still waiting for the unlocked A13 BIOS.

~Aeny

i will try this thanks mate
if its not too much to ask for you,, can you help me about the settings? thank you again
not planning to swap my motherboard coz im really attached to it


EDIT: done flashing it works very well,, KUDOS for you mate

[Aeny]

I have bricked my HD5450m 1564 So I'm going to stop updating the first post until I got it up and running again. Trying to solder a new bios chip in there
Nothing is wrong with the bioses by the way, I bricked trying to flash a modified 1558 bios trying to get quad core support working.. So since bioses will be out for awhile lets go a little off-topic.

I ended up buying a 1080p screen (B156HW01 v1) for my 1564 and I'm happy to report it works on Intel HD boards and HD5450m boards as long as a proper LVDS cable is used as it needs a second LVDS channel which the original cable doesn't have. The 1764's LVDS cable works, will test with a 1558's cable shortly.
Next up is updating the integrated webcam

And really no bios modders up to the tasks in the OP? Or people with old BIOS versions? Not even for money?

~Aeny

[Stoker]

Hi thanks for this.
Just wondering what is the highest cpu enabled in the unlocked bios? I know the 520m should work but what about 540m, 560m, 580m, 620m and 640m (all dual core) as sadly no quad support.

Can anyone update the microcode please?

[Aeny]

Hi thanks for this.
Just wondering what is the highest cpu enabled in the unlocked bios? I know the 520m should work but what about 540m, 560m, 580m, 620m and 640m (all dual core) as sadly no quad support.

Can anyone update the microcode please?

Currently I'm running a 560m so I can tell you that's working. Technically support goes up to the i7 640m but I can't verify that with my own testing. Any bios version equal or higher than A10 should support it (modded and stock bioses), under A10 you should get a warning of missing microcode but it should still boot.

As for quad core support, I don't think we'll get it anytime soon. It seems the bios needs more work than some CPU microcode. Seems to me there are whole modules missing that are need for it to work. I'm still trying to cook up a bios that would work but it's far beyond my skills and I already managed to brick a motherboard trying.

Don't forget to send me a backup of your bios if it's a version missing from the list too, can always help.

If you have any more questions then don't hesitate to ask them, and have fun with your 1564

~Aeny

[Stoker]

Hi Aeny, Thanks for the quick reply.

I found a 540m and 740qm cheap on eBay, wanted the quad but got the 540 instead. Shame nobody can help make the quad work.

My system had A10 flashed to A13 in dos with no problems

Seen you changed your lcd, very cool. Thinking of doing the same when i have some more money.

Have a nice one, will let u know how i go once the cpu arrives

[Stoker]

Hi,
Installed 540m all working good, the cpu runs heaps cooler than my old 350m
Can i ask what temp does your 5450 runs at? mine sits 54C idle. Find the fan is very sensitive to GPU temp now, before the fan was on all the time so it is better but if I can improve on it i will

[Aeny]

Hi,
Installed 540m all working good, the cpu runs heaps cooler than my old 350m
Can i ask what temp does your 5450 runs at? mine sits 54C idle. Find the fan is very sensitive to GPU temp now, before the fan was on all the time so it is better but if I can improve on it i will

Hi Stoker,
Great to hear that the i5 540m is serving you well and is keeping the laptop cooler, strangely I had the same occurrence, every faster chip made it cooler and faster, but I'm not complaining. Looking for a cheap i7 640m to pick up

Currently I can't help you with the HD5450 temperatures. I'm having BAD luck lately with motherboards. I've bricked my HD5450 board beyond repair trying to get quad cores to work, then the person that tried to solder a new bios chip on it burned it beyond repair. My second HD5450 that I ordered last March is lost in shipping. Then I decided to order a HD4330 board but it has the weirdest problems, works perfectly outside the laptop but once mounted in the shell it refuses to boot. So currently I'm working on a sad sad SLOW motherboard with Intel HD integrated graphics.. it works I guess.. It leaks memory everywhere and can't stay stable for over a week of runtime, the HD5450 board on the other hands I could push for months non stop without troubles.

Currently the only decent motherboards are on sale in the US and they don't ship to Europe so I'm out of luck, I'd kill for a HD5450 board. But from what I remember it was in the low 50's at idle, sometimes dropping in the high 40's. My maximum temps recorded when stressing the 560m in turbo mode and the HD5450 overclocked to HD5470 speeds was between 80 and 89, never over 90 for sure.

Keep in mind that these temperatures were recorded with the stock thermal pad between the heatsink and dGPU, and that it was a horrible mess after these years of usage, so I reckon that with a decent thermal pad or an upgrade to a copper shim you would drop a few more degrees.

On the fan you are correct, if I recall correctly there's a switch point at 55°C from either idle or off to a faster speed so it will keep cycling between speeds like a mad man. If you have the modded A13 bios there are settings in there to control the fan, you can play around with them if you'd like, I never had enough time to sit down and do some testing on them.

Lastly, is anyone interested in a BIOS that overclocks the 4330m?? since I have the board sitting on my desk right now I might as well do some work on it and make some more users happy.

Sorry for the late reply, exams currently.
~Aeny

[Medox]

Hello all, I'm new and found this thread very interesting!

My question would be if the modded A13 bios lets you disable:

WARNING: The battery cannot be identified.
This system will be unable to charge this battery.

It is annoying to always press F1 to continue and also hear that beep...

In the bios -> Advanced -> Adapter Warnings are disabled (although that's unrelated)

[Aeny]

Hello all, I'm new and found this thread very interesting!

My question would be if the modded A13 bios lets you disable:

WARNING: The battery cannot be identified.
This system will be unable to charge this battery.

It is annoying to always press F1 to continue and also hear that beep...

In the bios -> Advanced -> Adapter Warnings are disabled (although that's unrelated)

There's nothing special in the modded BIOSes to get around that so I think it's not possible. Batteries for the 1564 and it's siblings aren't that expensive last time I checked though (if you don't buy from Dell).

~Aeny