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

[marcie]

thanks for the info Florin9doi

oh, didnt saw the second method in time as you edited your post after some time.

I followed your first instructions and managed to get identical size images,

added some padding in one of them (replaced stuff with FF)

then I replaced the original image content from the file with the one from my modded images

I attached both modded and unmodded images + final modules.

I will test it in some minutes, if someone want to check if I messed something feel free to do it

the second method seems a little more complex, If first one doenst work, I will try it.

---

nope, the first method didnt worked, after flashing, the system remained with black screen (where it was suposed to show the logos), then it went to the S.O and the resolutione were messed up, like just 1024 x 768, had to reflash my last working bios mod to make logos working back and get the system back to normal.

definitly I did something wrong ...

Hey Kasar- I used to insert images into Playstation .iso back in the day and recall having a plugin for Photoshop to deal with the specific format. Maybe there is a plugin that allows you to save your logo accurately??? This is an interesting topic , wish I was of more help.

[kasar]

thanks for your help marcie

well, the fact is that there is already some people wich managed to flash custom logos like prema or the guy wich replaced dell logo with apple logo.

the question is what is the exact procedure I should follow ^^

my attempt is on my previous post as attached file, maybe someone can give it a try and tell me what I did wrong

I managed to get my custom images the same size than default ones, however it is not working for me.

I sent an email to Prema, but he did not reply yet , probably busy with his bios modding stuff or getting his laptop back to life ^^

[AlexMode]

Hey guys, I've spend some time on figuring out format of image package and mostly done it! I've wrote a simple packer/unpacker in C that works for me. Sources and .exe in attach

[mruza]

HOWTO Unlock Hidden Menus

This was a really tough nut to crack, but perseverance pays off in the end. Essentially it involves the following:

1) Dump your AdvancedSetup.efi module (IDA, objdump etc) and parse it through the IFR specification provided by UEFI
2) UEFI IFR spec says: EFI_IFR_SUPPRESS_IF_OP: UINT64 0000000000000000
3) In hex, this translates to: 0A 82 45 8A (00) 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 0A
3) Change opcode to UNIT64: 0000000000000001 - replace the (00) above with (01). In my case there were two identical hex strings in my file, I just had to patch the second hex string.
4) Save module, repack with PhoenixTool, and voila!

Thanks so much for this!
The information helped me tremendously in unlocking all the hidden menus in the A12 BIOS on a Dell XPS L502X. Basically the only difference was in that I had to modify the PlatformSetupAdvancedDxe.efi module instead of the AdvancedSetup.efi (plus I had three occurrences of the EFI_IFR_SUPPRESS_IF_OP operation and I replaced all of them).
I'm attaching the resulting unlocked BIOS (A12 09/07/2012) for convenience.

[kasar]

@mruza

nice , however that plus other mods has been already done to the L502X

more info here ^^

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...-more.html

[TimeWalker]

There was new vbios 2170 released, anyone tried it already?

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk

[jkbuha]

Happy to patch it and give it a go if someone posts it here. In fact if it's good I'll update the first post with a couple of additional DSDT mods as well.

[jkbuha]

Upgraded to vanilla 2170 without a hitch.

Same patch table as the vanilla 2170, ie: same as vanilla 2158. However I recall that some people had issues upgrading to 2158 previously, so for that reason I am not going to upload the patched bios here. If anyone wants it (and *fully* understands the risks) he/she can PM me.

For all the others out there who don't have a 15z but want to try v2170, it worked well on mine, but you'll need to manually patch in your tables as per last time. Again; your best bet is to see what's working on your current existing Intel HD3000 vbios connector tables...

[kasar]

is there any performance hit or any new features worth of update to the 2170 intel vbios?

I updated mine long time ago using your method (had also to patch the connector table, else the miniDP port stoped working) but didnt noticed too much difference.

[jkbuha]

Here's the changelog between 2158-2170

New:
[DCN][3872820] Dynamic Media Refresh Rate Switching option added in VBT (Default Enabled)
[DCN][3826644] Support for EDID over SDVO-LVDS
[RCR][1024178] Chromaticity RCR: Added options in VBT for panels 1-16 for narrow color gamut
Fixed display port registers to use correct panel spec values during full link training when system boots

Bug fixes:
System cannot meet the Win8 Seamless Boot requirement with Intel VBIOS.
Internal display not lighting from Windows 7 or 8 install USB stick
[VBIOS]eDP T8 Value configuration on VBT doesn‟t work correctly
Screen corruption issue on RedHat linux
Boot display device combination is not following the definition with VBIOS VBT