Dell Vostro 200 v1.0.16 Experimental Unlocking & Upgrading Project

[Eugene74]

I can confirm that the bios found in post #63 will work for a Vostro 400 DG33M03 and allow it to run Xeon quads. I've just successfully installed my X5470 on mine this morning.

As far as I can tell DG33M03 have absolutely the same North and South bridge , but different LAN and Sound Chips compared to G33M03.
This means that XEONs and AHCI will work OK, but LAN and SOUND can have problems. 
So , you can try it and if you do not like the results - re-flash with original BIOS ( need to backup it from your MoBo because of LAN-MAC and SOUND-BIN specifics) there will be no bricking of the hardware anyway.

[RV_ABZ]

Tried a Xeon E5450 with that modded BIOS for quad-core Xeon on my G33M02 motherboard. It does not work. I'm back on the dual-core X5270. Like stated previously by Mr Genius, I too believe that there is no way to run quad-core CPUs on the G33M02 mobo, only on the G33M03.

This, being said, the modded BIOS seems to work Ok, I certainly am able to run the X5270 Xeon with it.

Edit: In the Inspiron 530 thread, Mr Genius has explained in great and illustrated details the reasons why G33M02 mob cannot run quad-core CPUs. It just does not have the necessary hardware components.

[RV_ABZ]

Mmm, I'm wondering if I didn't mess up my BIOS when installing Eugene74's modded version for Quad-Core Xeon. I used the provided WinFlash v1.92 and proceeded to flash doing a full update, not just a main block update.

Since doing that, I'm no longer getting the text screen displaying memory amount and CPU info when booting without POST full screen and I also cannot boot any USB Key. That's a major hurdle as I use the Vostro as a Hackintosh alongside Windows...

The PC remains bootable off its HDD but I would like to be able to regain what I had before. Flashing to original Dell BIOS or modded AHCI BIOS v2 from this forum does not appear to change anything. Was it bad idea to update boot and DMI blocks?

Edit: issue linked to having the Xeon LGA771 CPU fitted-in. On reverting to previous LGA775 E8600, all is Ok again.

[daeklove]

when i flashed my bios with the 2nd file, it worked perfectly and i enabled ahci. everytime i restart my computer, it says cmos checksum error and everything goes back to defaults! why does that happen? this is why i reverted back to stock bios.

Where you ever able to fix this problem and if so can you send me the bin file you used to do it? I can't find the file anywhere online and my Vostro is doing the same thing. The file on Dell's website is useless because it tell you your using the same thing already.

[daeklove]

Does anyone know the flag to force a refresh on a stock dell bios from foxconn. The filename is 200-1016.exe but i don't know the flag to force the flash.

[Parcero]

Hello and good morning to all...

I was wondering why, no one have try, to flash the FOXCONN BIOS in the DELL VOSTRO 200 ???


If the AFUDOS (included in the BIOS Update from FOXCONN) dosent work, maybe the AFUWIN will work...


Here are my idee:

1.) Download the 722F1P37 FOXCONN Bios from FOXCONN Homepage
2.) Download the latest AFUWIN AMI FLASHER V5.05.04 (or V4.4.8) from WIMSBIOS

And flash...


It is the same Motherboard... (G33M02) why that dosent work? Dosent work because the BIOS from the DELL VOSTRO 200 is locked?

Ok, in this case, maybe the Flasher from DELL will do this work... Using the DELL Flasher and the 722F1P37 FOXCONN Bios... ??? maybe???


Is there no chance, to flash this 722F1P37 FOXCONN Bios in the DELL VOSTRO 200...


I like to belive, that the FOXCONN BIOS will support nearly the whole range on INTEL CORE2 QUAD Processors... or not ???

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDet...otherboard&U=en-us0000319



IS THERE SOMEONE, WHO HAS TRY THIS...


I LIKE TO TRY TO DO IT, BUT I AM AFRAID, TO DAMAGE MY MOTHERBOARD... I HAVE AN INTEL CORE2 QUAD Q8200 AND AN INTEL CORE2 QUAD Q8300 AND I LIKE TO MAKE IT WORK IN MY DELL VOSTRO...

is there no chance to do this protection encircle???


Please let me know...


Sincerely


Parcero

[ra0ultortugas]

I have this Foxconn G33M02 motherboard Gateway Branded from a GT5686j desktop.
It has a Phoenix Award Bios 841P051G. This is the same board as in the Dell Vostro 200.

Am I able to reflash this board with an unlocked Award bios?

Sorry if I am in the wrong path. Can't find anything in the Gateway path.

Ra0ul

[lowgra]

EXPERIMENTAL BIOS, flash at your own risk! Untested as I do not own this machine!

-Enabled a bunch of stuff with modbin, and like usual, used CBROM to extract the _en_code.bin and _item.bin and add them into the original BIOS to prevent modbin corrupting it. Includes some minor overclocking, temperature/voltage monitoring, and enabling AHCI, among some other random options.

-Intel Matrix RAID 8.7 for ICH9 - works for Inspiron 530, so should work here... probably.

-Replaced Phoenix AHCI with a modified Intel 1.20E.0027 AHCI ROM with the device ID of the original OROM, and the checksum corrected. This may not work. I do not expect it to brick the board (no guarantees) but it could stop AHCI and possibly RAID from working.

-VGA BIOS 1471 -> 1533 -> 1653

-Intel Boot Agent 1.2.50 -> 1.3.63 (not even used by many people, but what the heck)


Again, FLASH THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! IT IS EXPERIMENTAL AND UNTESTED! And let us know how it works if you still want to try it.


EDIT: Found a newer VGA BIOS, so now it's 1653 from 1533.

Any chance of having a bios with the original IDE Sata Rom but with everything you have unlocked as with this bios it is imposable to boot to reinstall Windows or Even using Paragon Disk manager it thoughs up a blue error screen and does not get to the setup
Thanks

[lld401]

Question what mod bios version can I use to use ddr2 800 MHz memory?

[Squish]

I just flashed Dansolo's BIOS onto a Vostro 200 (Vostro200-1016-RAID87-AHCI10670-VGA1653-IBA1363-slic-2.1.BIN) and it is working. I haven't got any quad cores to test (but those apparently just won't work anyhow). Everything appears to be working normally. I don't have any xeons to test either, so for now - at least I can say that it flashes and boot ok, with a whole bunch more BIOS options available.

Also, the drives detect normally with AHCI enabled, although I can't properly test yet since the XP installed on it is in IDE mode.

Also, it doesn't detect more than 4GB of RAM as yet, however this could possibly be my modules as they are old and possibly not working properly/incompatible -- 2 of them are detecting as 1G despite the (yes, genuine) labels reading 2GB.