Acer Laptop with Phoenix BIOS: BIOS MOD Request

A close friend asked me to mod his VBIOS of the GT-525M

ftp://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER00217964M/1/FA-A06.EXE
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER00217964M/1/FA-A06.EXE

This is my modded undervolted GT-525M Dell Vostro 360 BTS BIOS. I hope it's ok :/

I haven't been able to extract the BIOS from the exe file. But it looks like I can hexedit this straight away. I thought I might just verify with you kizwan if I am allowed to do that.

/writeromfile doesn't work on this one. But it looks like the modules are stored in the exe openly... If you search for string 'Nvidia' this is just how it looks like extracted.

 

Ill give it another go later today, might need the old 2x is a charm, but after flashing, boots fine and everything, but there is no Intel menu... EDIT: there is nothing extra at all actually... it sucks I am now outta my house for nearly the rest of the day... BLEH...

 

I tried & unable to extract too. The only way to extract the BIOS file is by running the .exe file in the target computer itself. I'm sure the .exe file will extract the BIOS file to temp folder.

What method & tool did you use to flashed the modified BIOS?

 

1: love me: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9529502/WINFLASH.7z (the temp folder for the .exe file as it was running for the guy you replied to)

2a: my old bios flash disk + your files, gonna try again when I get home...\

EDIT: 2b: I got home, and redid my bios flash disk and all worked well... no issues so far, gotta lookup documentation on these settings so I can eek out the most from meh system!

 

You can decompress the FA-A06.EXE using andy's Phoenix Tool. But this also means, when you re-build the modified BIOS, it will create the modded image in a form of EXE file too. So, basically if you use Phoenix Tool to decompressed FA-A06.EXE & reintegrated the modified modules (in this case VBIOS), you're doing it correctly. You also might want to access the actual BIOS file instead. Just run the FA-A06.EXE file, preferably in guest OS (Windows 7/2008) in VMware or any virtual machine software. Open Task Manager, go to View > " Select Columns...". Tick both " Image Path Name" & " Command Line". Look for FA-A06.EXE or any other sub-process run by FA-A06.EXE, for example like this:-


You will suspect ECFWIN.EXE is a sub-process of FA-A06.EXE because it's not standard windows process. In the " Image Path Name" column, you'll see the source folder where ECFWIN.EXE is running from. Just navigate to C:\ProgramData\WINFLASH\ folder to see what inside it.

The extracted BIOS file (BIOS.BIN):-


The decompressed files from FA-A06.EXE & BIOS.BIN are exactly identical, except the PADDINGs files.

 

I already posted what was inside the FA-A06.exe in the post above yours...

 

i Request the latest Bios Mod for Acer Aspire 8920G

my bios version is: 1.16 original

Thanks

 

Kizwan remember me asking for Asrock P67 Pro3 SE ?

I was wondering if my microcode could be updated. How do you suggest I do this? or can you do this for me ?

Should I use AMIBCP OR AMI MM TOOL?? I thought they led to corruption.

So I was wondering how I can do it maybe manually if this is possible

ASRock > Products > Motherboard > P67 Pro3 SE > Download

I got a spare BIOS chip with the original BIOS on it if anything goes wrong. Just hotflashed the one that was broken before.

My current microcode revision or CPUID is 206A7h.

 

You can find it at post #450.

For Microcode Update, I will use andy's Phoenix Tool to decompress the BIOS image, edit the Microcode module manually & reintegrate the modded module using Phoenix Tool. You also can use MMTool to reintegrate the modded module. (I'm going to test MMTool. I'll update here after few minutes.) EDIT: Tried using MMTool v4.50.0.23 but I got "Invalid FFS File". With Phoenix Tool, successfully rebuild the modded image. Both AMIBCP & MMTool can read & confirmed the changes in modded image.

The microcode is in 17088572-377F-44EF-8F4E-B09FFF46A070_0_8.ROM file. The header always look like this:-

Code:

01 00 00 00 [B]RR[/B] 00 00 00 [B]YY YY DD MM[/B] [B][COLOR="Blue"]XX XX XX XX[/COLOR][/B]

[B]RR[/B] = revision number, e.g. 14, 1B
[B]YY YY DD MM[/B] = date, e.g. 11 20 06 01 (6 January 2011)
[B][COLOR="Blue"]XX XX XX XX[/COLOR][/B] = CPUID, e.g. A7 06 02 00 (206A7h)

At offset 0x20 (start from header), you will find the length of the microcode for that CPUID, e.g.
[B][COLOR="DarkGreen"]00 20 00 00[/COLOR][/B]: 2000h bytes (in hexadecimal)

One issue you may encounter is the new microcode is longer than the old one. How to overwrite the old with new one? In the module, usually after one microcode, another microcode start. Meaning no gap. Sometime, between microcodes, programmer put FFs as a gap. Sometime, the FFs are at the end of the file. Basically, just use the FFs space. For example, if the old microcode have 2000h bytes length & the new one is 2400 bytes length, for the extra 400h bytes, use (overwrite) 400h bytes of FFs. If the FFs are at the end of the file, you will need to shift the next microcodes to 400h bytes (overwriting 400h bytes of FFs).

 

no higher bios version for the Aspire 8920G?
need hardware virtualization and there is no menue in the modified bios version 1.16

 

Hi Mr. Kizwan

Thank You so much for solving my problem. Magnificent work
Everythink is working as a charm, no more annoying messages.

If You will be so king so share Your knowledge with me, please contact me via email: [email protected]. Much interested in your work.
Thanks again.

 

Hey kizwan!

Im pretty sure you dont remember me uh ~
i had some issues with a Acer aspire 7741zg with a i7 740qm cpu in it (heat issues)

So i made a request for a modded bios so i can disable turbo-boost and HT (yeah i know that didnt help )

Well yeah you ware right - i had to drop-down abit eventualy on the CPU to a i5 couse i did re-apply thermal paste like you told me and it didnt help.

But yeah il get to the point :

Can you check in that bios what the fan settings are ?
(you know ... a slope information)

Couse im having alot of programs like aida64/fanspeed etc. that report the fan beeing 30% constantly

Now i know that might be a sensor glitch , but the thing is - its 'quiet' enough at 40 as is at 80 (it sounds like its the same speed all the time)
So im thinking it MIGHT be a problem with the fan speed slope.

I know this is not your 'job description' - id check myself but PBE gives an error when trying to open the bios.

Heres the link :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7059410-post1386.html

OR original:

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 7741ZG


Cheers man!

 

I hope this is two-way thing. I mean you'll also share what you know that I don't know.

Increase your post count to >5, then you can use PM to contact me.

At first post you'll find PDF file called " TUTORIAL: How to unhide/unlock hidden menu in Phoenix BIOS Setup Menu". That PDF file show an example how to unlocked hidden menu. Post #1255 show where Microcode is located. In my signature, you'll find another PDF file on how to mod BIOS to unlocked EIST (to support dual-IDA).

I'm curious what thermal paste did you use. Some thermal paste doesn't work well on some mobile computer, especially when with poor contact. Some other thermal paste worked well, even when poor contact.

Tools like AIDA64 unable to read the FAN speed correctly because FAN control on mobile computer usually doesn't follow standard ACPI specification. A good FAN can spin to higher RPM without you noticing it. 80C is not a dangerous temperature. It only means your notebook works well. If the temperature continue to increase rapidly to 100C even after not under load anymore, that is either the FAN failed to spin faster or thermal paste failed to work, again.

On computer like yours, FAN control can be found in Embedded Controller firmware (KBC). You're correct, I don't support this kind of request. For more information go to:-
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only-7.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only-8.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only-9.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/562576-acer-aspire-timelinex-3820tg-mods-tweaks-only-10.html

 

1.16 is the latest. If you can't see Virtualization menu in CPU Control Sub-Menu, then the CPU doesn't support Virtualization. Did you check your CPU at Intel Website?

 

Dear Kizwan,

Can you unlock the Acer Aspire 4715z bios to access hidden features.

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_4715_z/vista/Bios/v1.16.zip

I tried your tutorial, but the PBE starts with multiple errors on Windows 7 (x86).

So didn't have the courage to carry on.

I hope to upgrade the CPU to a Core2Duo T7800 or Core2Duo Extreme X7800 / X7900.



Hope to upgrade the RAM to 4Gb which is currently not supported for some reason I don't know (I am on 3Gb DDR2).



Regards,
sunshinekhan

 

Sure. I'll take a look later.

Don't you think you're a bit ambitious? All CPUs you mention above have FSB speed 800Mhz. Chipset on your notebook, GL960 only support FSB speed 533MHz. So, you probably need to do BSEL mod. NBR forum member naton has succeeded to get a T9900 (1066Mhz FSB) to run in a notebook with a GL960 chipset, after doing a BSEL mod to force the CPU to run with an 800Mhz FSB.

Details here:-
(see " 4. Is it possible to use a 1066Mhz FSB Penryn cpu on a 800Mhz FSB Santa Rosa platform?")
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...pll-pinmod-overclocking-methods-examples.html
or
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...intel-gl960-gl40-useful-info-pll-modders.html

 

This is modified BIOS for Aspire 4715z. It's based on BIOS v1.16. Use at your own risk!
Aspire 4715z v1.16 EIST MOD.rar
( MD5: 794E02A04D5A28AABD056C2A73C7566D)

Changes:-

• Unlocked Sub-Menus
• Unlocked Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
  For enable dual-IDA mode using ThrottleStop.

Please make sure your notebook can recover corrupted BIOS with CRISIS disk before flashing BIOS with this modified BIOS image. I will not responsible for any problem. Good luck.

 

Ok, I've read Bios modding and such. I'm kinda lost. All I've been doing is just replace single core with dual core.

As such:
Acer 3680
Socket M
Celeron M 520 to Pentium Dual Core T2080 @533 FBS.

Let me understand correctly. With the Bios Modd, I will open up hidden tab(advance) tab in Bios that will allow me to up my FBS up to 800mhz?

Also a link posted by kiswan about socket jump mod. I didn't get the picture with sever jump option.

Sooo, as for me with AS3680, what is my best option, or should i say my highest/fastes option. Option I like to have is to disable SMART test like some of the MB has.

 

No.

You can't disabled this with the modded BIOS.

Acer Aspire 3680 v3508 Unlocked Advanced Options

 

Yes I've been there. What benefits from the mod bios? What's in the hidden feature that I would need, since the answer was 'no' to bump up the fsb.

Also, is it worth it when this lappy come with IDE HDD.

 

help me for bios acer aspire 4736 damaged
how to fix bios

 

How do you know BIOS is "damaged"? What did you do prior BIOS "damaged"?

 

wrong update .... update fail
please help me solution

 

Please try this:-

1. Format a USB flash drive with FAT filesystem
2. Download BIOS file from Acer support website
3. Extract the zip file
4. Navigate to "DOS" folder
5. Copy KALGXXXX.fd (e.g. XXXX = 0208) to the USB flash drive
6. In the USB flash drive, rename KALGXXXX.fd to KALG0X64.fd
7. Plug the USB flash drive to the failed computer
8. Make sure the failed computer is in OFF state
9. While holding FN+ESC, press power button. Don't let go FN+ESC yet.
10. After several seconds, released FN+ESC
11. In less than 2 minutes, if it goes well, your notebook will reboot to working condition.

If the above procedure doesn't work, you need to use floppy disk with USB floppy drive.

Please pay attention what your computer is doing. For example, whether the power button flashed with orange/amber light.

 

thanks you ... this work on my notebook
thanks you very much

 

I'm glad it worked for you. Just an advice, no need to update BIOS unless it is very important & instructed by Acer support. Always flash BIOS in DOS mode because a lot can go wrong if in windows (e.g. BSOD).

 

Hi All,

Added additional information (created Technical & Tutorial Lounge) & quick links for better navigation at first post (OR view it in single post mode).

 

Hi there,

I'm looking for an expanded BIOS for the Acer Aspire 5750, mainly for IDA but a full dual-IDA mod would be nice, too!

The latest version is 1.19 - thanks for the help.

 

Aspire 5750 have UEFI. Sorry, UEFI is not supported yet.

IDA only for Core 2 Duos. For first & second generation Intel Core processor, it was replaced with Turbo Boost. You can't *control* Turbo Boost unless you have extreme edition processor.

 

Ah, okay! I actually meant that I wanted Intel VT-d (IDA was secondary, unfortunate that dual-IDA isn't supported but it's not 100% the priority). Is there maybe some sort of way to force it as enabled, even if you can't edit the UEFI menus?

 

VT-d is only useful if you're running VMware ESX or XEN Server on your notebook. If you want to run 64-bit guess OS, you only need VT-x. To *forced* enabled VT-d, will need to analyzed the assembly code. I don't have plan to support this though.

What is the name of the CPU?

 

It's actually for a friend, I don't have access to the laptop but I've sent him a text.

VT-d is also used in KVM - it'd be pretty useful (that is if the chipset has an IOMMU - it doesn't seem like the HM65 express has). It's an i3 (sandybridge), so it should at least do VT-x but he doesn't seem to have the option in the BIOS. I've just told him to check his /proc/cpuinfo.

I didn't actually realize it was a UEFI before I posted, should have guessed since it's such a new laptop. Many thanks for your work here, though, I have an older 5220 that I've managed to carry over to modern applications - if only barely - with the help of a couple of upgrades and your BIOS hacks.

 

Yes, KVM also can utilized VT-d. Unfortunately, i3 Sandy Bridge doesn't support VT-d. Even he have VT-d capable processor, I can't help him, unfortunately.

Regarding IOMMU, as far as I know, if you have VT-d capable processor (and enabled) you have IOMMU support (source: IOMMU - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). My Dell have first gen i7-720QM processor which support VT-d & I can enabled it but I don't use KVM or ESX or XEN unfortunately. You just make me want to try KVM, dual-boot with windows.

 

I use Xen at home, 3 monitors (2 on my secondary card which is passed to the Windows guest) giving me full acceleration and the ability to run Windows and Linux simultaneously. Not sure what KVM's support for graphics cards is like, but Xen is working away quite happily passing through GeForce cards and a PCI USB card. Maybe I'll clone a KVM branch and see how development is going, I hear that they're pretty much equal in benchmarks now.

My understanding is that IOMMU is chipset-based and requires specific hardware integrated into the motherboard - certainly when setting up PCI passthrough I had to choose the chipset pretty carefully as only some AMD chipsets were supported. It's a bit of a shame that UEFI BIOSes haven't been worked out yet, I'm pretty interested as to if the hidden options are even included in them? I'd expect them to be packed or encrypted somehow with all the talk of security enhancements surrounding them, but it's not really my field.

 

I don't know but probably AMD & Intel approach on IOMMU are a bit different. AMD IOMMU is in HyperTransport architecture (system bus?) while Intel published a specification for IOMMU technology as VT-d.

Depend but usually there are many hidden menu in UEFI. There are several people trying to work on it but not successful yet. I did my own research but I don't have enough free time to carry on. Excluding unlocked hidden menu, UEFI is mod-able actually, for example VBIOS mod, etc (there are several example in this thread).

 

I have an Acer Aspire 5100 series laptop with the Radeon Xpress 200m chipset. I already have the most current bios version, v3.13, that I found on another site with some slight modifications. I have been trying to find advanced options in the BIOS for controlling the SATA/IDE controller and cannot. I was hoping that somebody might be able to make me a BIOS mod that has options unlocked to adjust settings for the SATA/IDE controller.

My main goal is to make the 120gb OCZ Vertex Plus SSD drive that I purchased recently work with this laptop. Without modifcation, I'm almost sure that it can't be done at this point. The drive works perfectly when installed in a brand new computer, but gives tons of errors in this laptop. I'm pretty sure that because this chipset does not support AHCI it's having some type of issue communicating properly with the SATA controller. I'd like to set the BIOS to IDE mode and see if it's possibly the SATA standard on this early SATA controller that's causing the issue. The drive should be backwards compatible all the way down to IDE, granted I will lack in maximum speed.

Any help at all with this will be greatly appreciated and the files for the modified BIOS that I'm currently running can be provided upon request.

Thanks in advance!


Edit:

I added in the modded BIOS files that I'm currently running if anyone will take a look at seeing if further SATA/IDE or anything having to do with the chipset has any further options that can be unlocked for more control. I used a 2 part RAR to get around the 450kb maximum upload and had to zip each of the two parts separately since only zip files are allowed.

To be a little more specific, the situation that I'm dealing with that lets me know that the drive is possibly not compatible with this chipset is as follows:
-BIOS sees the drive and try's to boot from it.
-BIOS has let me flash the hard drive to it's most current firmware.
-When trying to do anything that accesses the MBR or even partition information, such as format/partition through Windows 7 installation or boot after installing Windows on newer AHCI enabled desktop I receive errors. The errors I receive from Windows 7's installation all relate to being unable to format the drive.
-Drive works fine in newer desktop, installs Windows 7 and boots.
-Drive appeared to work fine in USB enclosure when connected to this laptop.

 

SATA controller support two operation mode; AHCI & "IDE emulation" (a.k.a IDE) mode. If AHCI not enabled, SATA controller is operate in IDE mode. I did a quick look at Aspire 5100 BIOS & found no option to set IDE/AHCI mode. This also usually means SATA controller is operate in IDE mode. Newer computer have the option to set IDE/AHCI in BIOS where AHCI is enabled by default.

Regarding the problem you're experiencing is most likely compatibility issue between OCZ Vertex Plus SSD & Radeon Xpress chipset. According to OCZ Vertex Plus SSD product sheet, it doesn't say anything about IDE support but only mention it comply with Standard Native Command Queuing (NCQ) which only available if AHCI is enabled. So, this is most likely the source of the problem.

 

Thank you very much for the information and the time you spent taking a look at the BIOS. I have had quite a bit of trouble locating a good description of how AHCI and IDE work together. I will take a look into compatibility between the chipset and the drive, then RMA it and find another with more research done before purchase if they turn out not to be compatible.

Also, thanks for the time you spend on this forum. This seems to be a very well kept up forum with very informative knowledge. Forums like these seem hard to find.

Thanks again!! )

 

I don't have experience with SSD but I read Sandforce chipset have issue(s). Some manufacture released new firmware to address this issue(s) but I don't know whether it is really fixed or not. So you might want stay away from any SSD that use that chipset. Also my concern with compatibility between old hardware (notebook chipset/SATA controller) & new hardware (SSD). Quick search reveals several Aspire 5100 owner also had problem getting their SSD to work properly. I hope you find one that really works on Aspire 5100.

 

Hello,

I have an Acer AS 7738G. Since I took a Intel QX 9300 in there, the notebook works fine, but the accu will not load anytime (There stands: 62 % left, accu will not load). Can you enable this cpu and with this also the VT-x? I read there is also the possibility to chance the multiplier in the bios, but i never found it.

Here is the cpu:
Intel® Core?2 Extreme Processor QX9300 (12M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
Here is the Original-Bios:
http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.13_A_A.zip?acerid=634261905559458184&Step1=Notebook&Step2=Aspire&Step3=Aspire%207738G&OS=711&LC=de&BC=Acer&SC=EMEA_8

Thanks a lot!

 

hello
i need a modded bios for FUJITSU AH531 1.28 witch has Unlocked Hidden menus/features

 

BIOS mod is not needed to enabled CPU. If CPU doesn't work properly, you might need to do pinmod.

Please provide link to original & untouched BIOS.

 

i'm sorry ,the latest original bios is here support.ts.fujitsu.com/Download/Showdescription.asp?SoftwareGUID=E9E48C47-78A4-431B-B066-4C82AC50869D

 

Hi sad_but_cool1,

FUJITSU AH531 have Phoenix SecureCore Tiano (UEFI). Sorry, UEFI is not supported yet.

 

thanks kizwan,
but i have a notes,i need help to explane some info's

in PHOENIXDELL/EFI TOOL , the bios type is EFI / INSYDE BIOS
but in bios settings menu , it shows Phoenix SecureCore Tiano
and after decompressing the rom via PHOENIXDELL/EFI TOOL
i can not open any extracted rom via phoenix bios editor !!!

 

Phoenix BIOS Editor (PBE) only for legacy BIOS, not for UEFI. Phoenix SecureCore Tiano is UEFI.

 

thanx bro
so, nothing to do with this type of bios's

 

Ah ok,

the cpu works, but the accu will not load anymore. (When I chance the cpu back, the accu will load.) Nevertheless, can you enable the hidden features of the BIOS?

Thanks.

 

What is "accu"? I already unlocked Aspire 7738G BIOS. You can find it at post #22.

 

Oh sorry, wrong translation, I mean the battery. Accu is the short form of accumulator.

Thanks, I found it.