M18x Unlocked BIOS Modification Info

It definitely is one of the unknown bits, I was flipping dozens of them at a time last night looking for any visible effects, ran into one that controls a short memory test at startup (like you can toggle in older pheonix BIOSen), and I set the current register to 37A from it's 97.5A by default. I was half asleep and didn't save the file so I could go back and see which registers i was working with though, doh!

From disassembly:
Pri Plane Current Limit
Primary Plane refers to the IA Core power rail. This value represents the Maximum instantaneous current allowed at any given time. The value is represented in 1/8 A increments. 0 means AUTO.
Sec Plane Current Limit
Secondary Plane refers to the Integrated Graphics power rail. This value represents the Maximum instantaneous current allowed at any given time. The value is represented in 1/8 A increments. 0 means AUTO.

So, at the stock 97.5A, the value in the registers is either going to be 0 for auto or 97.5 / (1/8) = 780, I don't see 780 in there so it's probably one of the 0 values. And it has to be at least a 16 bit value to store 780 so it's going to be at least 2 bytes large (0000)

 

it has to be close to the power bit stuff... speculation of course.



nvm. you decoded it already

 

One of the unknowns I just eliminated Check the first post bios.hsl, just updated InsydeFlash.zip.

 

is this the same platform.ini file?

 

Yes, there shouldn't be a reason to change that from here on out, until we start updating the EC section of the BIOS or something else, only the bios.hsl is different.

 

extreme_edition now reads 64 instead of 1

i just noticed that there are 3 bclks

 

Oops, I think I have it shifted off by one, give me a sec to update.

 

As far as I know, MSR 0x601 bits[15:0] is where the turbo current limit is kept and the lock bit is bit[31]. I might have told you it was bit[63] but I just checked my code and it is bit[31] that locks writes to this part of the register.

Here is some more info so you can see what units some of these registers are in.



The watts are typically in 1/8th increments so for 100W you should see 0x320 hex in the power register which is 800 decimal ~ 800 / 8 = 100W

 

Thanks, Unclewebb

Uploaded fixed bios.hsl to post 1

 

780 decimal is 0x30C in hex so maybe that is hiding somewhere.

 

one of those unknowns might be ht on/off

 

@Unclewebb: Yeah, searched for it, did not find Hence why I figure it must be 0 = default to fused value.

@Johnksss: It's actually not unknown, I tested and marked it already (HT_Support), along with the register for number of active CPUs (Active_Processor_Cores, default 0 = all)

Go single-core no-hyperthreading 2920xm, woo!

 

so i see...nice work!

 

Thanks, but I am interested in the Nvidia 580m SLI throttle when the cards reach 80*C, not Watts and CPUs. I am very fine with my 2720QM. This is only a gaming laptop for me.

 

i take it this didn't work?
/GTX580OCP



da_g

you dont see anywhere in there to enable the menu options so that we can see them in the bios?

 

Are the TDP values for 2720QM defaulted to the CPUs max already? Usually there is still a bit of overhead to allow them to maintain a higher turbo bin for a longer period of time. I'm sure it would help your gaming since you are probably CPU limited at least a hair with SLI 580ms

I can't test that throttling unfortunately as I don't have the cards, so I won't be finding that register any time soon

Hmm, I looked at /GTX580OCP and I doubt that's what 580m SLI users are running into if the throttling is triggered at 80C, it would kick in immediately if it were that type of throttle (power limit)

 

@johnksss:

No, it doesn't look like there is a bit controlling a hidden menu in the setup store that i've found yet (i haven't tested about 50% of the unknowns so far) - probably those menus will need to be enabled to disassembling SetupUtility and NOPing the register checks so that no menus are hidden. I plan to do that eventually

 

that removes the protection in desktop 580's that would throttle during furmark

do you have the other tools for the bios?

did you remember what you did for the amp rail?? that is the key to everything i think. we may not be able to remove the lockbit, but setting it higher should up the watts.

 

I don't know?

"the other tools" is rather ambiguous

 

bios modding is usually done with more than one coding/decoding/compiler/decompiler and a few other things so to speak...

 

Nope, I don't remember exactly which register it was. I'll find it again soon i'm sure

Yeah, using a decompiler, I wouldn't have figured out any of this without that

 

I know on my 2630 I am getting 2.9Ghz in 3dmark tests just through bios tweaking ...

although CPU-z only reads like 2.7 Ghz'

 

edited repeat post

 

Modded bios A00 released with 580m support, as i'm at work i cant test this NOW until i go home tonight. If this is a success they will implement the removal in A02 and A03.

I'll post tonight if nobody has tried until i get home.

DELL M18X A03 BIOS THROTTLE REMOVAL GTX580M SLI

 

was reading about that over in the other forum..even looked it over to see if i could see what was change..(of course i couldn't tell - haha)

 

Happy to be the piggy to test tonight and report back

 

John and 0x29 I ran some benches at higher multipliers and higher voltage so instead of my usual 0 to 2 flex voltage I used 25 and ran prime and Intel burn and I sit in the same region in quad speeds around 3.65ghz. I kind of knew this already its how I found my clocks for that wprime run. So if you guys can limit quad core with lower multipliers and overclock the baseclock just a little and set 0flex with the GHz in quad core limited to around 4.15ghz you will see your minimum on 8thread intel burn on very high or prime 95 8thread at 3.75ghz at 99watts long with throttle stop on and turbo selected and cmod checked at 100%, this is what I've found gives best 4core speeds. The less voltage and locking max speeds within handling the voltage will provide keeps the processor cooler at the same MHz. I came across this when all I could get was 3.8ghz quad then I limited multipliers and lowered the voltage to 0 flex giving a max of 1.3511 volts max (1.4487 @ 25 turbo flex vid)(1flex=1/256 of a volt or 0.00390625 volts so 1 flex is 0.00390625volts x 1flex + 1.3511= 1.3550 etc. This is almost spot on except it would be even more accurate if the rest of the 1.3511 VID was shown in the rest of the decimal places) I was able to get 4.15ghz quad to - 3.75Ghz quad in prime 95 or Intel Burn. try it out I've been using those settings for awhile without the ability to maintain those values when the short limit kicked in... Now with this mod I can maintain those values... When it was on stock bios with 80watt long term limit the GHz quad dropped to 3.3-3.4ghz range. Now if you want to reach and maintain higher single core speeds than 4.45ghz you will need over 0 flex to maintain stability. But raising voltage to allow higher dual single core speeds over 4.45ghz will require more voltage which is fine but if your quad speeds are your highest priority you will not be able to go high on single and dual but if single and dual core usage is priority then use higher voltage and the consequence is more heat which will ultimately effect your quads speed the most by slowing itself down from the heat. Hope this helps. Since I got same results as your guys and John has an ES that tells me if you use these settings the ES will reach the same range... Other than the above I used fans at full 3900rpm with HWinfo thanks to Mumak

 

If I had to guess he probably extracted the 580m option ROM from the A03 BIOS and injected it into the A00 BIOS. If you get a chance, ask about his methodology, there isn't too much open sharing IRT BIOS modding, unfortunately.

I think you'll probably have a problem flashing this BIOS however, as looking at the A00 that was posted to modify, it was dumped using the Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit, which yields a 2560KB file that InsydeFlash wouldn't flash properly for me. Only the 4096KB BIOS dumped using InsydeFlash would flash OK - that's why i asked for a dump of A00 using InysdeFlash earlier. I'll certainly be interested to see if it flashes (if you get a progress bar drawn in InsydeFlash) - i'm guessing it won't.

 

I originally flashed that aoo BIOS no problem but it didn't recognize the 580. Hence why I couldn't test for throttling this is all for testing purposes just to see if the aoo BIOS is carring the throttle. If its not carring any throttle he can then compare and remove what ever it is in a02 and a03 (which he has a a03 ready to test as well) interesting times ahead

 

When you say it flashed ok, do you mean you had another BIOS version (like A02, A03) and flashed A00, and it took? Or you had A00 already and it flashed?

The updater will appear to flash normally (but show no progress bar) from my testing so far with a BIOS dumped that way, and the BIOS flash won't take.

 

I already have A02 installed thats how the system shipped but i downgraded to A00 no problem. Hence 580 not being detected as with this new mod now same thing not detecting 580m but A00 installed fine!

 

Well, that's (partially) good news!

 

hey hey!!

Wow when doing a bios flash no wonder the fans go on full bolt cause the cpu reading under the intel turbo boost technology monitor hits 12.7ghz on my monitor.
So yes i7 sb has the potiental

 

Whaaaaaa? Is this a real reading ot some glitch ? Cuz thats F'n crazy

 

Not sure, I have flashed the bios 4 times now and each time the Intel turbo monitor on my desktop starts at 4.2ghz soon as the process flash starts and the fans turn on full bolt, then the mhz starts to rise all the way to 12.7ghz just before the reboot everytime.
I'll try and capture a screen shot next time i do a flash but while the computer is doing it's bios flashing everything runs slowly so i may not be able to capture in time..

 

bar-code found out about the correct key to press. It's the [END] key. Press and hold it down. The rest goes as with the guide.

 

Sorry 0X29A didnt see your procedure, I posted a thread on it anyway!

 

Hey Da_G please read Nicholaus.rossi post in the below thread, you need another version of Insydeflash this is what im using to flash to A00 renaming the file to bios.fd.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/595867-bios-version-a02-3.html

The dell version extracted from the normal A02/A03 will not work as it looking for the full kb mumbo jumbo stuff dell throw in.

I hope this helps you. So go ahead get crazy and find me this throttle removal.

 

I've seen that happen to except I also noticed its not the multipliers its the baseclock when you flash I've seen throttle stop show 144mhz in baseclock and the intel turbo monitor showed 6ghz for me and up and down from there... tis definitely a glitch in the reading because sandybridge would die at 144mhz baseclock. So its just some weird false reading when you flash. I think its because at that moment the system puts every other calculation at a halt till flash bar finishes.

 

12.7 GHz is wishful thinking.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9516/clockmodtrick.png

When pushing your M18x to the limit, it's a good idea to check off the ThrottleStop clock modulation feature and make sure that is set to 100% to prevent this problem.

residualvoltage: It sounds like the system timers are being momentarily stopped which can throw off CPU MHz calculations.

 

Compal Embedded Controller has a fair hand in many of the acpi functions of the laptop like throttling, fan control, etc. This controller can be updated by InsydeFlash (and is with the stock Dell BIOS which includes EC firmware) - I think probably the EC is being shut down by InsydeFlash (either purposefully or by a crash), causing fans to go into panic condition and ramp up to full speed.

If you try to read the sensors in hwinfo after running InsydeFlash, the Compal EC doesn't show up. If you have it open during the flash it stops reporting just after the fans ramp up, so this makes the most sense to me.

That post by nick looks like it has the same InsydeFlash tool, just an older version. Speaking of EC, he mentions an EC flashing error, this is because [EC] Flag=1 is set which tells InysdeFlash to update the BIOS EC, however so far only the dell stock BIOS contains EC code (not dumped by InsydeFlash or other BIOS dumpers) so that's why the error gets triggered.

Good work about the BIOS recovery info guys.

I'm curious, if you shut down the EC via a BIOS dump with InsydeFlash, then tried furmark or otherwise, would the 580m SLI still throttle?

 

Looks like a breakthrough is forthcoming shortly. (fingers crossed)

ALSO HAS ANYONE GOT THE ORIGINAL A00 BIOS FOR THE M18X


IN FEW MINUTES , I WILL UPLOAD 2 MODIFIED FILES :-

1 ) UNLOCKED ALL HIDDEN MENUS AND OPTIONS IN THE A03 BIOS ( ONLY MENUS AND OPTIONS MODIFIED NOT MODIFIED ANY OTHER MODULES ) .

2 ) MODIFIED A03 BIOS FOR REMOVING THROTTLE ( MAY NOT DETECT THE 580M GPU , JUST TRY AND TELL ME THE RESULT )



DELL M18X A03 BIOS THROTTLE REMOVAL GTX580M SLI

 

Modded bios's just got released im currently testing them for unlocked options inbetween dealing with the kitchen guy
DELL M18X A03 BIOS THROTTLE REMOVAL GTX580M SLI

 

Awesome stuff man! keep us posted!!!

 

This is HUGE!!
No 1 selection MOdded A03 with all unlocked features works perfect Lots of features have been unlocked in the bios under advanced testing now, but so far success!! i'll keep you posted!

This is an overclockers dream machine!! WOW! AWESOME!

This has exceed what i was hoping for even if the throttle is still there i dont care as the full potiental has been unlocked.
This may take me days to finish testing.

 

Excellent news, bar-code! Thanks for looking into all of this and talking to the guy!

 

np glad to help! I hope da_g would be happy but high praise for his continued work here as well, especially the logo change stuff

 

Awesome! But can you go into details please? For example, were there any GPU restrictions removed?

 

No not yet!! only totally unlocked A03, we are still working on the throttle, i need more testers the option has to be there waiting for da_g to take a look!

 

Sadly I don't have the 580Ms to help you with this