M18x Unlocked BIOS Modification Info

I'm not sure if he is talking about modified bios so that i asked him about the difference between both
I hope he reply soon to knew .

 

@johnksss:

Were you able to locate/attempt the BIOS boot block recovery proceedure?

 

sure, but it's not taking.
didn't you do a blind flash?

 

A blind flash? Not sure what the term means.. but if you mean using the recovery method, I have never bricked the BIOS bad enough to need it, yet.

What happens? Is the system totally unresponsive? Do the KB lights come on? Fans? Anything? Is the behavior different with the recovery keys pressed vs. without them?

EC initialization must occur quite early, as I think it controls the keyboard lighting (AlienFX) in addition to the throttle and fans, its possible that a corrupt EC is preventing the BIOS from reaching the recovery boot block stage...

 

it seems to run the recovery process, but it doesn't seem to take.

i thought someone had blind flashed a m18xr1 already...but i guess not.

 

Lots of variables involved here, might be the first time a direct EC code modification has been attempted.. the BIOS recovery flash proceedure might not have logic to flash the EC portion of BIOS

Try a different filesystem (NTFS vs. FAT32) and a different USB stick, would be my first 2 things to try. Also give the A02 stock BIOS a shot. Make sure you have the right filename (PARMEC10x64.fd or whatever it is)

 

Barcode has made blind recovery several times , i think he can help in this .
also , the EC controls kb and mouse too .
The modifications was only on fanspeeds so i think blind recovery will fix it .
just try diffirent usb .
in my phoenix bios recovery , i have tried more than 3 usb till it worked and all of it was made the same method .

 

i read bar codes method. and have done that. even took out the hd/both gpus/wifi and still nothing.

it's bricked. no doubt about it.

 

After you do the Blind recovery method its best to take the battery out and make sure the ac is also removed so no power going to the notebook hold the Power button for al least 20sec (just count to 20) before powering back on this will make sure everything has been reset and no old stuff hanging around.

This discharge helps removing unwanted nasty left overs.

I hope this helps good luck!

Please follow below tut
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ery-process-all-m18x-incase-corrupt-bios.html

 

tried everything. it's bricked.

 

Oh my!! so sorry to hear this, are u within warranty!

 

for sure! just had the motherboard replaced on tuesday. now i have to see if i can get it replaced on this tuesday.

 

Cool! At least you can get this replaced again! phew.

Anyway, if you dont mined, please try my blind file below just to make sure.

Good luck keep us posted current or new.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

 

didn't work.
new question:
is there anyway to invoke the flash from the flash drive. using a batch file to reflash the ec?

 

do you need to do this mod if one would just use the 580m's SLI-ied to game? i dont really care about benching, but im not sure if i need to mod the BIOS just for regular gaming with the 580's

 

the 580ms' throttle problem has been neither identified nor fixed, 3demons. There's nothing there for you to flash (well, unless you care about an unlocked bios).

 

Hi All ,

i have replied in the thread @Bios-mods , read the post there as its long and i`m in a hurry now to go out

 

Hello Da_G,

PCI Vendor and Device Lists is listing a few entries for 8086 / 0103 and 0107

 

Thanks, Kev-Kanuk But on the site I see some hits for 0103, 0107 device id, but none with vendor ID 8086. Am I missing it?

In reply to bios-mods discussion:

@Ahmed: If blind flash is known not to flash EC FW from previous throttle removal method of m17x-r3, doesn't that mean that blind flash won't fix bricked BIOS on m18x caused by EC modification (because EC FW won't be repaired)?

I'm still enjoying vacation time, i'll be able to help after the long weekend

BTW: I saw part in whitepaper you refer to. Which offset(s) containing value "4000" was modified? Was there any other modification to EC FW part? I am curious as to avoid future brick, thanks

Another BTW, I think fan speed modification would have no bearing to throttle really, but I imagine you performed that modification as a relatively risk-free test of EC FW mod, yes? In that case the risk seems quite high so far!

Also, I have a JTAG flashing kit, do we know where JTAG header is on motherboard? This way I could try flashing via direct modification of FW and have easy recovery method, maybe i'll wire JTAG pinout to some external port on M18x

Did we check for a possible checksum value in EC FW part or overall BIOS part, perhaps modification could have failed due to checksum being incorrect?

 

Hi Da_G , yes , the blind flash didn`t flash the ECFW in the 17XR3 and i think its the same here in the 18X too as Mumak said that its similar ECFW .
John can easily flash the ECFW with the JTAG tool kit........Or he can easily replace the motherboard for free .
in page 84 in the datasheet , this was an example for the automatic and fixed fan speeds.............i wanted to see if throttle is still found under these fan configurations.........and i never thaught this will brick the ECFW as it was a given example with a given values and offests........... i have never calculated anything and it was clear in the datasheet that i should modify these offests .
but after that , Mumak has said that these offests in the datasheet is wrong and we should disassemble to find the right values and offests .
i trust Mumak as he has far more info, than me.

- it will be very good to test the new ECFW mod which Mumak will do soon , but i don`t knew how to use the toolkit in the 18X ...... i will ask Mumak about this for you .
-i asked Mumak if there is any checksums which protect from modifying ( asked him after the mod ) and he said he is not sure from that ........ but i really think it has a checksum byte in the start of the file and i will show you why i doubt this soon

EDIT : this wasn`t relatively risk free mod , i believe that the EC FW checks the temps then decides to increase fanspeeds or throttle .

 

what header. i have it apart looking at it now.

side note
like i got a jtag tool just laying around to flash something.

 

JTAG header is a series of pins on the motherboard somewhere, usually off to the side, it is a debugging port used during development and typically for repairs on retail units and other such things. The header is usually not something you can find with eyeballs, you need equipment like an oscilloscope to measure the signals and determine which pin is what signal to make a proper connection (unless it is documented or labelled)

Basically, it is a connector that allows you to hook up a JTAG programmer, and initialize the CPU and related systems to the point where you have access to the chip that stores firmware, so no matter how much it is stuffed up on the software side of things, you can perform a recovery by flashing a known good copy and get back up and running.

Yeah, not something you are likely to have laying around, but surprisingly I do, from working on many different cell phones. When you get them stuffed up to the point they won't boot up enough to do a recovery (like your board) it comes in reallllllly handy. But not always the easiest thing to hook up (development boards usually have a header attached you can plug a simple cable + connector into, while retail boards have only 'gold finger' pins that you have to solder your own cabling/connector to.

Sometimes they can be insanely small.. here is a JTAG connection I hooked up to an HTC HD2 for repair, the entire photo is roughly the size of a dime!

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6615/hd2jtagpinssoldered.jpg

Thankfully, computers have more room to fit connectors than that and usually have a nicely located pinout with all the pins in one spot

 

yeah, i dont see any of that anywhere.
good thing it's getting fixed on wednesday...damn holiday.

wait:
there is a unknown plug with nothing in it next to the primary gpu fan header.
jelcdbg

 

Nice John maybe you found it. Also amazing work on the cell phones.

 

hey i remember seeing that too when I recently had to remove my battery since i was unbootable after settings something wrong.

 

Hi guys, I tried to change the Throttle On Temp to 100 but it still throttles at 85C (yes I went to the BIOS Setup and checked, it's 85C). But when I tried to make a backup of my current BIOS (the modified one ofc), the Throttle On Temp was indeed 100C. What did I do wrongly?

 

Hey ResidualVoltage I tried changing the throttling from 90 to 100 with the editor and after flashing the actual throttle still occurs as it did before even know the .fd shows 100... when I check the BIOS the throttling is always set to 85 from the actual BIOS, not the file.

Any thoughts?

 

Yes I wrote about this problem... this is how it works with the unlocked bios + editing and reflashing a modded bios via register editing. Set everything you can in bios first going from the left most tab in bios go through all settings from left tab slowly go right on the tabs. When done hit F10 and save and don't go back into these menus... like if you go into where you can adjust the baseclock there is short and long limit etc and if you go to "advanced CPU control" on a tab more to the right... you will find the "cpu power control" and there is the same short and long limit. If you adjust the short limit there it can go to 99 but if you use the menu where baseclock is it can only go to 80.. see the problem and method i'm describing? I found this relationship between settings by tinkering for a long time. Now go and extract your bios again and start editing... set your multipliers if you want them over the 45 max in bios... since it can go to 50. Set the Throttle temp to anything over 90 and it will work only this way. Flash the newly modded bios and don't go back into the bios... that's your guys's problem which I have wrote about in my guide. As soon as you enter any bios menu subsequently after these steps that has a setting set beyond the bios limit will be set within limits the moment you try to view those settings in bios. So don't visit the bios again unless you are going to start this over and set new settings... let me know if you like my advice. Happy overclocking.

 

but how does this relate to throttle(max temp)? he flashes and goes right into windows and runs the bench and it does the exact same thing.

 

Not sure he may be setting it too high... but this is most certainly related since he goes into the bios after he did the mod and by doing that he keeps resetting the value which was programmed over the limits. I've done this a lot so far it really is how its working. No joke I set the settings like that and if I revisit the thermal menu in bios its reset to 85 and same goes with multipliers if you visit the menu with the turbo multipliers and you had set over 45... if you enter the menu with the multipliers after that you will see just what I mean... 46/47/48/49 or 50 resets to whatever stock 2920xm multiplier is... like 32/32/34/35... so if you set 45/45/45/46 and enter bios after that it will reset since the menu limits force themselves when you renter those bios menus forcing you to do the whole thing all over. so the 45/45/45/46 would show as 45/45/45/35 if you re-enter... i'll make a video if need be. its been a pain that it functions this way but it does. If I can prove this to you guys somehow i will just let me know. I'm trying to be helpful here... and the way I described is the way its acted for me... i use the A03 unlocked bios and Hex editor... Try setting the throttle at 99 then... even over a hundred it makes little difference as the chip somewhat naturally drops its speed at 100C. If tdc/tdp is too low the speed will drop too and will appear to be throttle... but I haven't seen how Xeneize system is acting so I can't be certain. I can set the throttle with this method to 120C and it won't throttle instead it continues right up into 100C and shutsoff which doesn't help anything. Also voltage if set too high even if temps are staying low can cause the speed to drop like 25flex wont run quad as high as 15flex...etc. I hope that answers how its related to throttle temp...

One other thought to try is sometimes settings I had set were not working as programmed for me so all I did was hit restore defaults in bios and reset all those settings, and re-extracted bios... modded registers flashed and rebooted and they were working again... so maybe if Xeneize trys that the settings will stick... since now that I thought about it longer... I did run into that issue more than once and this fixed it once i even had to before doing that reflash the unlocked bios and then reset defaults, set settings again, extract, modify, flash, reboot ... fixed. hope this helps and if you want evidence just nicely say so to me and I will try to find a way to show that.

I'm definitely thinking its the later of my two suggestions here... i had same prob and starting from beginning of steps again after flashing unlocked bios again and resetting defaults before doing it all over fixed that for me i had same issue with the throttle not sticking... it was frustrating... I should have remembered that.
********
These are my opinions and that's it. That was my experience with it... but we all can be wrong and everyone makes mistakes. That's why we discuss things in a forum. I hope my observations help somehow that's my only intent. They act strangely the bios etc.. another member somewhere here was talking about the same thing... if you set watts in menu with short limit and baseclock the menu limit is 80watts... but in the unlocked bios its the same except you can go down to "Advanced cpu control" and the same options are there short and long watt limits... its the menu with primary plane in it. If you set the short limit there its limit is 99. Now if you save those settings and have msr lock enabled as example using throttle stop or hwinfo to show tdp/tdc you will see 99 short... extract,modify and reflash to whatever over 99 lets say 120watt short... if you reboot its set at 120... the weird thing is if you reboot enter bios change and only enter menus containing values that are not set over menu limits save reboot all settings have stayed intact... now if you reboot and lets say go back to "advanced cpu control" menu in bios it will suddenly say 99watt short and subsequently changing anything else and saving with reboot will have you back at 99 short and even worse if you had entered the bios menu with baseclock setup and the multipliers the short suddenly sets itself to 80 watts if you again end up saving and rebooting etc. the subsequent fix is too reflash the last modded bios or going back to "advanced cpu control" to set it back to atleast 99 but the reflash would put it back to 120... so to make it justly complicated if you during that example had multipliers over 45 set when you modded the bios then when we entered the bios menu with baseclock and multipliers in the example suddenly they say in the "1,2,3,4, active core" entry the default of the chip like 32/32/34/35 for 1,2,3,4, where one of those was set over 45 in hex editor... again if you end up saving and exiting they stick and are set at those... so the best thing is to reflash with the last modded bios you flashed with to restore it if you have ran into that and accidentally saved... *I used msr lock enabled in example because its actually a mute issue if you disable it and use throttle stop in windows to adjust the tdp... but for the purpose of the example without involving editing the tdp in windows it allowed me to explain the way it behaved for me in bios menus where items I had set over bios menu limits in hex editor... kept getting reset if I accidentally entered the menus housing those specific values... and sometimes even causing I think what Xeneize is experiencing and that's the throttle temp keeps resetting despite flashing the mod... Seems like the bios menus have precedence over the modifications using hex editor... so its very sensitive to resetting.

On the other note of Xeneize's experience again he could benefit from flashing unlocked bios again... and doing the steps over from beggining... I ran into the throttle not sticking when flashed with mod from hex editor after lots of benching and testing and flashing and playing in the menus and it fixed itself when redid it all from the complete beggining of procedure... start by reflashing the unlocked bios and hitting defaults just check that the HD settings are not set to raid and set to ahci or ata etc instead if you previously didn't use it or set to raid if you were after resetting defaults in bios.

This register editing and modified bios work strangely since they both are not the norm of these computers... you could say they both have a strange relationship and when combined they really complicate things. i hope this helps show what i am talking about better its hard describing that which I have attempted to describe.

 

i'll have to let him explain it, but...the throttle flash sticks...it just doesn't hold when put to the test. that's the problem he is having. we can go into the bios and still keep flashed bios settings. not sure why you can't yet? and they are a few other things that go with that.
Originally Posted by johnksss
but how does this relate to throttle(max temp)? he flashes and goes right into windows and runs the bench and it does the exact same thing.


ill explain that part of the puzzle your missing when i have more time later. the bios editing /multiplier changing / watts changing and so on. and how they hold even if you go in the bios.

 

That's strange it's doing that. My settings do stay even if I enter bios... but if i do a mod like higher than 90 throttle temp, or higher than 45 multiplier and enter those menus after a flash and go somewhere else adjust something the value will be back within unlocked bios menu limits.. like 99watts and 45x is max per bios menu limits. That's not Xeneize issue I knew that as you stated in the bold txt. Basically Xeneize can extract his already modified flashed bios and open it in Hex and it should still say the 100C... if it doesn't its not sticking. The thermal config options haven't been changed have they? just throttle point? The Flex can cause speed drops and the tdp/tdc can too. When I follow those methods it works for me.. and I have had 2-3 times with the same issue Xeneize is having and I just started over from beggining and it started working fine. I set 120C throttle and shutdown... then I set high amps and 99 watts short/long...with msr lock disabled... once in windows I use Throttle Stop to set my watts in a safe range raising as speed dropped till it keeps a constant speed or high enough to atleast the speed you wanted... and lower if temps were getting to high and shutdown was possible. The out of spec thermal sensor does not do well as no matter what its set to its probably can only read 105c max and shuts system off just a little while after throttle stop shows a cpu core at 100c. If starting over doesn't help thats all I can think of... as it seems to not be a hardware flaw and the bios and hex and methods are all the same that we are using.

 

flashing the actual throttle still occurs as it did before even know the .fd shows 100. (what was said. fd meaning looking at the bios file using a hex editor)
just trying to understand the throttle/temp point. never hits 100C..before it gets there..it throttles.

 

You could try 99C maybe over 100 it defaults to 85 but not for me. Flex has caused the speed drop for me... and values too low for tdp/tdc. Sorry I missed that thanks for answering that even though I missed it. What you guys are saying is happening happened to me John. I had set the throttle temp and it kept doing it at 85 instead... it was only a few days ago and was frustrating for me I did fix it since it know is throttling over 85C for me. I had to reflash the actual original unlocked bios file a03 again and do it all again and it worked. If he did that too than I still suggest trying to flash the untouched A03 from dell and then reflash the unlocked one and try again. Its all it took for me. If you guys did all that already... I am out of suggestions take it away someone... this is what happened to me. if I didn't have a any good suggestions someone else is bound to because there is so many of us using the unlocked bios and editing the registers. Lol not really so far just a couple. I'm throwing the towel in lol maybe its my system is faulty... so I have to go through these annoying quirks to get mine to set correctly. Just my luck I get the odd ball system

 

really need an open chat window for this stuff....waiting for post is tedious...haha

 

Yes lol... im confused anyway now about what could be going on just like my emoticon

 

do you have msn or your bench site..does it have a chat window?

 

didnt go through the whole thread but, is there an official working modded bios atm for the m18x, that's tested to be working with unlocked features, or is this pending?

 

RV has given very detailed instructions on this.
and yes it's working... in terms of greatly increasing your performance. but you must own an extreme cpu to reap 90 percent of that though

 

John I can get MSN sorry I missed that message I'll PM some of my info so we can chat sometime soon.

 

i'm reading the first page, where usally all updates should be posted and i see no mention of any official bios mod release, i see people testing out byte sequences with a hex editor, as i mentioned i didn't go through the whole thread, if there is an official bios mod release anybody got a link they can share.

and when you say XM cpu's what exactly do non XM cpu's miss out on? i take it an ES XM would suffice as well.

 

probably best to read the whole thread then because this is a hex editing thread based on da_g technique. and the modified menus bios is based on amhed technique.

xm is fine.

non xm's you can not over clock the multiplier.
this is what you use in google to search for you answer

site:forum.notebookreview.com m18x a03 unlocked

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...iental-has-been-unlocked-modded-a03-bios.html


you can also click the links in his sig. this would also show what your looking for.

 

wow i guess asking in a m18x thread is apparently the wrong thing to do, and ask google instead, anyhow i've stumbled into the wrong thread, the link you gave me for the unlocked bios is what i needed. peace out.

 

no. you already said you "didn't" read the whole thread. so if we try to re explain it over and over again..gets a bit tedious.

then said it should be posted on the first page, which would also be incorrect.

and i ask google all the time, what's wrong with that? since the nbr search feature is broken.

and the reason for the google search...because "i forgot what thread it was in" so that's how "i" found it.

 

i asked a mere simple question if there was a modified official bios release, you ran your mouth all over the place like the cheerleader you apparently are and couldn't give 1 simple basic answer, and NO i don't need to ask GOOGLE, i asked in alienware m18x's forum, which thousands of people do every day, but unfortunately some pompous hypocrites are busy making them self's sound intelligent by giving snobby responses.

FYI, i disassemble programs and and spend alot of time doing software modifications myself, but apparently i'm noob because this is the first time you spoke to me, get lost... moving on.

 

cry else where. have a nice time..

 

@lzykocp1002 you PM me yesterday multiple times asking about a modded bios and or how to unlock it and I don't mind that I told you everything I knew even on my free day of the week but you don't come here and insult a respectable member like Johnkss I don't care if you are a NASA technician here you are no more than a new member with low rep and bad attitude

so with your own words "get lost"

 

Hey fellas, I have tried to set the throttle temp to 95 - 99 - 100 and they have the same symptoms:

1. After flashing the BIOS, went to Windows directly.
2. Run 1024M on 8 threads, it sure did not throttle till the configured value.
3. Stop the bench (for about 2-3s) and let it cool down a little bit.
4. Resume the bench or start a new one, it would throttle at 85C.
5. Restart and went to Windows directly. Go back to step 2.

 

between restarts you never go to the bios and change settings? that would revert everything to 0 or minimum values

Edit: do one thing backup your modded bios wit the Insideflash utility DA_G post on the first post of this thread and load that on the hex editor to see if the values are not reverted if they are try this settings:

Shut Down Temperature -> 105
Throttle On Temperature -> 95
CPU_Current_Limit -> 1040
IGP_Current_Limit -> 1040
Enable C7 -> 1
Turbo PWR Limit MSR Lock -> 0
Long Duration Power Limit -> 120
Long Duration Time Window -> 128
Short Duration Power Limit -> 120

 

You're welcome to participate in the forum, and I'm sure there are many things you can contribute to NBR. Please don't be rude to my buddies. We're all friends here and try to help each other. That kind of response is not something we can hang with.