BIOS modding for GPU OC fun and profit!!

Thanks a lot for this quick response, could you please make a A14 BIOS for i7 + 4670, with both undervolting and overvolting ? Leaving GPU clocks untouched

For undervolting please just use values you used for other people, and for overvolting, let us start with 1.3V

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/101952306/1645_A14W_NoOC_voltmod for albertfu.zip

Max clock volts changed from 1.2 to 1.3 for 4670

Min clock volts changed from 0.9 to 0.8 for 4670

 

Thanks a lot !

 

How's it working out for you?

 

Actually 1.3V value didn't work, in AMD GPU Clock Tool, when I try to set it to 1.3V, it will just stay on 1.2V, and under this value I can't change clocks.

But undervolting works great ! Both 0.8V and 0.85V values work.

And in AIDA64 I can see microcode revision is updated to 5

Thanks again !

 

Glad to hear it kinda works. At least now we know for sure that overvolting doesn't work at all. Oh well, tomorrow I'm moving on to a new HP Envy dv6 anyway, and I was told that they RSA encrypt their new BIOSes so they're unmoddable (or at least not practical to mod).

 

Can some one confirm if our laptop supports 8gb modules? Read in some forums that it got to do something with the bios? Any experiences anyone

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/643372-anyone-tried-studio-xps-1645-8gbx2-3.html

It supports 8GB*2 RAM, but has some serious performance issues with Windows 7 or 8, didn't test on other OS

and if you install only a single 8GB RAM module, no problem at all

 

Except that it would only be running in single channel mode...

 

Hello,

The work you've done is amazing ! Congrats
I have sxps 1647 with i5-560m, 4670HD, 8giga ram, a good thermal past and a clean laptop but my video card becomes hot very fast. Though I never play to any game or whatever using the video card ! Could you make me a bios undervolted/downclocked ? It would be great to have that bios with sub-menu and so on because I use a lot of virtualization so it's great to be able to add this feature

that would be awesome thank you


EDIT: I read past pages and I found what I wanted Though, even it is undervolted, there is no many changes in temps ! but grerat job anyway to have a bios updated with newer cpu microcode and so on !

 

Hey guys, digging up this old thread to see if there has been any progress made on the 16gb ram front.

with all these custom bios to overclock, maybe someone could customize them to properly read 16gb of ram?

Im letting go of a monster desktop and I have to go back to my 1647. Glad I kept her in good condition. Gonna grab a new samsung evo ssd and move the HHD into the BD-ROM spot...I would KILL to get 16gb working properly on this laptop..

 

I thought i had done everything possible to this machine and then i run into this forum. Well if its not broken fix it till it is! i have but just a couple of questions after reading 5/6 of this entire thread. is there a A14L oc version? i run ubuntu solely and only found only the 13.5L oc'ed and was wondering if you have made an A14L. Im just looking for a stable oc with v5 microcode for linux. Also as im running linux do i need to update drivers found in the links provided?
thanks in advance, I see youve put ALOT of time and effort into this and it is appreciated
1645 i7 Q 740 1.73ghz
5730/6570m graphics
128 ssd/500gb hdd
8gb ram
hacked away at body to allow more air flow
ubuntu 13.10
(ps i didnt know where to post this so please excuse if its in the wrong place)

 

Could you please upload the phoenix bios recovery tool ? the bios of my 1647 was bricked. All suggested links
http://dev.phoenix-consultancy.nl/dell/20100327_Dell_Studio_XPS_Bios_Tools.zip
and http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/451601-bricked-xps-1645-help.html
were dead.

 

I got your PM (which thankfully was sent to an e-mail I still use, I haven't checked this site in a while). I haven't messed with my 1645 in a little over a year now. I checked my old backups, and I still have the modded BIOSes I did, but I don't have a copy of the recovery tool. I've always just used the link I provided, which is unfortunately dead.

At this point, I would have suggested looking at other threads in the forum discussing a similar topic, or contacting Mitchell2.24v who hosted the file before, but it looks like you've already tried that. If you haven't seen it, you could also try Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source: Phoenix BIOS Recovery

I don't really know what else to try, I've bricked my 1645 BIOS probably 10+ times messing with different things, but I had never failed to recover it using the tool and following the instructions.

 

I have a single A14L BIOS in my backup files (the one I used myself). It's a 1645/5730M OCd@ 840/1055. At this point, I'd have to re-learn the whole process to make a new custom OC, and unfortunately I no longer have the time for that. If you're interested in the one I have, PM me.

 

Thank you for coming back the thread. I tried many phlash16 versions, even i reinstalled windows xp on another laptop to create a recovery usb (I used both 2GB, 256MB flash drives too) but I am unable to access the recovery mode of my dell 1647 (I plug USB to ESATA/USB port). The LEDS of keyboard are off totally. the LED indicators for control buttons are off too. The light of side rings are off. There are no led on USB. I tried many key combination : power only (as for 1645), end key, Fn+B, windows+B, Fn+ESC... but the does not work at all. Do you know what is the exact key to access the recovery mode for dell 1647. I did not see any people in the thread who succeeded in recovering dell 1647 bios. Maybe 1645 is more popular than 1647.

 

I flashed the bios as the following steps:
I used the latest stock bios version of 1647 for long time. My 1647 installed dual boot for both ubuntu and windows. However, "grub" took a long time to appear sometimes. I suspected it is a bug of pcie aspm in the stock bios for linux. Then I flashed the bios to modded bios versions by seeker_moc @ BIOS modding for GPU OC fun and profit!! . First, it is with "Unlocked BIOS menu options / stock clocks" - Dell Studio XPS 1647 A10 MOD_FIXED.rar . I also kept a backup of the stock A11 bios by the default winflash backup. This version has unlocked pcie aspm option but I also wanted to downclock gpu card (nvidia 4670 runs really hot). Then I flashed the bios to "1647_A10_5730_725_900-4670_750_900.zip" with a expectation of having gpu clock option but it overclocks gpu at a fixed clock - I only knew after flashing. Next, I used winflash with above stock A11 backup to flash the bios ( I should rather use dell A11 bios exe file than the winflash backup). The flash process ended and I got a frozen white screen. I must turn the laptop off by the power button. It was dead then. Do you think this flashing process killed the bootblocks of the bios ?

I installed a 4GB ram module on dimm2 slot (2GB on dimm1 slot). Should I remove one ram module ?

 

If I understand you correctly, you tried to flash the "backup" winflash created. This shouldn't be done, because it's not the same at the original BIOS, I don't know why they even create the "backup" in the first place. I did try to flash this backup once when I first started modding just to see what would happen. It bricked the BIOS, like what happened to you, but I was able to recover using the crisis recovery tool. If you're unable to recover even with the tool, it's possible that you bricked it permanently. I don't know what else you could try, except buying a used motherboard on ebay and replacing it yourself.

 

Which keys do I need to press to access the bios recovery mode ? I am messed up and tried many guides from different threads/forums, but it does not work.

 

I remember reading something about holding Fn + B, but honestly, I don't think it makes a difference.

 

I tried but it goes nowhere. Should I unplug the motherboard battery to expect a change ? Is there any lock to pull the battery connector off ?
I brought my dell 1647 to a laptop service shop to flash the bios by a special machine. However, the guy in there did not have the platform.bin file for the bios (the machine does not accept *.wph file but *bin file and they are different). I know than wph firmware contains platform.bin firmware inside together with extra parts for windows flash (as information in this thread and other forums). Someone extracted bin file from wph file for acer laptop by a hex editor (cut off wph to fit bios chip size) but I did not see any similar thing to dell laptops. Do you know how to get bin file of dell 1647 from its wph files ?

 

Use the Phoenix BIOS Tool. Go to this thread at the MDL forum.

Tool to Insert/Replace SLIC in Phoenix / Insyde / Dell / EFI BIOSes

The link to the tool is at the bottom of the first post.

That's the tool I used to disassemble the BIOS and make changes to individual modules. If there's a platform.bin file inside the .wph, that tool will extract it for you.

 

I downloaded the tool but I am only a noob in bios things. I run phoenixtool.exe, it creates a dump folder with many small files. I expected to obtain a rom/bin file with 4096 KB (or 2048 KB...) in size to fit the bios rom size, but I do not see it. I use WPH file from Dell A11 (R301262). The tool is so hard for me to use.

 

Got a request for some assistance.

I'm trying to update a BIOS from here or default BIOS to latest microcode which is version 7. The problem I've ran is I cannot get the BIOS to play nice afterwards as it'll fail due checksum error. I can't figure out how to get this done using Phoenixtool which I'm using.

 

Interesting topic, would be also possible to add extra clocks and voltage for my Radeon 8850M in inspiron?

 

I seem to have bricked my laptop.

In a bad situation here where I had switched to a custom BIOS (A14_5730_840), and wanted to go back to my previous BIOS (A12) due to graphics stability issues.

In my hurry, I selected the backup (.BAK) file as the new BIOS to flash (to return to my previous BIOS), rather than choosing the .WPH file which I usually do.

The BIOS flashing process proceeded as normal, and the OS attempted to restart the PC after flashing was complete. At this point, all the hardware controls froze (on the restarting screen), including the power button. I had to pull the battery to get it to shut down.

Since that time, there is absolutely no response when I attempt to power on the computer. The only perceivable activity is when I plug in AC power, the battery/power led rings on the side flicker orange momentarily.

Is it still possible to do a crisis recovery BIOS flash somehow? I've read of reports of bricked 1645s, but none where the power button is unresponsive. I've tried the End+AC power/Fn+B and AC power methods to elicit a response too, with no luck.

While I haven't managed to create a crisis disk so far (I have the files, but have yet to find a 32-bit computer to create the disk), I'm wondering if it's even a possibility that will work, considering there is absolutely no response?

Anyone here faced a similar crisis?