Hi guys I heard yall doing cool things! XPS 13 i5 8520u OSX sierra, IFR mods, liquid metal, SATA m.2

I got 4 of the 8th gen intel i5 xps13's FHD around 2 months ago. One of them had this ME Disabled sticker inside the chassis



I've been developing on two, one more aggressively than the other. I've been working with the hackintosh guys at tonymac with this laptop, they have a pretty good community working with this machine
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...a-10-12-x-lts-long-term-support-guide.213141/

The 2 dev machines have been running osx sierra splendidly, one is tribooting win/mac/linux on a samsung 860 SATA M.2. IFR undervolt -.75 cpu/gpu works no matter where i boot, but XTU wont.

I've been playing with IFR variables quite a bit (among other things) so far I've managed to brick, restore and downgrade from 5.2.1 to 2.0.1 (machine shipped with 2.2.1) using the built in dell bios recovery. I can make a writeup of the proper way to use the bios recovery if it has not been done. I'm sure I have some experience to contribute, I've torn these things apart a lot of ways over the last few weeks.


I'm currently attempting to make the fans kick in at a reasonable temperature (not 85c)

I tried modifying the active trip point IFR variables but had little luck.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Here are some relevent snippets from the 2.2.1 IFR.txt . I have dumped and compared 2.2.1 2.3.1 and 2.5.1, I have yet to find any variable address changes

Spoiler: IFR snips

0x39C2C Setting: Active Trip Point 0, Variable: 0x2AE {05 91 2D 11 2E 11 D1 02 01 00 AE 02 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0x39C3D Option: Disabled, Value: 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0x39C44 Option: 15 C, Value: 0xF {09 07 33 11 00 00 0F}
0x39C4B Option: 23 C, Value: 0x17 {09 07 34 11 00 00 17}

0x39CAA Numeric: Active Trip Point 0 Fan Speed (8070451015290007434-8070451015290007434) , Variable: 0x2B0 {07 91 4E 11 4F 11 D2 02 01 00 B0 02 00 10 00 64 01}
0x39CBB Default: 8 Bit, Value: 0x64 {5B 06 00 00 00 64}
0x39CC1 End {29 02}
0x39CC3 Setting: Active Trip Point 1, Variable: 0x2AD {05 91 2B 11 2C 11 D3 02 01 00 AD 02 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0x39CD4 Option: Disabled, Value: 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0x39CDB Option: 15 C, Value: 0xF {09 07 33 11 00 00 0F}

0x30993 Form: Fan Control Override, Form ID: 0x2844 {01 86 44 28 8C 19}
0x30999 Subtitle: Fan Control Override {02 87 8C 19 00 00 00}
0x309A0 End {29 02}
0x309A2 Subtitle: {02 87 02 00 00 00 00}
0x309A9 End {29 02}
0x309AB Grayout If: {19 82}
0x309AD Variable 0xDFC equals 0x0 {12 06 FC 0D 00 00}
0x309B3 Checkbox: Fan Control Override, Variable: 0x10C9 {06 8E 8E 19 8F 19 E7 00 01 00 C9 10 10 00}
0x309C1 Default: Other {5B 85 00 00 08}
0x309C6 Value {5A 82}
0x309C8 64 Bit Unsigned Int: 0x0 {45 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00}
0x309D2 End {29 02}
0x309D4 End {29 02}
0x309D6 End {29 02}

0x39F8B Numeric: CPU Fan Speed (8070451015290007434-8070451015290007434) , Variable: 0x2C4 {07 91 70 11 71 11 E4 02 01 00 C4 02 00 10 01 64 01}
0x39F9C Default: 8 Bit, Value: 0x41 {5B 06 00 00 00 41}

Anyway glad to be here looks like you guys are doing interesting stuff!

 

Dell Command-Power Manager (Thermal Management tab) gives you 4 choices which will impact fan settings. "Quiet" is quieter and hotter. "Ultra Performance" is louder.

 

I run OSX Sierra primarily, very rarely booting into windows. I dont believe the dell command changes will remain outside of windows, where as my undervolt and DVMT settings set via IFR work across the board

 

Not sure - you would have to try to see if the changes are persistent. I think you can set dell command-power manager in windows then delete the program...and the settings will stick. But can't 100% recall.

For sure dell command-power manager has access to some functionality we don't have access to (fan & processor tweaks per the program).