L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

Could you please double check the voltage? is there any difference after flashing 80/80 from 83/83?

 

@Capitankasar

Anxiously waiting for Virtu MVP. Hacked yet?

Just hoping you could save us all.

 

@dhaneshbc

well, I double checked the bios mod,

downloaded the file and unpacked the bios to check the bioses

I am even using that bios now and it does show the correct voltages for me.



what are you using to check voltages?


@fauzulkc

sadly nothing yet, we are stuck into getting into deeper steps like bios DSDT hacking or descriptor or ME firmware hacking.

I am now doing hardware mods to the laptop in order to access protected zones of the bios by building a flasher port and cable.

more info about the hardware mods I did here:

(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

 

@everyone

Which causes the crash when overclocking? Not enough Voltage or Heat?

 

probably both.

however, in the xps 15 case, lower voltages usually resulted into better results, so I would say temperature have a very important role into this , but not sure

 

@capitankasar
All tools except hwmonitor shows .83V. gpu shark shows details of each performance states. default is .80V but actual is .83V. i think hwmonitor reads this default value. obviously what you have entered in bios is .80 but the card simply doesn't accept it.

 

oh, I see.

well, in that case there isnt a lot I can do for that, not sure if it is a driver limitation or hardware limitation.

anyway, it seems minimal voltage wich accept the card is 0.83v.

thanks for the info dhaneshbc

 

bios req. please

@capitankasar

Sorry for bothering again. Want to try 83/92 540m A12 if you could provide.

Thank You!

 

@fauzulkc
done

anyway I may be a little busy from now, I almost finished the homemade programer to access phisically the xps 15 bios chip.

 

Ya, saw your development process on the other link of bios-mods.

Thank You!

 

Hmm, so as I was playing some BF3, I've come to remember just how much my laptop hated OC'ing. Or maybe my hardware just can't take it anymore after I've crashed so many times. Anyways, I can't seem to get any good stability when I start to play for extended periods of time on pretty much any decent OC, so I think I might step down a notch and request maybe a 0.87 or 0.88V BIOS some time later. Maybe it's just because my laptop is mad at me for messing around too much with the overclocks

It's especially strange, because I've run the OC's up against OCCT, and it seemed to work fine but... well, maybe I just haven't used that burn-in test for long enough...

EDIT: how come I always end up on a new page...

 

^^What OCing values are you testing? And you have a GT540M right?

 

Went up to 800 MHz and lasted for like an hour, and then it crashed.
Bumped it down to 777 MHz, lasted for like half an hour, and then it crashed.
Took it down to 750 MHz, and it still managed to crash. Mind you I managed to do 750 MHz totally stable on 0.85V. So I take it that 0.9V is too high.

I'm not sure if it's just BF3 that really stresses the GPU and causes it to mess up a lot, but it's one of the main (intensive) games that I play, so if the OC can't last on this game, then it's no good.

 

Yeah your like me, I believe that the 0.85V is your best option; and try focusing on getting the best clocks with that voltage.

Also, do you overclock your memory?

 

well, OCCT were aparently stable when I tried higher clocks, but games crashed with them, so sadly I had to use games to determine if it was stable or not.


updates.

I sucesfully unlocked hardware access to flash custom ME firmwares.

the bad news is that I had to desolder phisically the bios chip from the motherboard, conect it to a parallel port flasher, and change the descriptor security bits,I think this will prevent most people from continue my progress from here D:


now I am trying to flash ME8 firmware to the motherboard,

it this work, it may will have ivy bridge support and OC too

 

@Capitankasar

The news is great but sad too.

Will we ever be able to get what you are getting now without changing physical condition?

Let us know what you achieved with the new OC.

Great Work Capitakasar

 

no software way to unlock fd exists, unless dell releases a new bios which has v8 me embedded. but knowing dell - this will never happen
so to put it simply - no 22nm cpu support, no me v8.x and no oc.

 

guys, I have bad news.

my l502x machine got phisically damaged while doing the custom ME firmware tests and hardware programing.

this means I will be unable to keep uploading modded bioses with custom voltages on demand.

I also will be unable to continue investigating future l502x mods.

I dont have the money to replace my l502x motherboard, and then I have no l502x at all

since l502x was my main working/gaming/testing and more machine, I had all the tools at the l502x laptop, and since no hardware for testing, I cant also test anything on a dead machine, srry for any inconvenience

it was nice to share my work and modded bioses, I hope you liked them

thanks to everyone of this topic.

and also special big thanks to jkbuha and timewalker, the members of the bios-mods forums wich helped me most to acomcomlish this most of avalible stuff on this topic and also nice people.


I apologize for any inconvenience


posting this from a old pentium 4 laptop.

 

Wow, that's very sad

Maybe if you ask Dell, and show them the great work you have done here to help people with GPU crashing, they will send you out a new motherboard for free!

Oh well accidents happen. (You remember my failed attempt at your USB mod? - I melted the strips off the motherboard!)

And no inconvenience taken, mate. You've done a great job. My summer holidays are coming up soon, and I maybe able to look into changing BIOS voltages myself time permitting.

Best of luck!

PS
You've probably got loads for free time now! XD

PSS
When I was doing the USB mod, I had actually short circuited the system: It ran fine for almost half an hour before it turned off at wouldn't come on again. I'm not sure on how serious your situation is (I'm guessing quite bad), but I cleaned off some excess solder that I had missed on the 5V point.
I also found out that when it was short-circuiting, putting my ear up to underneath the battery (with the access hatch open), I could hear this faint electronic chirping (it is extremely quiet!). Pressing the power button the chirping would either disappear or get faster (can't remember which).
Hope this info can help

 

@kasar, i've read what happened on the bios mod forums. I can only hope it's not dead completely, just give it a day (and yourself) to rewind . Who knows, maybe it's just static shocked.

 

thanks guys


@matrix5

yeah, I remember your issue with the usb ports.

yeah, I know soldering gets too tricky, it may has been the cause of the issue at this time.

I think the bios chip is phisically damages, I could try look for the similar chip and model, try to reprogram it, and solder back to the mobo, but it isnt guaranteded it will work, so I probably will lose more efforts and money I dont have at all.

I has been trying the whole evening and part of the night, no luck, its sad but it is dead :/

and yes, probably will have lot of extra free time ^^

I already was planning also to give me some days of relax from bios stuff and do some online gamming, pending anime, films, or stuff, but I think those plans are out without the machine ^^

@Doixdd

oh, you saw already on there.

well, I dont see an easy fix, and when I googled for l502x motherboard replacements prices like 300$ apeared D:

and I cant afford even 100 $ now, so I am screwed anyway.


I may try the bios chip replacement, reprogram it, and try again, but like I said, I have very little hopes into get my machine back to life, now it is just a pile of scrap D:

 

Yeah, as Doixdd said, have a rest. Let yourself (and the laptop!) cool, and then have anther try.

Best of luck again!

 

If it makes you feel any better, i just bricked my freshly hardware repaired android tablet by essentially doing what you did, messing with an EEPROM.

 

The board is only about 200$ which is not that bad. Don't know you would have to pay any import taxes though, so it might end up being higher price.
New Original Genuine Dell XPS L502X Motherboard DAGM6CMB8D0 NXH8C | eBay
If 20 people donate 5$ each you would be really close to being back in business if it's really a dead mobo. But I would only think it's a dead mobo after attempting the SPI swap.

If it worked and then shorted after applying the setting then the chip probably went toast.. I'm trying to reach someone to see if they could sell a pre-programmed SPI of the same product number (ie W25Q32BVSIG) programmed with your backup. I have mentioned this over at bios-mods. This will cost somewhere around 13-14 GBP shipped from the Netherlands, so around 20 bucks. If it's not the chip then you will have a replacement always sitting there in case bad things happen again ...

Actually since you have the cable to use flashrom already this is your best bet:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-WINBOND-W25Q32BVSIG-25Q32BVSIG-SOP8-IC-Chip-/190668544992
5x for 7 bucks .. can't beat that (thanks to @CodeRush for providing the info) .. the only drawback is that it will probably take ages to arrive.

 

Dear Capitan,

I'm willing to donate some money (not much really) but I will also need to persuade others who have benefited and will benefit from your work to shell out until you have enough to fix your laptop and possibly buy a new ivy bridge processor to test with.

To anyone else reading this, please tell us if you're up to it. I'm pretty sure for $10 or maybe $5 being able to upgrade our L502X to ivy bridge is a real bargain.


P.S.
I was under the impression that the L502X was the best laptop I could get with the best screen at the lowest price, but recently, just a few weeks ago, Sony had a 50% off sale on their refurbished laptops and some were able to get a quad-core ivy bridge laptop with GT640M and a 1080p IPS screen with the orange hue likely fixed for around $450 or less, about $300 less than what I paid for my L502X and perhaps without all the hell I had to go through to get it fixed.

 

I'm up for donating , someone make a Pledgie — Helping you help others. to get things moving.

 

@ Matrix5


I think it is the bios chip (W25Q32BVSIG)

wich got damaged due the high ammounts of times I soldered desoldered it.


@Doixdd

oh, didnt you had a backup.

in this case, I may be lucky if I get another chip and flash the old backup to it.

I think I have an idea to make things easier to the future.

I will buy things like this



to add to both motherboard and parallel port programer, so I will not have to get involved of soldering everytime I flash stuff.

if I am able to recover the motherboard like this way I may be able to continue, but well, like I said, replacing and reprograming the chip doenst guarantee there are any other damage at the motherboard.


@timewalker

yeah, I saw that one, it is cheaper, but because you can see, it have no GPU

take a look to the picture, the chips arent there, so in this case I would still spending lot of money for something noticiable worse than the one I originally had, I see no point having a l502x with just intel graphics.

yeah, I also think it is the chip, I will try getting another chip plus getting some base for the chip so I can move the chip faset from the laptop to the flasher.

if this work, this would make things easier for any recovery attempt after any kind of brick.

chip to programer, and then chip to the motherboard.

this also would allow me to give a better and more solid design/look to the programer instead having all the wires on the air of the current programer.




thanks also for the links

I will check if I can fix the current chip by doing the bios chip swap ^^

will try luck to local electronics providers, there is a big electronics store in madrid called CONECTROL, they allways had all the stuff I needed there, this time It may be different due the chip is may a little rare, but well, will try there first ^^

@PocketSmiley


thanks a lot for the help, I'm really surprised to see people offering me money to fix the thing, dont have words to say how thanksfull I am.

the ivy bridge would be nice, but that stuff is really expensive, so I would be already satisfected if If I can just resurrect the laptop to the previus state it was ^^


@Doixdd

thanks a lot.

I really apreciate that kind of moves from the people.

however cant stop feel bad for feeling I'm pushing people to pay money to fix my mistakes D:

 

EDIT: I've set up the fund at the following location:

[removed by mod, donation links are prohibited by the forum rules]

Please give generously - all of you here who have downloaded kasar's modded bios. This is the true way of thanking your heros!

@kasar - don't feel bad about anything. *You* have spent the time & tears sweating behind all the improvements on the bios. We all make mistakes. Importantly we all need to support each other when we fall down. Please feel free to put this on your main page.

Thanks
jkbuha

 

@ capitankasar
Sorry to hear the bad news bro. I am also willing to give some $$. You are not pushing anyone to pay for your mistake.

@ all
I have enabled "UEFI" in the bios and disabled "Legacy Boot". Changed from MBR to GPT and reinstalled Windows 7. Everything is working great in Windows 7 except the ST Accelerometer. Every time I install the driver and reboot the laptop freezes soon after I log in. There is nothing in the event viewer about it. Has anyone seen this before?

My next venture will be installing Mountain Lion. I have noticed a couple folks here that have OSX on there laptops and would like to get feedback from them on their trials and errors installing it. I have read that the integrated wifi does not work. Is this correct? Any information on the processes of installing would be helpful.

 

Thanks for the donation guessyet - Kudos to be the first to donate to the cause!

Re: OSX - why not have a look at the topics DoiX and I have created in the insanely forum - we've answered your query on ML. Re: UEFI & accelerometer - this didn't happen to me but maybe its because I have a 15z (and a WDC drive). Maybe someone from the xps15 team on insanely can help you with this.

 

CAPTAIN, you've been doing impressive work and you deserve it. Also, you are NOT obligated in ANY WAY to be able to make Ivy Bridge work! This is just a way of thanks for what you've already done, and the promise of Ivy Bridge is just extra.

BTW, jkbuha, how does this pledgie work I mean do you collect the money on your account to transfer later to CapitanKasar? I'm giving $10 at first and then add more later if I still have any left after Thanksgiving.

 

I've created a new account just for Kasar's donation, and any money that comes in will be sent to kasar every 5-7 days. That way you'll all know how much money has been raised and how much kasar will be getting

@kasar - you need to give me your paypal account now (or create one if you don't have one yet) so I'll transfer the funds to your account.

 

@jkbuha
Thanks for the kudos. I should be able to do more when I get paid Wednesday. I just wanted to get my name in the pot.

I have an account at insanely. I will go check it out.

 

I have seen this behavior on my Vostro with new ST driver. The only option to make it not freeze right after some programs load after logging in is to use the latest A13 bios.. or never installing the accelerometer driver.
I'm actually thinking of picking up a 128Gb Vertex4 when I get paid .. so I guess i wouldn't need it any longer.

@kasar
Using socketed approach is a nifty idea, but isn't the socket way to high to then fit an IC chip and make the laptop's shell fit perfectly to be able to close it ?
I'm actually looking at this thing right now .. 24 EEPROM 25 SPI FLASH BIOS TTL USB Programmer/ATMEL/WINBOND/EON/ST/24 25 Series | eBay
I've read that the chip it uses is kind of slow, takes about 30 minutes to reprogram a 64Mb IC, but the price is really sweet.. what is the time it took you to erase and write the chip using the LPT-based programmer ?

@jkbuha
thanks for taking the initiative. don't have whole a lot right now, but I did spare some $$ towards the good cause.

 

I lurk at Bios-mods and I've seen you make significant contributions to this project so, really, thank you too!

 

Thank you both PocketSmiley & TimeWalker for your generous donations - we're at 57 Euro and counting!

 

@PocketSmiley

thanks so much for your words.

yeah, I know I was not obligated, but well, while seeing ppl getting happy with something I made, I liked it

thanks also so much for your donation, I really apreciate it.

@jkbuha

again, thank you very much mate.

not sure if the email I used on paypal is what you need.

[email protected]

@guessyet

really, huge thanks for your donation, when I get the machine back to service I will keep investigating the motherboard secrets in order to unlock OC and maybe ivy bridge features ^^

 

@timewalker

yeah, size stuff may be closer.

I'm also thinking to move the mount to the backsize panel where the old flash port attempt was, so change the bios chip will be as easy as change a ram module, however, the cable size may be an issue again, even to comunicate with the laptop motherboard itself D:

here are some images from when I sucesfully unlocked the descriptor settings by direct chip flashing from programer.





oh, about my homemade LPT programer, to take a entire dump of the chip, it took like just 2-4 mins.

writting stuff from flashrom also took the same time too.

however to dump the flash, I preffer SPIPGM since it shows progress and allow to verify the bios with a file.

so having both apps into a bootable usb stick with the rom files to flash was a nice idea ^^

edit: woops, really thanks for the donation

 

@kasar,

Unfortunately i have no backup, since the eeprom is embeded in a microcontroller chip.

@jkbuha, be kind and post the pledgie in the L502x and l702x forums as well, i'm sure someone from there will help the cause as well.

 

Feel sad for that.
Can you call dell service and ask them to change a motherboard for you for free?
I mean,last time,when I flashed the wrong BIOS,and my laptop turned into a brick,I called Dell and they changed my motherboard twice,
for the first board they gave me has some problems
So,as far as I am concerned ,U should have a try
If they can't
eh
well I'm willing to donate some money if I can use PayPal
In China,There is only a way :ZhiFuBao
I don't know if I can use it to donate

 

You can use Paypal on pledgie, I guess this is the only thing you can use actually.

 

Guys feel free to post the pledgie in any other forums where you feel this is of relevance. I'm not usually on NBR, so not sure which topics are most relevant. Ffeel free to repost the pledgie anywhere else you know that people have used kasar, TW or my work.

It's the only way decent folk can can give back some form of gratitude for the hard work done by others.

 

@fuwu1245

and, did your machine had the warranty still avalible?

mine expired like half year ago.

also I made several hardware mods to the motherboard, so I think they will refuse to replace it ^^

about how to help, you can donate in the pledgie jkbuha's made

[removed by mod - donation links are prohibited by the forum rules]

it uses also paypay I think.

thank you very much for your interest, I really apreciate it

 

Not sure where you're located, but for SOIC adapters, try SMD Sockets | SOIC ZIFF Sockets, PLCC SMD Sockets or take a look at the catalogs at Farnell or Digikey. I'd be glad to donate if your motherboard needs replacing.

--Adeeb

 

oh, thanks for the link and info

I live on spain.

I was unable to find those ones on my local electronic stores or internet..

those ones should make things easier, less soldering and easy mounting

thanks a lot mate

 

man, 5 quid for a piece is ridiculous :O
i was unable to find these in Farnell catalog..

 

yeah, it is quite expensive.

when I went to the electronic store yesterday, I saw some of those



this is suposed to attach to the the chip without desoldering.

anyway they asked 16 eur per each,

 

They are meant for flashrom/coreboot debugging mainly. So this explains the price point ..
Provided there is a cheaper alternative: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EEprom-CL...Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item3a78f36cfd
... this can actually be quite good. because I still don't think you would be able to close the shell casing when the socket is fitted and closed with a clip. And this would be cheaper to getting 2 IC sockets for 10 quid .. (2x5) and possibly never using one of them due to wrong height. Also I still admit having the chips swappable without the need for soldering is a superb solution.

 

@kasar
While you have the thing apart .. mind looking if you have this header blank complex?

Found in my mobo's service manual ..

 

sure mate

I dont have anything like that in my motherboard.

anyway, I forgot to mention I found a weird port while I took appart the laptop at the first time.

(the thing of the right)