L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

Someone just posted a HOWTO convert a MBR windows to UEFI on my NBR thread but it's only a one way method - ie: no going back once you've converted your installation to GPT!

 

Thank you capitankasar for your marvelous WORK .. this is the best thing that i found to solve my overheating issues
I have DELL XPS L502X GT540M and I use your mod A12 2d:83 3d:85 if I remember it right
But may I ask for a special request
Most of time I use my laptop as a Desktop and I dont need the battery at all and I dont want to waste battery recharge cycles
I just want to make the bios disable charging and remember that upon next charger connection
the current action the bios just renable battery recharge if I unplugged the power and relugged it
can you please patch the mod i use with that patch
thank you

 

@jkbuha
mmm, that seems a bit worring

well, I will give a try as soon as the replacement parts arrive and I will be able to resurrect my l502x ^^


@dr3mro

thank you

pleased you liked it ^^


mmm, I dont see how I can do that request now, specially without having my lachine alive to test, I supose the parts will arrive soon.


anyway as for that feature, I think I saw some option to disable battery charging at the dell control panel.

cant take a pic now since I am using now a old desktop as temporally replacement computer

 

capitankasar
the option to disable battery charging is already there in the bios but it keeps reset to enable battery charging with every power cord plugging in
so I am just asking to make it default to disable or remember the user choice ??

 

If you don't need the battery, then just take it out. If you happen to need it again, then plug it right back in, simple as that. Especially since the battery is SO simple to remove on this glorious laptop; it can be a real pain on other laptops, so this option is much more viable for you.

Also @ capitankasar, I take it that you can't make any more custom BIOS since your machine is down right now right :< ? Because I kinda want a 0.87V BIOS since 0.9 isn't stable enough, but 0.85 doesn't support high enough OC'ing >.<. I've been crashing a bunch of times now on 0.9V, and it's getting a little annoying... So please, when it's possible for you, make a 0.87/0.8V? c:

By the way, I'm kind of interested in this UEFI and BClk OC stuff. Can someone explain to me what the benefits/differences there are to UEFI (I really love upgrading to more advanced systems), it's a bit unclear to me. Also, with BClk... I assume it's not possible to adjust my 99.77 MHz to a perfect 100 MHz right? xD It only allows 1 MHz increments, correct?

 

I recently installed Windows 8 pro in UEFI mode using the A12 bios with advanced menus. Everytime I try to install Dell Quickset, my laptop freezes. Any solutions?

 

No unfortunately WavekSra - which is why Dell locks the UEFI boot mode. Quickset doesn't use (or indeed, like) ACPI methods hence the freezing when you install it.

 

@dr3mro

mmm well, when I get my laptop back to working status I can look for it.

however what about try what Kitsunemimi suggested?

@Kitsunemimi

0.87V/0.8V?

I supose you mean 0.8V/0.87V (0.80 for 2D, and 0.87 for 3d)

anyway, some users reported 0.80 doesnt work at all, even it shows 0.80v, it is probably still working at 0.83v, probably a hardware limitation.


if you want to adjust the bclk to 100, try Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU)

bclk was the only thing it let me to change it, however it just allowed me to change it to 100, not any higher values sadly, so I will need to get ride of that by firmware modding when I get back my lappy I think

I supose you mean
.

 

capitankasar
No I live in Egypt and the power here cuts off a lot that's why i never get my laptop to 100% as when power goes off it goes down to 95% and when power come back it gets again to 100% that will screw my battery and that caused my last laptop battery to fail in less than 2 years
and if i remove the battery i risk get my data lost or loss of my work so i just want to charge it to 50% and when i boot i disable it from the bios and then i work with my laptop and every 30 days i get it to 0% and recharge it to 100%
please all i want to do is to make the bios remember my choice to disable or enable the battery charger
thnx

 

oh, I see.

well, as for the moment, I suggest you to try the windows option at the dell battery icon, I think there was something related to prevent charge the battery until next restart, give it a check.

as for that option, I will check that when I get my laptop back

 

Hey peeps.
Just curious about a couple things. I am thinking of getting an ssd for my 502x. Is there a specific type recommended by you all? Money is a major concern for me as I am disabled and do not have spare money laying around (pretty much like everyone else).

Also, I have seen that many have done a screen upgrade to their 502x. I was wondering if anyone had the old screen for sale as my son hit my screen the other day and I now have a hole. The screen works great but now I have a white spot in the middle of screen about 1/8 size. It gets annoying.

Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Err, yeah, I meant 0.8V/0.87V xD. Also, I have 0.8V for 2D right now and it shows up just fine in Speccy... so... it seems totally normal to me.

And I tried that Intel XTU thing but for some reason it doesn't work (like the software doesn't even run properly) on my laptop... though when you say it allows you to change it to 100.. does that mean I can actually adjust the 99.77 MHz to be perfectly 100 MHz?

 

@ Kitsunemimi
I tried XTU on my l502x and it did not run properly either. If I remember correctly - the software would not launch and the system locked up.

 

@guessyet

mmm, probably more people will be able to answer that if you create a new topic with that ^^

@Kitsunemimi

well, 0.8 also seemed fine for me, but as some people said, I suspect it didnt being aplied in real, so it would be like a 0.83 but with fake voltage reading, we need some confirmation of this but well, is worth to test ^^

intel XTU worked forme, it allowed to lower the bclk a little, and increase it to 100, CPUz also confirmed the changes, however I was unable to CPUz showed an exact 100.00 mhz, allways it was lower :/

 

@capitan
thanks for the response.

@Kitsunemimi
I recently did a fresh install of windows 7 and changed my drive and bios to GPT and uefi. After commenting earlier on your post about XTU. I installed it again. For some reason, now that I have done a fresh install, XTU actually runs. I have not changed anything in it. It shows 100.00. CPUZ shows 99.8.

 

Aww, that kinda sucks... Although I still want to know what the benefits of upgrading to UEFI is...

Also @ capitankasar, I really don't think there's any reason why 0.8V is actually 0.83V, because I can confirm that 0.9V does give me lower temps than 0.98V... Plus, I saw my GPU get down to below 40 degrees on idle at 0.8V, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have went that low if it were 0.83V. What makes you think that it's not actually 0.8V? o3o

 

@Capitan

GPU core is now at 700 MHz. The system is running fine however I didn't get more fps. I'd like to try pushing it up a bit. I have the apps to monitor GPU speeds and temps.
What are the safe temps margin?
Do I need to adjust Memory speed or shader?
Thanks.

 

@guessyet



@Kitsunemimi

yeah, probably you get lower temps with 0.9 than 0.98

however 0.83v may be the minimal value.

not sure, I think its is needed to make some tests, by exaustive temperature tests, or by picking a multimeter and check directly the motherboard.


@denimboy

700 mhz core should definitly get more fps at the games since you have 100 more mhz than default clock, even a little few ones, you should notice a little improvement.

if you dont belive me, do something.

make two profiles at msi afterburner

one of them with default clocks (600) and the another one with your current stable OC (700)

and then configure the hotkeys in msi afterburner to change profiles.

then go to a game and put fraps or something to check the fps.

now swich between the profiles with the hotkeys, you should notice a difference depending the game ^^

mmm, about the temps, try to be allways below 100º, and if posible also below 90

last time I could use my laptops it was like 87º even with hard gamming. (with hardware and voltage mods.)


the shader is linked to the core, so you dont have to worry about, core clock will also affect shader clock ^^

about memory OC, well, you can also OC with msi afterburner, but proceed carefully , tweaking the memory made the OC unstable for me.

ensure first your core OC is really stable before going into memory OC.

 

@Capitan

Thanks, I'll look into it!

 

Hey Capitan!

I was thinking of flashing your awesome modded bios, would it be possible to make an bios with the following options?

Bios version: A12
GPU: GT525m
desired 2d voltage: 0.83v
desired 3d voltage: 0.83v

+advance menu's, Intel vbios update to v2137 and sleep FIX for OSX

How risky would this be? If something goes wrong I can fix it with the CD you posted?, otherwise I would prefer to stick to any of the tested bioses!

Thanks in advance!

(Ps, I see that you have a 525m yourself, any change you would like to test this bios in exchange for a small donation?)

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi captian, I wonder if is now possible to undervolt the CPU? Just to reduce heat.

 

it is probably posible, but it still on research, I will continue with testing probably next week when the parts replacements arrive

 

testing .83/.92 bios with osx fix. flash and boot went great. :thumbsup:

 

Good news i will stay tuned

 

ok, good news ^^

the chips arrived today

everything went fine while programing the chips and booting the programed chip at the laptop

at the begining it didnt worked,so it made me mad, but I noticed there was a little of super glue on one of the contacts of the bios chip socket at the motherboard (it was my fault ^^), after rasp it and verify the conections with a multimeter.

I added the chip again, and you can see the results







my laptop is finally back to life, and with the hardware modifications program the chip is as easy as unplug the chip from the installed socket, and put at the programer, also have 4 extra bios chips from the one I programed, so it will be very hard to my laptop will be unsable again

thank you all guys who helped me with donations ^^

I will investigate now the ME7 to ME8 firmware update

 

Awesome news!

Any change you can create the bios I requested on the previous page? I'll gladly donate some beer/hacking money to you

I was impatient so I flashed the 0.85/0.85 V4 bios and I'm getting amazing OC and cooling results (also did an repaste today!), I'm very intrested in seeing what my laptop can possible do with a 0.83/0.83 bios!

 

@LaurensBER

hey

oops, my bad, I didnt notice about your post in previous page.

so as I can see you want a 0.83v/0.83v for the gt525m with the v5 bios mods, right?

sure, I will go for it, let me some minutes to connect everything to the laptop and I will upload it ins some mins ^^

oh, and thank you very much for the contribution

 

@LaurensBER
done, check first post to get the v5 version

 

Gratz on reviving your laptop >u< !! It must have been a tough time for you eh? I bet we all know that feeling when we mess up something with our computers, and then it doesn't boot... That cold sweat feeling... eugh >.< But it also comes with a great feeling of relief when you manage to fix it, so I'm glad you pulled through
This means you can get my 0.8/0.87V BIOS set up now right? :3 It'd be great if you got that up soon~ (I decided to stick with 0.8V just because I feel like it.)

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I noticed on one of the earlier posts like 30 pages back that there ACTUALLY EXISTS 1866 MHz RAM OMG. So, say I spend $75 on this stuff, and I install it into my laptop, do I just go to the RAM section of the BIOS and change the RAM speed to 1866 MHz? Does this mean that our mobo's have the capability to overclock RAM, just like that? I want to check before I buy it... but I also gotta buy it soon because I'm going to be temporarily moving out for the holidays, and I can't get it shipped to the place I'm staying for the break.

 

*applause*

Nice work!

Glad to see that everything worked out in the end!

And yes, those other chips may come in handy

*applause_end*

 

@Kitsunemimi

thx

yeah, it has been a while since it stoped working, hopefully the homemade programer + BIOS sockets + new bios chips solution worked

I am very happy with the hardware modifications, I noticed I can even change the machine serial number or MAC address by editing the chip image and flashing, this definitly allow way more control over the machine than before

however the bad news is that many of the future modifications including those, will probably not avalible for all unless you phisically mod the motherboard like I did, because software dont have access to those protected regions, it is just posible with hardware programer.

this means I will probably unable to make software update packages like the ones included at this topic including the ME7 to ME8 update or descriptor settings unlock.


about the 1866 memory, well the same history repeats again and again ^^

the setting is unlocked, and it is already there, it is just that no one made the tests yet with compatible memory ^^

so if you want to be the first one to test it, it would be nice

many users will probably love your feedback including me

oh, I just uploaded your requested BIOS

however it is only avalible at mediafire yet, for some reason I am having issues with the Ximenez's FTP, I will contact him.



@NeoMesal

thank you

yeah, those extra chips will be nice for testing

also I flashed the current working bios image on all of them, also, the hardware programer and chips are now part of my emergency kit for my laptop plus the clasic recovery bios method (recovery cd rom)

however the bad news is that I need another computer with parallel port in order to use the programer.

but well, at least by carring a untouched extra chip with the laptop will allow me to restore all the firmware by just swaping the chips if something goes wrong with the firmware at the installed chip

 

It's working and I'm loving it! I'm not a very rich man but I sent what I could spare your way!

 

@LaurensBER


glad you like it

and dont worry about the money ammount, I dont make this for money even it also motivates me

the intention are the important thing I think

 

That's good to know capitankasar c:

Anyways, flashed to 0.8/0.87V, working wonderfully as usual (although what's this weird Intel VBIOS and high-res stuff? ), will try to test OC'ing soon.

 

Hello everyone.

@capitankasar I'm happy for you Can you give details about programming hardware and how could you do it ?
Also I wonder another thing. Is it possible to update UEFI version to 2.3.1. It is 2.0 in A12 bios.

 

great

as for the Intel VBIOS stuff, if I remember correctly, it allowed more VESA resolutions, usefull for loaders before loading OS.
OSX users also reported better performance with it.




@Intpv6

well, as for update uefi 2.0 to uefi 2.3.1, it has been talked on bios-mods forums and it doesnt seems an easy matter since the whole bios seems 2.0 based.


about hardware programing.

I used following

* 2 x SOIC 8 SMD ZIFF Sockets one is used for the programmer, and other will be installed at the motherboard where the old bios was.

* some extra compatible BIOS chips for testing and replacement if something goes wrong with the other ones, or just for faster tasks (programing and using at the same time)

* 1 homemade programmer, you will need , 1 x male parallel port, 4 x 100 ohm resistors, 1 x battery holder for the battery, and the battery itself (3.3v), you will obiusly also need some wires for the connections and a soldering iron, and you can use optionally a board to connect it and give it a better looking

here you have the schematic, I didnt used the capacitor on mine and it worked fine anyway ^^



here you can see my v1 and v2 programers, first one didnt included the socket, thats why my chip got fried/damaged after several soldering/desolderings

v1



v2


comparision



BIOS chip at the l502x motherboard


it is a Winbond 25Q32BVSIG wich bave a 4 Mb storage size

to remove the original chip from the motherboard I suggest using a small sewing pin.

then use it to leverage to lift each leg meanwhile you apply heat with the soldering iron (dont lift the leg too much or it will break, and dont apply heat during a lot of time, or the chip will get damaged like the first one I had after several solderings and desolderings)

it will need to be removed so you can install the socket instead for easy chip swaping ^^



(ignore the yellow and blue wires at the motherboard from last pic, they are from another mod )

take in mind the chip have a big dot in a corner, that indicate the correct position, connecting the chip in a incorrect position will cause damage to the chip and maybe to the other hardware such as programer or motherboard.

about the software I used, I will upload it after.


hehe, I think I will need to make a how to for this too

 

well, as for the software I used , SPIPGM and FLASHROM

you will need to make a bootable USB with dos, and copy this package I used to a folder inside your bootable usb device.

yes, it need to be an usb device because you will need to dump your chip image first before doing anything,

backing up the chip before it got damaged is basically what saved my before

you will also need a PC with parallel port for this, preferably a desktop PC




to test your programer hardware and chip conections and to identify the chip, do

Code:

SPIPGM.EXE -i

to backup your bios, do

Code:

SPIPGM.EXE -d backup.rom

to verify/compare your bios from a file

Code:

SPIPGM.EXE -v file.rom

to flash and program the chip

Code:

flashrom.exe -p rayer_spi -w FILE_TO_FLASH.ROM

the chip image is 4096 kb , it contains descriptor, BIOS , ME, and other stuff such as serial number, lan adapter mac address etc

 

Thanks. You are awesome : )

 

nah, I'm just a guy with a keyboard and some free time ^^

well, as for the current confirmed utilitied of the programer. are:

* ability of restore the firmare to another chip in case the other one got damaged, previus backup is needed anyway ^^
* descriptor settings unlock


there are a lot of other posiblilities since we have now fully access to the firmware, I'm focusing now to update the ME7 to ME8 by hex replacing ^^

oh and if you want to unlock the descriptor, open your firmware backup with a hex editor, look for

00 00 0B 0A 00 00 0D 0C 18 01 08

then change it to

00 00 FF FF 00 00 FF FF 18 01 08

doing this will enable software access to some protected areas of the chip, this will allow flash stuff from the own laptop without the need of the programer, however this is more dangerous, my bios was screwed after I tried some tests with some software, so you will be need to be carefull after unlocking the descriptor, well, since you have the programer and backup, I think you dont have to worry about, you can restore the whole chip image

acording to timewalker analysis those addresses correspond to those regions

00000000h - 00000FFFh: Flash Descriptor Region
00001000h - 00037FFFh: Extends ME
00038000h - 0017FFFFh: ME Region
00180000h - 003FFFFFh: BIOS Region

timewalker helped me a lot to get all the required info to acomplish this

bios-mods site is awesome ^^

 

Awesome news about the laptop capitan!!!

Would be nice if there was a way to flash a chip with the proper storage requirements for ME8 so it would be a simple chip swap on our boards and be up and running. And we (the ones without the expertise) could just buy them from you.

I asked a question about using Thaiphoon Burner with the l502x in the forums but no one has answered yet. Would bee sweet if we could adjust the memory timing, spd, and such. Has anyone ever heard of the software before? There is another called SPDTool. SPDTool has not been updated in several years though. Would be pretty cool if this type of feature could be at the bios level. Could there be a way to piece in this feature from a comparable laptop bios maybe from an alienware machine? I know that has a high probability to be a completely stupid question but thought I would throw it out there anyway.

 

@guessyet

oh, your post gave me an idea

you are nice!

timewalker told me that the me8 firmware seemed to fit nice in the place me7 was, so if for some reason me8 firmware isnt compatible with sandy bridge proccesors, we can just swap chips, one for sandy bridge, and another one for ivy

that will be one of the first beneficts oh having several bios chips

mm, as for the chip itself, well, I doubt other chips will work with this.

as far I know only the W25Q32BVSIG chip is compatible, even adding some other chips with the same size probably will not work.

timewalker told me he found some hardware references to this chip at the firmware itself, so using different chips would give issues probably


as for the other stuff, I probably missed it, since I were a little away from the forums since my laptop bios chip died.

mmm, about spdtool I gave a quick read to it

SPDTool: Read, Edit and Flash your Memory's SPD

it seems a software that allow to modify some kind of firmware inside memory modules?

lol, even the memory modules have some kind of firmware, I have to admit I didnt knew that

what are the benefics of modding SPD firmware anyway?

maybe adding some new features or support to use them on another/older motherboards?

not sure, but well, it seems interesting too


about adding more feautures wich are not already present at the original bios, it may be a little harder.

take in mind all we have done yet was modify and or update modules, but I dont have any idea about how to integrate a new module.

not sure also if the bios size will be afected, wel, there are a lot of emty space in the firmware updates, but I'm not sure about how to do that, or even suposing we sucesfully add the module there and the other stuff still working how to 'init' the module at the bios.

maybe timewalker can give us some clue when he get some time ^^

oh, I remember he told me CodeRush may also help us, things seems to go really good now

 

Could you maybe add the latest 540M BIOS with 0.80v/0.83v, please? Since the A10 and A11 with 0,83v on both 2D and 3D worked, I think it should work fine with 0.80/0.83, too.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Ah sorry man, just saw that you desire a special request form There you are:

Bios version: latest
GPU: gt540m
desired 2d voltage: 0.80v
desired 3d voltage: 0.83v

 

@cookiebrandt

done

first post updated, feedback plz ^^

 

Few hours of surfing and gaming and everything's fine - thanks!

 

Pretty sure the ram SPD just contains info about ram speeds, voltage, timings/latency, etc. Not firmware so much as settings. I suppose you could try OCing your ram or lowering latencies, but I doubt it's very effective anyway. DDR2 DIMM SPD Definitions & Explanations - RAM - Xoxide Forum Network

--Adeeb

 

Anyone want to try getting a unlocked processor to use with the unlocked BIOS?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ades/586663-difference-between-es-2720qm.html

Since we can change multiplier, getting a unlocked multiplier processor seems to mean we can OC our CPUs.

 

what about disabling battery recharging ?

 

Charging behavior is coded inside EC fw, BIOS just has a visible setting to override it. I suppose this can be overridden the same way computrace was disabled.. but it's not easy to figure out.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

 

Good news everyone!
I can (almost) confirm that the 0.8V (on GT540M) is actually valid. I can say this because I recently turned on hardware acceleration in my Firefox, and I'm noticing random flickering and artifacting occasionally xD.

The only thing is, I'm using the Nightly builds, so it may be a problem with the build itself. However, this is unlikely, because I've tried hardware acceleration with beta/nightly builds before, and I didn't get this sort of thing, so it should be the voltage actually being 0.8V. So yeah~

 

.......Scratch that, I just flashed to a 0.83V 2D BIOS and it's still giving me the flickering.

But I still think that 0.8V is actually what it is.