L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

Just burned a new CD using Nero. Put it in the laptop but it doesn't boot. It just keeps flashing . I can boot from the CD with my other laptop and the CD looks OK.

I also tried out the USB method, making sure the file was cased correctly. This sadly didn't work either.

Are there perhaps different versions of l502x? I got mine just after they were released (April 2011).

 

Go into your bios and set the boot options to boot to cd first then hard drive. Or if you have an option on post to display boot options press that. Then select your cd drive. If that doesn't work you either have a faulty drive or a faulty dvd boot sector. What are you trying to boot from anyway? You need to write the boot code to the disk for it to be bootable. Use an application called UltraISO and it will tell you if your disk/ image is in fact bootable.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. I checked in UltraISO (and ImgBurn) and the CD is bootable according to the program. I can boot to BartPE from the rescue CD on another computer without problems. I checked if the CD is finalized and it is.

Noticed that I get some funny colored screens when starting up the laptop while holding Fn+D+Powerbutton. Other than that there is no life, except for the blinking of the powerbutton (when starting up using the End key and connecting power cable). The CD spins a few times but stops after about 30secs.

Are there any other hotkey combinations? I tried taking out the battery and holding the powerbutton for 30 secs, read about it on other Dell laptops but not sure it does anything..

PS: I can not go into BIOS boot options to boot cd first, I only see a black screen (no BIOS at all)

 

I'm sorry to say this but your gonna have to take the laptop apart and look at the board for a bios chip that is removable. If not your going to need to get a new board which may run you like $150 or something or maybe less used on ebay. Otherwise your gonna need to pull the laptop apart to get to the CMOS battery. Remove the CMOS battery for 1 minute to 5 minutes and re-install back into the motherboard. While you have your laptop apart pull the yellow or blue pin (if you have a blue pin remove it but if u don't then remove the yellow one using a safety pin or tiny paper clip pry the holder back and pull the pin) from the fan connector which will mod it to 5v so your laptop will run much cooler.

 

@chis89

well, to do the pencil mod, you can take easy mods as this as reference.

Tech ARP - Complete ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Voltage Modding Guide Rev. 1.1

I would note all the chips label and get the datasheet from them, you are looking for a voltage controller chip.

when you found it, read the datashet deeper and check for info wich can let you to mod it by bridging two pins or adding a resistor.

about gunnix, I dont think a cmos battery removal will fix his computer, keep in mind his BIOS is corrupted, not the settings.




@gunnix

after burn the cd, and putting it into a working computer on windows, do it looks like the pics I take? (the list of those archives, it should have several files at the root, including BIOS.cap)

mmm, not sure if there are many l502x revisions, I just know 3 motherboard types for this laptop, with no dedicated alt all GPU, 525m gpu and 540m gpu.

well, keep trying the cdrom thing, if it still doesnt work , your brick may doesnt be recoverable at all with this mod.

since your computer is out of warranty, do you mind doing hardware mods?

(like take the laptop appart, desolder the BIOS chip, make a simple LPT programer with some resistor wires and a LPT conector, and dump your BIOS chip in preparation to make a working dump using my working chip dump )

@carr251

what do you mean with this mod?
by opening the flashing process?
of after the bios got installed?
do it happen with another bios mods?
did you tried doing a bios settings reset, save them and try boot OS with default settings?

 

@capitankasar

Changing shared amount of video memory... Can you take a look maybe edit the hex for me?

I found this after searching my dump with note++ and i typed "memory" and in STRINGS0.ROM I found "Line 71 : Video Memory". So I suppose I'm getting close... So I guess open in hex to line 71 and the amount is there I suppose I change the hex value and I should be good to go. Actually just did another search for "amount" and on "Line 70 : The Amount Of Dedicated". This is easy as pie you guys. I'm just not good at knowing what to do in hex maybe you guys can help...

Here's all the files required to get going

bios file with all the dv2615nr stuff
HP PAVILION DV2615NR GEFORCE 7150M BIOS ROM VRAM ADJUST.zip

specific STRINGS0.ROM and on line 70 is the amount of dedicated and there should be a few options I suppose. I wanna leave 64MB as the minimum and have a 1GB maximum value.
http://www.mediafire.com/?a462lww6d5b09db

*UPDATE*
Found the string of where I found 128MB and changed it to 1024MB and now I'm going to make sure the 64MB string is still in tact and try to reintegrate... this stuff is easier than i thought!

*UPDATE*
64MB string is in tact now I'm going to try and reintegrate

*UPDATE*
Integration Completed Successfully 1024MB OF SHARED VIDEO MEMORY!!!! OMG THIS IS EXCITING!!!

thank you

 

@chis89

are you able to edit that option at your bios setup? even with limited options?

well that is just a text strings file like you stated ^^

on my bios, I even found overclocking strings, we unlocked most of the other menus, and we still trying to unlock overclocking (wurrently messing with intel management engine to try unlock them)

well, like I said, this topic is only for the L502X, also I tried opening your bios , even having no experience with that type of bios, I think I cant help you more with that bios, my BIOS knowledge is limited and we also dedicate most time to the L502X to try unlock more features.

so , you proably find more help at the bios-mods forums, this one is more like a already relased mod topic for end users

 

@ capitankasar

for my motherboard and it's nvidia chipset all overclocking options and like maybe 500 more options are disabled and it's plain as day how it's layed out like "disabled" or "enabled" for cpu spread sprectrum and cpu fsb I can change the default fsb value at 133 or 166 or 200 or 266 or 333. I can adjust my cpu speed memory speed since i know it's at 200x13 stock support etc etc etc there's ahci options and ide options. Maybe I should enable AHCI since AHCI has better multi tasking performance and better throughput than IDE mode. Wow these nvidia bios options are layed out for dummies I swear!

I haven't tested it yet still got the board out waiting on some Engineers to find out how exactly to pencil mod it to achieve more than 1.2v... I'll put it back together though to test my new reduced vga bios from 1.1v to 0.86v at idle and no throttle clock only 2d and 3d and 3d i set to 555Mhz from 425Mhz. Hopefully I'll get some fps gains!

 

Yes, it looks the same. The file on the CD is all upper case though, BIOS.CAP, though I see it is like that as well on your screenshot. The laptop is the version with GT540M and i7 2630QM.

Thanks again for the help :thumbsup: But I'm not looking forward to soldering computer chips, the soldering jobs I have done turned out to be quite crude . I'm going to ask Dell to repair the laptop for a fee, because the laptop is in a very good state and I payed quite a bit of money for the Full HD screen and Blueray options... Still trying with the CD though, who knows it might turn out to work once in a while.

 

Tested Custom no voltage moded A12 bios mod with advanced menus for L502X (MD5 A1F9D23508A2B96C88413C11BC71DDBF) (v5 file) and pc works. Actually not tested all functions of course - only fast strings (I don't see changes in integral graphic) and disabled Dell logo. Thanks for advanced options It's possible to enable GPT support for BIOS? As far as I know it's impossible to boot pc from hard drive with GPT partition table

 

If your bios is indeed corrupt you need to replace the board and it's pretty cheap on ebay just $180 shipped and prepare to pay at least $300 from dell unless you under warranty of course.

You realize you don't need to solder anything its a matter of popping a tab with a safety pin and removing the yellow wire. This way you laptop will never ever fail ever and will last forever. If you don't pull that pin your laptop will die eventually from over heating and that's exactly what any manufacturer wants. They want the laptop to fail so you will be forced to buy another one and it's as simple as that. Its a marketing scheme primarily and manufacturers have been doing it for years. They set the bios fan profile just enough for it to last a year or maybe longer as the profile doesn't allow the fan to go to 75% until it hits about 100C and at that point you risk having the solder melt from the chip getting too hot either the cpu or gpu. So it's up to you to Out-Smart the manufacturers and be above them intelligence wise. Since they expect all customers or most to be idiots and not know what they do to screw people over and all manufacturers do this except MSI and Eurocom and some other high end manufacturers which have a button on the keyboard to force full fan speed. So you make the choice to either choose the logical choice so you won't have your laptop fail or not mod the fan connector and have your laptop fail in only a matter of time and it's as simple as that.

GOOD LUCK BROTHER

 

@chris89
are you sure you changed properly the memory settings?

I suspect you just changed the strings.

I means, the real value still unchanged, but you just changed the "text", so the value will probably still default even you think you changed it.

do you have any software to monitorize the shared memory ammount?

@gunnix

mm, did you tried to put the file at the usb stick like I said? BIOS.cap

well, it is a minor change, but well, you lose nothing by trying ^^

@agalin

added to the first post

as for GPT, well, as for the moment we didnt got that, not sure if it is posible though.

as for the moment we are focusing on unlocking overclocking features on this machine.

any new feature we unlock will be relased on the new mod relase
let us to know if you can recover it by the recovery method or dell repair ^^

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...wnload-gpu-voltages-more-145.html#post9037885
^^That post by me seems to only freeze up when copying to/from USB with the specificed bios.

 

I don't know how to test GPT (when trying to boot device with GPT, BIOS says something like "No operating system"). But actually tested some functions from advanced. On graphic menu some functions are freezing PC (eg. these with default VBIOS as default option) - all screen dots are generated and nothing happens (and 1 thing I can do is reset). And I have problem with Partition Magick booted from usb flash drive (maybe one time problem, I'll recopy distro on device) - screen changing colour ~2 times per second (all screen one colour)... Oh and so funny colour when you change colour depth from 18 to 24 But it seems that for 18 bit should be wrong, not for 24?

 

Well it looks like 0.86v for 2d is too low and the bios is toast lol so now I'm in the process of bios recovery which is possible so any of you who have a bad bios ur in luck. Get a fresh bios file and use the app from below to create a bootable flash drive. You guys have a dell so i think it's FN+Esc. So create the flash drive gotta have a 2gb one and all I have at the moment is a 4gb one and it isn't working so gotta pickup a 2gb or less flash drive. Place your bios file in the Use Crisis Recover Disk with Pen Drive directory and delete the current bios.wph file and rename your correct bios file to bios.wph. Then create the flash drive by right clicking on WINCRIS.exe and setting windows xp sp2 compatibility if u have windows 7 and run as administrator. Now remove your battery and power and everything else as well from the laptop. Plug in your flash drive and then plug in the power cable. Then Hold Fn+Esc and power (u can let go of power right away) then wait 5 seconds and remove hands from Fn+Esc. Hear some beeping and eventually after 5-10 minutes you'll be golden my brothers!!!

Use Crisis Recover Disk with Pen Drive
http://www.mediafire.com/?ztmilmmeymr

 

@carr251

oh, I see,

well crapula tested it and reported no issues before, are you getting similar issues with other modded bioses from this topic?

I didnt touched anything related with usb while modding this bios.

did you tried setting bios default values, saving, and boot directly to windows?

@agalin

well, I dont have either a way to test GPT ^^
yeah, I also noticed messing with some advanced options cause inestability at the system or hangs, I recomend do a bios settings restore to default, and then tweak only the ones you need, trying to stay away from unnecesary menus, because I noticed weird PC activity by just entering for example thermal menus.

in my case I made some proccesor changes like disable dinamic fsb, enable fast strings disabled, c states, disabled speedsteep, enabled diagnosis boot and uefi boot, tweaked some HDD options, and manually set the memory frecuency, besides that just tweaked the devices boot priority and nothing more I think ^^

@chris89
I supose that app, will work only for some laptops, on mine, only the BIOS.cap + the END key and plugging th power cord working for me.

tp recover from advanced bricks I needed to program the BIOS chip externally

 

No, it seems that only that one bios is causing problems with default or modded settings.

 

the app is for all pheonix bios no matter what manufacturer however the process in button combos is different for all manufacturers

 

@carr251

ah, ok, I see, I will update the first post with your experience to let know another users and may rebuild that bios in future

thanks for testing

@chis89

well the L502X BIOS is based on the new INSYDE EFI bioses.

some people with bricked L502X machines already tested the wincris with no results.

the only recovery method wich worked for me and some people with a L502X is the one at the first post.

 

@capitankasar it's not problem with device using GPT to testing. Just use pendrive using it. I don't know HOW test it
I didn't changed lot, but I'll test different distro for graphic problems. If they appear, I'll restore defaults and test again

 

I tried out with the USB method but it hasn't worked yet. I find it interesting in chris89's method that you should use a USB stick smaller than 2GB. I haven't tried that yet, do you think it can make any difference with the USB containing the BIOS.cap file?

 

Ok I tested Mandriva live and it's working normally... So linux problem is problem with my Parted Magick probably. But what's wrong with function keys in win8? I already enabled UEFI Boot (you mean that I should reinstall Windows now?) and all function keys in Win8 are working good (F1-F5, F8-F12, mute/unmute, touch keys and prt scr modifications). Maybe I did something wrong?

 

@gunnix

give it a try, but I wouldnt expect big chances from it anyway, keep us updated
well, as for the BIOS.cap file, we found at the other bios by starting the laptop in the special mode with the end key it load the bios backup from the usb stick as main, allowing to boot the system and flash a proper bios later ^^

that is what the cdrom image I uploaded does

 

@agalin

did you installed windows 8 with uefi option enabled?

I heard it gave problems from other users

 

No and that is why I'm talking about reinstalling But... what should do that option? Enable Secure Boot?

 

try booting windows 8 with uefi disabled, if it keep crashing or hanging with the function keys, try reinstall the drivers, if still not working properly you may have to reinstall without have uefi boot enabled ^^

enable secure boot?
humm?? where is that option?

 

Been trying bf3 around 820mhz on stock bios seems to last for a short while before crashing but I get my desired 30fps on my 1080p monitor lower than that and it doesn't feel right. Will try repaste soon got my arctic mx4 and have been taking current temps to compare with new ones Just got to get these exams done first

 

I am also interested on tweaking the L502X fan in order to cool the temperatures even more.

I took some pictures while doing the bluetooth internal mod, so I took one of those pics and made it bigger to view the fan connector without shut the machine down and take it appart

here is it



the fan conector have 3 wires as you can see. (you had 4)

ours are red, black, and yellow.

black I supose it is ground, other one must be the power, and other one is the sensor.

I supose I have to cut the sensor wire to make the fan allways spin max speed.

I supose the red cable is power +.

so I supose I would have to cut yellow wire,

 

I think chris was on about a 4pin one for the i7 and the i7 somehow effects it.

Do you think a fan speed controller could work for the 3 pin one like this one?

Zalman Fan Controller for Adjusting the Fan Speed of a Single Fan: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

Some people want to reduce load temps.

 

My laptop has an i7 and I only have a 3-pin fan.

Also, the fan controller would probably work, but since Chris said that the fan runs at 5V nominally (... I think), then the typical 12V that desktop fans use would probably screw up the fan. Although I could be wrong.
Regardless, it would be pretty tough to squeeze that short little wire out of the hole that you have to keep open in the bottom of your computer, and somehow hook it up to the fan controller with the tiny clearance underneath the laptop. To be honest, I think a better idea would be just to use a notebook cooler. Find one with good reviews and cfm (and perhaps one that allows you to move the fans inside, so you can direct it on your laptop's intake vent), and it should work pretty well.

 

Just for all your guy's information all laptop fans are 5v.

As for the pins just remove the yellow pin since the computer detects the fan rpm and is then relayed to the fan profile which adjusts the rpm depending upon temps. Some laptops like Toshiba this doesn't work but it works on most laptops so just test it and see if it works.

Pull the yellow pin use a safety pin prop back the connector plastic clip and simply pull the pin out and wrap with tape and then wrap around the other wires to keep it out of the way. This it will force it to 5v and no you don't need to control it manually and it will be forced to 5v continuously. This is the same procedure for all laptops. If you have the blue pwm pin pull it if u don't and only red black yellow pull the yellow. This is unversal for all laptops to get better cooling performance and reduce load temps significantly.


This is the DELL L502X FAN and it's 5v DC just like ALL other laptop fans.

 

There is no need to pull the yellow pin. Just use HWiNFO64 Program's fan control to maximize the fan.

 

@ricohunter.

where I can find the fan control at the HWINFO64 software?

I just downloaded it but it just seems to habe sensors and hardware info

 

I'm having a new issue now so I recovered the bios and when i booted into windows without the battery and started the flash process. It got to 99% or maybe even 100% and before it said shutdown it shutdown automatically before the flash completed. Now the power light blinks and the battery light is blinking even when I power it on, or even if I plug the power adapter into the laptop. I don't know how to recover it from here...

 

@chris89
wel, if your laptop is the L502X (the one discussed at this topic), follow the recovery instructions from the first topic

else try the crisis disk method or check info on the net for your specific laptop.

 

In HWinfo64 go to the sensor screen an at the very bottom there are a number of button. the smallest one without any text is the fan control.
Seems to work ok, and after adjusting you can close hwinfo.

 

oh, thanks ^_^

now the gpu is even below 40º while on iddle

this also save the yellow wire

the yellow wire mod would be only usefull with a switch so we can easly or easly disable it I think

edit: I noticed the fan get back to normal after a while :/

 

Ye same it's kind of weird even if I adjust the custom setting. If I run furmark the cpu speed changes. If you pull the pin can it be reinserted easily?

Anyway my exams are nearly over this coming Friday. I've revived some items in the post which I'm using to repaste and hopefully mod the l502x. I'm going to try and do some interesting mods which I won't tell you atm keep it a surprise . if I get in there and see that it's too difficult I'll just do a repaste and clean. I've had my laptop around a year and a half so it's probably fairly dusty.

 

@jjjjj_55555

well, it may can be reinserted, but easly I supose is not the word ^^

I supose a nice idea would be to add another switch to connect or disconnect the yellow wire


I added a lot of internal switches for my laptop wich can be easly accesible by removing the backdoor (the same where the ram and minipcie are)

I added some switches to:

1 - cut the power from the bios cmos battery (hard removal of the bios settings included system time)
2 - enable or disable the internal bluetooth mod I added
3 - cut the power from the BIOS chip (laptop cant boot obiusly if the bios chip cant be accesed ^^)

so I think it shoulnt be a bad idea to make another switch for the fan.

however I will need to write a small manual if I dont want to confuse myself with so many switches

oh, keep us updated with the internal mods

also if you want to give a try to some of the ones I made, just let me to know

 

WOW look at the minimum requirements for Crysis 3

Minimum system requirements for PC
Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
DirectX 11 graphics card with 1Gb Video RAM
Dual core CPU
2GB Memory (3GB on Vista)
Nvidia/Intel example setup: Nvidia GTS 450, Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600)
AMD example setup: AMD Radeon HD5770, AMD Athlon64 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+)

Think we can play it with playable speed !

I really wanted to be in the beta version but its OK the game is coming out in 30 days.

 

oh, it seems looks like the crysis 2 one relating requirements

I just have a 2.10 ghz i3, but well it ran fine crysis 2 and other games.

I recomend running a software named UnparkCPU, and then unpark all your cores, it fixed many slowdowns in games like Planet Side 2.

 

Thanks for letting me know about the app, never knew about the parking and unparking of the CPU core.

Well I also recommend using a software called Game Booster, it speeds up your games by closing down unwanted services and background apps, here's the link Razer Game Booster free download for Windows 8, windows 7, Windows XP , Windows Vista | FreeNew

 

When I installed Win8, I had UEFI enabled, and I remember that some of the FN keys like toggling WiFi would cause the OS to lockup.
Installing Dell Quickset would even cause a lockup, most likely because enabling the UEFI interfered with OS to BIOS level communication or something.

Disabling UEFI didn't fix it, so I had to reinstall with UEFI disabled.

But if all your function keys are working okay, then you don't have to reinstall (<- ?Are they are working fine?)

 

I thought that enabling the high performance power plan in Windows would disable core parking.

(I just checked to see if the cores were parking in resource monitor but it doesn't look like they are on any power plan of mine!! Maybe it was a BIOS setting that I changed )

I'll check that program out anyway

Cheers

 

I tried that out before but HWINFO and SpeedFan cause very bad latency spikes (for example, changing fan speed while listening to music will cause it to "stutter" for a second)

I don't use them for that reason, but if the latency doesn't bother you should try out speedfan where you can make a profile to continually adjust fan speed - but as I said, it's poorly implemented and the computer continually stutters.

 

I wanna see the switches! >u<
And any other cool stuff you did with your laptop too~ c:

 

@Kitsunemimi


I actionate those small switches with a small screwdriver

I also the fourth switch from that multiswitch is waiting for another mod like the fan mod



appart from those, I made the internal socket bios mod to allow remove and install the BIOS chip easly.

also did the usual L502X mods such as repasting , remove dust filters, modded bios, etc ^^

 

@NeoMesal I said that I DON"T have problems - because my win8 was installed before UEFI enabled. And I was surprised that there is NO problem with function keys. So I asked you if they are only on fresh win8 installations

 

Ah yes, I got you now I have UEFI enabled now after installing, and all is fine. Just don't enable it when you install