L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

I have config like you. But... I still don't know... Faster boot? Secure boot? I read that it works only on... GPT partition table that support I asked before So... what's doing UEFI enabled?

 

My bios is still not working. Tried out with several usb keys, CD's and SD cards. Now I took it all apart . Removing the CMOS battery didn't help. Where is the BIOS chip on the board, can't seem to find it. Is there a cmos jumper? Sorry if this is mentioned in the thread but couldn't find it as I'm browsing with my phone.

 

@gunnix

if the BIOS recovery cdrom didnt worked, then your last chance is do a hardware recovery like I did, however you will need to spent some time with the soldering iron and also buy some cheap electronic parts ^^

no, there isnt a cmos jumper, thats why I did a hardware mod to add a switch to clear CMOS (as simple as add a switch between the CMOS battery and the motherboard ^^)

as for the BIOS chip at the L502X, here it is



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


you have all the information you need at the page 129 of this topic

included the bios chip location at the L502X board

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ed-bioses-download-gpu-voltages-more-129.html

I sucesfully managed to recover my BIOS from a hard brick using this method.

(anyway I had a complete chip dump before)

I can share my BIOS chip dump with you, however since it have the tag number and lan mac address I will need you to make a dump of your chip in order to be able to recover that info?

because by flashing directly my whole chip image it would simply "Clone" the laptop ^^

to make it more clear, that chip does not only contain the BIOS, it contain descriptor, some hardware values, the intel ME firmware, and the BIOS.

let me know if you want to proceed with the hardware recovery of the L502X

 

After some reflection I wonder if my problem can't be due to something else than the BIOS chip malfunctioning. If it is than I will replace it and it still won't work? Maybe the motherboard is just broken. Or is it quite certain the bios update caused a corrupt BIOS?
Just to check I replaced the CMOS battery but that seemed to be fine.

 

I dont think your bios chip is malfuncionating, I supose it will just contain corrupt info after a bad flash.

so it can be recovered by flashing something proper.

a malfuntionating chip was mine, wich got phisically damaged after several soldering and desoldering, that was another reason I decided to use sockets for bios chip , it didnt only sasved a lot of time, it also prevented to phisically burn the chip by the excesive heat from the soldering iron.

so, if your computer stoped working after BIOS update, It is almost 99% chance your computer stoped working by a corrupted BIOS, thats all

now you decide if you wanna give a try to the electronics by yourself or replace the mobo/call dell ^^

(I sucesfully recovered my laptop thanks to the hardware methods descrived at the page 129)

 

I am just about to try and flash my BIOS to one of the undervolt versions to try and lower the temperatures on my L502X and I just had a few quick questions. Sorry if these have been asked before, but it is the first time I have played around with a modded BIOS and I don't want to accidentally brick my laptop.

I am currently on stock A12 BIOS. I wanted to try a normal undervolt first without any of the new settings. Is there a normal undervolt A12 or are the only A12 versions the advanced versions. If so is there anything that can go wrong if I install the advanced versions if I just don't touch anything in the settings?

Is there anything else that I need to know before starting? I have tried going through a fair bit of this thread, but some of it has gone over my head. All I want is to try and lower the temperature of my laptop and the undervolt BIOS seems to the easiest way to do this.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give me.

 

@biohazard13

hi biohazard

well, I didnt relased a normal (locked) BIOS for a while since all people loved the new features of the new ones and all of them asked for the bioses with the latest updates, fixes, and unlocks not present at the official bioses.

I recomend you to use the latest A12 V5 modded bios

and as for the voltage settings

best choices are:

(2D/3D)

for gt525m 0.85v/0.85v

and for gt540m 0.83v/0.85v

you dont have to worry about anything

all those bios are well tested.

and the few bugs, like enabling uefi mode while installing windows 8 are advised

just download the version I recomended you, and follow the procedure from the first post.

it is quite easy and the performance gain/ temp improvements are noticiable

 

capitankasar, do you have a GT 540M A12 without unlocked menu?

I'm working with Nando on trying to get my eGPU working, but i'm having some huge troubles. i'd like to try and flash the A12 BIOS, but "stock" Dell BIOS without the unlocked menus, just to make sure my problems aren't BIOS related.

Thanks!

 

@daver160

what voltages?

well, since you are trying to get working a external GPU, you probably dont care
why dont you flash the official A12?
you can get it from dell's web site or from any a12 modded bios, but just run the flash original bios instead modded one batch file.

I dont think also modded bios is the issue for your problem, because the modded bios with stock settings is also like the original one except for the updated microcodes, upgreaded vbioses, and the sleep modules fix ^^

 

Yeah, modded/unlocked BIOS should not have any effect on the GPU, but in order to get the eGPU going I needed to run PCI compaction through Setup 1.x software. I wanted to make sure that things we as "stock" as possible to try and reduce any external factors.

I ended up flashing the Dell A11 BIOS, like you said. Believe it or not, that worked for me: after flashing your voltage-modded A11 BIOS (0.83/0.85), the PCI compaction (and dGPU disable) worked, I was able to get my eGPU working. Then to test, I flashed the menu-unlocked A12 modded BIOS, and it stopped working. Out of curioity I also flashed the stock Dell A12 BIOS, but the eGPU didn't work with it either.

I'm not sure what Dell did in A12, but with that BIOS I was unable to get my eGPU working. So the problem is somewhere in A12 itself, not the unlocked menus I think.

Either way, I have my eGPU up and running, and now am running benchmarks. When I finalise my findings, I'll post them up at TechInferno forums and link to it from here.

 

@daver160

thanks for the info ^^

so it seems it is A12 BIOS problem itself right?

well, not sure what mods I did to the A11 bioses (I think I just unlocked some menus on A11, and not sure if I unlocked all of them), I were a lot of time focusing to the A12 version ^^

it would be nice if we would know the module dell screwed from 11 to 12 version, so I would be able to port it from the a11 bios and integrate it at the a12 bios like I did with the osx sleep feature.

hehe, dell never stop surprising me ....

well, thanks to your post, we all know now all the people interested on a eGPU will need to stick to a11 for the moment until I find a fix for a12 ^^

 

Grreetings,

I'm trying to get a egpu setup using my dell xps l502x and a nvidia 560 ti. I installed you excellent unlocked bios to try and find an option to disable the nvidia card, thus avoiding me to use software on boot time to disable the gt540m. I tried tinkering with the options a little, but under graphics i couldn't find anything and the options seemed only related to the intel one. I even tried deactivating all pci express devices on the south brifge, but no luck there too.

Any advice you could give me on how to do this?

Thank you in advance.

 

@joaoricardoascenso
hi

well, as for the moment there is no way of disabling completly the nvidia card via bios as far I know.

about the egpu, if you are having issues with the A12 version try an older version since daver160 already said dell screwed something at the a12 version, so until I find what it is and fix it, you may need to use a11 or older versions for a external GPU ^^

 

Thank you for the response, i noticed daver160 feedback after i posted this message. Thanks for the heads up on the version, i'm running A12, i'll post here if i manage to put it working without changing back to A11.

It's a shame, according to the guys at techinferno, if we could disable the nvidia card, the external one would be perfectly detected by the drivers without the need to use a boot layer.

 

@daver160
@joaoricardoascenso

Hi, i have small question. What version of PE4H (or posibly PE4L) are you using? PE4H-PM3N (PM060A maybe) version 2.4 or poibly V3.2 ... Looks like there is no way that we could get eGpu get working with l502x without Setup 1.x software (btw you got yours from DIY or it can be found somewhere).

Tkanks for answer

 

That's right, I found no way of disabling the dGPU in the BIOS. And because of this, it requires some work to relocate PCI resources to make room for the eGPU.

FWIW, I'm using the A11 for GT 540M with 0.83V 2D, 0.85V 3D. So far have had consistent stability, aside from a few video_tdr_error BSODs, but that is caused by the NVidia drivers 307.x. Now that I'm on 310.90, haven't had a single video_tdr_error BSOD.

That's not to say that A12 won't work with 100% certainty. It just didn't work for me.

I'm doing some tests with Nando to see what and what can't be done with Setup 1.x right now. I will post a new thread over at T|I with instructions on how I got my eGPU going, as well as with benchmarks (which I haven't done yet). Hopefully it'll be helpful for you and will assist you in getting your eGPU rig up and running!

 

good news guys ^^

I finally managed to enable basic overclocking (BCLK) on my L502X

the hack has been made to the ME firmware internal values.

here is a quote from BIOS mods site ^^

 

Good job

However I have no idea how to do what you did and I'm completely lost on what you mean by unlocked descriptor.

 

well, I pleased would make a guide for this.

the problem is that this involve doing hardware mods to the machine.

the descriptor is the header of the bios chip, it contains the read and write permisions of the flash regions where the descriptor, BIOS and ME firmware is stored, it also contain more stuff, but what we need is enable the read/write access for the ME region, and since we dont have write permisions to change the descriptor from the laptop hacking the hardware is needed for that :/

this is because we are accesing to a protected part of the firmware where we arent supose to access at all

as for the moment there are only two posible ways of doing this

* bridge pins 1 and 5 of the HDA chip, like coderush did, this have advantages and disadvantages, the advantages is that is as easy as soldering a wire from 1 pin to another, the disadvantages is that you will not be able to backup the whole chip if something goes wrong (I bricked my laptop many times at the hardware when the cdrom recovery have no effect)


the other options is the one I made, a bit more complicated but offers many benefics

* build a simple hardware programer and install sockets on the programmer and the laptop motherboard, so you can remove the bios chip easly. it is a little more expensive since it need a little electronic parts and also some soldering on small parts, but once it is done, there is no way to get your laptop bricked once you did a whole backup of the bios chip



if there are people interested, I can start a topic about how to build a cheap LPT port programer and be able to read/write and mod the chip rom in order to unlock the descriptor.

 

Nice work!

Hopefully you can get a good overclock, because I think that Intel has good CPU wafer yields and that lower end CPUs can be software restricted instead of soley binned as lower parts. (That's also why there low end Celeron desktop CPUs are overclock locked)

I hope you can get 2.4GHz base, which would be really really cool!!!

 

well, this is the max I can actually get

my proccesor isnt multiplier unlocked, all I can do is move the reference clock, and if I go over the value from this screenshot my PC crash and autimatically shut down.

I am sure the proccesor support more stuff, however since BCLK isnt the best thing for OC this is all I can get without a multiplier unlocked proccesor or upgreade to another one >.<

but well, anyway it worked fine for some gamecube games wich ran like at 90 % speed, not it is almost 100 % the whole time ^^

also the ram went from 1333 to 1405 mhz

same stuff with intel HD graphics

I had to fix some timer issues after this mod but well, I think I am the only one now with a overclocked L502X

 

Wow that's really impressive~

I'd want to try too, but there's no way I'm going to get into any real hardware modifications (I'm not that hardcore yet), and since I already have an i7 that's plenty fast AND a new computer now, most likely the only thing I'd do with BClk OC'ing is trying to change it to be exactly 100.0 MHz. But by the looks of it, it seems like this XTU thing has very high precision, with 4 decimal values. I'm just curious, but is it actually possible to change it to really specific values?

 

@Kitsunemimi

well, as far I know it didnt let me to change to specifc values, it went from small increments like

105.6
105.5
105.49
105.42
105.34
105.27

if you install intel XTU, it only let to move from 95 - 100 without firmware mods

however, after modding the ME firmware I was able to increase the range from

80 - 300

however only 100 - 110 looks usefull from me, cause bclk crash with higher values than 105 for me, so this is the most I can get by just doing BCLK overclocking, but well, since I finally managed to OC this machine after months of headache, I am happy to at least know how to

 

Hey

Exams are over and like I said here is the little mod I did. I know it's not the best job the soldering was difficult as there were big gaps and it's hard to get it to stay on the heatpipe + I'm a noob. I also did a repaste and removed the fan filter + a little clean. I was going to add a longer heat pipe to the gpu side but I ended up breaking a few of the heatpipes .



Temperature has definitely improved however the fan now seems to stop and start much more often. Now it doesn't want to turn on until the gpu is above 50. However there was one period when the fan was on low for a long time when idle the laptop got below 40 for the gpu and below 50 for the cpu. When I run the furmark bench test I used to get max of 76 degrees at 1080p now I get around 10 degrees lower. Only way I can explain this is the mod + repaste is making the cpu + gpu take longer to reach the temperature to trigger the fan. I do plan to mod it a bit more you'll have to wait and see though.

But I can't be sure the mod is doing much as it seems you got similar results with the repaste. It will be interesting to see what temps I get once I do the fan mod I am waiting on some switches I ordered. Then we can compare temps?

I'm also currently on a10 bios. Will a12 improve fan at lower temps as at the moment the fan turns on and off whereas I would prefer it on low throughout.

 

woah, nice job jjjjj_55555

I like it, also the heatpipe mod looks nice.

well,relating to that pic , I would say soldering doesnt seems properly attached to both parts.

did you made sure both metal parts were heated enough while soldering them?

if at least one of them were not properly heat its probable the contact isnt proper, and also there are lot of chances the thin get loose, and that conductive thin balls moving over your precioous and expensive L502X motherboard is a good way to kill it ^^

it should look like this





about BIOS, well, I has been a lot of time in A12, so I dont remember others, but I think its ok, also recomend to move at least to a11, since it have the first unlocked menus, the A12 is fully unlocked with also lot of vbios and modules updates

 

Yeah, really cool mod there jjjjj_55555

If it has been done right, basically:

Thicker heat pipe = greater heat absorption (the larger heat pipe "holds" excess heat) = because Dell have programmed the fan to turn off completely at lower temperatures, this might explain why the fan stops and starts more often now.

but:

Thicker heat pipe = greater transfer of heat to be dissipated fan = 10C fall in temps!!! = Really nice work

And as capitankasar says, the A11+ BIOSes have unlocked menus; I think you should try out A12 and if the fans operate differently, just flash A10 again.

Cheers

 

Thanks for the info capitan I opened it up again broke away all the old solder roughed it up a bit more and managed to get a more continuous smooth solder joint. It also seems to have shaved a few more degrees off on the furmark benchmark. On longer periods (gaming) it seems to be similar to the old soldering job . I am also happy with the new soldering job as I'm much more confident this one won't fall off.

I tried applying less paste this time but for some reason it was giving higher cpu temps. So I redid the paste applied more paste and made sure to evenly screw the heatsink down and applied some extra pressure once it was down and it seemed to fix it.

I will be hopefully be doing the fan mod next and also a little mod near the under panel.

 

@jjjjj_55555

very nice job

your laptop should be now as cold as an ice hehe.

I can remember people complaining about L502X temps

and with all the mods discused here we reduced more than 25º the temperature

well, it looks like its time again to do more mods by myself hehe

when I get some free time when not bricking my laptop I will try some cooling mods like you did and also some risky mods, we are discusing on another forum ways to unlock proccesors.

bricked again my laptop while testing with ME mods, had to change chip again, glad I had 5 spare and flashed chips to swap without having to reprogram them, and when I have some time I pick the bricked chips and reprogram them.

if you like hardware mods.

I suggest you some of them

- replace bios chip with a socket for bios chip and make a simple LPT programer (this mod will unlock many other mods and will allow unbrick the laptop if the CDROM recovery cant fix it)
- add a switch to disconnect cmos battery (clear setup settings)
- add an internal usb using any of the free internal ports I found. (confirmed at least two avalible internel ports and suspect about a third one on some kind of expansion connector dell removed, however I was able to get the pinout hehe)

posible third usb mod ^^

take a look at the pins 11 & 12

if those are usb + and usb -, we may be able to plug devices there by soldering

 

I don't want to mess with brickable mods
You know I got the l521x off the outlet it was still expensive but it was such a good deal I couldn't refuse however I ended up returning it as it was worse than the l502x when gaming due to heat problems and throttling. I then realized how amazing the l502x is has served me well for 1.5 years and I can see myself keeping this for another few years as it's a solid laptop.

On to other news.....

Warning do not cut the yellow wire lol

I just tried to do the fan mod and the fan didn't turn on so I decided to try turning on furmark to see if it would get switched on and it did but it was like a weird very quick on off on off on off. Had to resolder the yellow wire and it was a tight job managed to do it with just the bottom panel off. So basically the yellow wire is essential we need to find a new way to have the fan on full all the time but I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

@jjjjj_55555

ok ^^
anyway those mods are the most fun ones, adding more features to the system.
so dont close that door forever


oh, thanks for the info.

didnt had time to test it yet, but then I will skip that mod since you already tested it.

anyway
did you tested by cutting the red wire instead?

 

No just the yellow. Surely it wouldn't of turned on if the positive or negative wires had been cut?

 

yeah, it shouldnt power on if power is cut.

but we arent sure the yellow is sensor, and red is power, thats why I told you that

however if it power on and off very quicly , not sure about the issue.

 

capitankasar I tested today another (undervolted) BIOS.
Custom voltage moded A12 bios mod for gt540m with advanced menus for L502X
MD5 checksum: B38B1080871149573216CB57AD0556E4
2D PROFILE: 0.80v
3D PROFILE: 0.87v
And it seems that something is wrong... GPU-Z told me that highest voltage logged was 0,98V - when game on nvidia running. Idle - 0,83V - too much again. Can confirm if package is not proper? Or did something wrong?

Edit. I forget to say: unlocked menus work.
Edit2. Ok problem disappeared. It seems that GPU-Z doesn't see real values. Nvidia Inspector from 1st post says that voltage is correct. So you can add me to list

 

@agalin

added to the first post

if you keep experiencing issues, try HWMONITOR it is the one more acurate while reading voltages I think ^^

 

For me HWMonitor doesn't see my graphic cards 0_o Any of them. And there is no voltage info - only temps and CPU power in W...

 

@agalin
oh, that is weird, since all of us have the same laptop hardware and it works fine for all of us, maybe some of your drivers are outdated or you have some weird BIOS settings idk.

but well, if it works fine with Nvidia inspector nothing to worry about

 

well i must say i was hesitant about trying the modded bios but the eufi boot and quick boot is what i wanted an i got it
but one quirk when using hardware info the system locks up have to use the power button to turn it off

and quick questions is there any way to make an msata drive work trough the bios or is it a hardware limitation cuz on a thread i was told msata SSD's wont work

 

I don't have any outdated driver (Win8, all Dell drivers in newest versions, only Intel from Windows Update and NVidia from... Nvidia ) - in BIOS I didn't changed any sensor options.
And it seems that running GPU-Z, Inspector etc. changes P state of Nvidia to 0... And after some time changes to correct 8/12 state - it's normal? (that mean in Sensor graph you have on start full clock and after ~ half minute it goes to low power)

 

@Skareem2
about that lock, I supose you are talking about hardware which take measured of temperatures and other stuff.

for some reason, there is some kind of bug that by just "entering" on the temperature menus , one of the last ones I think that happens.

to avoid that, try go to BIOS setup, load default settings, save & exit.

then F2 again and configure just the values you need, and try to stay away from the temperature menus and any other you dont need

as for the msata drive, I didnt tested any of them yet.
so if the modded bios doesnt detect it there is nothing we can do as for the moment, maybe in future BIOS hacks versions, but nothing on a short way.


@agalin

well, like I said, if you entered at least once at the temperature menu, even without modify anything (just view) the bug appears for some reason.

so the only fix as for the moment is going bios setup, load default settings, save & exit, then F2 again to enter at the bios and configure everything you need but stay away from the temperature menu.

mmm, something similar happens with msi afterburner and my card, it turns to the max clocks status.

but not sure if it is because I have set every option from computer & bios to performance.

 

Ok so it's problem with temp. menu I changed to lower max fan temp. Afterburner works as should for me.I'll reset my bios.

 

ok thanks man really would like to hear from some one with an m sata drive or tested one to know for sure dont wanna waste cash man

 

First of all,
Hail all you fearless testers and all you game changers, captain..
Did my first mod.. Bios updated to L502X_A12_540m_83_85_Unlocked_Menus_v4, Intel ME FW version: 7.1.52.1176, prayer to Odin.. finger crossed

Rebooted, all things ok.
Temps: ~60 dropped to 46
Photoshop cs6..OK..48c
3DS 2011...OK..49c
Winamp.. OK.. 46c
Dirt 2011.. OK..49c

So.. just wanted to say thank you, and please post your resume to DELL.. it's a pity making such beautiful machines just to let the software ruin them
So i'm in and I want MORE!

 

@sign0ff



glad you liked it ^^

added at the first post ^^

oh,since you are using the v4 version of the mod, feel also free to use the v5 version of the mod, it offers more features than v4 and upgreade more stuff ^^

in your case, this one will be good for u ^^

L502X_A12_540m_83_85_Unlocked_Menus_v5.rar

oh , about that , yeah, I posted on their forums the undervolted BIOS fixed like 80%-90% percent of the 540m epic crashes.
but I supose since it is a third party fix they dont like it at all

about if you talked to me about working for dell.
I am seriusly thinking about contact dell, I am currently unemployed, and since all the economic crisis in spain is happening, find a job is not easy stuff at the moment

 

Hi Captain,
You really should contact them.. what do you got to lose, get at least an internship.. from my perspective people like you, fiddling with hardware should be an asset in this time of crisis.
Just make a resume and start posting on forums on Dell, HP, Asus.. or OC companies maybe..

What do you have to lose ?!


since i'm in MODDING frenzy i have another q,

I have a 502x/GM540 with the HD+ panel.. i want to upgrade my panel to 1080p, first of all i found a hardware-guy that had a panel that worked, but.. it did not worked.. the connections were OK, panel got power, but it did not show any images, on the other side, VGA-Out worked ok.
Does anyone know what is to be done to make the 1080p work?

Thanks

 

@sign0ff
yeah, I lose nothing by just try ^^


I will try

about the screen upgreade.

I made the same invest as you some time ago, but aborted the operation since I had no money as allways

about what you need, you need a compatible panel and the fullhd cable,

getting just a fullhd panel without replacing the cable too will not work properly.

 

@ capitan

Really?
I just need another cable? nothing else? fiddling with the BIOS settings or something?
Did you do it? Could you do this just by replacing the panel and the cable?

Edit: got it
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/616480-help-swapping-screen-dell-xps-l502x.html

Edit: BTW L502X_A12_540m_83_85_Unlocked_Menus_v5.rar got my temps even lower 44~45c.. and i think i will buy a second radiator from dell to solder the heat pipes on top each other to get the temps even lower.. MODDING TIME!

 

well, messing with bios settings will not fix a not properly attached screen to show image

yeah, a proper cable is needed, the cable is internally, and it replaces the hd cable inside your pc wich connects your hd+ screen to the motherboard.


give a read to those topics

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ing-1080p-screen-720p-one-xps-15-l502x-2.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/554402-dell-xps-l501x-lcd-display-swap.html

really good info, also some of the components from the L501X are very similar to the L502X one ^^

 

Nice threads, i got it, i will try to find a v7 AUO and already bought the 0V73D3 cable, waiting for it to arrive.
Thanks again! and please keep me posted if you go futher then v5
Good work!

 

Just to update my broken laptop situation: Dell replaced the motherboard and cpu. I was lucky to still have a warranty even though I thought I didn't. Just bought the one year warranty from Dell but as there is a legal minimum warranty of 2 years in Belgium they had to replace it anyway. It's working fine I'm thinking of doing the fan mod though and maybe lowering the voltages to prevent this beauty from overheating!

 

Downloading this now: L502X_A12_525m_83_85_Unlocked_Menu.
Hope it fixes my heating issue

BTW I read it fixed Sleep issue in OSX. How did you install OSX?