L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

yep I saw you at the Bios mod forum ^_^

lmao xDDDD, you made me to consider it, an alienware would be definitly nice way to keep ppl quiet hehe.

well, I supose I will try anyway, at least to see what kind of answer the email back (in case they even answer )

 

great news on the possible finding of other options in the bios, just give me a heads up if u need any testing done cheers again capitankasar great work

 

CapitanKasar, I just seen that one of the guys in your bios-mods forum has found the holy grail. The fan trip speeds for off/med/high! I would be very happy if you could unlock this option so I can tweak it! The fan speed is one of the biggest complaints about this laptop.

 

Used the undervolted 540m bios and it locks my computer up after long idles or long gaming sessions. I think my gpu needs more voltage.

 

@daryld1988

thansk, I will let u know if I need help while testing some options

@Risco

yep, that is true, I noticed about a lot of users complaining about the laptop fan.

thanks for the info.
can you provide the link/s about the place you saw the Fan unlocking? (I'm just following one or two topics at the another forum, so I probably missed it)

then I will check what I can do.

@tvdang7

oh, that is weird, cause you also reported the locks also happen with long "idle" time, and as far I know the 2d profile is used when no intensive graphics are running and there are no other apps using the nvidia card, I also didnt modified the 2D profile for the 540m.

it may pick the 3d profile for some app in the background, but not sure about your software setup.

anyway it looks like in your case, it is unstable with the 3d profile lowered voltages, I suggest getting back to the original bios, or if it still crashing try a overvolted BIOS of this topic

@all
did someone else experienced crashes/locks with the 540m undervolted bios?

 

No crashes for me Capitan. I'm using your A09 undervolted bios for the 540m.

 

Had a lockup but turned out to be my ssd dying. Otherwise it has been running perfectly =P

 

I have had lockups - been pushing the GPU oc'ing a bit to far!

Otherwise all is fine.

 

Using undervolted mod A09 on my 525m, temps got to 60c while playing saints row 3, no problems at all with stability. I did not have problems before, but if I can lower voltage and temps I'm happy. Thanks again.

 

thanks for the feedback guys
it seems the lower voltage is stable for the most.

@buch3r

allright, I just made another version for the 525m based on the A09 BIOS.

both profiles are 0.83v (iddle and games), anyway there are high chances it will become unstable with such low voltages, I think I tried some time ago with my card and it had some freezes due the extreme low voltage, but maybe yours can handle it.

well, 0.83v is the minimal ammount of voltage wich can be set via software tools without hardware hacks as far I know, so you can give it a try, if your card can not handle it, go back to the 0.85v/0.85v version,feedback plz ^_^

 

hi capitankasar and tnx for the great work u are doing for this great notebook. i've just flashed ok mt l502x with i5 2410 and a 525m. i used the reccomended one 0,85 and 0,85. it seems to go very fine (did some 3dmark test and not some intensive gaming session yet) and would like to get a modded bios with this voltage but with oc profile already in it.... can u do it? i woul go for the 740, 1480, 980.

if u can do this it would be very cool to get a notebook that doesnt need extra application for oc.

also a 672,1344,980 would be cool too.

keep it up the great work.

 

@ScruffyITA
thanks

well, as for what you requested, unafortunely I'm unable to do it due following reasons

I tried to flash newer version number or already modded gt525m video bioses from another laptops in this bios without luck, the nvidia card was not recognized anymore on windows, so I had to reflash again with the stock bios to make the nvidia card usable again (glad I still had intel hd graphics to see the screen ^^)

I only had luck editing the stock vbios from the laptop, and changing some stuff with nbitor software, as for the voltage settings, and some minor fan settings.

its quite easy to overclock the card via software, but doing it via bios is harder, and since it needs advanced hex editing with some maths as far I has been reading, I am unable to do it with my current skills.

however if you want the vbios file to experiment by yourself or ask someone else to tweak the clocks, I attached the vbios bios to this post, the file can be opened with any hex editor or with nbitor nvidia bios editor.

if you are able to mod the clocks, I can reasembly a bios with your custom video bios file.

 

I don't know if this belongs here, but is it possible to set a resolution higher than my monitor's native resolution? I have a dell monitor with 1920x1080 resolution and I want to set it to 2560x1440... I have read that it is possible to render the desktop at the higher resolution and then downscale it to fit in the monitor. Do you know if maybe there is a software solution?

I found a linux solution here but I'm wondering if there's anything for windows.

 

lookng on the internet i've found something yesterday, also the bios dumping /extracting process so withe the nvidia string search i've found that rom too that is related to our 525m noticiable by the string GF108 Board - 1079df50

.if i load the bios in nibitor, im only able to see the detail, and cant edit the oltage or frequency and dunno why. have to investigate on that

regarding the 525m vbios flash, as far as i get the .rom file, i think i can use directly it with your tools right? if something went wrong im still able to use the intel and flash again the bios? if it's so i can do some practice today and try to discover something.

for now tnx again for the tips and help

 

@rabittz

why you want to do something like that ?

I think game stuff related will go slower in that way (less FPS since your card have to draw more pixels and some of them will not be even shown :O ), and the texts stuff will be almost unreadable like that, anyway if you still interested, try downloading powerstrip it seems to have what you are looking for

@ScruffyITA

yeah, since you just are going to mod the vbios, it should still have the intel graphics as backup if the nvidia bios is invalid, to dissasembly the L502X you will need Phenix SLIC Mod tool.

you can find more info about L502X BIOS Dissasenbly at those topics:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/632899-modding-l502x-bios-project.html

(UEFI) Dell XPS 15/15z L502x/L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

 

unfortunately flashing my l50'2 resulted in a full fan speed and no logo and nothing at startup. remember to have readen that somewhere that could be solved by pressing Fn X, but nothing happens. on that page they posted some bios and in the topic are mentioned both 15z and l502 so i picked ut the 550m bios and flashed , and that's the results.

 

Oh :O
what you did exactly?

it doenst sound like you just modified the nvidia video bios.

it sounds like a serius BIOS brick, sadly a problem we didnt found any fix for this laptop yet.

did you used the universal bios backup tool? (I wrote several times about bios obtained by this method will not work)

or did you modified anything else than the nvidia video bios?

 

i picked up that 550m bios from that site (supposing was for both 1\5z and l502 because they share the same hardware) and flashed renaming theyr file to bios1.wph and put in ur tools directory and run the bat.

both process of programming and flashing were ok, but after 5 seconds pc restarted and nothing more happened . black screen and fan at full speed.

edit:

the 2 rom
Written C6602CDF-E16A-4147-9B9A-0B399498722A_0_1264.ROM
Written C6602CDF-E16A-4147-9B9A-0B399498722A_1_1264.ROM

are related to system recovery crisis so a possible usb recovery is implemented, but how?

 

Well both my laptop screen and monitor are 1920x1080, but since my monitor is 23'' and my screen is 15'' there is a huge difference in sizes.... I figure that if I can increase the resolution of my monitor then things will be closer in size from one monitor to the next, and also I can fit in more windows (I like to leave a lot of documentation open when coding)

I know that the quality will be worse but it doesn't matter... don't need such sharp picture quality for reference material anyway and higher resolution = smaller useless gui elements taking up all my screen space.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it when I get home

 

@capitankasar i just tried out ur untested 0.83 for both intel and nvidia gpu ,

and i have to say its amazing seems to be the lower the voltage is the higher your clocks can go aswell

i ran skyrim there for over 2 hours without 1 single crash, when i done this on your bios for the 0.85 for both intel and nvidia gpu i got a crash within half an hour of game playing

now i have been able 2 increase my clock speeds to 773/1546/1080 which is amazing for a gt525m card cant thank you enough

 

@ScruffyITA

so, if I am not wrong you flashed a entire 15z BIOS jkbuha made, and you flashed it to your L502X.

that was a bad idea, the golden rule is: NEVER flash a BIOS designed for another system, even them are quite similar, the offsets , addresses and stuff will be different, and chances it will not boot again are high.


edit:

we were trying to get the recovery method at the other forum (along with another features)
did you got that file from the L502X bios?
I will give a look to it as soon as I arrive at home

@daryld1988
the voltages I changed are only for the nvidia card, didnt modified any other voltages .

thanks for your feedback, nice setup overthere
I will add you to the first post

what were your stable clocks with the 0.85v bios? (to see the improvement over the previus version ^^)

 

with the 0.85 bios my stable clocks where 744/1488/1080 so i got a nice increase from your new bios, my temperature with the new bios is also great it hasnt went over 72 degrees so all in all my graphics card is actually running cooler so therefore safer plus i will more than likely be saving some extra battery power plus im getting extra performance keep up the gd work man

@capitankasar i see you have done the mod to remove the dust filter is this easily done and did it shave off much temperature

 

@daryld1988

it seems you have a nice chip ^_^, mine was stable before at 740, but for some sadly reason now it cant go over 675 clock.

nice OC you have over there , performance gain should be very noticiable.

as for the dust filter, yes it was an easy mod, is just like remove an sticker under the cpu FAN and it greatly improve the airflow.

 

@capitankasar i reccomend u to try the 0.83 for both bios off yours and who knows we might get your card back to the 740 clocks you have the same exact card as me and with it being undervolted i think theres alot more potential left in your card yet,

as for the dust filter mod does it require you to open all the laptop up or is it possible to remove the filter another way

 

yes, those rom are inside the bios rom. in the same place where the nvidia bios is.

ive tried many things, but looks like it wont load the files since my usb drive light didnt flash.

i think i have to ask for an rma to dell to get it back in action.

 

@daryld1988

yes, taking the whole laptop appart is needed, since the machine will be opened you can also repaste the CPU and GPU, it will also help to get temps even lower, and since you are using also the 0.83v bios, you will be really far to have any temperature problems again
(0.83v+repaste+dust filter removal=no temp problems anymore xD)

I will test the 0.83v version with my machine, I hope I will get also some temp improvements without crashes and maybe a higher OC too

I will also try to relase a 0.83v/0.83v version for the gt540m card, someone may take advantage of it

@ScruffyITA

sorry to hear that.

well, another L502X user who got an error while flashing a OEM bios PMd me for a BIOS recovery method , we tried some stuff without any sucess, thats why I said there is no confirmed recovery method at the moment for L502X.

I hope we will find it as soon as posible, it will make BIOS mods easier and will help a lot of users with corrupted bios like you, but as for the moment we dont have anything yet.

so yep, sadly contacting dell may be the only solution for the moment

 

@all

since daryld1988 had a great experience with the 0.83v/0.83v BIOS, I also deciced to relase a modded version with similar voltages (0.83v/0.83v) for the GT540m board users, the 3d voltage is really low, that may result in gamming crashes for some users, but it may improve OC or stability for other users and will definitly decrease the temps.

feedback plz! ^_^


edit:

I decided to flash the 525m 0.83v 0.83v version daryld1988 tested, and it seemed to improve temps and OC stability
I was able to OC core from 672 I got stable with the 0.85v/0.85v to 710 stable with the new 0.83v/0.83v modded bios, made some tests and no issues yet

 

glad to hear you went for the bios capitankasar the 0.83 0.83 bios really is great in every way so many things to gain from it better gaming performance lower temperatures and most importantly it is also more than likely extending the life of alot of our internal parts of the laptop due to the lower temps great work

 

With the 0.83/0.83 mod, my BF3 crashes on every start (tested 3 times).
Gt 540m

 

@daryld1988

yep, it seems stable now with the 0.83v, and got my stable OC increased a little, nice idea

@Cyb3rfr3ak

thanks a lot for the feedback ^_^, it may be stable for you with the 0.83v/0.85v version ,flash the 0.83v/0.85v and check if the problem persists

 

I was on 0.83/0.85 (and I'm back on it again) and it's as stable as..... i don't know xD
It's stable

 

seems to be the 0.83/0.83 is for the gt525m only perhaps the higher memory of the gt540 requires more power n therefore it causes more of a problem than good

 

0.85 works a treat on my gt540m, played Bad Company 2 for a few hours and no crashes & running 10deg cooler.

This is just what I was after, always getting thermal shutdowns and freezing when gaming, thanks a bunch !!

 

yep, the 0.85v bioses seems the better one for most people, well the 0.83 voltage seems to work fine for some 525m users, it also may works fine for some rare 540m users ^^

well, just one of us tested 0.83v with the gt540m, more testers would be nice

@knaff
thx for the feedback
glad it worked fine for you
added to the first post :3

 

Just tested your new 0.83/0.83 voltage for the GT 540M, seemed ok at stock clocks, maximum of 63C temp in Furmark!
However any overclocking soon caused the system to freeze & crash. (I quickly flashed back onto 0.83/0.85 @ 780/985)

As somebody previously mentioned, it is hypothesised that the additional GPU memory of the 540M likely has an additonal power drain and hence the intolerance of the lower voltage. (When compared to the 525M)

@ Everyone:

Make sure you download the correct BIOS modds!! - Otherwise disaster may strike!!

(Sorry to hear about ScruffyITA's unfortunate experience )

 

tnx for the support man. dell will pick up my notebook on monday... hope one week and it will be back at my home fully working and ready for the 0.85-0,85 vbios mod. i wont go for other bios this time ....

 

Guys i need help eversince i flashed this bios the fan spins up and spins down forever. I tried flashing back to A09 and A06 but still no luck anyone help? This is driving me INSANE!!!!

 

@tvdang7
are you sure those issues are related those custom bioses?
I didnt even touched any fan settings

also what bios version and voltages did you flashed?

 

What version of Nvidia drivers are you using?

-Update to the latest version (BETA 295.51 should be fine)

-Also check to make sure that you don't have any programs running that require access to the GPU intermittedly. (ie: Desktop Gadgets, fan control) as these trigger the fan to behave as you reported.

 

@Capitan: Thanks for your great Bios-work. I flashed my A09 Bios with your Voltmod A09-Bios@0,83/0,85. Temperatures decreases in hard gaming (BF3) for aproxx. 10°C. Running Furmark together with Prime95 (Voltmod and 99% CPU max. = Turboboost off) i got a gain of ca. 6 or 7 °C (but this is not a real life scenario). This drop could make the difference from dead or alive to the laptop in a long term.
Next time I'll do a re-repaste with MX-4 and take a look to the fan's dustfilter.

 

@micmax
glad the bios mod helped you
you has been added to the first post, let us to know about the temps you get after the hardware mods (dustfilter removal and repasting)

@all
plz tell me if I forgot to add someone at the first post ^_^

 

nice work capitankasar!

I proposed ur moded bios to a mate who have great CPU temp proplems by gaming (99 98 100 99 °C with a 2720qm and a 540m)

all worked fine (A09 0,85v), it reduced temps to (87, 83, 82, 83)
in a few days he will repaste with liquid metal paste, too.
is it worth, to remove the dustfilter, too?

what about an CPU + GPU undervolting bios? not hacked yet, right?

greetings from germany,

tmae

 

@tmae
thank you
glad this helped to fix his temp problems, he can also try disable the turboboost feature when not running CPU exaustive apps.

yeah, I recomend to remove the dust filter, the airflow is greatly improved.

after bios mod, repaste, and remove the dust filter, I never had any other temperature issue, the machine runs really cool now, even running CPU intensive apps like Dolphin emulator

well, I dont know how to undervolt the CPU yet, the BIOS project at the another forum is a little stuck, it isnt as easy as it sounds, and also the steps being done there kinda overtake me, not sure if I am really usefull at all there xD

 

Liquidmetal? Coolaboratory? Good Idea?

 

yes, Coolaboratory ultra.

anywhere here in this forum is a guide for the xps 15 how to repaste.
he repasted and used AS5, which nearly had no effect on his GPU (still 96°C) with liquid ultra he repasted the second time and now gets temps in the low 80´s area.

seems it has a huge effect on notebooks / the xps model
u just have to take a bit more care by this paste.

 

I know. Keep in mind, Liquid metal is very tricky to handle (no contact to aluminium) and you can't remove it easily.

 

I am using your modded bios for the gt540 the 0,85v version and i removed the dustfilter, and later i am gonna do the repasting. My temps already went down, I am using the videocard at 775mhz on the core with the undervolt, and with skyrim my temps are 65c on the gpu core and 82c on the cpu (i have the core i5 2410) before the mods the temps were 76c on the gpu and 88-90c on the cpu. I am looking forward to see the results after the repasting Thank you for the bios mod! I hope that later we can adjust some cpu settings

 

@airstev thanks
glad you had sucess improving your lappy temps
nice OC too hehe, I will let u know if I am able to tweak any CPU options
added you at the first post as BIOS user/tester

 

I'm using the 0.83/0.85 A09 GT 540M modded BIOS

 

@Matix5: I use the same version. Could you post your temps e.g. 3DM6, BF3 or prime 95 (all 99% CPU max)

In my opinion BF3 ist so fuxxing tough to the hardware that GPU still (with Voltmod-Bios) goes up to 74 °C (740/925); I7 goes up to 82°C. I'm not a gamer at all, i'm most interested to the technical maximum i could get from the XPS. Btw, BF3 is running very smooth, due to the i7.

I wanted to be courageous and ordered Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra (after getting some Infos about) and i intend to remove the dustfilter. Thats all what could be done.

Update: 3D6@760/950/CPU max. 99% = 63 °C max. GPU, 9805 P.
3D6@760/950/CPU full performance = 68 °C max. GPU, 10129 P.
3D6@775/975/CPU full performance = 70 °C max. GPU, 10308 P.
Fazit: i7 influences 540m temps very much.


But related to BF3 everything is quite cool running 3D6.

Update 2: I removed the cover where the ram-sticks are inserted.
Temps decreases for ca. 3-5 °C.