L702x Modded GPU BIOS

use the last modded A19 I posted

(unlocked A18 + flashing instructions + BIOS recovery cd )
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/641688-l702x-modded-gpu-bios-15.html

(pictures of unlocked bios + unlocked A19)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/641688-l702x-modded-gpu-bios-18.html

enable fast strings in advanced proccesor settings :3

and for increase league of legends performance, do following:

you will need an updated nvidia inspector.

here is the procedure to set 8 to the max prerendered frames

note, this just improves the framerate, but it doenst fix the crashes.




oh, also set the base GPU profile power management to max performance

with value 8 on max prerendered frames, the game should run a little more smooth

 

Wow, thanks for the guidance. Would I use the one for untouched NVidia gpus?

 

well, if you feel good with the unmodded gpus performance and temperatures, then yeah

 

Alright, I'm going to try and use the modded gpu one since my gpu's idle temperature is like 60C right now. One last question before I attempt this. WinFlash says to make sure my computer is running on external power. I have it plugged it in to the wall charger, but does it matter if my battery is in or out?

Edit: Success!! Thanks a lot, capitankasar

 

idle at 60 how, mines idle at 51 / with downloads/mirc and some other low performance progs running

 

I don't really know. Right now my idle gpu temp is at like 60-62C even after the new BIOS upgrade, but performance everywhere has markedly improved...I'm going to disassemble and clean the fan, gpu, cpu and replace the thermal paste later today, so hopefully it'll go down.

 

First, Thanks captainkasar for unlocked bioses

I think that remains to unlock the menu to modify the entries in UEFI mode, because when you get the A19 version I install and trying to install W8 and linux in UEFI mode with the misfortune that when I tried to install the linux bootloader I eliminated charger BIOS boot entries leaving it unusable, luckily I send it for warranty to Dell and I repaired it with no problem. I recently saw an XPS for business that I had this menu unlocked

 

thanks davidm2m


mmm, not sure if I understood your post.

well, I unlocked all the menus I could for both machines l502x and l702x.

not sure what do you mean your machine got unusable by change some setings, there are a recovery method the XPS 17.

what kind of machine? what model exactly and what it had wich the modded bioses I posted doenst have?

 

I have a L702X with A19, when I first installed switch to UEFI mode and installed w8 and linux.

From linux modify the boot menu of the bios (where you choose the hard drive or DVD reader) so I stick with only one entry. My problem was similar to the one in the link How can I fix my UEFI boot menu after installing Ubuntu? - Ask Ubuntu but only appeared one input

I did not get to recover the BIOS with the recovery cd.

Investigating I have found that UEFI capabilities to modify these menus does not appear in the case our XPS but in XPS L702X for bussiness this menu appear by default. I don't know what particular model or if he has modified BIOS (I think not)

 

to make the recovery work for the XPS 17, you have an aditional step/hardware

a usb stick plugged on the right esata/usb port with the BIOS.cap file from my previous posts or from the cdrom image

 

hey, i got big favor to dell user and to someone who got gpu gt555 on gf106 board to help me with bios, i need someone who can share with me oc bios file in .rom or .bin

 

i beleve linux systems dont work when uefi is enabled in bios on these xps notebooks, i tried linux mint and ubuntu to few times and they didnt work unless i swticed eufi off

 

i7 4700HQ HM86 GT745M or i7 3630QM HM76 GT750M

Notebooks & Ultrabooks - N550JV
Notebooks & Ultrabooks - N56VV

what one is beter ?

 

it has a 8.20V min and 9.somthing V maxx and its not all the time locked on 1 seeting it uses as much as it need or demands ...

 

the memory clock , actually increases the bandwidth of the Gpu in Gbs/sec , but not sure if thers a real difrence of 1000 and 1080 the original 900 mzh is 28.8/GB/S the max 1080 is 34.6GB/S not sure how dose the GPU clock / shader clock plays a role in the speed of memory :/ it dosent change the speed of gb.s when changed only the memory clock :/ i used the nvidia inspector ..... it even lets you overclock up too 4000 mzh but i never tryed to do thath it wud most likley blow up NVIDIA 550M Sorry for speling

 

Hey , do u whant to run the primery as nvidia becose u cant launch games and apps after the driver update with the new optimus seting , if SO u need NVIDIA inspector tool and have a look at this video of what this guy dose How to play games (e.g. Half Life) with Nvidia GPU [Laptop & Optimus] v2 PL - YouTube u may need to go in the control panel after and sett the phsyx and 3d setings gloabal to high preformance ....... if the video dosent work just serch google for nvidia inspector optimus disable and the first youtube video .... hope this will resolve it ... my gpu at the moment is saying 0 dedicated memory on gpu z and it has very weird freezes but decent frame rates on mid high graphics set in games never seen this befor :O

 

I have a question. I will need dell to look at my computer for some issues I have been having and well, I do NOT want them to know my bios was modded. With that said, how do I go about restoring to an original bios? Do I just download the latest official bios update, download the same bios version I currently have, do I use the bios recovery ISO, or what are my options? All help is appreciated in this matter. Thank you!

 

@sumuser1234

on every BIOS package from mine for L502X and L702X there are two scripts, one for flash modded bios, and another one to restore original bios, just run the one from your choice

flashing original bios will let 0 evidences custom bios were there

 

i use nvidia system tools to oc inspector dont let me oc cpu , system tools oc only gpu/memory while inspector only can oc memory and shader, but if i go above 810/1000 it crash, no clue why the 1st month hit worked ok on 820/1030, but i want to get more fps,, but i think the cpu is bottlenecking it ,and idont have the tools to unlock its true features, also that turbo boost, i never seen it go above 2.0ghz, and yes the turbo boost is on it just dont use it i guess

 

Dear all,

Thanks for all the information and great bios mods. I have been lurking here quite some time now, but at this time I really need your help.

I have bricked my l702x and have tried every solution in this topic, but nothing seems to help. The main problem is that I don't have any other boot option than PXE network boot. So I set up a PXE server in my network to boot win from pxe, but get BSOD. Linux kernel does work, and I can also load UBCD, but since I can not flash from here, this does not help me.

The bootdisk solution with usb + bios.cap does not work. The system starts, but I only get a flashing powerbutton and fast spinning fan. Nothing actually seems to happen.

I have tried resetting CMOS via UBCD. Not sure if CMOS actually did reset. It gives me a one time checksum error on reboot.

What really worries me is the fact that I get this error when I try to load setup defaults in bios: "Failed to save storage: BOOT_MENU_BOOT_ITEMS. Status: 0xF.

I am using the modded A19 bios by Capitan Kasar.

Any help whould be greatly appreciated. I have been trying to fix this problem for quite some time now.


Addendum: I have access to JTAG. But I am bit scared of using it. Since it whould be my first time using it.

 

@rmn

if you got BSOD, try set ide instead ahci in BIOS, it worked to solve some errors when loading my cdrom, it may works for you.

if after reflashing errors keep happening, then you may need a hardware solution.

give a read to those topics

DELL XPS L502X Core I7 Master Bios Password - Badcaps Forums

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ed-bioses-download-gpu-voltages-more-252.html

of course you will need the proper dumps from a L702X machine

 

Thank you Capitan Kasar,

Win keeps giving me bsod.

I am going to look into flash from dos options. Some websites say it's possible to do this. If this does not work, I will go for hardware solution.

 

Hello,

I'm a newb, so this is probably a stupid question. I have read through every page on this thread and I didn't see any info on this

I flashed my system with the A19 bios, but when I try to overclock my 555m with either Afterburner or Inspector the GPU clock is locked at 590mhz

Is there a step I missed or a setting in the bios I need to change?

Thanks.

 

A few months ago I flash the A19 modded bios on my Dell XPS 17 L702x. I flash the bios because the fan noise is too extreme in idle mode. Also I enabled UEFI boot for a faster boot.
A few weeks later, the issues are back. I want to open the bios to check something. But the bios don't open. After press F2 I get a black screen with and a hard blowing fan. Also I press F12 and then open Setup, I get a black screen.

I have tried the following:
- Flash the original A19 bios
- Flash the modded A19 bios
- Steps on this page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/641688-l702x-modded-gpu-bios-15.html (only black screen and a hard blowing fan)
- Almost the same steps as previous but with usb (can't find the URL) (I can boot, but the bios is a blank screen)

In the F12 boot menu, I see the "Windows Boot Manager" option twice.

There are other things I can try?

My notebook can boot in Windows, only the bios has issues. I want to go back to full stock with a working bios. Is this possible?

Excuse me for my bad English...

 

Reflash the bios with /cvar flag, your nvram seems corrupted. You can remove windows entry from shell by bcfg boot command

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk

 

Hi!
First, I'd like to thank capitankasar for unlocked bios. I'm really happy using it

2nd. I saw there are Intel ME firmware updates for L502x, but I didn't find such for l702x...
Are there any Intel ME updates for l702x available? Is it good idea to update intel ME after all?

 

@timewalker

well, my modded bios package for the L702X A19 bios include the /cvar at the flashing script , so if he flashed the bios using my flashing batch script, it will not make much difference probably.

@solstaff

thank you

you can flash the intel ME updates on your L702X too, we tested those updates on other laptops like 15z and some others and it worked fine, however, just flash the intel ME updates, flashing my L502X bioses or ME custom overclocking patches into your laptop or any other different laptop than L502X will brick your machine.

 

Thank you very much!! Update went OK for my non-3D L702x A19. Here's a pic:

 

so i can use the me l502x update on the l702x or not ?

 

@WesleyNL

just the ME update, not the ME patch or any of the BIOS updates, as you can see on the previous solstaff post, it works ^^

 

I i would like to know why after modded a19 bios with gpu oc ... if i run normal (( 590/900/1180 )) the voltage is 0.9200v and if i oc at (( 770/1080/1540 )) voltage drop to 0.8200v

i got gtx555m gf116 on l702x

 

Hi capitankasar,

Thank you a lot for providing us with your modded BIOS! I was hoping I could ask you some questions about your mod?

My L702x has a 3D screen. Is that an issue?

I am looking to try it out by I am a bit worried about recovering from any issues. Does your A19 BIOS mod include the BIOS recovery mode feature?

I am a bit anxious though, as I am worried that I might fiddle with unlocked options on your mod that could mess my laptop up. I trust your judgement, but I am worried that I can do something stupid. Is there any settings on your unlocked BIOS that I should STAY AWAY as they could dame/brick/disintegrate my laptop?

What I am really looking forward here is to have UEFI boot for the L702x. Is there any issues with the UEFI I should be aware of? I read something about a black screen or grey screen but I can't find that post (I'm a bit of a noob navigating through the forum posts).

May I ask you... Is it technically possible to add RAID0 functionality to the L702x modded BIOS, so we can choose RAID besides IDE of AHCI modes? The reason I am asking for this is because I was hoping to add an SSD drive as to be used with Intel's Rapid Storage technology; but my understanding is that it only works with RAID mode.

I feel I might be pushing my luck now but... If adding RAID to the BIOS mod is at all possible, would it be possible to have the RAID mde supporting TRIM for SSD?

Thanks again for all your help!

Cheers,
P.

 

@pmdci



nope, 3d screen does not create any issues since the original bios was designed for it too.


the recovery feature is discussed on previous pages, you need to put the BIOS.cap file in a usb stick and place it on the e-sata port, also the recovery cdrom is meant to be inside the optical drive while doing the END trick key instructions from the previous posts.

many of the unlocked options are useless relating to normal users.

however, try to enable some ones like fast strings and diagnosis boot.

you can also disable the C-states if you want performance.

UEFI boot would be also interesting for you, however, there are some issues reported by some users since the uefi support for this and the other xps laptops like 15z and L502X is not fully complete.

relating RAID support, I tried something in past messing with some modules, but didnt had luck, maybe if someone with more knowledge give it a try, he could be able to get the whole thing working

also keep in mind, I dont own this laptop, those mods are just based on the ones I did for my L502X wich doesnt have two hdd connectors, at least without use the Optical drive with a hdd caddy.

so I cant test much on this system.

 

Hi followme. May I ask how you managed to restore your BIOS? I thought your XPS was bricked... Just curious!

EDIT: Nevermind. Saw your answer. I decided to read the entire thread pretty much since p18! Tedious but... well... what the heck

Cheers,
P.

 

Thanks for the update. I decided to read the entire thread from page 18 onward. I just came across the RAID0 tests. User followme is hardcore!

I also came across many posts about people having issues. When I flash my BIOS, I these are the first things I want to try, such as:

* Does the CPU performance increases or decreases?
* Does all of my function keys work freezing or BSOD'ing the laptop?

I was hoping to use UEFI when I upgrade my laptop to Windows 8.1. What sort of UEFI issues have been reported with the XPS? EDIT: Hummm... I did read something about Fn+F2 freezing the laptop with UEFI enabled... Is that still the case? I might pass UEFI altogether.

Yeah I just read that the L702x doesn't seem to like reading BIOS.cap files from the DVD drive, so we must copy the BIOS.cap from your recovery disk (version 1, 2 or it doesn't matter?) into a FAT usb stick. Isn't that right?

I am also reading a discussion between you and followme about a Tianocore UEFI shell, and some PFlash.efi file. Seems to me like some sort of big breakthrough but I am having a hard time following it. Is that an attempt of adding an UEFI shell into the XPS, or improving the UEFI implementation?

Regards
P.

PS: How moronic it is from DELL to add two SATA drive bays into the L702x and don't support RAID mode?! Laaaaaaame!

 

Has anybody here flashed the A19 mod with the GPU mod included? I was wondering how stable is the L702x with the GPU mod without replacing he thermal paste. I could replace it if push comes to shove but I am wondering how crucial is it?

Also, do I need to do anything else after flashing the bios containing the GPU mod to experience any improvements? I did read something about running MSI Afterburner but I wondering if this is always the case.

Regards,
P.

 

the modded bios at default settings its just like a standard bios with updated stuff such as the cpu microcode, intel video bios, sleepfix for osx, and other stuff.

and when you enable some options like fast strings cpu performance, specially hd 3000 graphics wich improves a little.

the function keys on uefi mode could create some issues after reading some user feedbacks.
thats why I dont use the UEFI mode a lot, just for some tests and I also never installed an OS in UEFI mode yet.

those issues are mainly the function keys and maybe others

and yeah, correct, for some reason, the L702X doesnt seems able to directly load the BIOS.cap file from the recovery cdrom, so it also need to be booted with a usb stick with the BIOS.cap file in the root of it.

the UEFI shell module is already inside our XPS machines, however it is disabled and cant be called from a hotkey, so the only way we were be able to lunch it, is copy the module and rename to other name and boot it from a usb stick in uefi mode.

there is a a very a user named timewalker75a with more knowledge in this subject.


relating sata and raid mode, yeah its very sad they didnt implemented it, however they do a lot of those things in purpose and leave it only for the alienware machines.

for example, all those interesting options my modified bios have such as hyperthreading, turboboost and others options present in many other bios. , there were already there the whole time, just locked/hidden by purpose by dell.

they just want let the XPS machines as intermediate while they unlock some of the other options in overpriced laptops like alienware.

 

relating the GPU mods, I just used the modified files from sharadeos on my custom bios, so those info is at the first pages.

yeah, for overclocking you will need msi afterburner or other software, however dont OC too much or the system will be unstable, if it become unstable, lower the clocks again slowly until you find a stable point.

 

special hd 3000? What's that?

That's it. I am not goig forward with UEFI. Doesn't seem like I will get any noticeable improvements if I run Windows 7 or even Windows 8.x with it, right?

ah. OK, got it. So he was basically booting the UEFI shell from the USB stick. Is there anything interesting in there?

 

So basically, flashing the bios with the GPU mod is not enough to get performance improvements? If I understand correctly all that it does is to unlock the GPU for overclocking. Is that correct?

Regards,
P.

 

oh, my bad, type error, just fixed it, I mean the performance was specially intel hd 3000 related.

well, I am very happy with my windows 7 OS

I dont like the windows 8 visuals and probably the compatibility will not be ok for all my apps.


relating boot EFI executables from a usb stick, yeah, it brings the posibility to flash the bios or doing stuff directly without booting the entire windows or other OS

usefull for some features and tests.

also allow some software like cloverefi loader to be started.

 

the gpu mod basically alter the voltage to get extra stability in OC , but not bring itself extra performance.
so you will still need OC software for extra performance

 

Ah, ok. But my laptop has an NVIDA card inside... Is there a point in trying to increase the intel hd 3000? I don't even think this card is included in the L702x. If it is, not sure how I could enable it let alone use it together with the NVIDIA...

I understand and respect your point. But I think that Windows 8.1 with Start8 is quite good. I used it on a Virtual Machine and I like it a lot. I think that update 1 will be even nicer so I might use it.

Ah... I can see how Hackintosh users would love EFI then. But for that I might as well go for a MSI desktop motherboard that has been designed specially or hackintosh.

 

Ah I get it. That makes sense. Would the system run stable with these altered voltages if I don't run it over-clocked very often? If so then I might go for the one with the altered gpu voltage so I might casually overclock the video if I fancy it.

Do you recommend changing the thermal paste even if I don't plan to ever overclock the video?

Regards,
P.

 

@pmdci


intel hd 3000 graphics are a phisical part of the second gen mobile sandy bridge cpus

however, since you have a 3d model, wich dont use it at all, maybe you dont notice much difference.




relating to OC and stability, the stability depends on how much you OC the machine, doesnt matter how much time.


about thermal paste replacement, it depends, if your temps are high, you should, else, you can leave as it is.

 

I i would like to know why after modded a19 bios with gpu oc ... if i run normal (( 590/900/1180 )) the voltage is 0.9200v and if i oc at (( 770/1080/1540 )) voltage drop to 0.8200v and on load is 0.8700v

i got gtx555m gf116 on l702x

 

@greenwood

we already saw your post the first time and I dont know the reason.

it was sharadeos the one who modded the GPUs for this laptop, I just made a general modded version of the bios and made another version with the same mods plus sharadeos mods.

there could be many reasons the voltage switch, including driver updates or overclocking software.

try checking your software configs or switching to a previous driver version wich worked fine for you before.

 

sorry for duplicate my first post tank you i will try !!

 

So just to confirm I take that if I flash the modded bios with the tweaked GPU voltages, I shall not experience any issues unless I overclock my GPU, then? right?

As for the thermal paste, I am seriously considering since some folks here said that they experienced up to 10c (that is 50f) drop in the heat! Check out my temperature readings from SpeedFan... and I am just using Google Chrome... (I do have a core i7 though):

GPU: 57C (134.6F)
HD0: 49C (118.4F)
Temp1 and 2: 64C (147.2C)
Core 0, 1, 2 and 3: 54C (129.2C)

Sounds like I could use some paste, right?

Regards,
P.

 

it shouldnt crash at stock clocks, however if you OC too much it may become unstable.

are those readings under load?

or on system idle?

because they seems aceptable temps, anyway, you can repaste if you want even better temps