L702x Modded GPU BIOS

Those readings were with the PC "semi-idle" (I had Chrome open as I was writing on this forum).

I just finished repasting my L702x with a coolermaster paste. Everything went fine except that I ended up with a tiny screw which I have no idea where it goes, LOL! Well I double-checked and tripled-checked everything and to be honest it all seems fit. WLAN card, video ground cable, hd0, hd1 empty caddy, optical drive, screws under optical drive, ... so I am not sure what I am missing here...

Anyway my CPU cores are now approx 10c colder then before! GPU is also cooler (48c now).

 

nice

welll, dont worry about that screw, it happened to me many times while taking appart systems, it will work anyway without that screw

nice temps, give it a try at gamming or prime95 torture tests

 

update:


thanks to Brabbelbla, it seems new unlocked settings are comming out

following his instructions, I managed to enable raid options on my L502X machine.

however, the L502X, can only have 1 hdd (2 if we remove the optical drive with a hdd caddy like I did on mine)



this included finally the raid support many users asked? (untested anyway)

so I may relase a beta/test bios for the L702X in following days with the raid options unlocked.

however, this will need some people interested on testing that function, and since that involves messing with the HDDs/SSDs, and the risk of losing data, there will be little people interested.

thats why I am asking

 

Heya I just upgraded my l702x with 8gb ram, a17mod BIOS, disabled the Turbo Mode and a cooler under the laptop. Even so its geting a bit too warm, mostly because the fans stop every now and then, is there any way to fix that? SpeedFan doesnt work with this laptop for some reason ...

 

try repaste the unit and clean the dust from the heatsinks and fan.

you can also download my modded a19 bios from previous pages and disable hyper threading option from it.

 

repaste anc clean it I will most def do. Actually my mistake, I do got ur a19 on the PC but, how do I disable hyper threading? Couldnt find it.

Thanks

EDIT: ah TM, thanks bro found it

 

if you installed the propper bios, you should find an option named intel HT technology at the bios setup / advanced settings/ proccesor options/

 

Pass him the links to my fan control app, should help him big time instead of disabling hyper threading and loosing logical cores .. Better make the fan run at some steady speed and cool the laptop at all times.

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk

 

oh, yeah, I forgot your app work for other laptops.

Zablar consider give a read to http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...wnload-gpu-voltages-more-266.html#post9566371

 

Thanks a lot guys! Just repasted the unit, and cleaned out the fan (wow such a thick layer), will format and install w8.1 today (does the a19mod bios work for it aswell?). Dont know if problem is solved (it turning off and on) but will most deff get that software ether way.

 

Awesome app you got there bro! Questions:
1: Do I have to start up the IT8518E-SCT-FC.exe every time?
2: Do you think 3000rpm would be ok for an overclocked L702x? (sorry im new to OC)
3: For the more advanced GUI I put all the files from the IT8518E-SCT-FC map in the FanSpeed folder I made?

Thanks!

 

You can add a shortcut to Startup folder (is this a thing in 8.1?) with a command -delay 10 for example to delay the launch of the program to allow the driver to initialize. I suppose 3000 would be enough for average loads, if it's not the app will unlock the fan to cool the laptop automatically. Didn't quite get what 3 is about, sorry.

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk

 

Has any one tested the RAID version on a L702x yet?

 

i have an 702x but i dont have free hdd space T.T, and i cant backup my windows before i try it T.T, but i can give it a shot , if the bios react freeze or w/e

 

i have an 702x but i dont have free hdd space T.T, and i cant backup my windows before i try it T.T, but i can give it a shot , if the bios react freeze or w/e , so where is this bios ?

 

hi everyone,
On modded bios i try to setup UEFI booting, and installed Windows 7. after that i noticed that Quickset setup and Fn+F2 will cause Windows to freeze, Is it possible to somehow fix it?
Thanks.

 

No

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk

 

Can i restore my bios to original bios version A19 than, and where i could find it?

 

From Dell. But why would you? It doesn't do anything better than the custom BIOS and you can boot a legacy OS just fine. Just disable the UEFI boot setting.

On RAID, I'm slowly moving towards trying, and I think it will be possible, just with some hiccups. Most information is posted on Bios Mods.

 

so where is this raid mod for xps ?so i can test it,

 

we are already testing stuff by ourselves, however it doesnt work properly at all and need more work

info:
(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

 

Can I have one for test ?
Can you give some information about how was this unlock achieved?


as about RAID capabilities of L502X - as far as I know ODD and HDD are on different controller port - HDD is on SATA3 port fnd ODD is on SATA2
this my prevent you from get it up and running as RAID

 

everything is at the url I gave you, about the tests, I just made a test one for L502X, but I was unable to test it since my hardware, the bios mod guys are testing it on their L702X, but seems no luck yet.


I noticed you registered in there, you can ask Brabbelbla for his already modified L702X bios test for raid testing, however, if he was unable to get it working, the same will go probably for you.

 

> I noticed you registered in there, you can ask Brabbelbla for his already modified L702X bios test for raid testing
I already did

As far as I understood , he was able to switch into raid mode and start raid utility from firmware , but wasn't able to boot from this configuration in UEFI mode

 

capitankasar, does this bios also allow L702X to support Ivy bridge CPU's?

To allow a processor upgrade from Intel Core i7 2630QM to Intel Core i7 3840QM?

 

@jacky452

nope

ivy bridge cpus need intel ME version 8, L502X and L702X have version 7

we tried to update the ME firmeware to version 8 without success, also even we had success updating it, there would be no guarantees it would work due posible chipset or BIOS limitations.

 

What about the topic found on the dell community?
If it isn't possible how come people wrote they succeeded?

Which cpu would be the best to replace the Intel Core i7 2630QM?
Or should I just overclock it?

(Source: CPU compatibility? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community)

Thanks for the clarification and the hard work!

 

I would be really surprised if that is right (running a ivy bridge cpu on a sandy bridge motherboard, specially the HM67 mobile chipset present into the L502X and L702X wich have officially no support for ivy)

http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...peculation-rumor-hm67-not-ivy-compatible.html

relating the topic from your source, the last post by zamfir makes more sense, this is what other user in this forum experienced while swaping cpus from ivy to sandy cpu.

the sandy cpu worked fine on the ivy laptop.

but fhe ivy cpu did not worked on the sandy laptop (black screen aka system not working)

my only guess is that shan383 mistaken his sandy bridge proccesor with some ivy proccesor.

else I would be really surprised it would work, specially without any firmware modding.

you can try if u want,hopefully I would be wrong...... however, sadly I dont expect any better results than zamfir had on his L702X laptop...

maybe you can go for i7-2860QM or even the extreme edition proccesors (XM) if you want more power.

however, that will cost a lot of money, and since you already have a quad core i7, the performance improvements may not be worth of money, so before spent that much money just on a proccesor, consider upgrade the laptop to a ivy or hasswell one.

about overclocking, as far I know you cant do much with that CPU

you can overclock only GPU into that laptop as far I know.


cpu overclocking is very limited into that laptop

only options are:

- tweak turbo settings in order to have more from it, you can use intel XTU
- get a extreme proccesor with unlocked multiplier (didnt tested it yet)
- BCLK overclock

I sucesfully unlocked BCLK overclocking on my L502X, however, that required both hardware and firmware modding, (desoldering , programming, and soldering chips and intel ME 7 firmware modding)
you have more info at the L502X bios mod topic from my signature.
I relased a firmware patch to enable BCLK overclocking at the L502x,however, dont have any for the L702X since I havent got that machine or firmware dumps from anyone with a L702X with a unlocked descriptor.

 

Thank you! I've installed the modded BIOS with nvidia GPU options.

All I want to do is to disable the Intel Graphics and use 100% of the time the Nvidia GT 555M! Where is the option in BIOS? There are too many features unlocked, I can't identify it?

Regards,

Gaucho

 

@Gaucho_

as far I know ,that is not posible, at least with optimus, I think there is a non optimus (3d) version for the L702X wich not list the hd 3000 graphics at device manager.

however, in your case you probably have the optimus version

the optimus version ALLWAYS use the hd 3000 for the in the integrated screen and minidisplay port.

if you decide to use the gt555 card , it will use it, however, the rendered frames will be sent to the hd 3000 since it is hard connected to the screen and minidisplay port.


however, in the case if the hdmi port of the laptop, it is directly connected to the nvidia gpu, this means the hd 3000 arent used at all there.

 

Yes, I do have the Optimus version.

So you're saying that if I play a game that demands heavy graphics usage, it will automatically switch to the nvidia engine? If not, what do you mean with "if you decide to use the gt555 card , it will use it" ? And what about Aero's features (and Kubuntu's plasma features)? Will they work 100% with the poor Intel HD graphics?

I won't use an external display, only the built-in one within the laptop.

Regards,


Gaucho

 

apps who use the discrete GPU are configurable by the nvidia control panel.

you can add or remove executable files from there and select your desired GPU. (hd3000 or nvidia gpu)

by default, most games or demanding apps use it, you can check it by enable the nvidia activity icon.

by "if you decide to use the gt555 card , it will use it", I mean exatly that, that is posible to control wich apps take advantage of the nvidia gpu.

for some reason, windows aero doesnt work properly with the nvidia gpu, didnt tried by the hdmi port anyway.

 

Can someone change the BIOS just a bit? With the newer nividia drivers (seemingly starting in the 300xx drivers), the drivers seem to add more voltage to my gt550m. Instead of the normal .912V for voltage, I now get .920 which is too much, and because the temperatures are now much higher, I can't overclock my card as high as before. I've resorted to using the normal bios (no modded BIOS), but I do want to overclock more. Can someone change the voltage just a bit? with the normal voltage of .862 V (really .870 V with the newer drivers), I can overclock as high as 680mhz for the core (reasonable temperature: 80C). If someone could up the voltage just a bit, and raise from .862V to about .870 (which should be about .880 because the newer nividia drivers seem to raise the voltage a bit), I'd be really grateful. I'm sure others would really appreciate it.

 

@all

well, I am about to relase the version6 of the mod for the L502X, and as usual, since both L502X and L702X machines are almost the same I created an updated modded bios of the L702X A19 with the version6 mod changes from the L502X bios

for people who dont know my previous relases for the L702X machine, here are the links

(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 version5)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/641688-l702x-modded-gpu-bios-18.html


and here is the new version6 bios mod beta for the L702X, installation instructions are the same as previous versions

changelog from v5

Code:

* new boot logo
* raid features (Beta)
* charger options
* the ability of enable and disable computrace anytime, even you changed that option before, so, bye bye to being unable to change to remove computrace from your own machine
* ability of set/change the service tag from bios

I marked this bios as beta since the Raid Feature isnt tested yet, and also I was unable to test the bios since I dont have a L702X, so like before, I will need some feedback

following pictures has been took from my L502X machine, but the menus should be almost identical

to enable raid, go to advanced, sata operation, and select RAID



that should enable some raid options at the hdd submenus (I didnt tested anything beyond that point since dont have a valid hdd/sdd valid setup for raid, so anything after this point is up to you, please, make backup of your disks first if you are going to test this feature.)



new charger option is here





and the new service tag feature is located here:



about computrace, it should not be greyed out now and it should be changeable on your desired setting all the times u want, (unlike previous bios lock, wich prevented user change the option after initial configuration.)

remember, those bioses are untested, I dont have a L702X machine, so flash them on your own risk, and as for the people who flash them, please I need feedback, and pictures from the new menus if posible


@Dot
well, the L702X have more different GPU configurations than the L502X , and also I dont have it to test, also I am busy now with the GPU relases for the L502X, anyway I relased as usual two new versions for the L702X, one with the sharadeos GPU mods + my system mods, and other one with original gpu settings + my mods, so as for the moment, if stock GPU settings work better for you, download the one with untouched gpus.

maybe sharadeos or other can continue modding the L702X GPUs, but I cant right now.

 

I have tested it
RAID is working - BUT it is required to add a boot entry for RAID disks using UEFI Shell - if you dont know how to do it - just don't try to use RAID , because you may lost your data

 

awesome
It looks like we finally got it working, lots of people will get happy

I remember there was many people asking raid feature on their L702X, and finally when we got it working, it seems most of them doesnt post anymore ....

did you tested also the new fetaures I added?

like the new security options like disable or enable computrace without restriction or change the system serial?

oh, about adding boot entries, if you already did it, you can post it here for let the people to try

 

Adding boot entry is a tricky thing - it can be added by device handle, but it is dynamically assigned to a device and it is required to have a specific version of UEFI shell which have a bcfg command - enother issue is that when you do a device handles listing it is not fit on screen and you see only last 40 entries from about 200. you can use -p switch to paginate output but the version of uefi shell I have freezes after fist page - the only way I managed to get the list of handles is to redirect output to file on enother flashdrive and read it on my second laptop - so, it is a pain in the to get it done
But ! I have a idea how to make it much and much more easy to do . first step is to try replacing one system driver , and if it works - we will have a way to get autoadd boot entrie, efi boot from ntfs/ext4/hpfs partitions, built in shell boot entry, efi boot enabled from start and many other features and , as one of the most desired feature - it will allow to apply os X capability patches right from the box

 

thanks for the info, that is interesting
keep us updated ^^

 

Hi All

Yes - I am very interested in getting Raid0 working for my L702X and I have an Acronis Image of my HDD so I have no issue with testing.

I loaded the Bios last night and enabled RAID. I then created a Raid Array using Contol-I. I booted off a windows 7 DVD and installed. One it was completed - It booted up fine with the Windows 7 DVD left in the drive but booting from the HDD. The moment I removed the DVD - The array would not boot.

Next Steps?

 

I would appreciate if someone could assist me with this - with how to add a boot entry for RAID Disk using UEFI Shell.

 

@BirnbaD1

you should talk with followme, he is the one who most tested this feature.

as far I understood, the procedure would be enable raid in bios, and then in advanced hard disk options, enable raid 0 in the bios, then you have to edit the boot entries. (probably you need to enable uefi option and prepare a usb stick wit bootable EFI files to load the shell, and run commands from there)

anyway, since followme was the one who already got raid feature working, you should ask him the details, In my case I dont have the L702X or a valid setup to test RAID

 

I haven't done this with an actual array, @followme has, but the procedure should be the same as I did before. Nice to know, btw, that the Windows install disk will redirect you just fine.

I'm not sure whether you have used a UEFI shell before or not, I will assume not.

1. Before you start, go to firmware setup and adjust the boot order so the USB and CD/DVD entries are on top. Should anything go wrong you will at least be able to boot an external device. Also enable UEFI boot for the shell.
2. Fetch yourself a USB flash drive, format it to FAT32, and place the attached file on it as EFI\boot\bootx64.efi.
3. Boot your machine from the USB drive.
4. Type "dh -b -p blockio". This should present you with a list of driver handles connected to the protocol BlockIO. You are looking for entries ending with an SCSI adress. Probably it will show ../Pci(0x1F,0x2)/Scsi(0x0,0x0). Take a note of the hexadecimal handle number.
5. Type "bcfg boot dump -b" and look for the number of boot entries presented. By default there should be 10 (Boot0000 up to Boot0009).
6. Type "bcfg boot addh (hexadecimal number of boot entries present + 1) (handle number) "Some description"". With only the default boot entries in place and handle number 199, it would be
   Code:

   bcfg boot addh 000a 199 "RAID Array"

7. Done. Type exit or Ctrl+Alt+Del to exit shell. You should now be able to boot the RAID array.

Two potential culprits:

• If you have already added a boot entry before (in which case you probably wouldn't ask, just to be comprehensive), you have a small problem. You can add another one, but it will make the firmware setup utility will hang when going to the Boot tab. You can however boot the system fine, and you should be able to adjust the boot order with bcfg. The Boot tab has no other function.
• In case you have more than one RAID array or there is a hard drive present that is not in the array, there will be more than one Scsi entry when using dh. You will have to try which one is the array.

The modified shell: https://www.dropbox.com/s/am65f930gyuz33r/UefiShellX64.efi. It is buggy, it may freeze at random, but it should allow you to modify the boot entries. Credits to Slice or dzamar at projectosx.

 

Hi capitan,

I have been using your BIOS mod for the last 2-3 years, sorry I haven't chimed in at all. About 6 months ago I lost access to the BIOS, I read someone else had the problem in the forum, it was suggested that I flash the BIOS with /cvar which I did with no luck...

So I tried flashing A17 modded, A17 original, I was not aware that you had released 2 newer versions, so I am about to flash the A19 modded and see if I can gain access, does this problem sound familiar?

It just stays black, I can press F12 to get into the boot selector but if I choose setup, it just hangs.

 

@ssgoku129

mmm, you can try put the recovery capsule (BIOS.cap) file from the recovery cdrom and place it at the root of a usb stick.

then plug the usb stick at the esata/usb combo port

and do the recovery boot (using end key and power plug instead using the power button as usual)

when you boot your machine with the backup bios from the usb stick , try entering in bios by pressing F2, load default settings , then set your desired settings and reboot the machine normally, let me know if that helps

after you gain setup menu access again, you can try flash the last mod I posted to be able to use the latest features.

 

@capitankasar

Thanks so much! that worked perfect and I see there are a few more features to play with in this new BIOS , do I want to enable Quick Charge?

thanks again for the fix!

 

@ssgoku129


glad to know it worked

well, express charge is enabled by default (at least on L502X ^^), didnt tested on disable it anyway.

 

OH P.S. I updated my Intel ME Drivers to 7.1.52.1176 using your supplied batch file, am I on the latest version or has something new been released?

 

@ssgoku129


you can try this newer one (7.1.60.1193)

https://mega.co.nz/#!I8d2mZoT!Kpze1ywvwYC2seU4ViGM9VZz0pV4VTB5p_NXg0h8_E8

I'm using it on my L502X and it works fine.


should also work for the L702X


oh, by the way, those arent the drivers, it is the ME firmware itself, the drivers can be obtained as windows executables easly


you can find ME drivers here

ME(1.5M_8.1.10.1286)

this package also include several apps usefull for ME, I used some of them to patch the ME flash region in order to enable Overclocking,however flashing custom ME patches require unlocked descriptor (hardware mod required for L502X and L702X)

 

thank you

i appreciate everything you folks do

i am going to try this over the weekend and report back

 

Thank you - I will try this over the weekend