L702x Modded GPU BIOS

@thesaltonsea

nice

yes, like on the l502x, the gpu bios is part of the bios.

as for the menu unlocks I supose unlocked many advanced options at the advanted tab of the bios and some little ones at the security menu.

you can check my l502x topic at the signature, it is plenty of screenshots, I supose the bios will be quite similar

 

Ok, i flashed this morning , and it boots up without problems



There are TONS of settings in the advanced tab in the bios now, someone need to make a tutorial about it lol

I have some problem with the gpu voltage, the first 30secs is on 0.912 , then gets back to 0.870 .... And my overclock is same like before - around 760mhz for the gpu.

 

Hi!!
many thanks for this great job!

Where can I download the last L702x A19 bios in modded version for my xps 17" ?
I don't need for the GPU in particular but I like to test it for the other unlocked functions.

many thanks
ciao!

 

Didnt know that there is A19 lol

So, after some test, around 1min after i log in to windows the vcore of the gpu goes from 0.92 to 0.87 and stay like that ... Any ideas ?

 

@thesaltonsea

oh, so it worked

if someone can make some pictures of the BIOS extra options, it would be nice to compare them with the pictures of the already modded l502x bioses.

about the GPU, well, I didnt messed with it, the first BIOS have default voltage settings, and the second one, I picked the modded GPU bioses from sharadeos bios, so it should work like its normal version I think.

what version are you using?

also, it also keep the lowered voltage while running a 3d demanding app? or just in iddle.

anyway like I told you, I didnt modded the gpu vbioses at all, just used sharadeos modded bioses on second bios, I just modded all the other stuff and updated the cpu microcodes.

if you want extra performance at least on the intel 3000 graphics, enable the cpu fast strings option at the cpu proccesor if it that menu got unlocked, also check the boot menu, u have to enable uefi boot and diagnosis screen, I really love those options for my xps 15 ^^

anyway I am not sure of the unlocked menus for the xps 17, I made this mod blind due I dont have the hardware to test it ^^

thats why I would love some pictures from the bios unlocked settings and also confirmation about the recovery method


@gannjunior

I didnt saw any A19 version while accesing the dell's ftp site.

@all

someone should confirm the recovery cd is working, it will make people happy I think

 

I will make pictures later , there are alot of screens with alot of options i see for first time lol

Im using the bios with the mod for the vcore of the gpu, and its 0.87 under load too , in idle is 0.82.

My model is the 3D one , with the 120hz display and the 3d sensor , there is no intel gpu , no optimus.

Any ideas for the Thermal Menu in the bios, its same like the l502x , is it gonna change something or ?

And for the recovery cd, i need to buy some blank cd's after work and i will test it too

 

bios A19 stock in dell ftp for L720x

ftp1.dell.com - /folder00950751m/1/

 

@thesaltonsea

glad to know

maybe it even unlocked more menus than I did for the l502x hehe ^^

mmm, the thermal menu, I didnt touched it at all, while changing stuff it gave me some minor problems at the l502x, but maybe it is different on xps 17, idk



@gannjunior

oh, you are right, idk why it didnt was added to the main folder D:

Drivers for Laptops\XPS\XPS 17 (L702X)


I will give it a look to the A19 bios, however I would like to talk with sharadeos first, I feel like I am hihacking his topic, so if posible I would like to ask him before touch the A19 BIOS

 

@capitankasar
take your time and, of course, ask sharadeos ;-)

I will wait. Many thanks in advance

 

yeah i got the A19 BIOS but my GPU is cooking at 93 degrees. The fan just isn't kicking into high gear, its just a little increased over idle. I need the unlocked bios so I can change the fan speeds to stop it bursting into flames. it runs at 60+ degrees idle..

 

A19 is working perfectly fine here. I'm also waiting for modded A19!

 

ok, sharadeos allowed me to continue his job, so I will give a look to the A19 later

 

Great, thank you capitankasar. I have a question, though. When I had the 'A17' bios I installed this 'GPU mod' and it was working as it should, but after some time I flashed my system with original 'A17' bios and noticed that the voltage is showing wrong numbers. Sometimes it shows 0.9200V or 0.8700V under full GPU load. Before the 'GPU mod' voltage was always correct - 0.8620V under load.

Any thoughts?

 

what app are you using to check voltages?

nvidia inspector isnt very acurate with the new drivers I think, I suggest you try HWmonitor.

keep in mind also the 3xx.xx drivers from nvidia mess with voltages.

 

'HWmonitor' is showing 0.87V under load, 0.82V in idle, but it never shows 0.92V like 'nvidia Inspector' and 'GPU-Z' does. I found a screenshot (HWmonitor) I made before I modded GPU, and there the voltage values are 0.86V (load) / 0.81 (idle) Just wondering if the voltage is messed up because of 'gpu-mod', or as you said it's related to new nvidia drivers and not accurate voltage readings.

 

not sure, people reported similar stuff at the l502x bios mods topic.

iI supose the voltage reading is messed up with some apps with the new drivers.

 

Yes, it's pretty weird.

TO ALL: If anyone never used the gpu-mod before, could you tell your voltage values? You can check it in GPU-Z, HWmonitor or nvidia Inspector software. Try to see it when your gpu is idle, and when it's under load, because these voltage values will be different. Also, tell us please which version of nvidia drivers you using. Thank you!

 

very nice!!!!

 

Ah, I think I will see many options usually hidden or locked....of course I touch only what I know, while the other unlocked option I don't have to modify, correct? since they are set like the default A19? correct?
thankssssssssssssssss

 

Couldn't resist and flashed with modded A18.So far so good!

Love the options for fast boot!

There are indeed A LOT of settings.Gonna take pictures of the menus, just to show you guys what it looks like.

 

There you go guys! Browse them from bottom to top!

 

great!

huge thanks for the pics Nenormal

those pics really help to see what I unlocked at the xps 17 (remember I dont have the hardware to test it ^^)

some questions, can you enable the diagnosis spash screen? or it is grey out? (not sure about the picture, it may also require to disable fast boot option though)

I was able to select it at the modded l502x bios, I also see some extra options at the modded bios of the proccesor, like turbo settings, on m5 xps 15 I just see C states options, it could be related I just have an i3 I think.

A19 modded BIOS is on the way , almost done ^^

if someone can confirm the BIOS recovery method for the xps 17 works, It would be nice

 

Yeah, diagnosis splash screen is grey, but it should be related (as you said) to the state of the fast boot option.

Great job capitankasar!

 

as promised ^^

 

wow!!! tnks capitain!!

if I flash my xps, does it keep the actual bios value, after the modded flash?

 

@Nenormal

thx

if posible let me know if by disabling fast boot option the diagnosis splash screen still grey ^^

@gannjunior

pleased to help

do you mean if your BIOS keep the adjustments after flashing the bios?

by default no, however if you still want to keep your values, you can edit the FLASH_the_modded_bios.bat file with notepad and remove the /cvar parameter, that may save the adjustments.

however that isnt recomended, can cause issues.

my personal advice is leave the script as it is, run it, and after flash the bios, set all your paramaters again

 

Sweet, thank you Nenormal for the screens, TON's of new settings, but I don't know almost nothing about them.

capitankasar, if I want to revert back to original A19 bios and GPU voltage, then I have to re-install my system with the original A19 bios, right?

 

Already with A19, everything looks stable!

I also set everything to max on this screen -

Can't see any change till now...


P.S.

Disabling Fast boot, enables diagnosis splash screen options, tried it.

 

@letmeknov

I allways include the the original BIOS also in the package

if you want to flash the custom BIOS, run this executable

I will quote the flashing procedure of flashing a custom l502x, but dont worry, the procedure for the l702x is the same

about if you want to flash the original bios, all you have to do is to run FLASH_the_original_bios.bat instead the FLASH_the_modded_bios.bat

 

@letmeknov

oh, I forgot to say I relased two bioses for each version (A18 and A19)

one of them contains all the unlocked menus and enchancements but it keep default voltage, and the another one contains the same stuff plus the modded voltage gpu bioses. ^^



@Nenormal

thanks for the info!

about the A19 changes from the A18 bios.

checked dell's site and all I can see is

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

only add support and stuff for windows 8, but no real enchancements for the win7 users ^^

anyway there is nothing wrong by having the latest version, it doesnt have any bug or lacking feature over the previous one I think

 

Thank you, I already installed A19 + unlocked bios and voltage. Works good, but not sure if I need all these unlocked settings in bios

 

well, it isnt bad to have them even you dont use them right now

imagine some day you need to disable hyperthreading, enable uefi boot, disable a sata drive, or just change memory timmings

also some stuff like "fast strings" and fastboot improve the coldboot time ^^

also diagnosis splash screen show devices info at the startup like most decent desktop machines does ^^

it will be also good to get rid of the annoying dell xps splash screen

 

great capitain thanksss !!!!!
just one fast screenshot


now we have to study the unclocked functions...

any case this A19 seems to really help the already superfast windows 8....I seet it just more responsive...I think the boot is 6"....wonderful!!

 

DUDE thank you Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for unlocking these. I now can fully use my 1600 memory

 

@gannjunior

pleased you liked it

@halrulez

hehe, I supose you saw the memory advanced settings

glad you liked it

 

Hi gannjunior,

This is macky from L702x thread insanelymac.

Have u tested this A.19 custom modded bios on XPS 17, is it safe to try this custom modded bios ? have u tested OS X ?

 

lol, he posted even pictures of it, I thing it is safe unless you unplug the powercord and battery while flashing

you also even have a BIOS recovery CD image on prevous pages.

note: anyway, I still waiting to someone confirms the cd recovery method works for L702 xD

 

ok then captainsarkar, i will give it a try and report back.

 

First thing I saw! I just upgraded to 32GB of 1600 vengeance mem and a Mushkin 240SSD I knew that this laptop was stuck at 1333 but it was still the best mem I could find for it. Could here me on the other side of the house when I saw that I could run it at its designed speeds. Thank you once again and great work

 

sweet, after 14 montsh of waiting finaly i can make se of my 1600mhz memory, also i havnt tested or changed anything besideds that, but i miss raid though, but the a19 mod works good, thx

and about thesata settings, i dont get it , the functions of
porttopology
external port ? on internals ?
almp mode

and that other page

hdd unlock ?
led locate ?

care to explain those abit to me ?

and finaly ... esata port multiplier , i was wondering why it only work with 1 hdd in the dock , i was sure this notebook suported pm and no i see it was off so its enabled thx for that function

 

Modded bios worked like a charm for me.

I had expected some optimus and cpu overclocking settings though..

 

@WesleyNL

mmm, I also dont get some of the advanced options, I just unlocked those options

almp mode I think it is related to power save, this means if you set it to disabled, max performance mode is enabled and battery will drain also faster.

about hddunlock and led locate, I think those are features wich grant access to software for those stuff, this means hddunlocking software will probably work for those, but not sure.

@Scalee

yeah, cpu overclocking was in my mind allways while starting to mod the xps 15 bioses, but no luck yet.

about the optimus, I think it is hardware based, I heard many people have xps 17 models with optimus, and others doesnt.

not sure if it is related with the 3d version or not.

 

There is no optimus on the 555m its just the Nvidia card, It doesn't have the Intel card on the board as well. Kinda feel a little ripped there.

 

@halrulez

oh, i see.

well, I supose that is better when you run demanding apps, no optimus headache with control panel of nvidia ^^

anyway I think the intel gpu still on the sandy bridge proccesors, however in this case, you cant take advantage of it I guess ^^

 

halrulez is actually wrong, The 3D version of the L702x has a (3D capable? Not sure if there is a difference, it was advertised that way) 555m only.
However the none 3D version of the L702x does have the intel GPU with optimus.

While optimus can be really awesome when on the road to save battery (I used to be able to watch 1080p videos for 8 hours on battery).
But when you need to mess with 3D (direct3d patches, recording software) you're going to have trouble, then it would be great if you could turn off the intel GPU.

 

Highly appreciate your work Kasar that you are putting in to this Bios Modding. Successfully updated to A.19 straight away from A.12, Guys i would recommend to update this A.19 custom bios straight away, no probs what so ever on my L702x.

1.Haven't played much with unlocked menus, as i don't know what to play with and what not, I just don't want to brick my system with ignorance.

2. Native speed step is working perfectly with turbo ratios 6699 on OS X.

regards

 

@MaheshKondraju



well, if for some reason one of the advanced parameters modification causes the system to dont boot, all you have to is remove the AC, power, system battery, and take the cmos battery away.

you also can use the BIOS crysis recovery disk for l702x I posted before if you dont want to take appart the laptop, I think this way is faster, it will set all bios settings to default by doing the first steeps, and it also allow reflashing the bios if it become corrupt from a bad flash.

 

Jkbuha requested for some suggestions and our requests. As u guys are working together as a team, so i am posting few suggestions based on things which I encountered, If possible correct these things in the bios.

1.On L702x USB 2.0 doesnt work natively on OS X, every time i add the EHCI Patch for sandy bridge processors using DSDTEditor-Linux-Mac-Win. This is the reason why i have released an A.19 DSDT, without DSDT in place we cant even boot the USB to install OS X. Is there any probability to add USB 3.0 support naively to the bios without the need of PXHCD.kext ?

2. Fn brightness keys are not working on OS X, i think its a common problem for all XPS laptops

3. On Windows 7 or 8 the brightness levels at the lowest point and second lowest point are same. There is no difference in brightness levels at these 2 points, as soon we hit 3rd brightness point Brightness start increasing and the same vice versa. I think both Lowest brightness level and second lowest brightness level have same brightness values. I haven't tested stock A.19, directly jumped the gun from A.12 to this custom A.19. So i dont know whether this a bug in A.19. Anyway i am planning to check the DSDT.

regards

 

Thanks for the quick reply

 

dont say gt555m aint optimus , since mines is just not 3d, i have an gt555m 3gb version