Looking for Beta Testers for new modified P-78 BIOS.

Well I suppose I'm still not giving up on getting overclocking working in these laptops. The idea was presented to me a few times personally and in research so I've decided to take the project into my own hands. My first priority will be getting Extreme CPUs to overclock via multiplier either through the BIOS or the Intel XTU software (which should also allow FSB overclocking for regular CPUs). If setfsb is restricted by the BIOS then this may be able to allow overclocking on all CPUs that way as well, depends if the TME is done through the strictly through hardware or can be overridden by the BIOS. This will be done by "cross-modding" the Gateway Phoenix BIOS, with OCZ 0.28 or 0.29 BIOS, which are very similar and also a Phoenix type BIOS. Because they are both Phoenix BIOS, Crisis Recovery and/or a hard boot should allow recovery from any failures. Even so I accept no responsibility for any damage to your machines. Not because I am not confident in my ability to do this but simply a matter of if the BIOS will take properly or not. I will be checking very thoroughly to make sure that things are in order. I've already done some modding to the BIOS and seem to be progressing decently well. I will be using 9C.17 but if successful I should be able to reproduce it with 9C.20+. The first versions will be modded as little as possible to ensure that simple things can be interchanged and then later versions will be more heavily modified. While it's possible that overclocking will be a success in earlier versions I don't think that we will be so lucky. Anyone who is willing to participate should PM me and I will soon start sending out the modified BIOS to those people via PM. I would prefer testers with Extreme CPUs (X9100), but will need some testers with stock systems or with any other non-extreme CPU as well. If you are not willing please don't waste anyone's time posting about how you won't do it. Also if you do choose to participate do NOT post the modified BIOS on the forum, I don't wish for it to be downloaded by EVERYONE until it is in its final stages, even if the first versions work fine. If people cannot follow the few guidelines in this post or I do not get any testers I will have to drop this project. Hopefully that won't be the case though and it works out for the best. =)

Phoenix BIOS Recovery guide by zfactor:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/4222434-post1.html

How to create a bootable DOS USB flash drive and flash BIOS with it (also by zfactor) [Note that when you start the computer in his guide he says to press F2 to select the boot device, on the P-78 notebooks the key to do this is F10]:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/3316067-post1.html

In the worst case there's this I suppose: http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOS-Chip-Gatew...=ViewItem&pt=Motherboards&hash=item5882fb23a9
(I'm actually pretty happy I found that)

 

I have a suggestion. I think it would be helpful for some people if you posted the instructions for how to flash and also how to recover from a failed BIOS. (Sorry but I won't participate though as long as I am on warranty.)

 

I was planning to PM those instructions upon request. Since these seem to be common questions and I believe zfactor has some of the best guides for both processes, I'll link to them in the first post though. I suppose it could be useful to some people anyway.

 

Previous attempts to do a TME hardware mod failed, IMO the bios is setting PCI2/TME to 1 on post because it has RW access to it but any software only has R access and is only getting the TME_READBACK signal. BIOS modding to change TME to 0 seems like the last possibility for OCing the 78xx series. And good plan sticking to get xtreme cpu's overclocked first, I have no doubt this will make the process easier.

 

Hello! Unfortunatelly i cannot pm, because, as i see now, of my unactivated account (wierd). At least i still can write in the threads. I have a 7805 with x9100 and want to make some beta-testing to help the community. So would you please send me a bios file to mail gorby(at)freemail(dot)ru with some kind of instruction what should i do to check the bios thoroughly. Thanks in advance!

 

I think it actually has to do with the amount of posts you have. There's some small minimum post requirement to PM. Thank you though, I don't mind using email if you can't PM. I'll email you when it's ready, could be a little while, it's hard to judge with this kind of thing. I've been working on it a bit more lately though and have seen some progress. I'll answer questions as needed privately once I've gotten a bit further into modding. I have had a few versions that build fine and match the file size of the original BIOS exactly but nothing I'm quite ready to test yet.

 

I see. Thank you very much for helping the fellow users of 7805. And I still can't get the position of gateway (or dell now) manufacturers: afaik there were an extreme multipliers in previous 68xx, why they neutered a whole 78xx serie? But that's for another topic. Well, i'll patiently wait for a bios.
PS And I think you should write some words of the bios modding progress, maybe with some listings, here, in this thread, to bump it and to help people to be informed. Thank you again!

 

I think they neutered them as they wanted premium prices for different models. If they didn't most gamers would opt for cheaper models and find an extreme core. What confuses me is they haven't released an uncrippled bios now that P79xx's are the new model.

I also wish they would come forward to the secret of the mod to get in a quad core. Maybe it is too much of a change but being as we are all just about out of warrenty range it would be nice...................

 

^^ Amen brother.

 

I apologize if it seems like I dropped working on this, I did not. There have just been some personal things keeping me from it for a bit. We had a car accident in the family and it's exam time in college. =P I should be back to working on it very soon though. Also no one was seriously injured... but the car was totaled beyond repair.

 

Glad to hear everyone is ok. Keep up the good work

 

Good luck to you and your new car. Thanks for letting us know.

 

I'm curious to how this all works

am outta warranty so no worries there

 

Not to hijack the thread but saw this post...........

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/489140-how-unlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html

 

well seems like the new best is the x9100 as it seems like the program tanware linked seems to be working

if you guys know of any cpu tests i can run to make sure let me know

 

Very cool, have you tried stressing it to see temps and stability?

Edit; I wonder if we need a seperate post? I would have thought more people would have grabbed onto this by now. I just don't want to be the one double posting but I would think this would be welcome news for quite a few P78xx and maybe P79xx owners..........

 

Definitely make a new post & sticky this.
First official OC support on the P78/p79 systems is worth a new post in my opinion.

 

no i havent stress tested it yet as i havent had time to find proper stress testing programs. ill get to it eventually if someone doesnt beat me to it