Insyde BIOS modding (dv4,dv5,dv6,dv7 at least)

Tried installing a blank second BIOS chip today with the idea if one messed up I could select the other to boot, switch back to the messed up one and reflash but it seems Insyde doesn't support hot flashing because it still needs the working BIOS chip even after OS handover. Any ideas anyone?

Looks like I'll have to make up or buy some HW to flash the new ROM externally and see if that works, bummer

 

I had to re-post this site after looking around in it... This site was posted pages ago.. but I think it is due for another go round.

http://www.biosmods.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=9

http://www.biosmods.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=7

I am still trolling around looking for an HDX 18 Flash to allow ocing..

I hope that it helps you find what you are looking for.. if you see an flash for ocing an HDX please.. Please... PLEASE! post..

Thanks, JW

 

Thanks for the links, they took a while to come through but got there in the end. Seems they've had some great success with AMI and AWARD unfortunately Insyde doesn't look as promising.

I finally made up a simple BIOS flash programmer but have not been able to get to post BIOS. There is a whitelist and I tried modifying it but no luck although I should be able to run some pre EFI code ie run my code instead of the BIOS which is something I want to do. I'll have to try getting hold of some whitelisted SPI flash chips later.

I'm probably going to do a dannyres and disappear, doesn't really seem I'm contributing anything worthwhile anyway. For those that wish to chase the advanced and power menus they seem to have been written out of the setup utility, at least from the BIOS I use, and so the way I worked around it was to replace the Diagnostics and Exit menu with them. Not that I really use Diagnostics and most of the stuff on the exit menu is available as keys such as F10 to get to save, F9 to load defaults and 'Esc' to exit with no changes. Mileage may vary from BIOS to BIOS, most functions work, not the RAM timing though which would have been nice.

 

RAM timings can be accessed via nVidia Performance on models that have nVidia chipsets. But admittedly, my nVidia chipset dv9750ed has a Phoenix BIOS.

I'd happily work on things like this but i'm not that willing to take my main laptop apart again, thus i stick to modding the driver side of things.

 

I have dv4 1242tx laptop. Fan spins at full speed when connected to AC power while battery is charging creating nosie. I have disabled fan always on option and also there is no dust collected on fan. Still the fan spins at full speed even if CPU usage is 0%. Fan is always on while running on battery at medium speed. I have asked HP service center they said all dv4 series have this mechanism of cooling. Bois : f.30 Is it true??

 

So 0.0 which files to we need to mod this bios and what are the steps needed to do it. your help will be much appreciated. i/e changing the diagnosis menu with the advance options menu. could you also point out as to what settings will work and what wont with the insyde bios. thanks in advance.

 

anyone into SLIC BIOS modding?

 

well i will like to learn wht i hv learned can u tell me where u have got thes tools

 

Danny, you still have interest is this project? Just wondering where this is going and if you mind sharing your knowledge on the subject so others can further this if you don't have time etc.

Thanks in advance,
Wes

 

How did you find your string table? Im trying to get dumpsetup.py to work on f14A for the dv7-2170us, but the string table offset is the one part I'm missing.

*edit* Oh wait, I think I got it. 0x16550

 

Hi Danny(et al). I want to modify my BIOS so I can enable Intel VT to run a 64 Bit Guest OS in VMware/Sun Virtual Box. Currently, the Phoenix BIOS hides this feature. I have a HP Pavillion DV2842SE with an Intel Core 2 Duo T 5600 running Vista Home Premium 64 Bit. I had installed XP Prof 64 Bit on this laptop and got INtel VT turned on, but cannot do it when I returned to factory installed Vista(some software was not available in XP like Youcam and Multi-Touch scrolling,etc and so I had to (sigh) return to Vista). Any help is appreciated.

 

Subscribing to instant email notifications . BTW, the mobo is Wistron 30CD, INtel Chipset GM 965, BIOS is Phoenix version F2E(12/2008)

 

Hello,

I was just about (not) to get a new notebook after verifying that most ones available in my country does not have Intel VT in the BIOS menu options and verifying a couple returns that /proc/cpuinfo have no vmx flag, or svm flag for AMD.

Seeing your post gives some hope so can you verify that the (HP Pavilion 1235ee with P7550) can be bios modded to have Intel VT enabled or not ?

Here's the specifications page for the P7550 processor http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42014&processor=P7550&spec-codes=SLGF8

 

Hi,
@Minoritystorm-In the US, HP (and some other manufacturers) prevent the use of Intel VT by locking down the BIOS. The exceptions are some high end($2000 laptops) that have this feature unlocked. If you were in the market for a new laptop, I would Highly Recommend waiting till Windows 7 is released in October. If u can't wait, make sure u buy one that has "Free Upgrade to Win 7"-that way, u can upgrade if u want. And yes, I'm sure any laptop can have it's BIOS modded to enable Intel VT-but I don't know how-sorry, that's why I posted too
@Everybody Else: Is there a BIOS available for HP Pavillion laptops that does not cripple the Intel VT feature?

 

Both of my laptops have the VT option in the BIOS. Granted, they are AMDs and i'm in Europe. It comes disabled by default but it can be enabled without any issues.

If this is really done in the US by most manufacturers, that sucks indeed.

 

i can second that as after i installed a p8700 in my hp dv5t i could turn VT on in the BIOS without any problems

 

It also helps to know if your particular laptop was ever orderable with a CPU that has VM capabilities. That's one way to know whether or not the bios can be switched on to support an upgraded cpu.

 

I'm interested in the CPU upgrade capabilities that may result from BIOS modding. I'm using a Compaq CQ50-139WM and am growing a bit tired of the single-core Celeron CPU that it uses...

 

i bought my hp dv5t with a p7350, it doesn't support VM, after upgrading, it was as easy as pressing enter in the bios to turn it on

 

hi dannyres,
i'm stuck with the whitelist problem! can you help me?
my bios is F37 ( http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...-1&lc=de&dlc=de&cc=at&lang=de&product=3822968)
the standard wireless card is Atheros 5007eg b/g

the card i wanto to use is intel wifi link 5100

Can you help me? i'm desperate! I only want to use the wifi card i prefer, not the hp one! Can we bypass or delete this terrible whitelist?
Thanks in advance,

markus

 

Yeah ...

I think no one that did mode wants to share how did they mode the bios.

I´ve already got SLIC 2.1 (my digital life forum) for fix, working like a charm. But i also want´s to change to my wifi card. i´ve got, Intel 5300, Intel 5100, a Broadcom, and a Apple AirPort Extreme. None works on DV5-1250us.

But ... on a DV4 i´ve got, DV4-1280us all the wifi cards works like a charm, How !? don´t known.

I´ve really would like to have the mode on the SLIC bios i got, but no one shares how to do it.

Too Bad.

 

I have the same problem as markush6302. Same BIOS, same cards, same s.xx.

My original BIOS is here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3773612

My original WLAN card is: (Atheros AR5BXB63 written on the card itself), the windows says its an Atheros AR5007 card.

vendor id: 168C

device id: 001C

subsystem id: 137B 103C

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_137B103C&REV_01\4&658 09CD&0&0028

My new card is an Intel Wifi Link 5100.
(it is not my own data, i cant use it in my lappy yet, I search these datas in the internet, I hope it is the same in all Intel 5100 cards.)

Vendor ID:8086

Device ID: 4237

Subsystem ID: 8086-1211

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4237&SUBSYS_12118086&REV_00

I need a PCI-E whitelist patched BIOS. Thank you for help!

Pls anyone help us!

Br. Lackooo

 

I found a temporary soliution to use blacklisted PCI-E WLAN card:

First boot laptop with original WLAN card. Then turn computer to sleep mode, change the original card to the new one, then wake up the lappy. The new card works perfectly, until you turn off the computer. My advice is that never turn off the computer, just use the sleep mode. I'll do this, until someone help me to patch BIOS.

 

Hi,

Can anyone PLEASE tell me how to re-activate this "BAD-FLASH-Routine" does it corrects itself, or is there any HOTKEY ???

Problem: DV7-1105eg has been BAD-Flashed; after extracting the original BIOS from the sp45071.exe (30FCF49.fd) and modify the Boot-Logo with EZH20 (same dimensions as org. 200*215px), my laptop does not boot correctly. It starts, Cooler FAN is at max speed goes down, after that ONLY the NUMlock LED and the CAPSLock LED are blinking 4 times than stops for about one sec. Screen is BLACK.

any suggestions???

thanx alot.

atilla

 

Plz read this, I had similiar problem and all is okay now.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=7033&page=187

I hope it will help you.

Mark.

 

Hey yall i have been trying to unlock these bios for the longest time. So now that you guys have figured it out would it be possible to post the download of the patch for the whitelist? thanks in advance My board is 3612 and I am running version f52 insyde bios rev. 3.5

 

HP have relased BIOS F 35.A (dv6 and dv7), due to Windows 7 being launched.

I can confirm that it contains SLIC 2.1

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45501-46000/sp45586.exe

 

Anybody got a modded bios to fix the wlan whitelist for a dv5-1004nr??

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45055.exe

 

I'm looking to enable VT on my Pavilion DV5 1050TX it's currently running a P7350, does anyone know if enabling this option is a hidden BIOS option?

Thanks,

Andy

 

Hi Hustheman,

I have a DV5 1050TX which has a P7350 processor in, do you believe that if I swapped the processor I would see the VT option in the BIOS?

Also, do you have a link to a compatible BIOS, that way I can tell if we run the same one.

Thank you very much.

 

There is two bioses for the dv5s, one for intel and one of amd processors, so his bios may be different to yours. If the processor you want to install has VT compatablity and has being installed in a different version of the dv5's it will work.

 

thanks for the reply, I've ordered a second hand P8600 from eBay and will let this forum know if VT appears in the BIOS after a processor swap if people are interested.

Fingers crossed.

(btw, this is all a bit hypocritical on my part, I'm doing this to install OSX on my laptop to then install Parallels to allow running of Windows 7, but hey, it keeps me out of trouble for a while......)

 

It will definatly appear.

 

dannyres bro, I wonder if you are able to help me in this. I have a dv5-1034tx, intel p7350, 9600mgt and intel 5100agn based pavilion notebook. I removed the whitelist check module. It accepted my broadcom bcm4311 wireless. Everything is working perfectly right now. However, the wireless 'button' blue and orange one is not working as desired. once i tap it to ff (orange), i can no longer on it ever again. Any clues on this?

 

I have de HP dv3650ed, and without any mod to the BIOS, the VT function is already exsist. It can be turn on or off but because my CPU doesn't have VT support(t6400), therefore I can't say much about it.
If you like to check it out you can get it from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?m4v2ymy0hyy (this bios is with SLIC 2.1)
(the link comes from http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=152679)
And if it's possible could you please unlock this BIOS too? I'd like to change things in the BIOS

Thank you very much.

 

Hi all,

I've got a DV5-1007CA and I'm wondering if anyone could mod the BIOS to allow the use of other types of WLAN cards, and also maybe to unlock other hidden features of the BIOS?

I think I read a few weeks ago earlier in this thread that Dannyres found some other features that are normally disabled in the BIOS??


The current BIOS for my machine is F.21A and it's here:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45138.exe

Or the main page where the file is located (if you can access the URL):
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&os=2093&product=3756189


According to the HP System Information tool under System Board it says:
System ID: 3602
Version: 02.25

It's got an Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD graphics, and most importantly the factory WLAN card is Broadcom 4322AG with Draft N 2.0.

I'd really like to use any other WLAN card of my choosing, and also get access to some of the hidden BIOS features to maybe tune the performance a little, or control the CPU fan operation if possible.

Can the BIOS be unlocked to allow the use of ANY WLAN card, or does it need to be programmed to accept a certain one?


Dannyres, are you reading?? You seem to be the expert on all this. I've read the thread before but am not brave enough to try modding the BIOS myself.... and honestly don't really even understand half of what's involved in doing it anyway.

 

I had some success modding the BIOS to support other WLAN cards but I wasn't really able to test it properly since I don't have any other WLAN cards. If your willing to test it for me I'd be happy to give it another go now that I've finished uni for the year. The method I would use would be to programme it to accept a certain WLAN card (using its device ID). I tried completely removing the WLAN protection but it caused other issues and unfortunately I'm not an expert is disassembling things. As for other BIOS options, basically there are not many useful ones. I was never able to unlock the options in the menus. We were, however, able to change the options manually but there arn't any options for overclocking, fan speed, etc etc.

 

Hey,
The card I was thinking about changing to was the Intel 5100, but I don't actually have one yet. I've read that the 5100 doesn't do Wireless N very well, but then other people say Wireless N is great on that card... so I don't know what to believe. I don't know if it's any better than the Broadcom 4322 I'm using now or not. I can't get 40mhz mode to work on the 4322, but thought maybe the 5100 would allow it... I was thinking it might increase my LAN transfer speeds a little if I could use the 40mhz mode, but again I don't know.

What I'd really like to do, is upgrade to a WLAN card that supports the final version of Wireless N sometime in 2010 when those newer cards start appearing... so I was sort of hoping to prepare the BIOS for any future cards I might get, but as you said, you need the Device ID of the card.

Why HP had to put restrictions on the type of WLAN card you use in the first place is beyond me.

 

Well you shoudl be fine with the 5100 as the dv5 already has support for that in the BIOS.. As for how well it performs in N mode I have no idea as my network is only G..

 

Well I had a 5100 here that I took out of another HP and tried in mine, but it didn't work. It wouldn't let me boot the laptop with it installed.

Which was a surprise since I know that some of the DV5-1xxx series shipped with the Intel 5100 in them.

 

alternatively, has anyone been able to figure out the mac address range that HP accepts as 'their' 802.11 cards?

Knowing that info, and a little utility to re-burn the mac address of a card might be an easier solution than trying to hack a whole family of Biosii.

Now being able to turn on VT, that's another matter......

 

@danny,

i've been trying to figure out how to mod hp's dm3 bios because the ram is locked at 333(667) instead of 400(800), with no apparent way to change it... and also the HD3200 card is locked at 500 core / 333 memory. If its not too much trouble could you take a look at the bios and see if you can find some settings that could be modified to fix this. If possible i'm thinking 600 core / 400 memory if possible? heres the bios http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=4041578&os=4063&lang=en
thanks

 

i have a dv6-1235ee which has P7550 intel processor which supports INTEL VT but it isnt in the bios menu..i know i can mod the bios to enable it but i need your help to tell me where to begin?
thanks

 

Sorry but I'm pretty sure your processor does not support VT.

 

so anybody have problems with their wireless touch button after removing the wireless detecting module in bios?

 

Yes I believe a number of people had those problems due to the fact that the wireless detection module contained much more than just a whitelist. A better method is to patch the actual whitelist inside the wireless module (if you view the module in a hex editor the whitelist is actually very obvious).. obviously though you need to replace one of the current ID's in the whitelist with whatever you want to use.

 

wow.. sounds kinda 'deep' for me already.. shall look around then.. thanks dannyres!!

 

dannyres, do you happen to have some form of guide for me to follow along? Guide on patching a new PCI-E Mini Half Wireless Card to current Wireless Whitelist. Haha.. TIA

 

Hi everybody! I'm thinking about modding my Insyde BIOS to make it support VT enabling and C2Q. My laptop is an acer aspire 8930g with a p8400. I'm using v1.13 BIOS. Here is the DL link :
http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/service....tx1g.c2att92=122&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2980211862
Thanks a lot for your help

 

I passed on to this forum accidentally, after trying to do a fresh install of Win7 on a Pavilion DV5 1060eo for 3 freaking weeks now. Not gonna go into the freaking error about cd/DVD drive device driver missing, or what drivers/ways/*spells* I've tried, basically ALL web pages say that it's the bios that I should get my hands on. After reading this thread, I got just one question: Is it possible to change the bios IDE/SATA/RAID/ACHI - settings (The freaking hidden ones..) so that I'd get win7 installed... And yeah, I bought my DV5 without any restore dvd's, without a HD, or any guarantees (Installed a hd and Debian 5.0 x64, *that* went without an itch...), and I'm *not* interested on paying %¤%&/&&% HP 50£ for a freaking restore dvd...


...And to clear it up a little; Is it possible to do the following:

--> backup BIOS (works with fla and FreeDos..)
--> change RAID/IDE/SATA/ACHI - settings
--> Save
--> Flash back (Freedos + fla)
--> Install windows 7!!!!

..At this point I'm desperate to try anything, tried to install Win7 for 3 weeks now...