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

thanks , i really gona be happy if it possible change intel speed step or voltage's, to use throttle stop in another states....thats im trying, but its not possible ?

 

Chrisys32

Did you try changing your VSS location 0x85 to a value of 06 to see if it gave you any more options on the Boot menu?

 

Cool, I am looking forward to see what you come up with on this new info, I wish I knew as much as you with all this scripting and coding stuff

 

you mean like this?

Code:

PATCH_OFFSET = 0x85
PATCH_VALUE = 0x06
PATCH_VARIABLE = u"Setup"

 

yes, it unhid stuff in my boot menu, may do the same for you

 

Yea but isnt the location of same option different for every version of bios? I mean, if i do this and location is for something else, who knows what i am going to change...

 

your setup.txt contains these type of statements,same as mine

\GUID: a04a27f4-df00-4d42-b552-39511302113d
Form ID:0x0001 Name:'Exit'
Subtitle: ' '
Grayout If
EQ [0x85<1>] == 0x2
EQ [0x86<1>] == 0x1

 

well, let's try... if my bios screws up, you are the one that is going to save it xDD (just kidding, but, pls, remind me, what's the procedure for recoveryon pavilion dv7???)

 

and, is the value 0x6 or 0x06? does that even matter?

 

ok, i tried it, i flashed it, and i got nothing. i have same options as before. i read somewhere back that if 0x47 (or 0x74, not sure) changed to 6 i think gives a new menu with bunch of settings in setup utility, u think it's worth of try?

 

when you discover something? you can send to me your bios, if we have same bios its not nessesary i try this steps... if you try!
thanks

 

I finally got it!
ok, first, that form that i couldn't get was system configuration and not boot.
now: i took those new opcodes that .NetRoller 3D posted on page 25 and wrote them down in dumpsetup2.py instead of old ones, also wrote them in indents section, saved the file and tried it out. it worked. i got complete setup.txt. that keyerror was actually telling that there is a missing opcode in list so i tried to continue adding the uefi ones, 0x28, 29, 2a... and i saw that keyerror is changing. then i remembered of netroller's post and tried out EFI codes instead of UEFI's. i switched them all and it works like a charm for me now. you have the modified dumpsetup2.py with new opcodes in attachment.

 

it unlock what things
thanks its only put the dump with the way has in tutorial in page 23?
great job, i gona try thanks
thanks

 

i cant patch bios.... gave me a error, you can put on some host al bios fd?pleaseeeeee

 

i cant do any more with it, i was stuck, i try opcodes but not happens, have same menus on bios

 

@etiko: Did you put your vss loc & size correctly in vtenable? I'll try to mod your bios tmrw if u want coz it's 2:20am over here and i'm on my cellphone. Just send me the list of things you want to change in PM.
Question for others: Do i need to patch the options with vtenable one by one or i can somehow write multiple patch locations and values at once? Actually, can someone describe the vtenable patching procedure more closely to me coz i don't really get it, how should i change more things at once? By adding new option to modded mybios and by doing that comming up with mybios2,3,4,5...?

 

@etiko: i'll try tmrw, really can't do it in 2:30 am

 

thnks lol im in 1.30 am but need to sleep , i wil send pm, and sorry for that!

 

Hi etiko

I think you are a little confused, Chrysys32 and I do not know how to unhide the BIOS menus, we would like to know how, but at this moment we can not do it. We can change BIOS settings that are not shown in the BIOS menus, by looking at our setup.txt finding the location we want to change and the value needed, and then changing that location to the appropiate value in the VSS with the vtenable.py script. You have to read the setup.txt carefully and you can determine the value and the location in the VSS to change. If you change the wrong thing you can easily brick your laptop, that is probally the reason the menus are hidden in the first place.

Hopefully in the future some one will discover the secret to unlocking the menus on our particular systems, but until then we have to change settings the hard way. good luck to ya

Chrisys32

You seem to be picking this stuff up pretty easily, this whole thing started with Marcan you may learn more about it if you read his blog

http://marcansoft.com/blog/2009/06/enabling-intel-vt-on-the-aspire-8930g/

 

I wonder if there is also a Boot menu, did you add those opcodes to to dumpsetup.py and run main.py again to see if it showed any new form locations.

 

I'm lost. I've been staring at this for hours and hours and hours. I try to zap certain variables and nothing seems to take. Can someone check my work?

Attached is my extracted bios, the vtenable i'm using to (attempt to) change variables, the dumpsetup I'm using to get the setup.txt from my SetupUtility.pe.

zchef2k.zip

Thank you all very much so far for your contributions.

 

thanks, really good explained, you mean, we can active options but didnt see on menus right?
it means, for exemple, i can activate the VT but cant see on menus it is activated?
i really sorry for the bad understoot lol. i have some problems understanding english, but now, i know!
to change something i need to change vss's of setup.txt on vtenable scripts, and patch right? but need to make sure what i want!

 

i do all perfectly(i think) nothing happens, i have edited the VTenable script, nothinhg works...has done the changes on vss to change a thing i want, but not work...

 

Per my post a couple of entries back, it looks like I'm kind of in the same boat. If I don't comment out the checksum calculation in the vtenable script, vtenable will fail. If I comment the two lines out, it will run and modify something (as I can tell from comparing the modified bios against the original in a hex editor) but obviously nothing that's making any difference. I recognize that's kind of playing with fire, but oh well.

In either case, checksum calculation or not in vtenable, I always get "Variable not found" after the "Loading VSS..." output in vtenable. I have manually verified the VSS location and size I use for vtenable.

So either:
1) The offsets for the values I want to change were incorrectly given to me in setup.txt
2) Some other routine in the bios at startup is overriding my changes
-or-
3) Something else within my vtenable is preventing my desired changes from happening at patch time.

Ideas?

EDIT: It appears there are several on this board actively seeking solutions to their bios needs. I propose meeting in #insyde on freenode. I'll be idling there if anyone wants to pop in and share ideas. Maybe we could be so fortunate as to have some of the leaders in this effort stop by.

 

Ok, so some value changes do survive after boot. I extracted by bios again, rain main.py and dumpsetup.

The VT offset gets returned back to "disable". Something in the bios is flipping it back off. I wonder, I have two $VSS's in my bios. Could there be a default or "master" set of certain values for offsets?

And just to make sure, we're really only talking flipping 0x1 with 0x0 and vice versa for offsets per setup.txt right? Some of my offsets have '60' or '48' whereas I would have expected them to be either 1 or 0.

For example:

One Of [0xc9<1>] 'Quiet Boot'
\Help text: 'Disables or enables booting in Text Mode.'
Option 'Enabled' = 0x1 Flags 0x1 Key 0x0
Option 'Disabled' = 0x0 Flags 0x0 Key 0x0
End One Of

Offset 0xc9 in my SetupUtility.pe is 60. Not 1 as in 0xc9 "<1>". Some of this is confusing me.

 

Just thinking out aloud, have you guys tried using ezh2o 2.1.0.13 to access these other options? Example here. It would seem like a lot of effort to use the python scripts to do what ezh2o does already. Or are some folks really activating other menus?

 

In your vtenable.py change this

PATCH_OFFSET = 0xc9
PATCH_VALUE = 0x0
PATCH_VARIABLE = u"Setup"

to this

PATCH_OFFSET = 0xc9
PATCH_VALUE = 0x0 0
PATCH_VARIABLE = u"Setup"

The value should always be 0x and then 2 hex characters.

Always make sure you see this

Updating VSS...
Updating BIOS...
Writing output...
Done

and dont remove the checksum stuff

 

Some versions of ezh2o never open my bios, just freezes, the version that does open ezh2o 2.1.0.4 does not give me any options to change anything, except for replacing modules

 

Where can I find the last version of ezh2o?

 

you can find EzH2O 2.1.0.4 anywhere, google it. but last version, 2.1.0.13, that one is very hard to find. on russian forum, acerfans.ru, there is an archive but it has password that i can't find. on chineese forums there is download but you have to be registered and they (temporary?) don't allow registration.

 

ok, lol, i found it on this forum, stupid me.. you can find EzH2O 2.1.0.13 here http://forum.notebookreview.com/ace...zation-test-machine-acer-aspire-9420-a-3.html

 

zchef2k: v2.1.0.13 can open bios (at least mine) but can't emulate setup utility and option OEMDS is unavailable so...

 

sorry i quit, i can't do any change on bios options! it not work for me, and i dont try anymore, only time lost LOL!
have luck trying

 

HUGE help requested!...

I will keep a very long story short. I have a dm3... HP DM3-1039wm to be exact. I needed to get into the bios to turn on virtualization. Since I bought the laptop used, I didn't know the password to get into the bios. I tried many things, but the only thing that got me in was using PC CMOS Cleaner 2.0 or 2.4 (not sure which). The CMOS Cleaner cleared the password for me and I could get into the bios now. I thought all was well, but now my wireless device will NOT turn on. When I hit the button on the right of the laptop, it stays amber instead of turning to blue. In windows seven it says I need to turn on my wireless. I have tried uninstalling wireless, updating drivers, disable and enabling in Win7.

So you ask why am I posting this wireless problem here. The reason is because I believe my wireless device is disabled in the bios. I think this because it was working fine until I used the cmos cleaner. After using that, it won't turn on. Unfortunately I can't get to the setting to turn it on because it is hidden.

Can anyone help me? I need to be able to turn my wireless device on in the bios for dm3-1039wm.

Thanks,
Doug

 

Try removing all power from the unit, battery and AC and hold down the power button for 30 seconds to clear the bios vram and reset defaults. Turn on and test.

If that fails consider putting a piece of cellophane tape over pin 20 (W_DISABLE) of the wifi mPCIe card. That will keep the radio on permanently, giving you working wifi while you investigate why your bios is disconnecting the radio.

Flashing the latest bios version might also help you.

 

Thanks for the reply. I will try the holding the power switch for 30 secs with it unplugged and battery out.

I have already tried flashing to latest bios.

I will post back by results.

A coworker of mine has the same latop, so I might try usin the fla$hit util to get his bios and then dump it on mine.

Thanks,
Doug

 

Tried the above and no dice. I held it for at least 2 minutes with battery removed and no ac adapter.

Did the above as well. Grabbed his bios and flashed to mine. Still won't work. I just wish there was a a way to know for sure if the bios has this turned off.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Doug

 

Make sure the wireless card is still seated correctly in the socket.



-Z

 

Yea, I did that too. Actually reseated it.

It is an odd setup. When I took the cover off to see the wireless nic, there appears to be a cmos battery (I think it is anyway, it has some sort of plastic wrap around it, but it certainly is the shape of one) with 2 wires coming from it that hook onto the wireless card. Then there is another set of wires from the battery that plugs into some sort of very small port. I removed all the wires, reseated the card, and moved them back. It still didn't make a difference.

I'm still leaning towards the PC CMOS Cleaner did something in BIOS and that something is hidden from me.

Idiot HP support says I have to put the pc back to default... as in reload Win7 Home Premium on it even though I already reinstalled the OS with Win7 Ultimate. Win7 Home Prem. is not going to make a difference. They will not take the pc back for repairs unless it is back to factory defaults which is having Home Premium on it. So, I had to order a disc from them. I'm so irritated with them. They don't seem to understand that I already reinstalled the OS.

Anyway, I guess I will be installing home premium when I get the disc, then I will call them back and say "TOLD YOU SO!!!" Then they will have to take the computer back and fix it or replace it.

The only other option I have is if someone knows a hidden setting in the bios and can tell me how to change it.

Thanks,
Doug

 

Hi 0.0,

I've tried using WinHex to replace 0a03002702 to 0a03004702 by opening the BIOS in memory using ezH2O, however the change doesn't save after closing it. Could you please show a more detailed way? Thanks.

BTW, noted that two of the menus - in my dv5t are Power and Debug have the class no of 1-5, I wonder if there is anyway to change this number to 1-0 so that they would be the same as the ones already appears.

 

Hi raidenii,

Sorry, I'm not familiar with ezh2o but changing the class doesn't work, that's why it is stricken through in the above post. A small amount code for displaying the hidden menus, power and advanced, was left out of the setup utility. By adding some extra code to it and compiling it can work, big job though and easy to make mistakes. If your just hex editing then possibly changing one menu for another might be easier although IMO not as nice. Not sure the effort is worth it but if there is something you desperately need perhaps changing the variable in the NV store would be enough, just as some people have done so with VT AFAIK.​

 

Hello, I'm new in this forum so I take this opportunity to greet and thank all the members. I have a problem I have to accept my mini-pci-e wifi and bluetooth combo to my hp pavilion dv6 3013sl I have read many guides and forums but to no avail so I ask for help from someone who can help me. the bios in question can be found here:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp50001-50500/sp50110.exe this is an insyde bios h20 rev 3.5 branded hp
and this is the string of my "new" mini pci-e 14 18 90 30 3B 1A 41 20.
If anyone can help me I'd be really happy

Thanks for support

 

hi
i'm trying to install xp on a hp g62-222us laptop with insyde h2o bios which doesn't seems to show the SATA/IDE legacy option
is there a way to unlock that features by flashing it?

i've already tried adding the ahci drivers with nLite but it didn't make it

BIOS UPDATE ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp48501-49000/sp48519.exe

 

w00t w00t, getting closer ^^

Code:

Opened BIOS '3603F21.fd' with md5:515409c77c6cac500782c997bce105e1
Operating on BIOS data/original_bios-mine.fd size = 0x100000
Loading compressed sections
 .. found 1 compressed sections
Locating Firmware Volumes
  .. found 9 FirmwareVolumes (4 compressed)
STRING_TABLE = 0x19350
String table:
 Language: eng (English)
 String count: 816
Location = 0x4f990
Location = 0x4fa50
Location = 0x4ffd0
Location = 0x50030
Location = 0x50160
Location = 0x505a0
Location = 0x50e40
Have vss_volume: FirmVol position=0x0d0000 size=0x01ffb8 where=None [VSS]
Have vss_volume: FirmVol position=0x0ef000 size=0x010fb8 where=None [VSS]
Have vss_volume: FirmVol position=0x000010 size=0x2fffb8 where=[compr at 0x20069] [VSS]
Done

I'm working on a BIOS that came with BIOS update from HP. There were 2 BIOSes actually, but it was pretty obvious which one to choose (3603 is my motherboard's "number")

EDIT: sweeeet, after many bumps (and edits of both dumpsetup and dumpsetup2), I got my setup.txt file. yay!
EDIT2: it's 2AM now, I tried something very simple (PATCH_OFFSET = 0x1ad, PATCH_VALUE = 0x01 - enable VT)
I am (probably) unable to find the VSS_OFFSET and VSS_SIZE, as whichever of the three listed in main.txt I choose, it fails. The best I got was when I tried with OFFSET = 0x0d0000 and size 0x01ffb8 (or, to be precise, VSS_OFFSET = 0x000d0048, VSS_SIZE = 0x01ffb8 - 0x48, as instructed previously)
The result I get is:

Code:

Loading BIOS...
Loading VSS...
Variable not found!
Old state:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\InsydeH2O\vtenable.py", line 105, in <module>
    var.showinfo()
NameError: name 'var' is not defined

All others fail with

Code:

Loading BIOS...
Loading VSS...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\InsydeH2O\vtenable.py", line 88, in <module>
    raise ValueError("Invalid VSS signature")
ValueError: Invalid VSS signature

So either my BIOS is broken, because it doesn't have any variables stored (?!), or... what?

Also, I executed fvdump.py, which gave me 5 binary files and the following log:

Code:

Firmware Volume at 00020000
 Reserved boot zone: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 GUID: d9 54 93 7a 68 04 4a 44 81 ce 0b f6 17 d8 90 df
 Size: 0xb0000 (data 0xaffb8)
 Attributes: 0xffff8eff
 Revision: 1
 Blocks:
  1: len 0xb0000
Dumping to fv-00020000.bin
Firmware Volume at 000d0000
 Reserved boot zone: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 GUID: 8d 2b f1 ff 96 76 8b 4c a9 85 27 47 07 5b 4f 50
 Size: 0x20000 (data 0x1ffb8)
 Attributes: 0xffff8eff
 Revision: 1
 Blocks:
  2: len 0x4000
Dumping to fv-000d0000.bin
Firmware Volume at 000d8000
 Reserved boot zone: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 GUID: d9 54 93 7a 68 04 4a 44 81 ce 0b f6 17 d8 90 df
 Size: 0xb000 (data 0xafb8)
 Attributes: 0xffff8eff
 Revision: 1
 Blocks:
  1: len 0xb000
Dumping to fv-000d8000.bin
Firmware Volume at 000e3000
 Reserved boot zone: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 GUID: d9 54 93 7a 68 04 4a 44 81 ce 0b f6 17 d8 90 df
 Size: 0xc000 (data 0xbfb8)
 Attributes: 0xffff8eff
 Revision: 1
 Blocks:
  1: len 0xc000
Dumping to fv-000e3000.bin
Firmware Volume at 000ef000
 Reserved boot zone: ea d0 ff 00 f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 27 2d
 GUID: d9 54 93 7a 68 04 4a 44 81 ce 0b f6 17 d8 90 df
 Size: 0x11000 (data 0x10fb8)
 Attributes: 0xffff8eff
 Revision: 1
 Blocks:
  1: len 0x11000
Dumping to fv-000ef000.bin

The only ont that does >NOT< cause cause an error after running vardump.py is (what a surprise) fv-000d0000.bin
Others give the following error:

Code:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\InsydeH2O\vardump.py", line 65, in <module>
    raise ValueError("Bad header")
ValueError: Bad header

Apparently this HAS to be the address 0xd0000, but for some reason it has no variables in it...

I think I supplied all info I could, I'm very curious of what can I achieve by modding my BIOS, but if someone could guide me just a little bit, I'd be more than grateful
If, for some reason, it would be needed - I'm attaching my setup.txt file.
Now off to sleep

EDIT3: ah, yeah, the problem was that the BIOS from HP doesn't have any variables indeed, I just had to dump my current BIOS and I can see everything now.

EDIT4: huh. I can make the hidden options visible by modifying the corresponding opcodes (0x27 -> 0x28), but still can't enable the hidden screens (Power/Advanced). I thought I can do it by changing their class from 1-5 to 1-0 (such as Main etc), but it didn't help at all. There must be something else, like Main being the last screen displayed? I'm not sure, would be great if somebody would join my monologue lol

 

hi folks,

how are you all doing? first off a great happy diwali greetings from india. this is my first post here.

okay i will keep the extra long story ultra short. this is my issue.

i tried and i tried. but i failed. so i am asking here for some help. anyone willing to help is excellent. i share the same sadness like zchef2k. same series compaq presario c700 series. and i recently got a cpu upgrade from m540 to t7250 and i would like to enable intel-vt very much.

anyone willing to help me will be excellent. the pastebin logs are here and also the bios.fd file loaded in filebin.ca.

i would request someone to send me the final.txt file so i can add it and also have myself a spare copy if incase than have a ready mod file.fd bios.

filebin.ca link : hxxp://filebin.ca/ccjubp/the-beast.fd
pastebin.ca link : hxxp://pastebin.ca/1980828

please help me. thanks. and dark_skeleton lalala! we share the same boat.
thanks
-paul

 

zchef2k i sent you a memo in freenode. please do check it. thanks.

 

Possibly due to the same reason as mentioned at the top of this page. (up there ---^ post 291 )


Duh1, what is a "final.txt"

 

actually not quite, I managed to enable VT in my BIOS successfully a few days ago (well, another thing is that I have P7350 which doesn't have VT at all, but whatever )

Dufus, lol I remember reading it like 6 times and still didn't realize it was actually at the top of this page silly of me. Anyway, it's not just me, that's good.

Also, I think he meant "the final txt file", which still wouldn't help him if he can't get other scripts to work, unless somebody provides him with everything he needs... lol. It's such an unfriendly environment here, you need to learn things by yourself... But, it's the best way!

 

Sorry, it could have probably been better written.

Still not sure what that is, is it the setup dump file?

Learning is good. I think there is enough information that if you really wanted to go ahead and do something with your BIOS you can and by learning in the process rather than just doing something and hoping for the best it might be less likely end in tears. No guarantees though

 

Hmm I was wondering... TjMax of my c2d p7350 is 90 degrees celsius. This value, 90*C, is saved in the setup variable, as the "Throttle On Temperature"
CPUs like P8600, P8700, that have the same lithography, TDP and so on, have their TjMax set to 105*C. My problem is, my CPU constantly throttles especially when gaming, and it's not unusual for it to hit the 90*C mark (and throttle down from 2000 to 1600MHz). I wonder what would happen if I changed the throttle temp to 105*C...
Anyone tried this?
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=35568,36750,

EDIT: I lowered the threshold to 80, just to check. It appears it has no real effect on throttling... eh