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

i am doing it myself and there is no one whom i know is/are interested or even scant interested. damn i am greedy. i upgraded the CPU from m540 to t7250 and i am not able to turn on the intel vt in the bios. and thats why in the virtualbox i am unable to run any 64-bit OS.
the file. i mean setup.txt and i am clueless about how to get this wretched thing done. friggin pathetic state i am in. right now. and zchef2k has mysteriously disappeared. so i cant trace him either. say that now. devil and deep sea and deep soup.

 

like the bios update has no warranty, there is no warranty on life either. and what good is fresh/polluted oxygen we breathe w/o the risk factor? uh? ;-)
yes tell me how to do it! or show me someone. as i am game. if it bricks? then how to unbrick it. this aint like wrt54g v5 that i can smd the flash and ram chip and have it up and running. thanks anyway. and any help is a blessing so thanks in advance.

 

To un-brick you could try the recovery procedure mentioned elsewhere on the forum, search for "insyde bios recovery". Make a copy of your BIOS backup and rename it "IBL80HW.fd" to use as the recovery file. If the recovery does not work strip down the notebook, remove the board and carefully de-solder and remove the SPI BIOS chip and flash externally with your backup file or find someone to do it for you then re-solder chip back on board or make a socket for it. What ever happens, don't cry.

Here's the setup file, I haven't used the vtenable.py method so maybe one of the other forum members can help you with that.

Attached setup.txt. GL

 

hey dufus,
greetings!
thanks mate, aah got it. i will give it a try withing a day or two. may be in the coming weekends, next friday/saturday/sunday. and in the meanwhile i will order a spare spi bios chip and also will get myself a smd reworker. and get ready and prepared. incase i fail? the recover method must bring it back to life, else not just sit there but operate........ ;-)
thanks anyway. and oh by the way is this for 30d9f34.fd that i need to change it to "IBL80HW.fd"?
thanks.

 

Best if you use your backup file that you posted, "the-beast.fd". I take it that is your backup and not someone else's, right? If it's someone else's you'd better start over again with your own backup before trying any flashing.

Strange humour you have. A re-worker would cost a lot more than new board. You can still use the same SPI chip that came out of the board as long as it's done carefully ie without breaking the legs off. Hopefully it wont come to that though.

 

hi dufus and others,
Greetings!
here i am again. and this time half solved and 99% yet to be done. as per the plan today is saturday and i been up and awake doing it. now its almost 4:15 am sunday, and since 10 am yesterday i been trying and no success. i had to wipe the debian squeeze and sid install in my hdd and i had to install XP just for this. damn, and i feel sorry for letting my debian stable/testing/sid/experimental go for a wipe toss. damn me.
the detailed information i will list out. the difference between your setup.txt and my setup.txt is 99 bytes. your setup.txt is 70458 and mine is 70557.
this info is for others as well. i am done with almost all the steps except one the final one. vtenable.py i had to rename the 2 files vtenable.py to vtenable-bnew.py and dumpsetup2.py to dumpsetup2-bnew.py bnew = brand new (MY brand c734tu) per edit. and alas i am getting a checksum error in the end. can anyone help me. i will load the output of the console. and yet i cant see any reason as why this difference is coming up. i am also uploading the setuputility-mine.pe also. can anyone please have a look and tell me whats wrong? the links to files are as follows.
http://filebin.ca/zjkycx/damned.rar
http://filebin.ca/fhsgot/screwydamned.exe
any you or anyone have a look at this?
if i get this enable i can then run wipe -cfi /dev/sda and run as 36 wipes on windows and then dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda and do a fresh debian install like how it was till 2 pm after lunch. frikkin annoying windows.
please its a sincere request someone please help me. many many many many thanks in advance.
-paul
p.s. good night from me, i give up the struggle for tonight. may be i will fight with it tomorrow. i am drained up like hell. friggin insyde and friggin hp.
p.s.2
C:\Python25>python.exe vtenable-bnew.py mybios.fd mybios2.fd >> patch.txt
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "vtenable-bnew.py", line 95, in <module>
var = VAR(vss[off:])
File "vtenable-bnew.py", line 58, in __init__
raise ValueError("Checksum error")
ValueError: Checksum error

 

a friend of mine gave me the tools to edit the bios settings like UUID and enable and disable the vista switch and et al. but since i done use windows unless come messed up issue like this one? i dont use that tool, except i changed the identity of my machine to compaq presario c734tu notebook pc to something like "Apple Mac MacBookPro MacBookLite Notebook PC and also i changed the UUID to 66655566644466633366622266611166 and the warranty also expired this 23 sept so i got nothing to loose anyway if i change the details and i am not going to HP to shell so much money for a repair. if you guys dont believe i can snapshot this screen, and the bill and the notebook behind serial number. well. nothing much more can be done now as the warranty period is over. and well the vista option is still greyed out. i didnt enable it and i "WONT enable VISTA". and neither i have any plan to mod it with slic stuffs. i want to have debian thats clean and simple as per me. debian is best according to me. good old debian. its 4:37 am now sunday and i must go to bed. speak later today.
-paul

 

This is your BIOS with VT enabled at location 0xbd

not sure why you were using location 0x76 and I am not sure why your vtenable.py is longer than mine

http://rapidshare.com/files/432132309/duha1.zip

 

thanks a lot man thanks a lot. may you get all the riches and the good looking girls of the world. :-D
i will be just happy if i can get tis thing to work then kick windows XP out once and for all and stick on with debian and netbsd. thanks mate thanks.
eeeeehawwwwww! thanks mate. i guess i goofed up because i been trying that since 2 pm and its 7 am. i couldn't sleep. i guess i am a sure shot psychopath and this desperate need made me more psychopath. i am using a live cd right now and i will login to windows right now and once i am done? i will post the details. and lets see.
i will log into windows and post the results in a bit. till then ciao!
COUNTLESS THANKS! (this is no yell, just screaming a big thanks)
-paul

 

no prob, you should try using the vtenable.py I attached to my last post on your fd file, make sure you get the same results

it should work fine, and produce the same file

 

oh yeahhhhh yesssssss! "IT DOESN'T WORK", forget enable the advanced menu, it didnt even enable the virtualization. i was more worried about virtualization than advanced menu. and secondly, the setup.txt showed my laptop as v3000, WAQQQQQ and it has its UUID and GUID and also laptop serial number. which means its a generic one and not meant to work for all bios.
so what did i learn from this?
#1. LEARN TO WRITE CODES IN PYTHON ALSO, ELSE IN DEEPEST TROUBLE.
#2. try to understand the coding and also RTFM before going totally off the shelves psycho nuts.
#3. generics always don't work on specific things.
#4. to get things done? Best is to do it yourself, either don't do it, else tell a kid not to do it.
#5. Necessity is the "MOTHER" of invention!
#6. if something i cant do on my own? ask others! (thank you forum for your brilliant support, you also tried along with me, insane mother insyde is all messed up and HP also.)
#7. dont waste full day doing impossible i.e. divide by 0, there are infinite possibilities or else.
#8 MOST IMP: DESPERATE SITUATION DESPERATE MEASURES ( i need to learn python now and fix this crappy hanged up issue).

thanks anyway team, your support is brilliant. and in this process i had to wipe away all the tattoo on the bios like "Apple Macintosh MacBook MacBookPro MacBookLite Notebook PC" and machine serial # "-#-LOL" and UUID "66655566644466633366622266611166" and GUID "-LOL--LOL" and i also activated windows vista in the menu. now i need to disable windows vista and redo this thing again. phew.
thanks, i must be a moron, 3 full weekends wasted.
so next try after i learn python and rtfm intel pdf's and then edit those files i got from this forum and oh yeah dd /dev/sda!
here are the screenshots of virtual box failing miserably and i did enable the intel-vt in the bios, but this bastid wont accept it.
system-processor.png
system-mobo.png
system-accleration.png
bad-luck.png
will post updates in a week. have fun everyone and thanks a lot for all the trouble you had to undergo both in reading and also understanding these trash posts and helping me with issues.
in a week!
-paul

 

Did you try the FD file I gave you on rapid share?
Did you go into the BIOS and load setup defaults?, because if you do that, you will wipe out the enable VT setting.
At least you got further than before, the vtenable.py script ran, finished without error and created a new bios file right?
You did try the script yourself right?
After you flashed the new BIOS, did you reboot, dump the BIOS again, and compare it to the one you just flashed to make sure the settings did not change.
Is this bios your using the latest available?
Maybe the BIOS does not have the code for VT just because there is VSS setting for it, does not mean the code is there.
Does the chipset on your motherboard support VT?

Sorry I could not help more, here is a link to the originator of these scripts

Abort, Retry, Hack? Blog Archive Enabling Intel VT on the Aspire 8930G (and other InsydeH2O-based laptops)

 

Hi. Im a computer technician and someone brought me a laptop, that it's supposed to have a rotten bios. I wonder if there is a chance that I can get an extracted bios for a hot flash. I cant use the insyde bios rom because they are for reprograming and useless for a hotflash (as the user 0.0 had said once in fact). The laptop is a DV5 with a board 3600 or 3603.

Thanks in advance.

 

Just download it from hp.com. For example, sp49543.exe for Pavillion DV4 F.18 BIOS. Open with 7-zip to get the 2MB flash image.

 

I take it you have tried the Insyde BIOS recovery and it doesn't work. Are you confident hotflashing will work, ie the chip wont require removal? If you are able to hotflash then you should be able to read the chip beforehand and try to recover the machines specific information / serial numbers, hopefully they are still intact. Otherwise you will probably have to make some up. Either way probably a good idea to dump the contents of the chip before any erasing / programming.

 

Just flash the bios image as provided by HP, then use the HP DMIFIT utility to reprogram DMI with the serial/model, etc.

 

I am new to these forums and I would like to thank all who did the preliminary work especially the time taken to write the guides. They are concise and to the point and they work. Right now I am testing various settings. I just booted bios with Gfx Low Power Mode disabled and it boots fine... Will be reporting my findings. HPG60-458DX, Intel T4200, ICH9 SB, GL40 NB, 800 MHZ ddr2 Kinston Valuram. ICS9LPRS355BKL Pin Modded for FSB overclock.

 

Hey guys, I didn't see anyone using a dv6t 1100 CTO here, and I have a very specific problem with mine. My processor NEVER reaches it's maximum state, as I can see from both CPU-Z and Resource Monitor. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 and using the Dolphin emulator my multiplier goes from 6 to 8 (1200 to 1600Mhz) but never 11 (2200MHz), although I can clearly remember my processor reaching the 2200MHz in many cases in the past. I have already played around with power profiles in Windows (7 Ultimate x64) but to no avail. It's clearly a BIOS issue, and I observed it since my laptop went to an HP service center and was flashed, (God knows with what BIOS) and the heatsink was refitted.

If anyone has an insight on this problem, maybe unlock BIOS settings for power management, or something more obvious, please let me know. Thanks!

 

I should've explained more.

I already flashed the the bios (of course it needed to be extracted) with the bios of the HP, but the HP bios is around 1 megabyte, and the information I extracted from the rom was only 128kilobytes. And of course, it didnt work out. In fact, even having premodified the HP programing bios (with the EZH20 utility), the data is way to far different from the data inside the rom.

 

The vbios alone is 64kb and there's no way the additional bios functionality would fit in another 64kb.

Are you sure you removed the BIOS chip? There are two flash eeproms on modern systems.. the keyboard controller and the bios. Often the keyboard controller is 128kb or 256kb. A HP BIOS tends to be, as you higlight, 1GB/2GB or even 4GB, so the bios chip will be a 8/16 or 32MBit chip.

 

Well, the BIOS chip I extracted contained the 3 serial numbers of the laptop, and the beggining of it is pretty well the same as the FD 1mbyte rom. So I assume its the bios (I dont think the keyboard controller has that kind of info).

32mbit bios chip ? thats way too high, its not a router eeprom you know

Anyway, the client couldnt wait up any longer, but I dont think the problem was the bios anyway.

 

BIOS chip sizes are in Mb (Mbits) not MB (MBytes). Did you possibly use 1Mb size for extraction thinking it was 1MB and therefore ended up with the first 128kB (1Mb)?

Can't speak for EZH2O, as I don't use it, but usually one of the larger firmware volumes contains a large LZMA compressed section. If your modifications were to the uncompressed section then even small changes can result in very large differences when it is re-compressed.

The serial / UUID numbers from what I have seen are uncompressed and before the EFI firmware volumes so it should have been simple to use the downloaded BIOS and patch before externally flashing. Alternatively use Nando's method if the BIOS doesn't halt when complaining about missing serial number and you have all the numbers available. I have not tried Nando's method myself but IMHO Nando's pretty good with those things.

Sad to hear it didn't work out for you.

 

I know chip sizes are in Megabits, but yet 32mbits is way to high. The biggest bios I've managed was an 8800gt, while it was an 8mbits chip, the bios data was merely 1mbit size (so I flash it repeating the data) .

Ahm, with the programmer used, you dont use an extraction size, you have to select the kind of chip you will work with and then its automatically selected the chip data size, therefore, I was doing it knowing that the HP "FD" bios was 1mbyte size so I was greatly surprised when I saw the 128k data (with FD bios I mean the bios you download from HP site).

This 128k "compressed" data, has the serial numbers in text, no need to decrypt or uncompress to see them. While the same I can say for the modified uncompressed FD Bios of viewing the serial numbers.

 

I just have an el-cheapo programmer which works off USB and is pretty slow but gets the job done and it allows selectable sizes and offset. Especially useful when it's not required to read or write the whole chip. nvm though it's pretty irrelevant now.

The Gateway NV79 laptop IIRC uses an Insyde 4MB BIOS so the chip would have to be at least 32Mb. As EFI becomes more and more common I would not be surprised to see yet bigger and bigger chips used, the BIOS becoming something like a mini OS.

 

I think I have a problem so that the BIOS' settings are so limited, there is no setting of HDD and dispay's settings and some important settings. this picutre shows you the problem. so please, is there any way to make the BIOS' setting appear wholly ? because I need to edit some important settings, thank you in advance

information for my laptop:
hp pavilion dv7 3145ef
bios version : f.1D

 

I didn't disappear, I just have nothing else to offer. Trying to enable VT-X or advanced menus on this model is a lost cause.

Good luck.

 

pleas help me

 

hey, i'm on a ACER 5742G laptop, and i'm trying to unhide options to turn on/off HPET, VT and UEFI boot capability. the InsydeH2O firmware has 64bit binaries in it, and i can get as far as launching dumpsetup2.py (with the correct offset put in from runinng main.py), but i get the python error

Code:

    self.indent = self.INDENTS[self.opcode]
KeyError: 115

Here's the .fb image: http://rajko.info/acer/PEW71110.rar
This is from the ACER website
It's 4MB uncompressed, but the 2.1.0.13 version of ezH2O can open it, so after patching the module, i could replace it just fine.
This is the dumped rom with fla$$$$$ /g http://rajko.info/acer/5742GEURODUMP.rar

EDIT, actually, if you change all the offsets in dumpsetup2.py to the ones you get from main.py, it works.
What next though ?

Code:

STRING_TABLE = 0x18400

storage_map = {}

FORMS = [
	('Main',	0x7ecb0),
	('Exit',		0x7f090),
	('Boot',		0x7f120),
	('Power',	0x7f2a0),
	('Security',	0x7f810),
	('Advanced',	0x7f970),
	('Information',	0x83b50),	
]

are the modifications to dumpsetup2.py i did
http://codepad.org/xuIZiOvK is the string table generated by dumpsetup2.py
i'd like to enable the UEFI boot option, and the VT option to be editable in setup
How would i achieve this ?

EDIT2: i've been successfull in disabling the boot logo without entering the setup menu
and if i set 0x85 to 0x05, i get some more options on the existing tabs, but no EXTRA tabs
ive also tried setting 0x86 to 0x01 or 0x02, just makes some fields grayed out, nothing extra

so i get to see the UEFI BOOT option, and it's set to [ENABLED].
Changing it to either enabled or disabled doesnt affect anything, doesnt boot EFI mode off the win7 x64 dvd, or off a usb stick with GPT and shell on it as BOOTX64.EFI as required

What's the format PE binaries have to be in in order for ezh2o to accept them as a module ? I've extracted the FS off a laptop that can boot UEFI, it doesnt have much more binaries or changes, but when i go to "replace module" ezh2o crashes (2.1.0.13) and insert module always gives me wrong format.

 

i patched the hp dv5t-1000 firmware file to remove the wireless network card whitelist restriction. it's based on the latest official firmware.

download the zip file from the link below and run the InsydeFlash.exe tool inside the unzipped folder. good luck.

dvt5.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

 

I have a dv7t-4100 and would be interested in a custom bios that supported the ability to disable hybrid graphics and change primary gpu.
Edit: Done a lot of work and found the hidden options. How can I edit the vtenable.py file so it can change the variable to dGPU?

Code:

Suppress If
    EQ [0x21d<1>] == 0x0
    EQ [0x220<1>] == 0x0
    OR
    One Of [0x20a<1>] 'Display Mode'
    \Help text: 'Set Display Mode Configure Type.'
     Option 'iGPU' = 0x0 Flags 0x0 Key 0x0
     Option 'dGPU' = 0x1 Flags 0x0 Key 0x0
     Option 'Hybrid' = 0x2 Flags 0x1 Key 0x0
    End One Of
   End If

Whole file here: http://www.pastebin.ca/2026769
Also main.txt here: http://pastebin.ca/2026771

Nice to know the option exists. Who knows why hp doesn't want to allow you to change between hybrid, dGPU, iGPU. All I know is the ATI linux proprietary driver cannot run with hybrid graphics and there for I need to be able to change this setting from its stagnant hybrid to dGPU.

 

I am also receiving this error attmepting the first step of reading my bios file out to main.txt. Could someone please tell me what im doing wroing?

Thanks,

 

Hello....I realize this is an "old" post, but am hoping you still have the HP EEPROM tool? I have a new system board in my HP dv7 1240us laptop, and the serial number is blank. Would like to get the original reentered. Thanks.

 

Still looking for help with this. I've tried on my own so far with no success.

 

You'll be able to set those options by modding the bios defaults with ezh2o 2.1.0.13:. Not sure if those settigns do anything anyway.. HP boots up with the IGP active and switches in the HD5650 via ACPI calls. vgaswitcheroo should be able to do the same in Linux.

 

I'm having some trouble modding my bios with Ezh2o. I'm using a dv7t-4100.

theres are my bios
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp50501-51000/sp50942.exe

when I extract its contents with winrar it doesn't seem to have a .fb file for me to load into Ezh20.

Am I just doing something wrong?

 

Should make it so it boots with the dGPU as default should I set it but every time I try to change the option and hit patch it crashes ezh2o for who knows what reason. There is there any other way to make this work? And yes vga_switcheroo works for switching default GPU but it doesn't change the location of the vga bios file so it still is pointing to the Intel one and not the ATi one which makes the proprietary AMD driver crash since the bios file its picking up isn't an ATi bios.

 

Since It appears that ezh2o 2.1.0.13 is unstable is there another way to patch this part of my bios, like by using the python scripts?

 

Anyone want to mod the DV5 BIOS to unlock advanced menus? Especially ability to switch AHCI to IDE and vice versa.

Fame and fortune* awaits.

*fortune is relative.

BIOS file: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45138.exe

 

Any help is appreciated with removing whitelist from Compaq Mini CQ10-410ER BIOS:

-Manufacturer: HP Compaq
-Model: Compaq Mini CQ10-400 (410) series
-Bios Revision: Insyde H2O F.14 from 2010-11-22
-Bios Download Link: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp51001-51500/sp51072.exe

Thanks in advance!

 

Sign up for mydigitallife forum.

My Digital Life Forums

In the BIOS mods section, you can make a request. They may already have a modified BIOS already done for that model.

 

I want, please send me modded bios. mailto: [email protected]
Thank you in advance.

 

Hello,

I have a DV5-1180.
Here is my original BIOS: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45138.exe
Can you unlock "advanced menu", or remove whitelist, or bootable from esata?

Thanks!

 

Somebody here got the knowledge and the time to mod the Insyde BIOS of the Compal NBLB2 to unlock advance features in the BIOS? Or maybe somebody already has done it?


BIOS:
ftp://65.106.72.164/Notebook/Compal/NBLB2/BIOS/Windows/NBLB2-WIN-D02.zip

 

I'm looking at doing a bios mod so I can upgrade the wifi on an HP dv6z-2000.

Here's the bios:
WinFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (for Notebooks with AMD Processors) - Microsoft Windows Based HP Pavilion dv6z-2000 CTO Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Current wifi card:
Atheros AR5B95-H
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002B&SUBSYS_303F103C&REV_01
Vendor: 168c
Device: 002B
Subsys: 303f103c

New wifi card:
Broadcom 94322MC rev P3A400
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_432B&SUBSYS_1380103C
Vendor: 14e4
Device: 432b
Subsys: 1380103c

Anyone interested in providing an edited bios? I'm going to try it, but I'd rather not brick my wife's laptop on my first attempt at this.

 

Please, where I download the HP EEPROM TOOL? thx

 

Would really be cool if somone could help me with the python scripts particularly Vtenable.py so I can modify it to disable my hybridgraphics on my HP DV7-4100.

 

Anyone mod the bios on the new dm1?

 

Any mods unlock the ability to wake the laptop from a usb device? Or do any of the new official BIOS updates have this option? Thanks.

 

I second this questioning remark.

 

I have an HP Pavilion DV6-3070ca which has switchable graphics. I am having major problems trying to use the discrete card in Ubuntu. I really wish I could disable switchable graphics and just use the discrete card at all times. I contacted HP and they were no help, they explained however that the BIOS is limited to protect users from themselves and to save time for HP technical support. They do not offer an alternative BIOS.

Does someone here know how to modify the BIOS to disable switchable graphics and have it always run on the discrete ATI Mobility HD 5650?

Here is where you can download the BIOS:

Download: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp50501-51000/sp50942.exe
Released: 2010-11-25
Version: F.23

If this version cannot be modified, can an older version be and then I downgrade to the older BIOS? Thank you for your time.