3830TG Bios Modding (1.08 Bios)

Now before I begin I would like to quickly explain there is a lot I don't understand and my approach was that of deduction and hoping my best guess would be right. My terminology sucks as well, so please bear with me.

I managed to unlock the menus in the 1.08 bios for the 3830TG TimelineX using the following method.

The Insyde BIOS's all have a "SetupUtility PE" file which is approximately 670Kb. This file
contains the required information to unlock the advanced menus in the Insyde BIOS. You can obtain
a raw dump of these files with either the python tools referenced on this page

Code:

forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/23762-ACER-5742G-BIOS-modding-(unhidden-pages-enabled-UEFI-BOOT) 

or with the Pheonix_Mod_Tool_1.42.

The tool used to compile the firmware is EzH20 2.1.0.13 This is the only EzH20 tool which will
read a InsydeH20 bios that is > 1 MB as far as I know.

Unfortunately the EzH20 tool WILL NOT accept the "SetupUtility PE" file as a stand alone file.

To Quote;

So one has to use winhex or another type of RAM memory editor to insert the proper values into
EzH20. This is picky and requires patience. EzH20 is unlikely to save these changed values
without changing some value in the Firmware itself. I changed the boot logo personally.

Now what is going on is the UEFI bytecode is being edited to pretty much not check a variable
anymore ( a list)

Code:

forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/23762-ACER-5742G-BIOS-modding-(unhidden-pages-enabled-UEFI-BOOT) 

Explains it far better.

---
The data set.

14 11 80 00 01 05 00 00 00 01 00 02 00 03 00

Changes to

14 11 80 00 01 05 00 10 00 11 00 12 00 13 00

for the first and third occurance ONLY

---

The data

00 85 C0 0F 85 E1 00

Changes too

00 85 C0 90 E9 E1 00

There is only one instance of this data. It starts at 13A6h for the 1.04 Bios and at 13B6h for the
1.08 Bios as located in the "SetupUtility PE". I am uncertain as to what is going on with this at
the moment as far as function. (x86 assembly)

---


Now to get this to work I took a pretty ballsy approach and decided that the same modification on
the 1.04 bios might work on the 1.08. I was very happy to find that this did infact work. What I
did was compare the "SetupUtility PE" file of the 1.04 modded firmware with that of the stock
firmware to see the difference. the only notible differences I saw was what is listed above.

I figured if the 1.08 "SetupUtility PE" file was similar, I might be able to apply the same
method of unlocking the menus. there was a slight offset of the data, but in the end it did work.

This approach is pretty much exactly like that listed on the page I've referenced twice. I pretty much took that information and worked it to my own means.