Dell M6500 Problem

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by catgirl, Jan 15, 2014.

  1. tqhoang

    tqhoang MDL BIOS Modder

    Apr 29, 2008
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    I don't think so, but there are some length fields in there. For the M6500 A10 BIOS, the HDR file offsets are the following.
    Header is 84 bytes (0x000000 - 0x000053)
    Trailer checksum is 12 bytes (0x200050 - 0x20005b)

    I don't recall off hand but there is a thread in here regarding disassembly of the Dell BIOS. But if you open both HDR and ROM/BIN with a hex editor, then you can see them pretty easily.

    I'm not sure...but I do believe that's what people do with the ROM file.
     
  2. catgirl

    catgirl MDL Novice

    Jan 15, 2014
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    #22 catgirl, Jan 24, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2014
    (OP)
    Well guys an update to things:

    1) Dell Engineering admits that Crisis Recovery Mode has never worked on the M6500, although not in writing.
    2) My system is back up, the lab rat had a buddy with a M6500 Mainboard, we took the chip off and copied it, programmed it
    And I'm back up.
    3) tqhoang, your rom we played with twice and could not get it to run. The Winbond 25Q32BV is a 4GB chip so the dude had to transpose the 2mb to the correct segments of the chip (does offset 210000 - 3fffff sound right?), it looked right compaired to the original rom but would not do anything. I wouldn't know what to do with "SSD Trim" anyway, but thanks.

    In any case, Thank you all for the effort, I am back up.

    Edit 01.28.14

    In writing from a Dell Tier1 Pro Rep:

    "Confirmation from our Tier 3 that the E2 systems (which include the m6500) do not support the Bios crisis recovery mode due to changes made for newer UEFI."

    My Lab rat thinks that the Dell engineers re-used the IRQ hook for CRM to enable UEFI easily, and just never wiped the code out. Actually a pretty funny joke since we spent so many combined cycles chasing it's functionality.
     
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  3. locklobster

    locklobster MDL Novice

    Aug 6, 2010
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    Hello. You guys are good! Awesome job, catgirl.

    Alright, I would like to ask tqhoang for some help. He had posted a link to a modified BIOS with the updated Intel OROM. I have an M6500 and would like to know if this file can be re-uploaded. Thank you so much :worthy:

    (And, on a completely different topic, tqhoang, with your experience in mind, has there been any good news on the M6500 in terms of unlocking potential? SetFSB would be nice, but I am not sure if it can work. ThrottleStop seems to be the only thing to help, but since the FSB is not increased, there seems to be slight room for improvement. The only thing I found in recent news was the discovery of having 32GB RAM @ 1600Mhz usable if it is of the XMP type.)
     
  4. Fwinns

    Fwinns MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2014
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    Hi,

    I'd like to have the modified bios as well if that's possible...

    Thanks!
     
  5. Fwinns

    Fwinns MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2014
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    Great thanks! I'll try that tomorrow :D
     
  6. Fwinns

    Fwinns MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2014
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    #27 Fwinns, Aug 18, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2014
    Ok don't use this bios...!

    The recovery method does not work, as was explained by the OP, but I was able to flash the hdr file using the dell bios utility for linux. Flashing went well, but after rebooting, the memory testing goes as usual with the dell logo and then blinking slider... When it is supposed to load the OROM I believe.
    I tried to reset it, no luck, so I'll order a new motherboard and that will be it. So no raid with SSD in this laptop unfortunately (well it's possible, but without trim support so a bit useless)!
     
  7. Fwinns

    Fwinns MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2014
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    Well I don't really have the material/knowledge to reflash the bios chip so I'll have to pass on that :S But if someone can/want to do it I will gladly send him my bricked motherboard.
    But really big shame on Dell for having partially disabled the crisis recovery mode!