Alienware 17 R5 Engeneering sample need help to mod bios

It’s working! Here are pictures!

I drop you one photo of device menager with one USB C device which gives error code 43 may be you have seen something related to it in bios settings? Also need small guide how to adjust fan modes.

pic1.zip (5.2 MB)

pic2.zip (5.22 MB)

What is above attachments? (never mind, I downloaded them) I don’t need to see device manager, sorry I don’t know anything about USB C items or device manager errors, you’ll have to google that one.
Yes, there is USB 3/C related settings in BIOS, check them out and see if any help. I don’t know about fan modes either, sorry, I only know you can adjust certain thermal trip points (example - trip point 1 set 40C or whatever and then set fan to xx%, then trip point 2 70C or whatever then set fan to much higher %)

* Edit - thanks for images, from what I can see in those, there is a bunch of settings still missing from the other Boot Menu. So new BIOS coming shortly to fix that

** Edit 2 - Due to these settings missing, which probably should have been visible, I expect some/many others may be missing too. So, if you want, please take images of every single submenu/setting within, so I can see it all.
If you do, please resize images, or use other camera, or maybe if you can, make a quick video instead Video may be best, if you can make a small one, AVI, MP4, MKV etc, all OK, whatever is smallest.
Then I can pause on anything I need, and you can much easier go into each submenu and scroll up/down, back out, next submenu etc and that would be much easier for us both vs images I think.

* Edit #3 - @code9523 - Here is new edit, revealing the missing settings from the new Boot Menu.
Please see change log, I put some notes/question there for you about one setting (Driver Option #%d = Order), if this bricks, or wont let you into this page now, it’s due to my note/question
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…476435190338026

Annnnnd, now that I’ve uploaded, I think maybe I could have left that as it is, and only enabled in AMIBCP maybe, we’ll find out, let me know what happens, if it’s a fail, we’ll try AMIBCP edit only on that single setting

It failed to boot on V3

- I didn’t expect that, but did think maybe it wouldn’t show that boot page. I will redo
* Edit - this one will boot, promise, but may not show the missing settings, but I want to see which if any show up this way only, so show me image of new boot page (one on far right)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…853552966787247

Then, if all still missing, this time I will unsuppress differently, and leave that last one I questioned off, except in a separate final edit.




Booted UP! More setting avaliable!

But still no changes to fans even when i try to adjust it. No thunderbolt control even if i enable it there is no tb in windows.

So still also found the string that said EC Firmware version 0000.

And i cant find where UCB C settings are.

And you touched sonething related to alien fx or ec as now when laptop is turned off and charging alienware logo blinks. Normally alien head should blink…

Please show me image of the boot page now so I can see.

Fan settings may rely on EC FW, and yes, EC FW will always be 0000 or N/A since the chip has been erased. Did you Enabled >> Automatic Thermal Reporting << Before setting thermal trip points and fan speeds? You must do that first

Thunderbolt, you may need to look up that exact chip model online, and see if you can find anyone discussing it’s FW and how it’s updated (if possible, it may not be possible for the public)
Default is enabled (For discreet), did you also test disabled? Also, for any setting I mentioned/look at, I’m only looking at optimal, so be sure you have stated after flash by loading optimal defaults (Restore Defaults) in the BIOS exit page before making any changes.

On the blinking LED, so what happened before when charging, nothing/No LED? The only thing relating to charging I touched was made those three battery options visible to you in the original Advanced page, I didn’t change the default settings so same options were always what was applied.

Did you test changing the LCD panel type yet at Chipset >> LCD panel type?

On Thunderbolt, at Chipset >> PCH I/O >> PCI Express Config >> Root Port x (many numbers), each one has a setting “Disable Gen2 Pll Shutdown and L1 Controller Power gating” this mentions it needs to be enabled for TB to function (Default disabled)
I see “USB Sensor Hub” disabled at >> PCH I/) >> USB (maybe this help with USB 3/C). Also, xDCI Support = disabled by default
Also, at New Advanced >> ACPI D3Cold settings (USB #1-2 disabled), this mentions USB3 in help text



This isn’t a problem with the vBIOS injected in the main BIOS for that to be the case hardware IDs would need to be getting switched and given how locked down nvidia firmware is this just isn’t possible without a modded version of nvflash and even then the hardware ID switching is a static thing it won’t change on the fly. It looks like the problem is either with Windows (if its build 1903 I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest that build is a complete clusterfuck right now) or with the driver. You could also install the driver for the display rather than rely on the generic Windows one. I’d also start by cleaing out the GPU drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller and downloading the latest drivers directly from the nvidia website - never, EVER, use manufacturer custom drivers their not worth the headaches. I’d need to read this thread in full to say more or someone give me a bullet point recap of whats going on here :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for your thoughts @ket - The issue is when using 17" screen (goal), fans run at full blast and info is all wrong (Don’t care really)
When using 15" screen (don’t want to use) everything works properly, although card and system model ID wrong, not important really, the fans acting right with this monitor but not the other is the main thing we want to fix
This unrelated to windows, and happens at BIOS level as well, so not a windows issue.

This is ES System, so we can’t use retail ME FW, or BIOS region etc. Something in the card’s vBIOS is causing this, and we’d like to switch it, so that when using 17" screen it does everything it currently does on the 15" now.
He has flash programmer, so unless signature check is an issue with actual use of the vBIOS (and not just flashing), then you can mod away and he can recover if need be. Can you switch everything relating to the 15" to the 17"'s details instead (Or copy it there, less work that way)

If you think something in the BIOS vBIOS could be doing this, here is a copy of that. I also suspected this, and looked at it in Intel BMP but didn’t see anything that caught my eye in regards to any of this (except neither this nor BIOS settings offer either monitors actual resolution)
BIOS defaults set to = vBIOS default, and vBIOS default set to = BIOS default
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…602686142951604

* Edit - @code9523 - ket made me think of something, and I found a switch off from 17 R5 and 15 R4 in setup… So… new test files for you, maybe we can make some magic happen!

17R5-15R4-SwitchTest.png



Sorry, but be ready to recover from each one, unsure of outcome here, especially on the 00 edit - 75 or EB probably best outcome, one more edit is possible here (similar to 00 edit, but done differently, probably better way) but I didn’t think of it until looking at these images and uploading all this, so if these fail one more to try next
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…688087902789429

Aside from the additional edit I mentioned above, I can also switch these (the lea {load effective address} 17 R5 for 15 R4) around too I believe. So we’ll try that next too if these aren’t helpful

If the hardware on that ES is the same as retail theres no reason why you can’t flash to retail firmware, the ES shouldn’t be locked in any way so its very unlikely you need to even override any IDs or security checks you might just have to force the flash from a DOS prompt or EFI shell but thats it. Aggressive fans will be part of the Lookup table or fuzzy logic - thats all held in the vBIOS not the main BIOS (or it should be). Incorrect info will also be part of the vBIOS so theoretically you could also rip out the vBIOS from some retail A17R5 firmware and use it to replace the vBIOS injected in the ES firmware then everything should work as intended. It would also be worth testing by using some different screens as the issue could be a compatibility problem with the current screen. If thats the case the bug may or may not have been fixed in the retail firmware no real way to know that without trying.

@ket - we’ve already tried that, and I’ve tried on a few Dell ES models for others, it’s got ES PCH, so I assume other stuff not the same as retail either. He has flash programmer, and aside from that, BIOS flashing isn’t an issue.
What you mention about fan profiles in vBIOS I have no clue about any of that, this is why I asked if you’d look at that vBIOS. I’ve never even heard those terms Well I have heard of Fuzzy Logic, but only in speaking about Alien technology or Scientific stuff, not computer/BIOS related.

We have not tested retail vBIOS (in BIOS), other than failed BIOS region swaps which contain it, but I do believe he’s tested retail vBIOS on the card and it didn’t help. I agree, it would be good if he could test a few other 17" screens to see if same things happen or not.

@code9523 - any testing results from the above BIOS package yet?

Ok
1. V5EB = no changes
2. V500 = 15R4 name in bios but nothing else changed.
3. V575 freezes on alienware screen no boot no bios entry.

Thanks for testing, it’s useful info! So, V5EB = no change, this means that was the default thing it was doing (going to 17 R5). Does this happen with either 15 or 17" screens?
Please test that BIOS with both screens. Also, test V500 and BIOS below with both screens. Sorry, I forgot to mention this screen stuff when I posted those, but this is what I wanted to test, along with the outcome of each of these edits
on V500 - I think this may be done in a better way, but maybe test both, here is the BIOS done with better method - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…577869055053941

Interesting that V575 does not boot

Hello, can you please post the bios dump for this laptop again?

Would there be any way to get the same bios as the link doesn’t seem to work. It’s exactly what I’ve spent hours looking for!

@Xwartu
Ask another user, you should always look at the user badge, in this case Lost is a retired user and no longer active forum member since Jan 2021.

EDIT: By all means…its no offense and non taken, i was just teaching you and alerting, but RETIRED is indeed RETIRED, meaning it wont reply or has any activity.

I didn’t mean any offense by it. I assumed retired meant retired, but I thought I’d ask and I was unable to get into his profile to see if the bios dumps he made were catalogued anywhere, or if any of these download links still work.