First I want to say a big thanks to everybody there as I read your modding guides and it is nicely described and contains a lot of useful information.
I am using an ASUS N73SM laptop (HM65 Express chipset - Aptio IV Bios) and I would like to mod the Bios on it. My plan is to do it step by step:
1. Update microcodes for SB/IB through UBU 2. Update Atheros LAN OROM through UBU 3. Update VBios through MMTool4 to latest build 2171 (first editing the file with BMP to transfer my current VBios settings)
The original Bios (v302) is currently including these:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 Intel RST(e) OROM and EFI SataDriver OROM IRST RAID for SATA - 10.5.0.744 EFI IRST RAID - Not present 2 Intel OROM VBIOS and EFI GOP Driver OROM VBIOS Sandy/IvyBridge - 2098 EFI GOP Driver - Not present 3 LAN OROM PXE and EFI UNDI - Intel, Realtek, BCM, QCA OROM Intel Boot Agent GE - 1.3.60 OROM QCM-Atheros PXE - 2.0.2.3 7 Update Intel CPU MicroCode SandyBridge/IvyBridge CPU Microcode 0206A7 SNB - 1B
I have few questions before starting.
Can I straight flash from VBios 2098 to 2171 or I need to get through some versions before ? One other thing, in case the laptop boots with no display I have a bootable FAT32 USB flashdrive that will automatically flash original v302 bios with Aflash2, but is there a worse risk that it may not boot anything at all if VBios flashing is incorrect?
Last thing, if all of this is a big success, and I attempt to swap the CPU with a i7 3840QM.... Will it boot successfully?
For those interested to have a look I attached my original bios v302.
Although I cannot answer your questions as exactly as needed, I want to remember you, that a) the UBU tool has been designed for Desktop and not for Mobile systems and b) flashing a modded BIOS into a Mobile system may brick it. Nevertheless I hope, that you will get the requested answers by anyone of our BIOS experts.
Actually about UBU it was stated in the guide to not use it for flashing vbios in a laptop but use MMTool4 instead, and that’s what I am planning to do. As for Bios flash I am aware that there is no “0-risk”, and I also noticed last time I opened my laptop that there is a 7-pin unsoldered connector-like area on the mainboard, in case of the worse, I am wondering if it can be of any use.
Well let’s see expert’s advices before starting anything
I would say the following: - the file has a read-only attribute, that will interfere with UBU. You should remove it before starting UBU or ask Sonix to add "attrib -r bios.bin" in future UBU releases. - I see two different microcodes for retail SandyBridge and a few ES microcodes. Better start with a clean ffs, what UBU is offering. - the original VBIOS is Sandy only, you will need some intermediate steps. - some links share the same ROM, you need to update them simultaneously, to avoid duplicated OROMs. - based on microcodes, VBIOS, MEBx and probably ME Firmware, you will have 0 chances of Ivy Bridge support.
Adding to what lordkag said last, HM65 does not support IVB cpus due to chipset spec incompatibility. Only some desktop 6-series systems got an upgrade from ME7 to ME8 in order to support IVB.
I noticed about the bios file being read-only, it’s my little mistake to set read-only attribute on important files. I was not sure which microcodes to keep, but I’ll go for the clean ffs. As for the VBios I saw an older post >here< with somebody owning a Asus K93SM who managed to update his VBios version “1-by-1” so I guess I should also do the same way I don’t know why they put multiple links to the same OROMs but I will be aware of this.
As for the ME firmware I think there is no way to update it to v8.x or it will straight run into bricking?
I think I will stay on the safe side for the moment, maybe later if I achieve to update microcodes and vbios I will investigate about ME. SNB CPU is nice but it really gets too hot under load compared to his IVB young brother…
Thanks to all for your advices, and sorry for delayed reply, I am back from Christmas holiday
I am glad to say that I modded and flashed my bios with latest and clean microcodes table, latest PXE OROMs and RST OROM 12.9 (as I use RST drivers 12.9 which are the best for my system) I also upgraded my ME Firmware to 7.1.80.1214, everything is working good!
As for Ivy, I won’t bother with it, according to some online boards, HM65 express can support i7 3615QE but it performs poorer than my i7 2860QM so… And I decided to “heavily” mod my laptop cooling (ok, now I have a big hole under y laptop, need to put some metal grid there) everything is running at good temps under load.
I have 2 more questions now, related to vbios: - Will I get any improvement to update my Intel Sandy VBIOS or it is a useless risk?
- I would like to overvolt my GeForce GT630m bios from 0.98V to 1.00V for stability in overclocking (Games run fine with 900MHz on GPU but sometimes when alt-tabbing I will get a freeze then DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION BSOD…) I found an overvolted GT540m bios (GT630m is a renamed 540m) but I won’t flash this one as it may surely brick the graphics card. I tried to open my nVidia bios file with Nibitor, FermiBiosEditor, KeplerBiosTweaker, but they fail to open it… Any advice for this point?
Thanks again!!
Oh and, I attached the modded bios and also the GT630m vbios
I’m trying to flash ASUS N73SM through Intel Flash Programming Tool (ver. 7.1 ) but I get an error at the time of flash What program did you use to flash your BIOS?
