[Guide] How to Unlock an InsydeH2O BIOS

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

I’ve just recently disable the option of BIOS Lock of my BIOS and now I am trying to fully unlock all my Bios settings. I’ve been searching for a guide and posts about requests unlocking Insyde Bios’s . However, I can’t find one that suits my situation. So I am asking for help.

I known I’ve made a request before in the forum, but I don’t know what do anymore.

Any help is appreciated.

EDIT:

Hi! I just created a modding guide for anyone if is interested or has the same problem.

Acer Aspire A515-56 - InsydeH2O Setup Utility Rev 5.0 Fully Unlock Settings Guide

WARNING:

Modifying a Bios can be dangerous for your system and if done wrong it can leave it obsolete so I advise you to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong like a bootable USB.

Bios ver: 1.04 (11/02/2020)
Tools used:
FPTW 15.0.30.1716 (Take into account that the FPTW folder you may need varies on the system. For more information download HWINFO64 and click this link and go to the C2. section)
UEFIToolNEA 59
HxD
IFRExtractor
H2OUVE

First off we need to change some settings just in case. Go to your Bios and make sure there are "none" Set Supervisor Passwords and Boot mode is "UEFI".

Now the process of getting the Bios. Go to "Command Prompt" and enter as administrator, input “cd + location of the folder FPTW 15.0.30.1716 ”, then input “FPTW64.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin”. Your Bios dump should appear in the folder

We also need to check if "Bios Lock" is enabled, go to "UEFIToolNEA 59" and click the Action tab click Search, go to Text and search for “Bios Lock”, then click the search result that says “DriverSampleDxe”. Now you need to right-click and select “Extract as is”, a file named “Section_PE32_image_DriverSampleDxe_SetupUtility.sct” should appear in the folder.
[
Now open the “IFRExtractor” and select the file we just got thanks to UEFITool, now another file named “Section_PE32_image_DriverSampleDxe_SetupUtility IFR.txt” will also appear. Open and search the words “BIOS Lock” and “Flash Protection Range Registers”, if below "BIOS Lock" you see “One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x0 {09 07 04 00 00 00 00}” and in "Flash Protection Range Registers" you also see “One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x0 {09 07 04 00 00 00 00}” then we need to make some changes if not skip the next paragraph.

To disable both “Bios Lock‘’ and “Flash Protection Range Registers”, go to the folder H2OUVE, click “GET VARS.bat”, this will give you the vars of your Bios. Open “vars.txt” and search for “PchSetup”, now look the variables that enable Bios Lock and Flash Protection Range Registers, in my case 1C and 683 respectively, you will be able to identify them by seeing the value next to “VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName):” Now go to 1C and 683 and replace the 01 with 00, not done yet tho. Just in case, copy the GUID down below “PchSetup” , in my case “4570B7F1-ADE8-4943-8DC3-406472842384”, and as we did it before replace the 1C and 683 values of 01 with a 00. save the changes, go to "Command Prompt" as administrator, and once again input “cd + location of the folder H2OUVE” then input “H2OUVE.exe -sv vars.txt”. This should save the changes that we made to the vars


Using UEFIToolNEA 59 again, go to the Action tab, click Search, go to Text and search for “A01ODMDxe”, the search results should appear down below. Right click “PE32 image sectio…” and select “Extract as is”. A file named “Section_PE32_image_A01ODMDxeDriver _A01ODMDxeDriver” should appear in the folder.

Go to HxD and open ”Section_PE32_image_A01ODMDxeDriver _A01ODMDxeDriver” , click the Search tab, select “Go to” and write "16EA". Now change the value to “EB” and save the changes. Finally go back to "UEFIToolNEA 59" and replace the “A01ODMDxeDriver” module right click ir and choose “Replace as is”, you must select the edited “Section_PE32_image_A01ODMDxeDriver _A01ODMDxeDriver" and save the changes.

After all this trouble now you have to just click “FLASH.BAT”

There may be some mistakes and some things left out but this should be enough for you to mod your Bios. I also hope that if you use InsydeH20 this guide may be helpful to you.

Thanks to Sweet Kitten for unlocking my Bios and telling which edits need to be chnaged and as well as Dudu2002

biosreg.zip (4 MB)

Section_PE32_image_DriverSampleDxe_SetupUtility IFR.txt (2.08 MB)

vars.txt (238 KB)


Edit by Fernando: This thread has been started by pAnkEk3 as a “BIOS Modding Request”, but after having solved the problem he added a complete guide to the first post. To make it easier for other users with a similar problem to find the guideI I have moved the thread into the “BIOS Modding Guides” Category and gave it a customized title.

1 Like
2

If I need to bring more information, please tell me

3

pAnkEk3.zip

4

Thank you so much! Bless you, your family and your loved ones!

5

Also if it doesn’t bother could you tell me what changes did you made?

6

Changed byte 16EA to "EB" in A01ODMDxe module.

7

ohhhh thanks!

8

I’ve followed the guide with success (after some minor tweaks since a tiny bit of info is missing)

I can successfully flash my bios back and the computer actually boots. After dumping the bios again, I can see the changes I made-
changed the defaults on Bios lock and FPRR.

Only question now is, how do I get the extra Advanced tab to actually show? That is the last piece to this puzzle…

9

Hi , followed the guide even not the same Acer model (A515-57) but same Insyde rev. and got that message :slight_smile: Error 621: Unsupported hardware platform. HW: Alder Lake Platform. Supported HW: Tigerlake Platform. FPT Operation Failed
There’s maybe a way for A515-57 ? :innocent:
Thanks !!!

10

You should use some other version of FPT, appropriate to Management Engine of your BIOS.

1 Like
11

Yeah that’s what i was thinking . You mean FPTW64.exe coming from the correct ME isnt’ it ? I have it

12

Uhmm would you be so kind to suggest me some procedures in case there are problems with the flash please ?

13

Is there any specific problem you have? Did you manage to read/write BIOS with FPTW yet?

14

no specific problem sorry , just a slight fear , i saw pAnkEk3 wrote have a backup plan in case something goes wrong like a bootable USB and wondering what he means

15

i have a bootable usb with original bios , enough that ?

16

Can’t tell exactly what he meant.
Maybe a flash drive with BIOS file for recovery process. A correct name to be assigned for the file is stored in some PEI module responsible for crisis recovery.

17

ok found the instructions , will try flashing later . Meanwhile thanks a lot for support !

18

Flashed successfully but no bios advanced menu , is like the original. What’s wrong ? Thanks a lot

19

The guide here is incomplete and honestly you need more advanced tools and knowledge to know how to actually activate the hidden bios menu.

Or, you can take the approach I took. Although I may be missing some steps, it’s been a year since I’ve touched this.

First I compared the original file and the modded files that were uploaded to this thread using a hex editor, such as HxD.

Once I located the hex values that were changed, I searched for the same original (unmodded) values in my bios file.

After locating, I simply changed it to matched the hex values in the “unlocked” bios. The hex values in my bios were in slightly different addresses but were really close to OP’s.

After that, I had the advanced menu unlocked.

What that basically is changing is some op codes, instead of jumping over the advanced menu and keeping it hidden, we’re changing the instructions to actually go in to it and show the hidden menu to us. That’s it.

Be warned, you can easily brick your laptop. IMHO it’s not worth messing with the advanced bios on such a low end laptop such as the Aspire. Your time is better spent doing other things, or build a nice PC and tweak that to your heart’s content :v:

EDIT: The part that actually unlocked the advanced menu is in A01ODMDxe
That’s the file that should be compared and studied.

2 Likes
20

Thanks Alonso for explaining , so no way to unlock advanced bios ?