HP Pavilion Elite HPE-420ES AMI BIOS mod

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

Hi Fernando,

I have another BIOS to try modding, though in this case there was no BIOS at all available to download from HP. I managed to get a copy of the BIOS with The Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit from mydigitallife. It’s non-EFI and openable with MMTool.

So I have extracted the 4 Option ROMs and examined in hxd:

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Series v2.30 (08/31/09) - 10EC_8168
Intel(R) RAID for SATA - v9.5.0.1037 - 8086_2822
Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.3.30 Alpha-1.IBA GE Slot - 8086_10EF
1914Intel(R)Ironlake Desktop PCI Accelerated SVGA BIOS…Build Number: 1914 PC 14.34 10/15/2009 - 8086_0042

Please advise.

2

@ rharrison:

What chipset does your HP Pavillon have?
If I were you, I would update the Intel RAID ROM to v11.2.0.1527 and the Realtek LAN ROM to v2.56.
I do not recommend a replacement of the Intel Boot Agent GE and the Intel VGA ROM, because I am not sure, if any of the actual BIOS modules will work (example: I couldn’t find the hex code “42 00” within the Intel VGA ROM v2158).

3

As a quick update: I already attempted to insert the new realtek gbe rom & it has succeeded ok, I will look into the others you mentioned as well.

4



I believe I may have found a newer compatible Intel VGA ROM: http://www.bios-mods.com/resources/index…S+Build+1973%2F

I searched with HxD and found at least one instance of "42 00", do you too think this will work?

Thanks!

UPDATE: I also found a newer Intel Boot Agent GE ROM at: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/305…html#post284763 . I opened it up and looked for the string "EF 10", which I believe would be correct? I will check the chipset soon also.

5

I am pretty sure, that it will work, because it has been designed for the DeviceID DEV_0042. Furthermore it’s Build 1973 PC 14.34 dated 01/11/2010, so newer than the original VGA ROM of the HP Pavillon HPE-420ES AMI BIOS.

6

I did some further changes today, I added one at a time the Intel RST you recommended, and then the VGA module I found. Also the chipset is Intel H57 Revision 06.

Everything appears to be working normally, and it now seems to boot significantly faster.

7

Congratulations!