Issues flashing bios from unreleased Dell Vostro 7590 i9 gtx 1650

I see this discussion, sounds related to the ME Disabled 6 stickers, and maybe same type of the ME Disabled 3 ones I thought I’d seen too
https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/issues/133

And here, says same + AMT disabled which I noticed too, so it may be this?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15830545

Further reference at Dell forum (all stickers shown)
https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-…OS/td-p/5042899
https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-…AMT/m-p/4593739 (Other disabled modes outlined, and how to change modes without editing BIOS)

The only related things I see in BIOS for possibly disabling the ME is shown at first image here, and second image is what I was referring to above (manufacture mode 03). I think we need to test setting that to zero

SysMng-FlashSignat-override.png

ManufacturingMode03.png



All of course, maybe funky for us to deal with on the PRE-PCH?

tell me what to try and whats the purpose

I don’t know enough to get what we’'re trying to do

Is it possible to run the commands through the efi shell to disable and enable. I still can’t boot from legacy but I can from a Linux live USB. There is a bit disabled when I looked through the dell command cctk thing. Like switching GPU and nvidia Optimus. I can’t get the gpu installed through editing the nvidia INF. I got it installed before through device manager but when I reboot it’s not showing as a gtx 1650, it goes back to a unknown device or 3d graphics controller. Anyway I can get a new beta bios ? The clock speed on the CPU stays at 800mhz I tried the throttle stop program but it doesn’t stay. It also won’t turbo boost about 3200mhz and when I does it goes right back down to 2100mhz then back to 800mhz. I think a new beta or development bios would fix most of these issues.

* unnecessary quote removed - Lost_N_BIOS

Sorry @bobcatchris - I was only speaking aloud, not really intending for you to do anything yet, I’ll let you know what to do once we’re ready.

Don’t edit drivers, that’s not the issue with graphics. The CPU stuff is all ME related, once we get that back up and running it should be OK.
Don’t worry, I will get you onto the stock BIOS, but you may need to test a few things first, or a few BIOS rounds etc.

Did you program in the BIOS Plutomaniac sent with updated ME yet? If not, please do that via FPTw.exe -f filename.bin (Or, if no windows installed, use DOS version and >> FPT.exe -f filename.bin
Once that is done, run this command from FPT folder >> FPTw.exe -greset (If DOS >> FPT.exe -greset)

YOu can try the switching GPU option you mentioned, to see if that properly enables the Nvidia device too (don’t disable one or the other, only goal is to enable both)
Be ready to recover BIOS via programmer if you do this, changing graphics options on laptop always risk of black screen and no way to recover other than programmer or blind reflash and you need to know exact keystrokes ahead of time to do that.

Then wait, I will make you some BIOS tonight. First test BIOS, I will change the Manufacture Mode 03 in BIOS to 00 and see if that changes anything on your end or not.
Second BIOS, I will edit one of the vBIOS to your device ID, does your card have 1.5GB, 2GB or 3GB memory, or do you not know/can’t tell even with HWFINFO64 or GPU-z?
This vBIOS edit is not ideal, and probably will not work, since 1050 and 1650 are not even close to being same thing. If you can select the Nvidia card at the bottom dropout menu of GPU-z, select it and up on top right corner, dump it’s BIOS with little arrow under the Nvidia icon
I can’t see how Dell can ship these out with 1650 as possible option, without the vBIOS being there in BIOS.

I got a error when trying to flash the bin

Here is the ss of hwinfo and the error


https://imgur.com/a/txClQ7g

the device id for the gpu is PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F92&SUBSYS_09221028&REV_A1



it doesn’t allow me to select the gpu with gpu-z for the bios

I will wait for you to create a bios, seems less risky

No screenshots Got em now, thanks - checking

You gave me the DeviceID already, but thanks again. Also, thanks for confirming about GPU-z, this means the Nvidia card is currently disabled in the BIOS or dead/faulty, or not showing due to vBIOS not loaded etc (Probably vBIOS, but could also be disabled - after checking image I can see it’s running so not dead at elast)
Show me images of all the graphics related settings in CCTK, they may not all be in one section either, so be sure to look through everything. Now, speaking of graphics once more, do you have a flash programmer or not?

No need to wait for me to create BIOS, that BIOS you are trying to flash now will be my main starting base, this was your original dump but now has updated/cleaned/settings transferred ME FW
But yes, I guess you have to wait anyway until I can see the error you are getting when trying to flash

* Edit - OK, for the FPT error in windows, this is to be expected due to ME FW disabled and drivers can’t be loaded properly. Sorry I didn’t consider that, I thought it would be working since MEInfoWin ran for you.
Try again from DOS FPT

how do i dos fpt ?

here is the ss of the video options

https://imgur.com/a/rFSiT39

Make a DOS Bootable USB Stick, then copy all files from the DOS FPT folder to the root of USB, along with copy of the BIOS.bin file If you can’t boot legacy USB, make a UEFI bootable USB and use the EFI version of FPT instead, or there is also Linux file in there if you know how to do that better.

vBIOS is going to be an issue, all dumps I can find for 1060 are for 4GB cards and none Dell. Even if I edited any of those to Dell, and could edit all the graphic output settings to match your current (Which we can’t), the memory difference would cause it to fail anyway.
So, if changing the device ID in the current vBIOS does not fix things which I doubt it would as these are two different GFX architectures, after we fix ME in case it’s part of the issue, then there may be nothing we can do for the NVidia side of things.
I’m going to dig around in the BIOS right now again and see if there is vBIOS for this card that UBU just isn’t detecting and that I maybe missed the other day when I pulled all the others I already noticed UBU skipped over

What you are looking at in CCTK is stock options for all/ANY BIOS, and that is only to create a config file to change options anyway (Stuff I would do without any of that)
Sorry, I thought you were looking at your current actual BIOS in there, which you may be able to do with next section (on left, below the one you are in now - Local, settings from current), however it’s only going to show you what I can already see/change anyway, so just waste of time to check this probably

*** Do you have a flash programmer, such as CH341A or other similar? **

Edit - please download this GPU-z and see if it will allow you to select the NVidia card at the bottom or not (download is in middle of page “Test Build”)
https://www.techpowerup.com/248064/new-n…-turing-support

I was able to get the gpu bios after installing the drivers, it wont switch to the gpu at all though

here is the screenshot of gpuz and the local system options for cctk

https://imgur.com/a/yrld0V1

I pmed you a txt file which shows some errors when trying to change some options in cctk and the gpu bios

I don’t have a flash programmer

I’ll try the efi FTP soon
--------------
i flashed it, it was successful

whats next boss?

@bobcatchris - Great to see you were able to get the Nvidia GPU drivers installed, it’s 100% normal that you can’t switch to NVidia, laptops often are setup like that and you can’t only use one or the other (locked to this, rarely switchable - due to no “Muxed” mode setting or “PowerXpress” - confirmed, only muxeless)
So on the CCTK, only three possible options that are graphic related shown to you? Worthless application

vBIOS you sent seems 1kb short, and is VERY large for a vBIOS dump, very odd May explain why there is no vBIOS module in the BIOS for this card too, but it’s still odd to see it being this large This is from GPU-z?

I compared the stock BIOS and your current for the manufacturing mode attribute I’ve been looking at, and stock is set to 04 (no TLS - not for USA) instead of 03 (ME Disabled), explained at link below
https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-…AMT/m-p/4593739

ME FW that comes with stock BIOS is non-vPRO, so I think we want to choose 04 instead of 00 I was originally considering, or replace the ME FW with vPRO AMT enabled and set it to 01 (maybe later on this)
Or simply replace BIOS regions, but with pre-production PCH on there, and you not having flash programmer, this concerns me about replacing BIOS region and or ME FW region too. EC FW region may need replaced with stock too, and this I’d only feel safe having you do with programmer in hand
So, you should order a set now, it’s cheap! You want one of each of these below
https://www.ebay.com/itm/201316582787
https://www.ebay.com/itm/382486015977

Great you were able to FPT flash via EFI finally. For now, lets change this Manufacturing mode attribute to 04 and see if ME enables for you.
I was about to also update both CPU microcodes, but I see 906EC has two revisions in there (A0 and A2), so I paused on that for now to ask since this is ES system, do you also have ES CPU in there?
If so, one of those may need to remain as-is, if you do have ES CPU in there, what is it’s SPEC printed on the CPU?
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…557319587730092

Flash this via >> FPT -bios -f BCPMM04testH.bin


plutomaniac If I drop the ME FW from HDR into FITc, I see SKU QM370, but when dropping his SPI it’s SKU CM246
Does this mean I shouldn’t have him test with the stock ME FW or it’s settings at all due to these differences, especially with no flash programmer in hand?

HDR always includes RGN firmware which is unconfigured with obviously no SKU set. In such case, you’ll just see the default option at FIT, not the actual one (CM246).

I have no idea what the spec is on the cpu, it shows its a QQLS ES and its a A2 in hwinfo but im assuming most of the info on the cpu is incorrect

I flashed it, How do i check if ME is enabled?

yes that vbios is from gpu-z

Dell https://imgur.com/gallery/p5zaLDN

Sorry, I meant what was the S-Spec printed on CPU, which you gave above QQLS, so thanks, this is ES CPU. I see from your images no IHS cover on the CPU anyway, so no laser printed S-Spec, but luckily you found this info in HWINFO64

Did you order flash programmer and SOIC8 test clip w/ cable yet?

First in DOS or EFI, wherever you were able to use FPT properly, run >> FPT -greset

Then run MEInfoWin - verbose / and MEInfoWin -fwsts and show me the output.

It says QQLS on the processor and some other numbers, above and below the die

It was flashed in FPT, can’t boot legacy into dos.

here is the output

https://pastebin.com/raw/LMUF2V72

I’m going to order one from the united states this week, shipping from china will take a month

What do you mean >> flashed in FPT, can’t boot legacy into dos. ???

Be sure it’s from the US if you are paying much more than $2-3 each item, many sellers on ebay or elsewhere say US/USA, but really ships from China, so check feedback for this (Positive, neutrals and negatives)

Great, ME FW is now enabled, remember you couldn’t get MEInfoWin output before, now it’s full output and I can see Boot Guard is not set on FPF side!

So, ME FW side sorted, at least for now! Once you get programmer we can test getting you onto retail ME FW and see if that will work with your chipset or not.
We should probably wait until then to test stock BIOS region swap in too, but that’s up to you, if you have other systems and can let this one sit with a bricked BIOS until programmer arrives if it doesn’t work, then we can try now if you wanted.

I can’t find any info on QQLS Show me image of CPU-z main tab, and another image of HWINFO64 showing main CPU-z like little window and the large window with CPU expanded and then selected but with little CPU-z window moved so it looks like this, so I can see both at once
This way I can see what CPUID is being used, so we can maybe update your microcodes

HWINFOExample.png

https://imgur.com/a/yoXlT6f


I meant i used efi to flash and i need legacy to boot into dos i believe

lets try the microcodes then retailmefw then try stock firmware, no need to wait

i ordered it, i have other systems i use, i only get on this one to follow your instructions
it gets laggy due to being 4k and cpu not boosting its clock speeds like it should, 800mhz kills me :frowning:

@bobcatchris - Thanks, I gotcha now, I’ll have to see, stock BIOS may be locked to UEFI Only too - unless we make setting visible to you, or change it to allow both.
Thanks for the image, your CPU is one that had two different microcodes in there, only ten days apart in build dates too. Hopefully it doesn’t require one of those to run, if it does, we’ll figure it out, hopefully this isn’t the case as that may be what’s limiting it to x8 (I assume it’s doing this on AC Correct?)
Here is microcode test, both updated to latest, there is only 906EA and 906EC microcode in there. I planned to send you ME FW Test this time too, but I need to clarify something I noticed with plutomaniac again while getting ready to build a ME FW test BIOS.
And for the BIOS region replacement, I thought it would be best to test that after the ME FW test, in case something in it requires the other ME FW. If the ME FW test fails, then we try anyway
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…292104814893246

Can you take some images of the BIOS for me, at least one showing all main pages if it looks like normal AMI BIOS (Main, Advanced, Security, Boot, Save & Exit)
If it looks like normal Dell BIOS, then up to you how much to take, but try to show a good amount, I’ll see about unlocking it all for you so you can set whatever you want.
Please resize the images if you can’t F12 screenshot to USB, or even if so since it’s 4K. I only need to see the BIOS at a glance, not in 4K/HD/2-5MB images per then put in archive (7zip preferred, but zip/rar OK too)


plutomaniac - You mentioned HDR usually only contains unconfigured ME FW, I checked this to confirm just in case, and it appears to be configured to me, am I correct?
If yes, what does that mean in regards to my previous SKU difference question?

ME-HDR-Configured.png

I’m using a old power adapter for the laptop which can be why its not performing correctly

i borrowed one from a alienware from work, so maybe that will fix it

I’ll try the microcodes in a few hours when i get home and let you know


Thank you again!

You’re welcome! On the PSU block, that may be why then, some Dell as you probably know, will only work (properly, or at all) with Dell adapters. I’ve not seen that mentioned as much recently as in the past though, but I assume they’re still up to stuff like that.
Usually when this happens, some non-Dell battery or power block limitation it will tell you in the BIOS on the power/battery or performance page somewhere, at least I know it did on some older Dell BIOS.

I see Tcc Activation Offset set to 2 in your BIOS vs 0 in the stock BIOS, but I think that only means to start throttling at 2 degrees less than tjMax (100C). How is the temps at idle and load?
From your HNWINFO image, it doesn’t look wattage or power limited in any way, all says unlocked/unlimited. However, I do see Intel ConfigTDP enabled on your BIOS vs disabled on the stock, but that may be for testing purposes, I don’t see any limit imposed in this area vs stock


No, it’s still “RGN” settings-wise. Basically an RGN which was simply stitched with PMC firmware via FIT without any configuration for FWUpdate use. The Dell setup uses FWUpdate tool so all HDR include RGN or RGN-like firmware. Also, that MEA version is 5 months old.

I was looking at “File System State” = Configured, totally forgot about RGN being RGN. Now, more confused
It shows RGN “extracted” though, same as any I do configure/run through FITc, or same as any other BIOS with already configured ME at ME Region, how can I remember to notice configure/unconfirgured?
I tell ya, ME FW is not my thing

Yes, when we do the PRD ME FW test I will use latest anyway, I was only looking at that HDR version for info purposes