So I was using GitHub user VuangTrong’s “Dell_PFS_Extract” tool to force flash my laptops bios to earlier versions with no issue, until I tried to go from version 1.5 to 1.3 and accidentally bricked my laptop. It still gets power but the keyboard and power button lights turn off immediately.
I bought a CH314 machine from Amazon that hasn’t gotten here yet but I’m worried because I haven’t been able to find the BIN file of the bios by extracting the .exe on my own so far.
Is there anyone who can help me find the .BIN or produce a modded bios for me that contains a bin I can flash onto my bios chip? Thanks in advance
@MishimaPizza - How were you doing the actual “Flash” here? And were you using the extracted HDR’s, or were you further extracting the HDR into it’s separate components and then flashing only some region of the BIOS?
If only BIOS region flashing was being done, it’s possible BIOS 1.3 does not work with ME FW from 1.5 or whatever higher BIOS/ME you had in there previously.
What is your goal here, or reason for going back down to older less stable BIOS? If it’s just to use older microcodes, I can put those into latest BIOS when I fix this for you.
This is better method to extract this kind of Dell BIOS, it will dump out individual components of the HDR, it’s made by the forum owner here (plutomaniac) and uses same PFS extract tool you mentioned.
I think same PFS extractor anyway, yes, I see his name mentioned in change log now -
https://github.com/platomav/BIOSUtilities
https://github.com/platomav/BIOSUtilitie…s/tag/DPBE-v4.6
Does this system have two BIOS chips, or one? No matter what you do, make sure you get a good valid (checked by someone) dump from all BIOS chips (if there is two), before you do ANY erase or write!
Usually there is no BIN in the EXE, only what you extract with PFS extractor, which you can then use to build a bin file if needed.
Ideal thing to do here is dump current chip/chips contents, then use that to fix BIOS region (likely all you messed up here)
Please link me to the BIOS download page for this model. All I have on my end if G7 7588 with a 1.10 BIOS in the folder, so not sure if it’s same model you’re talking about or not.
If it is the same, then there is only a single 16MB chip (will have 128 in the chip ID). Dump that once your programmer arrives, and send to me, I will fix a BIOS for you to program back 
Also, give me the chip ID once you find it, because not all software/versions can read/write to all chip ID’s properly. I’ll tell you what I know works for your chip ID
Here is software package with lots of programs/versions - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…213094641136166
And here is guide on using (remember, DO NOT erase or write, until someone checked your dump to be sure it’s good dump and not corrupted/invalid dump)
[GUIDE] Flash BIOS with CH341A programmer
This is my first time doing any of this so I’m a little lost. But yes that is the same dell g7 model I have and it doesn’t have to be bios 1.5 I just need any valid bios to put on this chip bc I need my computer asap
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"MishimaPizza - How were you doing the actual “Flash” here? And were you using the extracted HDR’s, or were you further extracting the HDR into it’s separate components and then flashing only some region of the BIOS?
If only BIOS region flashing was being done, it’s possible BIOS 1.3 does not work with ME FW from 1.5 or whatever higher BIOS/ME you had in there previously."
I don’t know, I was just doing what Trong did in his video tutorial found here:
youtu .be/7zFAU9DKmVk
"What is your goal here, or reason for going back down to older less stable BIOS? If it’s just to use older microcodes, I can put those into latest BIOS when I fix this for you."
My goal was to go from bios version 1.14 down to earlier more stable bios versions that allowed undercoating which I was successful in but I did it one too many times. Idk if that’s related to microcodes but whichever new bios you make I would like to have it allow undervolting
"This is better method to extract this kind of Dell BIOS, it will dump out individual components of the HDR, it’s made by the forum owner here (plutomaniac) and uses same PFS extract tool you mentioned.
I think same PFS extractor anyway, yes, I see his name mentioned in change log now -"
Will that give me the necessary code that put into the chip via EEPROM?
"Usually there is no BIN in the EXE, only what you extract with PFS extractor, which you can then use to build a bin file if needed.
Ideal thing to do here is dump current chip/chips contents, then use that to fix BIOS region (likely all you messed up here)"
How do I do this?
"Please link me to the BIOS download page for this model. All I have on my end if G7 7588 with a 1.10 BIOS in the folder, so not sure if it’s same model you’re talking about or not.
If it is the same, then there is only a single 16MB chip (will have 128 in the chip ID). Dump that once your programmer arrives, and send to me, I will fix a BIOS for you to program back "
https://www.dell.com/support/home/tr-tr/…?driverid=x19xd
OK, than BIOS is single chip, 16MB as I mentioned 
Do you mean undervolting, is why you wanted to go back to older BIOS?
Yes, that may be microcode related, but 100% sure. How are you undervolting to begin with, via throttlestop? If yes, what stops you on 1.14, does it give some error, or something grayed out?
No, nothing you extract from the EXE can be directly written to chip, you need to know how to edit and make a BIOS, in order to have something to write to chip with programmer.
Use Plutomaniacs tool same way as PFS extractor, drop BIOS exe onto the exe or batch file and components are extracted. This is only useful to you if you know how to make a BIOS.
I’ve not watched video yet, so not sure what you were doing or using from this process before, or how etc.
What BIOS version do you want me to use to make you fixed BIOS?
"Do you mean undervolting, is why you wanted to go back to older BIOS?
Yes, that may be microcode related, but 100% sure. How are you undervolting to begin with, via throttlestop? If yes, what stops you on 1.14, does it give some error, or something grayed out?"
Yes, to undervolt bc my laptop was thermal throttling way worse than when I first got it and it was effecting my in game performance.
“No, nothing you extract from the EXE can be directly written to chip, you need to know how to edit and make a BIOS, in order to have something to write to chip with programmer.
Use Plutomaniacs tool same way as PFS extractor, drop BIOS exe onto the exe or batch file and components are extracted. This is only useful to you if you know how to make a BIOS.”
I basically have no idea what I’m doing so I’m gonna need help with that, and by help I mean someone to do it for me hahaha
I was using throttlestop, yes. And i was allowed to move the sliders under the voltage section of FIVR but the Offset values in the upper right corner wouldn’t change, and neither would HWMonitor.
“What BIOS version do you want me to use to make you fixed BIOS?”
Version 1.5 I guess, unless you have a better idea
It probably would help to open it up, clean/blow out fans, and redo the thermal paste on the CPU and GFX card heatsink
OK, yes, I will make you a BIOS to program in, once your programmer arrives and you dump chip and send to me
So, when using throttlestop, on old BIOS, sounds like you described above, but what about on new BIOS, what could you not do then, that you could before on old BIOS
* Edit - I’m still downloading that video, but once I’ve watched it I’ll let you know what you were doing, and maybe why you bricked BIOS.
It could just be you typed wrong thing by accident, or left out something in a command line. I really wont be able to tell until you dump chip and I see contents though.
* Edit 2 - Did you read this warning from vuquangtrong >> <br />This is what the video is doing, maybe that is where you got the video link?
https://github.com/vuquangtrong/Dell-PFS-BIOS-Assembler
Did you try /forceit, before doing all this? Example >> BIOSfilename.exe /forceit
That’s usual way to force Dell downgrade, if/when it’s possible, when it’s not then this method you used will fail too.
So, some of that may have happened here, as well as ME stuff we both mentioned
"It probably would help to open it up, clean/blow out fans, and redo the thermal paste on the CPU and GFX card heatsink
OK, yes, I will make you a BIOS to program in, once your programmer arrives and you dump chip and send to me "
I definitely plan on a repaste.
Thank you, I was worried
"So, when using throttlestop, on old BIOS, sounds like you described above, but what about on new BIOS, what could you not do then, that you could before on old BIOS"
I couldn’t undervolt, thermals were worse and performance was worse lol. It made my gaming laptop a nuclear reactor after like five minutes on games from 2 years ago and even while emulating (temps from 80 to 100C!)
Please be more specific, what (ALL) exactly could you change before, that you could not change in later BIOS?
How much were you undervolting, from what to what? Yes, 80-100C sounds like you need to clean out the fans and repaste for sure.
Be sure to see my edits above in #6
It’s hard to remember everything now bc I can’t get into the computer. But in the newest bios the turbo ratio numbers (the bottom left most section of FIVR in throttlestop), and offset values for the cpu core, cache, igpu unslice etc wouldn’t change even though the sliders could be moved. I was undervolting just to -125 in the cpu core, cache, and igpu.
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"Did you try /forceit, before doing all this? Example >> BIOSfilename.exe /forceit
That’s usual way to force Dell downgrade, if/when it’s possible, when it’s not then this method you used will fail too.
So, some of that may have happened here, as well as ME stuff we both mentioned"
I didn’t do /forceit. The reason why I went through with another downgrade was bc I read the bios information on the download site and it didn’t say “cannot downgrade due to…”, it just said you can’t go from 1.5 to 1.3. And when I went into the Entries file of 1.3 that the extractor created, there were some files missing and like a fool I went thru with it anyway. Idk why some of the . bin files were missing in the Entries file of 1.3 but I’m assuming that’s what messed up by bios. Also after it was done, where it usually restarts, the screen went black in an unusual way so I pressed power button and I assume that could’ve also been why it didn’t work
How exactly do I do the bios dump you were talking about? I would like to know in advance, my ch314 machine doesn’t come until Monday still. If this fails will soldering on a new bios chip be my next option?
@MishimaPizza - This = same/same >> “cannot downgrade due to…”, it just said you can’t go from 1.5 to 1.3.
So that, plus the oddities you mentioned, should have stopped you cold right then 
I gave you link to guide on how to dump the BIOS, but as I mentioned, you need to first give me your BIOS chip ID, so I can tell you what may be best to read/write to that chip (not all will read or write correctly)
You need to slow down now, I can already see bad things happening when your programmer arrives!!!
You need to wait, until you read/verify/save and send me the file, then I tell you it’s OK to do any erase or writes etc (also do not use “Auto” this will erase too unless you uncheck it)
If you are in a hurry about anything, you can remove the bottom of the laptop now and find the chip and give me the chip ID. You may need flashlight and magnifying glass to read it, they are small and print is very light sometimes.
Soldering is not required here, for anything.
Im not in a hurry, my programmer hasn’t even come yet, I’m just trying to get prepared mentally
Chip is a Winbond 25Q128JVSQ1830
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Programmer received, im preparing to clip the chip and attempt to read it now
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ok so after connecting to chip and attempting to detect chip type to verify connection, im encountering a strange issue where my particular chip the 25Q128JV isnt in the chip lists, and even in version 1.18 of the programs, is listed as the 128BV but im guessing thats due to the disparity with different programs you discussed earlier
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i was still able to read the chip though, here is the dump as well as a screenshot detailing how the program thinks chip is 25Q128BV when its really 25Q128JV
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nevermind, dump file was too large to post here.
heres a tinyurl link containing it @Lost_N_BIOS
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…592325600173735
bump
bump2
@MishimaPizza - Wow, please use edit function if you need to add more info and no one has replied yet, instead of making many replied in a row, thanks
sorry, im new here lol
@MishimaPizza - What do you mean new “here”? All forums would have the same request, it’s common internet etiquette to edit your posts and not make several in a row on same day 
I told you to give me the chip ID and then wait, remember I said SLOW DOWN NOW
For W25Q128JV only the following works that I know of >>
1.18 (read, not write) or ASProgrammer 1.40/1.41 (OK read/write)
W25Q128JV - Colibri ver. 1.0.1.62 confirmed read/write OK (use BV ID)
Software package at post #2 has the above mentioned software/versions, please dump using one of the above
Please tell me what version of software you used in image/dump above with BV ID, so I can compare with your new dump of above and add to my notes if read is OK for that version + BV ID
Also, in the future, when sharing files online, please put in zip or rar etc, thanks
I used 1.18 to make the dump, if i recall correctly. Ill try with colibri
Edit: Im unsure what to click on Colibri to identify and read the chip
Edit2: Nevermind, i figured it out
If you don’t recall for sure, then let me know and I’ll toss that file out.
Colibri >> Select Device (Then start typing ID and choose BV) >> Then read >> Verify >> Save