No Manufacturer ROM file

In Section A of the BIOS Modding guide, instruction #1 asks you to get from the manufacturer the actual motherboard BIOS for your motherboard or system, in my case, a Dell XPS Studo 435T/9000. My problem is that Dell does not supply the BIOS ROM file, rather just an executable file (XPS435T-A16) to flash the new BIOS, which can only be run from Windows. I’ve tried running the executable with options /writehdrfile and /writeromfile to extract the ROM file, but these attempts fail with an invalid parameter error.

After trolling the Internet, I found what may be a solution. I’ve downloaded and installed a flash utility from AMI (the manufacturer of the BIOS used by Dell) call AFUWinx64. I’ve been able to view and save my current BIOS as a ROM file. Question: Can I use this ROM file to create and flash a modified BIOS that contains the appropriate upgraded PCI ROM module? If yes, then what do I name the file? In Section D of the guide, the second bullet point states Since the BIOS file name usually is layed (sic) down by the mainboard manufacturer within the BIOS itself, the “modded” BIOS file should not be renamed unless the new name is “in the line” with BIOS files, which were previously released by the manufacturer.

Thanks in advance.

@ Binsky:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Since I never tried to recover and to flash a Dell BIOS, I am not sure regarding the answers to your questions.
Maybe >this< thread contains some informations, which are useful for you.

Regards
Fernando

Thanks for your quick reply, Fernando. I tried the thread you recommended: it looked promising at first, but in the end did not prove useful, as the information is dated (over three years old) and the links to other threads were broken. So it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to extract a ROM file from Dell’s BIOS exe, but I’d like to pursue the option of using the ROM file I created with AFUWIN. It looks okay and, using MMTools, I was able to find the old PCI ROM module and replace it with the new (for Intel RST(e) RAID ROM v12.6.0.1867), but is it safe to use? And, given the advice in Section D, I’m still not certain as to what I should name the modified ROM file. Any suggestions? As I have no experience in BIOS modding and am all too aware of how easy it would be to brick my computer, I humbly defer to your wisdom and experience in this matter.

@ Binsky:

I just found >this< thread, which may answer some of your questions.

Hi, Fernando. I read the thread at the link in your previous post, but no luck – most of the conversation concerns the modification of UEFI BIOSes and there’s really nothing about how to extract a ROM file from an EXE reflash file. Nevertheless, thanks again for your help, and please don’t stop trying!

I’ve called Dell to ask whether they could provide the ROM file for my current BIOS and was met with their usual level of (in)competence and (un)helpfulness. They say they’re not authorized to provide this file, but on my insistence, the shift supervisor said he would take my request to the technical team and will get back to me with his findings on 2013/10/15 Tue.

Here’s another approach that I’ve investigated: With AMI’s AFUWin utility, you can save an image of your current BIOS to a ROM file. I called AMI Technical Support earlier this morning and asked whether I can safely use this ROM file to reflash my computer with exactly the same BIOS I’m running now. Their answer was YES. If I’m not mistaken, then, I should be able to use this file both for creating the modified BIOS and as a backup in the event a recovery is required. Am I missing something here? If this solution actually works, then why haven’t I seen it on the Internet? [Mind you, I also haven’t seen anything that says it won’t work.] Your thoughts?

I think, that it will work.
Manufacturers like Dell don’t like it, if users will modify their BIOS. That is why Dell packs the BIOS into an EXE file, which cannot be extracted by any usual tool.

Good luck!
Fernando