Hi,
I would like to mod the Insyde Bios of my Acer Predator Helios 16 PH61-71 in order to unlock undervolting for its 13900HX CPU.
I am fairly new to this so I don’t know how to start, any help would be appreciated.
It uses Intel ME 16.1, I was only able to find CSME Tools for up to 16.0.
The Bios can be downloaded here:
Extracted (ran the exe and found the folder in c:\windows\temp)
Thank you for your help.
Regards.
16.1.25.1991.zip (691.5 KB)
A new version is shared, Intel FPTW.exe for 16.1. fptw.efi.
Thank you. I was able to dump the bios with this tool. Following this guide Undervolting 2020 Dell Laptops like the Vostro 7500 and More Tips to Improve Thermals, Battery Life, and Speed - Brendan Greenley
I was able to unlock overclocking, but not undervolting. There is also an offset 0x381 in CpuSetup that is called “UndvervoltLock” but setting it to 0x0 does not disable undervolt protection. I can only set positive offsets in Intel XTU. Throttlestop allows negative values, but they do not stick.
same problem here with my helios 16. is there any news here in the meantime?
Hi ColinMacLaren …Have you made any progress here in the meantime? setting the Undervoltlock to 0x0 has no effect on me either
Hi @Klaus3DDA, not really. I even got my bios unlocked, but all the hidden options, including undervolting manually in the in the hidden bios, don’t do anything. The undervolting lock has to be on the CPU’s microcode level. However, I had some success with loadline undervolting. That’s offset 0x132 in variable CpuSetup for Core AC loadline. The value is in 10s of mOhm. So setting it to 0x64 would be 1.000mv. The default value is 1.700 mOhm. You can monitor it in HWInfo under CPU.
However, the loadline value is volatile and has to be set every time before booting the OS. I put an EFI Shell in the hidden FAT32-Boot partition and use the startup.sh Script to first set the loadline value and then chainload Windows. This does work, but it required disabling secure boot, which is required by some AntiCheat-Engines like EA and Valorant.
Going too low will result in higher clock rates, but actually lower benchmark scores. 1.000-1200mOhms is a good bet.
I’m Chinese, My English is not very good, please forgive me，and now Chinese players can’t solve the problem that the computer can’t lower the voltage. I hope some friends can release the unlock file, thank you.
Hello,
Any new news? I just got this system and been unsuccessful.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.
No, only some Loadline Undervolting and unlocking Overclocking in Throttlestop.
How do i unlock overclocking in throttlestop?
Do i mod my bios?
Im on 1.16 insyde bios right now.
I specifically want to underclock my cpu and overclock my gpu. But overclocking/underclocking is locked in the throttlestop.
Has anyone figured the undervolt out? i can have my bios unlocked at any moment, but there is no way to undervolt from in the bios,
After so long, is there still no way to solve UVP?
Does Acer, this brand, really ignore the advice of users completely? Are the leaders incompetent?
Using grubx64.efi’s setup_var option I managed to alter the following registers in CpuSetup:
CFG Lock (0x43)
Overclocking Lock (0x10E)
Undervolt Protection (0x381)
This did not let me undervolt. Quite annoying. It did let me adjust my PL1 and PL2 via ThrottleStop, however.
I am very baffled as to what is blocking undervolting? It doesn’t seem to be any BIOS function unless it is tied to one with an unassuming name. Or is it the CPU microcode itself?
So some technical stuff that may help if any gifted people want to look at this case:
Undervolt Protection IS an option and CAN be turned off, but doesn’t seem to do anything.
Overclocking Lock IS an option and CAN be turned off. I can’t say for certain if it does anything.
CFG Lock IS an option and CAN be turned off. It 100% works. It is what enables you to adjust your PL1/PL2 of the CPU to whatever you want.
There’s also a feature in the (hidden) BIOS that lets you adjust P-Core and E-Core voltages. I applied a -150 mV undervolt to them, but it didn’t do anything.
So what seems to be happening is this:
I do not know how to look deeper into this last part. But it is the strongest lead I have that it is a failure of the DXE/PEI to either tell the CPU it is being undervolted (if done by BIOS) or tell it that it CAN be undervolted (if done by BIOS OR software).
Some more findings. Maybe it can be of help to someone.
I saw an option under “Vulnerabilty Mitigation Mechanisms” in HWinfo64 called Dynamic Overclocking Undervolt Protection. Which is set to enabled. I see no option pertaining to this anywhere in my BIOS. So, the actual function for it goes under a different name, and at runtime it’s presented as “Dynamic Overclocking Undervolt Protection”.
I also made a full dump of my BIOS and used Intel’s MFIT tool to skulk around for some other settings. I found some interesting stuff:
BIOS Guard Protection Override Enabled is set to No.
BIOS Guard seems to be a protection system of Intel’s that verifies and cryptographically enforces BIOS updates, and prevents runtime BIOS region modification.
Unfortunately, this means BIOS modifications are out except for with an SPI flasher I think, unless someone managed to brute force the right cryptographic key, or something? I don’t really know.
I don’t understand why Acer made BIOS so utterly locked down that it has literally superficial Undervolt Protection options and even superficial undervolting options! But they ALLOW you to overvolt the CPU? That’s literally DANGEROUS to the CPU and wholly pointless—no laptop CPU is going to hit such insanely high performance that it needs MORE voltage.