bios



(Organize per Info related to bios)

(Mention > 2TB "C:" drive support under special conditions)

There are many BIOS versions for the XPS 730x. The last official release was version 1.0.5 for the 730x before Dell cancelled all internal support for the XPS 730x series. But, the last 730x machines shipped had bios 1.0.6 even though there wasn't much difference.

One of my first XPS 730x hacks was to extract and force the Alienware Area-51 ALX bios onto the 730x. The motherboards looked identical, and we were so desperate for BIOS support that Dell was lacking to supply us. I am very happy to say it worked!

Why did I do this?

I am one who believes that once you purchase something, it is yours to do as you wish. Like Blu-ray rips to put on your Zune, and upgrading your Dell XPS 730x to support newer hardware.

The fact that Dell abruptly stopped manufacturing and supporting the Dell XPS 730x systems for the single reason to push people to their Alienware machines (yeah, we think they are ugly too) really pissed me off. The Intel X58 chipset was made to support Intel's XMP memory profiles for very fast ram. While Dell continues to support their Alienware X58 machines with BIOS updates for these newer RAM and newer CPUs, they have utterly ignored the XPS 730x for the past two years.

I'm tired of it. So, I took these steps to upgrade our 730x mobos to support the newer hardware.

What is in this document?

This document outlines the steps to upgrade your Dell XPS 730x BIOS to an Alienware Area 51's X58 BIOS. This is possible because, when compared side by side, they seem to be the exact same motherboard in both systems. The only difference being the actual BIOS image. My XPS 730x mobo is revision A00. There has been reports that some newer revisions of Area 51's mobos have different colored PCIe slots, but the same BIOS is used for all of them. So the procedure below should work. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/688/dscf0059w.jpg/sr=1 ^- look fimilar?

Note, before you start you should read through the ups and downs below to determine if you really want to upgrade.

Advantages: Overclock a bit more Bclk, as voltages seem to be taking now for QPISupport for 2100+ mhz ram!tRFC for ram limit raised to 150! (which now supports low-latency CAS7 4GB sticks)Support for Intel 980X cpu!!! Unknown if the 990X is supported (A10 bios came out before the 990X was released).Similar to the above, Intel's XMP Profile 2 is now supported (all newer ram down to CAS 6 or 7, and up to 2100mhz).Better failed overclocking recovery. Instead of listening to the fans go wild and forcing you to remove your video cards to press the CMOS reset button, it now reboots furiously to attempt to fix or reset and then notifies you. Yay!Alienware BIOS logo is kind of cool. :)You are able to install any Alienware Area 51 bios going forward (A11, A12, or whatever they come out with in the future).

Disadvantages: No longer able to use Dell's Alienware LightFX application to control the LEDs (must use NVidia's "System Tools w/ESA support").No longer able to use Dell's Thermal XPS application to control the case fans (must use NVidia's "System Tools w/ESA support").ATI users will not able to control any chassis fans or LEDs with this process. Having only Nvidia cards will allow you to install the Nvidia control panel software, and then the Nvidia System Tools addon to control the LEDs and fans. (But Nvidia disables that if you have an ATI card in the system).No, you cannot use any Alienware Area 51 software either for the LEDs and Fans, such as the Command Center (the chassis/Master Control Board is different between the machines).No, this procedure does not help with the 45s "boot time" delay.

'''Bugs:NOTE: Most of these may be related to my i7 920 C0, since it does not overclock well, and I am running high speed ram; others are not reporting the problems I have below, with faster CPUs and different memory (i7 920 D0 stepping, and 980X CPUs). EDIT: After upgrading to an i7 930 cpu, things are much more fluid now, so yes it is the 920 C0 cpu causing a lot of these.''' Currenly a big problem with high-speed ram over 1600mhz with this CPU. Even though supported, the BIOS will not finish POST and will get stuck 1/2 way through the status bar of the Alienware logo during the BIOS. This is because having XMP set to "Enabled" in the BIOS, with the Ram timings and Multiplier both set to "Auto". The work around is very annoying: use the jumper on the motherboard to reset the CMOS (and I press the button for 20s with jumper). The next time the system boots, it will be in Failsafe mode with no XMP enabled. This is your one and only chance to go in and setup your memory profile correctly (remove the AUto, set the Multiplier to 10, set the Timings manually, and set your Bclk up to 160 or higher). If you miss it on this first post, you'll have to reset the CMOS all over again and start over.Windows freaks out on first boot after flash (all new drivers install, NVidia couldn't find cards, Afterbuner said not supported, etc etc x 10 "Holy Crap!" kind of messages). After a few reboots for it to reinstall all drivers, it all seems fine now. Be prepared. I was in the middle of formatting, so even though it fixed itself after a few reboots, I formatted again anyhow. This is all to be expected.Upon big overclocking, (around 160 bclk or more) the system takes longer to boot and sometimes power cycles a few times and idles with loud fans a few seconds before finally getting to the BIOS screen. Annoying, but overclocks settings stick and system boots. Not sure if all Area 51 mobos with similar overclocks experience the same thing with such high voltages, or if the Del 1000W PSU is just a POS like people say. I'll know more when I upgrade the PSU. NOTE: Power Button Flashing When shutting down/powering off the system, the Power Button flashes slowly, like it thinks it is in some Suspend-to-RAM state. This is by design with the Alienware machines, as they have "glowing eyes" when the machine is powered off. The glowing eyes is actually just the power LED flashing on their systems, as it is programmed in the BIOS to do that. The fix is to remove PWD LED- pin from the Front Panel I/O connector going to your motherboard (looks like an USB connector). You can see the silk screening on the motherboard itself for the exact pinout of the connector, or view the gallery here as there are a few pictures of them.

Here's the list of Area 51 X58 BIOS updates I've compiled from Dell's site that is included in the A10 update:

A11. Fix SUT hang up while showing DIMM2 information of Memory-Z in BSUA10. Added BIOS recovery functionalityA10. Improved XMP experience including addition of XMP Profile 2 accessA10. Changed 2x5 USB header behavior to allow all USB ports to have wake capabilitiesA09. Enhanced overclocking ability with some processorsA08. Updated CPU microcode for i7-980X processorA08. Enhancements for USB 3.0 cardsA08. Fixed issue where Side LEDs may be off after an AC recoveryA07. Adds support for Gulftown 980x.A06. Added support for Intel Core i7 920 processor overclocking (no info for BIOS earlier than A06)

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================== STOP - READ THIS - URGENT: WARNING/CAUTION/DANGER WILL ROBERTSON

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================== THIS IS ONLY FOR DELL XPS 730X <- "X" OWNERS. THIS BIOS WILL NOT WORK, IN ANY SHAPE FORM OR FASHION, WITH NON-"X" 730 SYSTEMS.

THE FOLLOWING PROCESS IS COMPLETELY UN-TESTED, UN-VERIFIED AND NOT CONFIRMED BY THE MASSES. THIS IS A HIGHLY-EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT THAT HAS ONLY BEEN DONE ON MY SINGLE DESKTOP IN PERSON, AND ONLY BY ME IN PERSON, ONE TIME. THE FOLLOWING CAN RENDER YOUR MOTHERBOARD AND/OR BIOS COMPLETELY USELESS. THE FOLLOWING CAN DESTROY YOUR BIOS AND MOBO BEYOND REPAIR OR ANY KIND OF HOPE.

DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND THESE RISKS. I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR BROKEN PARTS IF THE PROCESS DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN (but post comments here and we'll try to help).

ALSO, MOST LIKELY ANY RECOVERY WILL HAVE TO BE DONE VIA DOS COMMANDS OF A BOOTABLE FLOPPY OR USB. IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH CREATING SEVERAL DOS DISKS, USB, CDS, STOP NOW, AS THAT IS MOST LIKELY THE ONLY WAY TO RECOVER - IF YOU CAN RECOVER AT ALL (most likely you cannot!).

YOU MAY VERY WELL END UP WITH A BIG AND BLUE AND PRETTY PAPERWEIGHT OF A MOBO. IF YOU CONTINUE, YOU COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY ACCEPT ALL RISKS OF DAMAGE TO YOUR MOBO AND/OR BIOS AND CANNOT HOLD ME OR THIS GROUP RESPONSIBLE.

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Now with the fuddy duddy stuff out of the way, here we go...

Prerequisites: --- Before you begin, you may want to follow exactly what I did:

Step 1) Upgrade to the latest bios, 1.0.5, from Dell's website before you begin. I had 1.0.6 before I upgraded, which can be downloaded here in this Facebook group in another document I created.

Step 2) In the BIOS, select "Load Optimum Settings". This will reset everything to factory defaults.

Step 3) Boot up and then close all interop (hardware interaction) applications such as: - Dell's Alienware Lights FX application - Dell's Thermal (fan) application - Any ATI or NVidia software

Also, go ahead and close everything else down you can think of in your tooltray.

Download the BIOS image, and unzip it:

Dell's BIOS updates do not provide the raw ROM. So, after some DOS hacking of the command line utility, I was able to extra the raw ROM binary from Alienware's Area 51 A10 bios utility. The zip below contains this binary, which you need to download:

http://eduncan911.com/blog/binary/alienware_area51_bios_a10_bin.zip

Download the AMI BIOS Flash utility from their website: - http://www.ami.com/support/downloads/amiflash.zip

Backup your existing BIOS image:

Even though Dell has their own 1.0.5 image, I felt using AMI's BIOS utility to do a full backup of all memory blocks was the best option - since I'd be messing with the memory blocks directly.

Again, all instructions are for my Windows version I used:

Step 1) Browse to the directory below: (For 64bit users) /amibios/afuwin/64/ (For 32bit users) /amibios/afuwin/32/

Step 2) Run the program for your OS:

AFUWINx32.exe (32-bit) AFUWINx64.exe (64-bit)

NOTE: My computer is Windows 7 x64, so I used the 64-bit for my system.

Step 3) Simply click the "SAVE" button, as shown in the pictures here, and save the ROM to a file.

You have now backed up every bit (phun) of your bios by every memory block individually. Copy this file to a USB stick or something external to your machine (if it fails).

Loading (Flashing) the Alienware Area 51 A10 BIOS Image:

NOTE: When I was experimenting with the DOS utilities, I had a lot of problems with getting this loaded. One of the error messages was the AMI utility said there was a mismatch of the BIOS images, and asked me to load "Recommended" settings to flash. I said yes, and got a weird Hybrid BIOS image. The point is, I went through 5 or 6 flashes with these "Recommended" compatible error messages, before finally doing it the way in this document. So, if you get prompted for "Load /C?" or something similar to /C or "Compatible" or "Recommended" settings, say NO !! If you say Yes, you'll end up with a weird hybrid BIOS image with all sorts of issues. Don't fret, just flash again and select NO next time.

Step 1) Close and restart the AMI Flash utility, as outlined above in Backing up.

Step 2) Click the "OPEN" button and select the BIN you downloaded above (not the zip, the actual BIN file that extracted from the zip).

NOTE: If you do not see the BIN file listed, it's because your list is filtered for ROM files only. At the bottom-right of the Open dialog box you will see a dropdown box. Select "BIN" or "All Files". Now you'll see the A10.BIN file.

Step 3) Click the Setup tab in the flash utility. You are presented with a number of options.  I selected the following (cause you are overwriting Dell's BIOS with Alienwares, you have to select more than normal): Program All BlocksMain BIOS ImageBoot BlockNVRAMLoad ROM File's Failsafe (this disabled two of the above, I rechecked those two)Restart After Programming (user's preference)

Step 4) Take a deep breath, exhale (cause it will take longer than you can hold your breath), and press the "FLASH" button.


 * The process will begin by erasing, bit by bit, every memory block location. It may skip certain memory blocks, because it is not erasing or loading some defaults. Don't worry, you have a backup (right?).


 * Once done erasing, it will start to flash each memory block. Go grab a drink ...


 * Once done erasing, it will go back and verify each checksum of every memory block. Go grab another drink ...

Completed! If you did not selecte "Reboot after flash", then IMMEDIATELY reboot.

GO INTO YOUR BIOS AND RESET EVERYTHING AGAIN BY SELECTING "Load Optimum Settings". Please do this! Better to be safe than sorry!

Setup your SERVICE TAG Yep, this procedure erased your Service Tag. Just peak behind your computer and enter in the BIOS, on the first screen. Kind of cool how you can change it here (e.g. new case?).

Credits ---

If it worked for you, buy me a beer ...

http://eduncan911.com/buymeabeer/?why=Alienware+bios+hack+on+XPS+730x

And don't forget to leave a comment if it was successful!

Also thanks to Alex Mack for leading me towards this venture, to Matt DeLana for creating this group, and thanks to Stewart Blair for his support.