I've been working on this for weeks now, trying to do this myself. But everything I have tried I run into road blocks. First, just getting the .fd out of the Alienware BIOS Update .exe was a struggle. Then trying to get into the .fd without some kind of file corruption message was the next challenge. I've tried everything inc. CBRom, both MMTools and Phoenixtool. To date, the phoenixtool seems like the one that will work but I don't really know how to navigate the tool and make necessary mods while not bricking my laptop.

I will attach the bios (AW17A14.exe) and the FD file that I was able to extract (AW17A14.fd). The BIOS utility is InsydeH2O. And I think this is why this process is being so difficult...Insyde BIOS.

If someone could help me along I would appreciate it. I've done a LOT of reading here and trying different things. If we can figure this out, we would have the process posted here for others that are seeking to do the same thing with their Alienware laptop.

Link to fresh Dell Alienware 17 System BIOS vA14: >BIOS<

Zitat

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Why do you want to update the RAID ROM module?

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Because I'd like to have the most recent update available. I know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I still would like to know how to do it and then make it happen so I have the most up to date drivers, ROMs, etc.

Zitat

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Have you set the SATA Controller of your Dell system to RAID?

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Yes, I purchased the system setup in a RAID configuration. One of the main reasons why I bought this laptop. The current RAID ROM v12.0.0.1783. I want to update to v13.5.0.1056.



Here is more info from Speccy:

- WDC WDC WD7500BPKX- SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Western Digital
Interface/Connector ATA/100 with 40-pin IDE connector
Interface RAID
Capacity 698 GB
Real size 750,151,831,040 bytes
RAID Type Software RAID

- INTEL INTEL SSDMCEAW0 SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Intel
Interface RAID
Capacity 10.5 GB
Real size 11,306,795,008 bytes
RAID Type Software RAID

- Motherboard
Manufacturer Alienware
Model 068R5X (U3E1)
Version A14
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model Haswell
Chipset Revision 06
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model ID8C4B
Southbridge Revision 05
-- BIOS
Brand Alienware
Version A14
Date 9/24/2014

Thanks for your time. Nice website BTW.

Hello fellow forumers,

Currently I have Acer Aspire E5-573G (i5 5200U & Nvidia 940M 2GB variant) and as you probably know Acer provides BIOSes for their laptops from Insyde.
Recently I've been thinking to update my BIOS, more specifically the CPU microcode only since other modules are not so important in my case (I use AHCI, and the GOP is not really needed and it is risky to update it too as I've read somewhere in the forum).

From MyDigitalLife forum I found link to the official Insyde H2OEZE tool for updating the BIOS modules/microcode/logo and etc.. (don't know if it's the latest one) and with the help of CodeRush's InsydeBIOS Extractor I extracted the BIOS from the latest update provided from Acer. I did this since the ZRT.fd file that usually comes when you extract the BIOS update .exe cannot be opened with H2OEZE.


My question, has anyone tried this tool and succeeded with it, I know that sometimes it takes risk from someone to report a result from something like this, but If I had a programmer with me I'd rather take the risk to report a results and share with similar users.

Best Regards.

Link to the Insdye H2OEZE -> Link

I dumped the BIOS region with Flash Programming Tool, the size of the BIOS is the same with the one which I extracted from the Acer BIOS update.

H2OEZE accepted the dumped BIOS as .bin (I've set it to choose all file types) and the CPU microcode can be updated, so I replaced whole 1F Microcode with the 24 one.

BIOS saved without any errors as .fd (I've also attached picture of the tool showing updated microcode)

But now I'm confused with how to flash the BIOS, Insyde Flash tool or Intel Flash Programming tool once again ?

I got error while trying. Attached screenshot.

But I think I have solution. If I enable advanced hidden options in BIOS (with Tab + Fn, that's actually the hotkey, no need to use modded BIOS anymore :P) there's a option in Chipset Section where it says BIOS Lock or something, forgot the exact thing.

Soo, If I enable that would it work ?

EDIT: And no I don't have programmer :/, maybe this error gave me last chance...

Well ok, thanks for your huge help so far. But I will wait a little bit more if someone else with more knowledge about Insyde BIOSes will reply here for help and tips.

Other thing to mention, the size of the microcode header in the BIOS is 256K and either way even with 1F or 24 revision, the header is not filled to the end (attached picture of that). So that clears my confusion why the size of the BIOS is still the same.
Any help from other members would be glad, once again thank you plutomaniac

EDIT: Also attached information about CPUID with AIDA64

On load of the BIOS in H2OEZE there's always a message showing some sizes of the BIOS, including the microcode size which says 256K (picture attached).

Also that's strange, you used replace as I did on mine, or just deleted the current microcode (1F) and added the 24 one. Probably those maybe are from different variants for the laptop since I think there are with different CPU, though having that much is bit strange.

Well If I don't have luck with someone else who has knowledge of modding Insyde BIOSes, either with the tool or not posting here, I guess I leave it not flashed. Though If this ever turns out to be correct and working way it would really help the others with newer computers that have Insyde BIOSes and want to edit them.

Though there's also to mention that in the release notes of the tool, it says that every new version has some kernel versions that it supports, but the tool never reports the kernel version or even if the BIOS file has higher than it supports.

You can flash the bios with the implemented recovery method, I did that myself on a Aspire E5-572G.
Here's a link that shows you how to prepare a usb stick for bios recovery and here I uploaded two files you can try (renamed original bios 1.37).
I formatted the usb stick with FAT16, but you can also try with FAT32.
After you have followed all the steps from the link above (you don't need step 4 of the preparation), the fans should spin up. If the filename is right, the power led should blink shortly after that.
The process will take around 1 to 2 minutes to complete.

After you've got that working, we can go on to creating a mod bios.