Hello,

I have bought an Asus S15 F505ZA-DH51 laptop, I'm trying to unlock certain options in the bios to adjust power settings and graphics config (change shared memory) but have failed to succeed.
I was able to adjust a file (with Ami tools and hex editing the header) and get it flashed but the menu did not change, I'm must have did the wrong thing.
Is anybody able to assist to get this done or point me in a better direction?
Bios currently installed is this one:
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/X505ZA/X505ZAAS308.zip

There's a newer one by the way but did not install it yet:
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/X505ZA/X505ZAAS311.zip

Thanks...

@tb0ne_be - Since you mentioned "graphics" and laptop in first sentence I'll start with this now >> DO NOT Change any graphics related settings in an unlocked BIOS unless you have a flash programmer in your hand and a backup of BIOS made and checked by someone to confirm it's a proper and valid full BIOS backup
Otherwise you can be left with black screen and no way to recover except via blind flash or flash programmer.
With that said, you can usually adjust graphics memory size settings without issue, but you have to be careful and for sure no trying to disable this graphics and enable that graphics or switch which is main etc (or see above)

Great you have already figured out how to flash mod BIOS for this system, hopefully it's not via some method involving /GAN
Otherwise same comment above applies, should not be used without programmer in hand, backup made, and often can "appear" to flash BIOS but actually do nothing If it is this, we'll have to confirm if the latter is true or not!

Which BIOS do you want me to modify? Please zip some small images of your currently visible BIOS pages, just the main ones so I can see at a glance which are visible to you vs the hidden ones (main, Advanced, Boot, Save and exit etc)

Thanks for your help.
I did involve /GAN at some point but not sure if that was the latest successful attempt.
Adjusting cpu power options (disabling most power saving options) is the most important.
Reducing allocated shared VGA memory would be nice to have (currently 1GB of RAM allocated but nothing GPU intensive is done on this laptop) but not essential.
I'll try to gather some additional input.

Thanks...

@Lost_N_BIOS
Right, I uploaded some pictures here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=72141653935117861766

@tb0ne_be - Thanks for the images. You didn't specify which BIOS you want unlocked?
Don't worry, I will unlock all settings for you at the end, I only mentioned those things earlier as a warning because if I forget then that's the first thing people usually do when I give them unlocked BIOS - try to disable this graphics and enable that graphics and then = instant black screen soft-bricked BIOS with no easy way to recover usually.

The newest one (311) I guess, that way if the file includes the signature it will flash without having to do trickery to flash the current version?
Thanks again, interesting to know what I did wrong during my attempts...

All versions are signed, you can't flash any mod BIOS in the normal manner. What did you do with your attempts that didn't work??
Usually for unlocking menus you need to edit AMITSE and sometimes a few things in Setup module too, then after that AMIBCP edit may be required or not but only after the other two modules edited first and BIOS tested

* Edit - @tb0ne_be - If you want chipset menu added, without having a flash programmer the only safe way is to replace another menu (like swap security for chipset) If you have programmer I can add another menu entry (increasing total menu count), but without you having one in hand this is not safe to test
Here is first test I need you to do, please let me know which of these BIOS you see new "Save & Exit" BIOS page. Look at this page before you flash, so you're freshly familiar with the stock one. There will be only one Save & Exit, not two, I'm simply swapping
Please test in the following order, stop when you see the new Save & Exit page and let me know which BIOS that was, do not test further after you see the new page it's not needed.
1. Setonly
2. SetonlyBCP
3. SetAMIT
4. SetAMITBCP

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...414096980935172

And sorry for any confusion on what you see in AMIBCP, with the BCP named files, I set both Exit menus to Supervisor, I can't remember which is which so both set for now

Thanks, will try to test this soon.
I have ordered a programmer kit but guessing it will take a while before it arrives...

My comment about the newer version relates to the fact that you can't flash the same version as the one you are running, I recall seeing that message.
I only used AMIBCP to extract and modify, then with a hex editor took an original bios and appended my modified file after the signature.
But that did not suffice to get it flashed from within the bios flash menu.
I believe the trick I used to flash modified bioses was to use ez flash from setup menu, select original file on usb, detach usb, rename modded file to earlier selected file, re-attach usb and then flash.
Otherwise it wouldn't work if I recall correctly.
But since I don't see any changes either my flash didn't do anything or what I flash is wrong...

@tb0ne_be - AMIBCP cannot be used to extract anything? It's only for making changes, that's what I was asking you about
Do you mean you put your mod BIOS into the stock BIOS after capsule (at 800h)? If yes, great you could do that, but that's only helpful and usable if your on a system that has USB Flashback, for all others remove BIOS body from capsule and that is all you use.
If you use EZ Flash from within BIOS you may be lucky, and have one of the systems they allowed mod BIOS to flash with EZ flash (very rare). Please test and confirm, all BIOS I sent you wont work that way, I assumed you would be using AFU - so if you want to try those with EZ Flash append after capsule at 800h
Ohh! The quick switch, surprised that works at all, but same, if you want to try that with the above files you'll have to put them back into capsule. Or, if you are not 100% sure you did that correctly let me know and I will redo them all in capsule for you too.

All the above BIOS should be safe to flash, aside from any accidental bad BIOS flash, they should not brick or anything due to the changes I made, that was only a concern with certain edits which I did not make in these.

Right, sorry for taking so long to respond.
Holiday in between... :-)
In the meantime I received a flash programmer kit so I'm confident to attempt the flashes, will keep you posted.

I cannot find a way to disable secureboot (cannot be disabled in current BIOS) and as such am struggling with getting a FreeDos boot disk with AFUDOS working... :-/
Guess I'll have to start using that programmer...