Hello everyone,

I'm looking into updating my laptop's oROMs to the latest possible once and for all (since those Sandy Bridge era stuff are no longer updated). The last BIOS available includes:

1) Intel ME: v7.0.4.1197
2) Intel vBIOS: v2117
3) CPU Microcode: 06A7 Rev 12
4) AHCI ???

1) Updated via Windows to v7.1.60.1193 as provided in this forum. If ME is responsible for power management etc, do I need to edit any settings at the ROM file with FITC according to my stock ME and reflash it or is there no actual difference?
2) To my knowledge the latest Intel vBIOS is v2170 (Mobile). Before inserting in the BIOS, do I have to change settings according to my stock ROM with Intel BMP Tool? Does the ROM include the specific manufacturer DEV ID?
3) To my knowledge the latest microcode is rev 29. Can I update this with UBU or do they differ between laptop and desktop platforms?
4) The HM65 does not suppot RAID, only AHCI. Usually to update the AHCI, you need to update the RAID ROM. However, if there is no RAID support, how can you update to the latest AHCI version?

@ plutomaniac:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Zitat von plutomaniac im Beitrag #1

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1) Updated via Windows to v7.1.60.1193 as provided in this forum. If ME is responsible for power management etc, do I need to edit any settings at the ROM file with FITC according to my stock ME and reflash it or is there no actual difference?

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Zitat

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2) To my knowledge the latest Intel vBIOS is v2170 (Mobile). Before inserting in the BIOS, do I have to change settings according to my stock ROM with Intel BMP Tool?

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No.

Zitat

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Does the ROM include the specific manufacturer DEV ID?

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You should extract the Intel VGA ROM module of your currently running BIOS, open it with a hex editor and compare the DeviceID hex code with the Intel VGA ROM module you want to insert. If there should be a difference regarding the DeviceID, you may have to change the hex code of the newer VGA ROM file.

Zitat

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3) To my knowledge the latest microcode is rev 29. Can I update this with UBU or do they differ between laptop and desktop platforms?

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The UBU tool doesn't support the BIOS modding for laptops.
Generally I do not recommend toi update the CPU Microcode of mobile systems.

Zitat

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4) The HM65 does not suppot RAID, only AHCI. Usually to update the AHCI, you need to update the RAID ROM. However, if there is no RAID support, how can you update to the latest AHCI version?

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Since your system doesn't support RAID and Intel 6-Series chipsets don't need an Intel AHCI ROM module, there is nothing to do for you regarding the Intel AHCI/RAID ROM modules.

Regards
Fernando

Thank you for the fast reply Fernando. :)

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #2

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Since the Intel ME Interface is controlled by a special Firmware and not by an Option ROM module, you have to flash the ME Firmware separately and not by modifying the BIOS. Please look into the start post of >this< thread.

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Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #2

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You should extract the Intel VGA ROM module of your currently running BIOS, open it with a hex editor and compare the DeviceID hex code with the Intel VGA ROM module you want to insert. If there should be a difference regarding the DeviceID, you may have to change the hex code of the newer VGA ROM file.

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Zitat von plutomaniac im Beitrag #3

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I was wondering whether the OEM's actually change anything from the "stock" Intel firmware that they are provided. Meaning specific laptop alterations etc.

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Zitat

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I have DEV_116 which is HD 3000 and both roms (stock and 2170) and a hex editor, at what address can I find the Device ID?

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Here is the location you should look at:

The "86 80" means the VendorID of Intel (it is VEN_8086) and the "06 01" in my example means the DeviceID of the Intel Graphics Controller (in my example case it is DEV_0106).
Since the OEM manufacturers often use other DeviceID numbers, when they insert the related Option ROM module, I recommend to open both Intel VGA ROM modules (the stock one and the one you want to insert) and compare the characters/numbers of the DeviceID at the red marked location. If they should be the same, you can insert the new Option ROM without any problem.

I checked 4 different files (2117 clevo, 2170 intel, 2119 clevo, 2119 intel) and all of them had the same DEV_ID of 0106 so it seems there is no difference there. Basically I was trying to find the SUBSYS so that I could replace it with my own so that I won't have some other OEM's. My SUBSYS is 25 50 15 58 so after applying little endian it should be 58 15 50 25. It seems though that all vbios report 0106 despite showing a different DEV_ID inside windows (in my case 0116). So how are these defined then? If I understand properly, if I flash intel's v2170, it should still report my own DEV_ID and SUBSYS then.

Thank you for replying @lordkag. My laptop is Clevo W25xHNx (series that share the same bios). The latest BIOS includes v2117 which is shown here:



I updated the ME via the flasher inside Windows so the settings should have been kept. Back when I updated that, I checked MEInfoWin and run a Manuf check. Everything reported fine.

Unfortunately the Intel vBIOS collection found here does not contain the stock intel v2117 so I cannot directly compare to my own. However, I found Clevo's v2119 from an almost same model and compared it with the stock Intel v2119 using BMP. There are differences pretty much everywhere, that's for sure.

I have attached below a file containing the latest actual BIOS file, the extracted clevo v2117, the stock Intel v2119 & v2170 and an extracted clevo v2119 from a very similar model for reference.

EDIT: Actually I'm not sure. It might be SB only as you said. It does say SNB/IVB-MOBILE but after that only Intel(R)Sandybridge Mobile. The v2170 vbios says SNB/IVB-MOBILE but afterwards Intel(R) Sandybridge/Ivybridge. It seems that after v2119 did Intel add IB support.

@ plutomaniac:

Since the flashing of a modded BIOS into the BIOS chip of a mobile system is much more risky than with a desktop system, you should wait for a comment of someone like lordkag, who knows more about this topic than me.

@lordkag

You are absolutely amazing. Thank you very much for your trouble. Especially the vBIOS procedure that you followed. I checked (just to be sure before flashing) and all the Clevo OEM settings were transferred to the new bios as you said. And indeed Clevo had screwed up with the cpu microcodes there. Both are updated now after a successful flash.



This JMicron rom, I have searched a lot but probably nothing was ever released for it. Not even at the JMicron ftp so yeah, lost cause. My laptop has the 540M, I'll ask Prema for anything new there (a guy who is known for clevo bios modding). Also I checked and the ME firmware was not overwritten which makes sense since it is a lot newer than the one included with the BIOS.

EDIT: Oh yes, the ME firmware. Does this one need manual editing first according to OEM settings as well?

So apart from the two VGAs, ME, JMicron, CPU-ID did you spot anything else that can be updated? Fernando already told me that the AHCI is not upgradable but, for the sake of two opinions (no offense to anyone), is this accurate? It just seems weird that just because this chipset does not support RAID, you can never update the AHCI counterpart.

@lordkag

I searched a lot of other models with JMC25X. The latest was 1.0.9.0 as I saw at Clevo stuff, all the other are even older (1.0.7.3 etc). It's ok, as you said it's pretty useless. Also indeed I checked and AHCI is specific for every laptop. Even the W25xHPx model (I have the W25xHNx) which has a 520M instead of a 540M uses a different AHCI EFI driver. So, I will forget about these.

For future reference (so that I can learn), can you explain the safe procedure that you did for the vBIOS? I suppose you used the Intel BMP tool with each version's .bsf file.

About ME, when you say "save/copy settings" do you mean this procedure?

@ lordkag:

AFAIK the newer Intel chipset mainboards from 6-Series up do neither need nor use an Intel AHCI ROM/EFI module.

Zitat von lordkag im Beitrag #11

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AHCI is run by an EFI driver, located in GUID 8F5A2E02-538C-4D59-B920-C4786ACBC552. It was built for this board, it can't be ported, neither replaced with another one.

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@lordkag

Oh my, the vBIOS procedure is a lot of work actually. Again, thank you very much lordkag. I'm not sure if I understood some parts. I will read it some more and try it when I have more time since I want to learn the procedure.

Actually I did something easier for ME. As you said, if I update the ME from inside Windows the OEM settings are preserved and the version is only updated. So I did that. Then, I run MESET.exe which is a tiny program from Clevo (for clevo models) that overrides the flash descriptor. Then I used the fpt -D command to dump my whole updated bios. I checked it with FITC and the updated ME + OEM settings are there. So now I have the modded bios + ME v7.1.60.1193 + OEM settings ready as a single flash file. To provide this modded bios to other "same" laptops, I'm confused on whether I should use FTP (fpt -f Bios.bin -me) or AFUDOS (afudos Bios.bin /ME) to update the ME. Also, will other people need to run MESET.exe before flashing the ME? For reference, the way MESET works is that you run it, system restart and until you shut down again the flash descriptor is overwritten.