Thanks for the information "Fernando". I will post back my results, and experience.
Keep up the great site!

Hello again Fernando. I have learned a lot about the process. I'm close to giving it a try really don't want to brick my system, so I'm being extra careful.
I feel like I'm quite close to putting all the pieces together, but I always seem to encounter some sort of obstacle, or question that creates doubt about the process.
Currently, that issue seems to be extracting the HDR and Rom file from the DELL flasher.exe. The much cited /writehdrfile and writeromfile don't seem to be supported by the DELL T5600A14.exe file I need to use.

I used PhoenixTool 2.66, and it seemed to be successful parsing out all the particulars, but instead of two files output like I expected, I now have the following.
T5600A14 (with no extension) That looks like the HDR file.
DUMP directory with 1129 ROM files
DUMP\BIOS directory with 357 BIOS
SLIC.LOG (Attached)

The number of files doesn't really bother me, but when it comes to introducing NVMeExpressDxE.ffs, file I am unclear how to proceed.
Assuming there is a way to introduce the microcode, I am also unclear how to package the modified BIOS into something that can be flashed.

Ideally, I think it would be great if the mod could be returned to the original exe form and flashed that way, but that seems unlikely.
So could you lend some ideas or directions on how to proceed?

Thanks again.

Perhaps I got off track a little.

I'm not committed to using andyp's tool, I just mention it because I've seen it used here on the forum and had a certain amount of success using it to extract the files (I believe) I need.

So here are the things I could some clarity on.

When extracting from the flasher exe how many files should I expect? I seem to obtain just one. Is that okay?
Following the guide, when I open the file in MMTool I see that the volume is specified differently than I see in other examples '03:02-00'. Good?
Also following the guide, when I add the NVMeExpressDxE.ffs, and save it I was a little surprised that the size of the file remained unchanged. Good?
So assuming all is well at this point, how do I get this new file flashed? Should I be looking at getting this file back into the flasher exe, or pursue flashing it by other means?

As I mentioned, this is my development machine. I don't mind failing and using the drive as a data drive, but I can't afford to brick the box.

Those are my questions, and I include some files and screen shots.

Thanks again for your time.

Thanks again. All your responses make perfect sense.

It looks like only getting a single .hdr file is fine in this Dell's case. So all I have to do is get the mod flashed.
I agree, Dell has obstacles in place to prevent you from flashing a modified BIOS. That seems a little unfair to do this since they don't back and update older BIOS's with new features like NVMe.
It looks like linux users have inherently the same issue, since they cant run the flasher exes. So I'm looking into flashing it that way.

I'll let you know how it goes. I think it will work.

Thanks for all your help.

Well... now I beginning to think this won't work on the Dell Precision T5600 I'm working with.
I think your directions and guide are all good. Great work, and thanks again Fernando!
My issue is I can't get the modification flashed back on the T5600.

So I'd like to put the question out there... Is it possible to flash a modified bios to a machine that has "signed firmware update" option enabled?

Zitat

---

In April 2011, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released Special Publication 800-147 BIOS Protection Guidelines to offer BIOS vendors, OEMs, and end customers the information needed to help protect the system BIOS from malicious attacks.
The NIST document defines guidelines on how to protect the BIOS code on a system from unauthorized modification and also provides deployment strategies to allow customers to take full advantage of these protections.

---

It's actually an interesting read Signed Firmware Update
That's great! Who doesn't want protection from root-kits and alike. However, it seems as the owner of the device, I should have some means to turn off this feature at least temporarily, by jumper or some other means. But I can't find it anywhere.
My intentions are certainly not malign. I just want to boot off this awesome PCIe ssd drive I have!

Getting Dell to back-port the feature to an older platform seems even less likely than the talented membership figuring out how to circumvent this feature.
So I'm calling my effort a failure unless someone out there has other ideas. I'd like to hear them, and I'll certainly give them a try.

EDIT byFernando: Unneeded blank lines removed (to save space)

I think an external SPI programmer is the best option here. I don't know if your SPI chip is soldered down or socketed (I hope for the second, as it's a workstation, not laptop), but you need to perform dump-modify-flash cycle on it to get your changes applied without having Dell private key.

Thanks CodeRush! Well... It looks like my knowledge is going to expand. Sounds like fun!

I doubt I can use my arduino for this... :) So, assuming its socketed (which I think it is) What sort of hardware am I looking at?

Are there any guides you know of that outline the process so I can familiarize myself?

Thanks for the detailed instructions Fernando :)

Going to give this a go on my Lenovo D30 board (acquired from eBay to drive my 2 x Xeon 2670's). As far as I can see it's an AMI UEFI BIOS board with the latest update just applied. It has no mention of booting from PCI-e so far. I assume that comes when I mod the BIOS?

Also.. I saw earlier instructions that mentioned needing a similar but newer board to source the BIOS from. Is that no longer needed? I notice your instructions only require the BIOS for the board in question and the downloadable module to be added.

Unfortunately I just can't get it to work Fernando :( I tried the exact instructions but it just refuses to see the device in BIOS to boot from. I've tried changing a few BIOS options but not really sure which ones would matter beyond enabling UEFI :(

I was amazed at how well this worked for me. I am pretty good at hardware but had never modded a bios before. I bought a Samsung NVMe 512gb - MZPV...and was fairly disappointed that it would not boot in an Asus z87-pro no matter what I tried. I also have an Asrock Extreme6 in another PC with an SM951 M.2 256gb ACHI in it, so I wouldn't have been right out of luck either. I looked around and found your site, followed the detailed instructions (except I had cloned my ACHI M.2 onto the NVMe using my Extreme6 and Macrium with Windows 10). So after the bios modification (Bios version 2103) and using the USB flashback and then starting it up with all drives attached including the cloned NVMe in the machine plus 3 other drives, it was up on the Windows 10 desktop within seconds. It was quite incredible. Further there were absolutely no issues.

Thank you so much for providing this information and the level of detail. All I can say is it works - at least it did for me I was very impressed. Perhaps the stupidest thing I did while doing this is I didn't realize for awhile I had to rename the Bios CAP to Z87P.CAP to use the USB flashback method - you might want to put this in your details. Crystal Disk shows about 2200 read and 1600 write, Samsung Magician the same. I suppose I should try Anvil too.

Anyways this was just great thanks again.

System: Asus Z87-Pro, I7 4770k, 16gb GSkill 2400mhz, Asus GTX 780, Samsung 850 pro 256gb, Sandisk Extreme II 480gb, WD Black 1TB EVGA 850w gold power supply.



EDIT by Fernando: This post has been moved here from >this< thread, because mr.skialot's report has been about the Samsung SM951 NVMe and not about the AHCI variant.