razblack

here's the EC, i did not find this anywhere else so maybe this can help others too: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yp0w736v6sk7ykz/W25Q80-m14xr1-EC.7z?dl=0

it could have, but you would think that after flashing all settings would have been reset. let me know if you need the EC file.. i don't believe it contains anything that would be helpful, I took one from a good mainboard and flashed it to the one I've been working on though and it just seemed to change the LED colors. but I'm not 100% sure. I was; however, able to use the clip to flash the EC instead of removing it from the MB like I did with the BIOS

I tried several times to use the clip, but other components onboard where interfering with the SPI communication causing some problems. You will most likely need to remove U48 chip from the board. I used a program called HxD (hex editor) to just delete the header data. https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ if you're going to use Linux to do the programming with flashrom, I believe i used Wxhexeditor as it could do file compares like HxD

ok, got the solder iron today.. desoldered BIOS (chip U48) and was able to 100% reflash with no issues. just a note for anyone else whom resurrects this in the future. the FD files you get from either ASUS or here will need to have their header data removed for use with the CH341a programmer. The header is ~128KB in size (the files are around 4224KB and need to only be 4096KB). I also choose to use Linux Mint with the Flashrom open source program (flashrom.org) and it worked spectacularly. thanks! and much appreciate the information found here.. once i get more $ in my paypal, i'll donate as i have done for tonymacx86.

this was an interesting find on hackernews: (post by mjg59 way down the list) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11863719 apparently, supplying enough power to read the SPI chip (SOP?) with the chip still onboard can sometimes generate 'connected' traffic from other components... and may lead to fail reads. i didn't know this could happen.. probably why i keep failing to read that BIOS. looking forward to being able to pull it. is there any problem with desoldering/resoldering too many times?

heh, yes... this thread is super old and i'm probably just posting to myself but that's ok lol. so, i found something interesting. the CH341a programmer I purchased has a AMS1117 voltage regulator on it... which was getting really hot when I was trying to read the W25Q80BVSIG... like really hot to the touch. Flashrom would either not see the SOP at all.. or just throw a bunch of read errors. So I put a vortex fan on it (small household fan that blows really well)... and now I have no issues reading, write/verify the chip. very very odd. i'm not an electronics engineer or anything, but I know when something is getting way to hot. I also discovered (as I have two of these boards for m14xr1) that the EC chip holds data for the LED programming... yep. The original board would light up blue on the keyboard, and the new board i got lights it up white.. well, after moving the new boards EC data to the old board.. now it also lights up white interesting... I still having troubles reading the BIOS on the old board... no issue with the new one. Perhaps it is dead. I'm waiting for my Hakko soldering iron to come in tomorrow and am going to just remove it and try again. I'm a total noob to this btw.

ok, i was able to get something using a CH341A programmer and flashrom. does anyone happen to have a dump of the EC for this system? I got a couple readings, but now I'm unable to read it using a SOP clip. I would like to do a bin compare to see if the first few readings I got are actually accurate.

well.. it looks like I won't be getting this anytime soon as i found a version by svl7 and was impatient... while the unlock worked, i screwed up trying different PEG mode settings and caked things up good. atleast for a while I was close.. had EFI/UEFI booting with Clover and nearly had climbed sierra, but couldn't get past the discreet video stuff and wasn't satisfied with only HD3000 working... oh well... now the thing just recycles on boot.. tried everything imaginable to clear it and the best I could get is 2 beeps after removing the RAM (could never get the lovely 5 beeps to acknowledge CMOS was alive again). sad pandas.

not sure if you're still checking here, but you can see in the BIOS for R1 or R2 versions.. it will say right on the main screen. The same goes for A08 or A05 version. the unlocked versions will reveal hidden areas that the OEM has blocked from our view for possible access... doesn't mean everything will work though as the OEM has to also supporting code/hardware for those features. but unlocked gives us access to look and set properties. instead of modding the BIOS to control fan speed you should look to software for controlling that such has OpenHardwareMonitor or FanSpeed.. both work very well for controlling this capabiltiy. for measuring HD/SSD speeds, you can use a tool such as ATTO Disk Benchmark to run tests against the drive to see the actual speed (it will nearly never fully reach 6gb/s in real world)

i hope these are still downloadable.. looking to unlock, disable optimus for A08 to build a hackintosh with this unit (m14xr1)... i'm so excited (in geek ways). once i get promoted.. look out Dell!

i see a few post from folks in texas here's another... read a few posts in other forums regarding svl7's bios mods.. and seems to have found the source here. was looking to get the unlocked A08 for my alienware m14x r1 to do some variants for hackintosh as the system does not support EFI. anyway. i see some time must past before i can access the download, I'll wait patiently.