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M14x R1 - BIOS A08 with SATA fix


svl7

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Two new modified BIOS for M14x R1 users. Both based on A08, but with the same SATA performance as in A05.

This allows GF106 users which are still on A05 to benefit from the fixes included in A08 while keeping the SATA performance of A05 and it allows GF116 users to get the benefits of A05 SATA behavior.


It's actually the result of trying to bring GF116 support to A05 in order to change the SATA behavior (as requested by he_yincheng), since this didn't work as planned I tried it the other way around - bringing the SATA performance of A05 to A08, which succeeded. Thanks @he_yincheng for testing! Check here to see some screenshots he posted to verify that it is working as intended.


There are two versions of this mod available, one is the standard A08 with only the SATA tweak and the other is the unlocked version of it.
In the M14x R1 voltage mod thread you can also find both versions with an increased GPU voltage, GF106 and GF116 supported.


As always with such mods, use at your own risk, I don't take any responsibility for possible issues. 
You are responsible for the changes you make on your system.


Feedback is welcome!


Donate link - feel free to buy me a beer if you like this mod ;)

M14xR1_A08_[unlocked]_incl_SATA_fix.zip

M14xR1_A08_SATA_fix.zip

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On 11/23/2016 at 0:06 PM, pilnet101 said:

Please can somebody provide/PM me the link for this bios download? At my wits end with my 5 year old m14x r1 just want to get it sorted now and the A08 unlocked bios seems to be the last piece of the puzzle!

Bump this post. If the the original download link is dead. Need it. Can't tell because I'm still banned or not allowed to download because my account is new and unfortunately this is the only place you can download it.

Edited by gobiasind
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Hi All, new here and just replaced my HDD with Samsung 850, but am not able to download the fix due to pre-promotion.

Aside from installing and tweaking configs as guided by google, I really am not familiar with the terms, so can anyone help out a helpless soul for below queries?

 

-how will I know if am actually R1 or R2?

-how will I know if am A08 or A05?

-what does unlocked A08 mean? what do we intend to accomplish from unlocking a bios?

-what does overclock mean? Why do this?

-does anyone know how to selectively have the fan run and not? I just want it to run (and yea its fan noise on and off) only when I play Dota2

-And how do you exactly measure 6gb/s speed?

 

Appreciate anyone teaching a "kid" the basics.

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On 8/1/2017 at 4:20 AM, yaspero said:

Hi All, new here and just replaced my HDD with Samsung 850, but am not able to download the fix due to pre-promotion.

Aside from installing and tweaking configs as guided by google, I really am not familiar with the terms, so can anyone help out a helpless soul for below queries?

 

-how will I know if am actually R1 or R2?

-how will I know if am A08 or A05?

-what does unlocked A08 mean? what do we intend to accomplish from unlocking a bios?

-what does overclock mean? Why do this?

-does anyone know how to selectively have the fan run and not? I just want it to run (and yea its fan noise on and off) only when I play Dota2

-And how do you exactly measure 6gb/s speed?

 

Appreciate anyone teaching a "kid" the basics.

 

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)

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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.

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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.

Edited by razblack
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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 :D  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.

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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?

Edited by razblack
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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.

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On 8/31/2017 at 8:16 PM, razblack said:

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.

How did you remove the header?  I'm having the same problem with a bad bios that you did, but I'm using an SPI programmer with a clip instead.

Edited by Alaric323
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