Hi,
I'm trying to upgrade my Getac X500 (Fully rugged, QM57 Chipset, Phoenix BIOS). Officially it supports an i7-640M (35W) and 8Gb memory maximum.
Now, I have tried to upgrade it with a i7-940XM (55W), and the BIOS will recognize it perfectly, no problems. I can boot into DOS, do whatever I want. If I try to install Windows 8 however, half-way during the 'detecting-driver' stage the laptop will just turn off. Upon reboot it will complain it shut down unexpectedly and I should restart the installation. Now I have ruled out a temperature shutdown (keeping it cool up to that point). It is always at the same point as well.
Considering the memory, I tried putting in 16Gb (2x8mb) memory, which again is recognized normally in the diagnostics screen (16384kb). Only when I enter setup the amount of memory is shown as 0 KB and when booting, windows shuts down with the new frowny BSOD (probably also getting the 0KB memory). DOS boots fine.
I get the idea that the BIOS is not filling in certain fields (ACPI table?), not setting options or doing things for configurations not specifically enabled in it.
So I tried Phoenix BIOS Editor, but it doesn't seem to work on my bios (PSI Analysis Fail! error). So I tried phoenixtool214, which extracted its components and identified it as "Phoenix BIOS (New Style)".
I have looked through STRINGS00.ROM and it seems there are a shitload of options in the BIOS not visible to me. So I figured I'd ask here if you can unlock them.
Additionally, the laptop has two BIOS files, one SYS and one KRC/EC (This string is in the ROM file: "EC-V12.2 Copyright ITE Tech. Inc."), don't know what this is. Also, the upgrade zip from the manufacturer includes a .cer file, I hope flash updates aren't signed, since that would probably mean I'm up sh*t creek and I totally forgot to rent the paddle, right?
So, I'd be grateful if you could unlock the hidden menus in the setup to start with, and (considering this is a laptop for military use) if you notice anything weird or interresting or related to the CPU and memory not working while you're at it, please don't be shy to let me know![Wink]( "Wink")
Once upon a time (20 years ago) I actually wrote my own BIOSes in assembler and whatnot (after soldering new crystals on the board), but sadly most of that is hazy when looking back. Additionally, apparently BIOSes now are just zipfiles full of all kinds of crap I have no idea about![Wink]( "Wink")
But I'd be willing to assist and learn again.
Ideally I would learn how to do this myself, but I don't have the time unfortunately![Sad]( "Sad")
So any help (and any technical explaination) from you is much appreciated. BIOS-es are attached.
![.zip]()
X500_SYS_R1.11.070520RLS_flash.zip (Size: 1.3 MB / Downloads: 0)
![.zip]()
R1.07.zip (Size: 58.27 KB / Downloads: 0)
I'm trying to upgrade my Getac X500 (Fully rugged, QM57 Chipset, Phoenix BIOS). Officially it supports an i7-640M (35W) and 8Gb memory maximum.
Now, I have tried to upgrade it with a i7-940XM (55W), and the BIOS will recognize it perfectly, no problems. I can boot into DOS, do whatever I want. If I try to install Windows 8 however, half-way during the 'detecting-driver' stage the laptop will just turn off. Upon reboot it will complain it shut down unexpectedly and I should restart the installation. Now I have ruled out a temperature shutdown (keeping it cool up to that point). It is always at the same point as well.
Considering the memory, I tried putting in 16Gb (2x8mb) memory, which again is recognized normally in the diagnostics screen (16384kb). Only when I enter setup the amount of memory is shown as 0 KB and when booting, windows shuts down with the new frowny BSOD (probably also getting the 0KB memory). DOS boots fine.
I get the idea that the BIOS is not filling in certain fields (ACPI table?), not setting options or doing things for configurations not specifically enabled in it.
So I tried Phoenix BIOS Editor, but it doesn't seem to work on my bios (PSI Analysis Fail! error). So I tried phoenixtool214, which extracted its components and identified it as "Phoenix BIOS (New Style)".
I have looked through STRINGS00.ROM and it seems there are a shitload of options in the BIOS not visible to me. So I figured I'd ask here if you can unlock them.
Additionally, the laptop has two BIOS files, one SYS and one KRC/EC (This string is in the ROM file: "EC-V12.2 Copyright ITE Tech. Inc."), don't know what this is. Also, the upgrade zip from the manufacturer includes a .cer file, I hope flash updates aren't signed, since that would probably mean I'm up sh*t creek and I totally forgot to rent the paddle, right?
So, I'd be grateful if you could unlock the hidden menus in the setup to start with, and (considering this is a laptop for military use) if you notice anything weird or interresting or related to the CPU and memory not working while you're at it, please don't be shy to let me know
Once upon a time (20 years ago) I actually wrote my own BIOSes in assembler and whatnot (after soldering new crystals on the board), but sadly most of that is hazy when looking back. Additionally, apparently BIOSes now are just zipfiles full of all kinds of crap I have no idea about
But I'd be willing to assist and learn again.Ideally I would learn how to do this myself, but I don't have the time unfortunately
So any help (and any technical explaination) from you is much appreciated. BIOS-es are attached.
X500_SYS_R1.11.070520RLS_flash.zip (Size: 1.3 MB / Downloads: 0)
R1.07.zip (Size: 58.27 KB / Downloads: 0)