BIOS Tools

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by amiga, Aug 21, 2007.

  1. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    May 6, 2007
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    Have you tried to find them with a hexeditor? It must be one of the lower BIOSCOD modules 0?
    When opened the BIOS with PBE you find the modules in its temp folder. Just load all into an hexeditor and try to locate the string you want to modify. Modify it with the hexeditor and save the module.
    Just change in PBE just one string and change it back to make PBE recompile the BIOS..when recompiling it takes the hex edited modules to rebuild the BIOS.
     
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  2. kelorgo

    kelorgo MDL Addicted

    Oct 29, 2012
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    Thanks for the good suggestion, I have actually already tried this and it is possible, although tricky.

    Copies of the SMBIOS strings are located in two different modules: ROMEXEC0 and BIOSCOD1. My experiments show that the one you need to modify is ROMEXEC0. Any changes you make in BIOSCOD1 get overwritten when the BIOS loads during boot time. In addition, making the changes with PBE is a bit difficult. When PBE builds the BIOS, it actually overwrites any changes you manually make to SMBIOS strings in the Temp folder (even those strings that are not editable inside PBE). So I had to manually pack the BIOS with prepare/catenate.

    At any rate, hexediting is not a real solution. I can't alter the length of the strings, nor can I add or remove strings. Hence I need a better tool.
     
  3. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    The SMBIOS has a defined structure otherwise a generic readout would not be possible. RW-everything lists the sections and the corresponding hex bytes. There are reserved places, you cannot alter the length of a string, it has a defined amount of bytes. Some are just 20h bytes means 'space'..a place holder...
    Btw: Andy's Phoenix tool is able to recompile modified modules as long as the new size doesn't exceed the original. Just tick no SLIC and allow user to modify...

    Theoretically on a vm the virtual SMBIOS should be editable 'live' by trying to overwrite the original memory addresses (RW everything can also write directly into memory, also winhex can access assigned RAM directly), contrary to a 'real' SMBIOS the addresses should be writeable. Anyway as soon the vm reboots the original value is probably restored. But one could try to edit the SMBIOS directly and then later try to activate again...
     
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  4. kelorgo

    kelorgo MDL Addicted

    Oct 29, 2012
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    I could find the SMBIOS structures in the ROM image, and use Andy's tool the way you described it, but again, that only allows me to alter existing strings with a hex editor, and that is not enough.

    Using a hex editor, you can overwrite existing strings. If you want something shorter, sure you can pad the strings with spaces (20h) as you suggest. However, that is not a real solution for me, as this doesn't allow me to:
    1) Have a new string that is of different length than one that is present. Either longer or shorter (without padding).
    2) Add additional strings, or remove existing ones.

    The OEM Strings section of SMBIOS is allowed to contain a variable number of strings, each of which can be of arbitrary length. I want to be able to choose the number and lengths of the strings.

    (Note that this is not for Windows activation purposes, it's for an application where the OEM Strings are read from SMBIOS. Hence I need to be able to have the exact number and length of strings I want).

    If there is no existing tool for this, then perhaps I should split this into a new thread where methods could be discussed for arbitrary alteration of the SMBIOS structures.
     
  5. mick711

    mick711 MDL Junior Member

    Apr 14, 2008
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    For PBE 2.6.0.0 it's a fake because BCPDEFS.dat is built in 2007 and it's possible to find a recent dat files 2009 but not support 2013 Bios ROM have No BCPs found error, i would like to edit Bios files of my Toshiba T902 and impossible with PBE .
     
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  6. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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    #450 quid, Sep 11, 2013
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  7. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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    #451 quid, Sep 11, 2013
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  8. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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  9. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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  10. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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    #457 quid, Oct 8, 2013
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  11. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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    #458 quid, Oct 23, 2013
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  12. pepe123

    pepe123 MDL Novice

    Sep 20, 2009
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    Amibcp > 4.53.0050

    Has anyone seen a newer version of amibcp that works with the latest bios files (from msi)? Or how to permanently modify values in those bioses?
     
  13. quid

    quid MDL Addicted

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    #460 quid, Nov 8, 2013
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