I need a BIOS unlocked for OC

I've had problems with my motherboard and my "spare", an extra XPS430 mobo I have, in GPUs. after several months of testing, I concluded that Dell has unintentionally implemented a very strange effect where the motherboard "dislikes" certain Graphics Cards(that encompass a wide variety) and will not work with them installed, behaving similarly to as if no CPU was installed. I have yet to find the exact cause of this, especially as there seem to be no relevant similarities between any of the cards I tested the boards to "dislike":
AMD Radeon HD 6670 By XFX HD-667X-ZAF3
AMD Radeon HD 6770 By Gigabyte "Dust-Free" model
Nvidia Quadro NVS 280 Dell OEM
Strangely enough, My AMD Radeon HD 4890 HIS Turbo+ edition (Overclocked to 965Mhz)
works fine in my main board but is "disliked" by my spare. My main board works fine with both; let's hope it also works fine with both at once!
Also, I now realize that to use two dualslot cards one would have to be in a x1 slot to fit ): I thought the x8 was 2 down from the x16, not right next to it. But I looked and then remembered. You are right, A x8-to-x16 adapter is needed. I'm looking at my case and I think a position similar to the one used by Dell for their Alienware X51's GTX 555 might work...

Hmm... Will a CF bridge from the CF slot on one card nearest the I/O(monitor ports) connected to the CF slot on the other card farthest from the I/O Work? Because If I just sort of wedge the second 4890 in the card cage space below the x16 one with it pushed a little back it will work. Even though I use 5 of my 6 slots it will still work. I can see it now.

If that doesn't work I might need a freakishly long and flexible CF bridge..

OH my GOSH why does my username suddenly have TWO stars

misternumberone said:

OH my GOSH why does my username suddenly have TWO stars

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Hi mate! long time has passed without me writing here...

I've done some Mod on my xps 430, adding also a GTX 680, awesome GPU...

and I've done the triple fire on my other xps 420, using my 4870x2 + another 4870... really fast...

If you want to talk to me, add me on FB, i'll give you my email, then my name... [email protected]

speeks soon!

have you looked into pad mods? thats the only way i could get get any dell's overclocked. also dont have to fuss with setfsb everytime you startup.
not trying to rain on anyones parade but for like 50 bucks on ebay you can buy a new motherboard that supports overclocking and take her to the sky

wagex said:

have you looked into pad mods? thats the only way i could get get any dell's overclocked. also dont have to fuss with setfsb everytime you startup.
not trying to rain on anyones parade but for like 50 bucks on ebay you can buy a new motherboard that supports overclocking and take her to the sky

Click to expand...

BTX Case my friend... it will be

new case
new mobo
new psu
new cpu cooler

not worth for the time being... also, our case it's lovely... and the system support basically everithing

Mr_Save said:

BTX Case my friend... it will be

new case
new mobo
new psu
new cpu cooler

not worth for the time being... also, our case it's lovely... and the system support basically everithing

Click to expand...

what?

Our xps 430 it'a BTX, not an ATX...

ah oki sorry i didnt realise what a btx was, but anywho still recommend padmodding if you are comfortable with doing that will give you an easier overclock along with not having to make adjustments everytime you bootup

How is this padmodding done, and how do I use it to help overclock the CPU more easily? I have heard of this being possible on E6600s and a few others, but not ever any C2QE Yorkfields.

misternumberone said:

How is this padmodding done, and how do I use it to help overclock the CPU more easily? I have heard of this being possible on E6600s and a few others, but not ever any C2QE Yorkfields.

Click to expand...

Ok there we are, I've tried the bsel mod in both ways (fisrt connecting +vcc on bsel1 then covering with insulant tape both bsels) but nothing happens, as soon as you start the pc won't post.

so I think we can abandon the pad mod for our's 1333 fsb CPU...

the only other way we can do an oc it with SETfsb but with CPUCool it's far better, also because you can save your configuration and it's start automatically with the OC

here's the link, you can download the trial, I think it worth the 15€...

http://www.podien.de/

then, "someone" has asked me how can we set up a double GPU configuration on our's systems (420/430), and today I made some photo of my other 420 wich I have with a "triple fire" configuration (4870x2Master 4870Slave)

For what I can test, ATI (amd now) works, I can't test SLI because I don't have 2 nvidia to test...

268--- that's the adapter for pci x8 to x16 i've bought it from ebay:

http://www.ebay.it/itm/PCI-E-Expres...ltDomain_0&hash=item3f1966fe02#ht_3340wt_1163


272--- on the cover we have to do a little mod... cutting the bottom part of the lid that goes in... otherwise we can't close the tower


264--- my 430 with GTX 680 inside!!!


anything I can do to help another xps entusiast, i'll do it!

oh I forgot to tell you that, the so called triple fire works with the 450W oem psu...

even under stress... not just 2D...

AMAZING!!

oh and for maurice... i forgot to tell, no, I never even tried to work on ram timing...

any other question, please feel free to ask!

wow thats very impressive, and i am amazed by that dell psu.
thanks for all the info!

now on my list, getting those north and south bridge coolers like you did! (i see youve even changed your cpu heathink, very very cool)
and try out sli when i can get my hands on another gtx460.

I lent the other HD 4890 to somebody but I will get it back as soon as I can and try adjusting the tab thing like you said. In the meantime I will try to get it to work with 2 graphics cards again, by the way I have that same PCIe 8x to 16x adapter how did you get that 4870 to fit in the case so tightly? I tried to do it as tight as possible and I got it in so that I wouldn't need to mod the door but I was worried it would break the adapter.

misternumberone said:

I lent the other HD 4890 to somebody but I will get it back as soon as I can and try adjusting the tab thing like you said. In the meantime I will try to get it to work with 2 graphics cards again, by the way I have that same PCIe 8x to 16x adapter how did you get that 4870 to fit in the case so tightly? I tried to do it as tight as possible and I got it in so that I wouldn't need to mod the door but I was worried it would break the adapter.

Click to expand...

I've modified the door... just removing that part i've showned in the pic.. but i'll make another one to show you better!

Also, I've managed to extract the real bios file of our machine...

now i've asked into another forum if someone is able to modify it, and also i'm working on it...

I hope togheter we can develope something useful!!

The xps 420 and 430 don't share the same bios since they have different motherboards, am I right?

Different motherboards. XPS 420 is X38 NB, XPS 430 is X48. Also the 420 is DDR2 and 430 is DDR3. otherwise they are very similar though. There is also another Dell that uses an extremely similar mobo to the XPS 400 series(some of the XPS 400s were originally called Dimensions but they don't count) The Dell Precision T3400. It is another of the most powerful BTX motherboards in existence (thanks dell!) and it is much like a 420 motherboard except it has two PCIe slots and is officially compatible with Nivida Quadro SLI. Crossfire compatibility and normal GeForce SLI is unknown. Like all BTX motherboards, it fits in the XPS 430/420 case. However, I unfortunately have been unable to get mine to POST and I think it might have something to do with my only X38-chipset-compatible CPU, my C2Q QX9650, not having an entry in its BIOS because I cannot tell but I think it might have T3400 BIOS A09, which i not compatible with QX9650. However I cannot do anything much with it until I can borrow someone's C2D 65nm. I know someone who will be getting one soon for a build I am doing for them, I can test it then with that.

So, that means in total, you have three dell "400" series motherboards with you? That's alot! Haha!

Oh yeah, do you know of anyway I can unlink the ram from the cpu overclock. It's seems with setfsb, i can't get over 2.8ghz as it'll reboot. I'm guessing it's the ram...