BIOS Settings - D630

[Hervé]

Last update: 25 Apr 2018

 

To answer a recurring question, here are BIOS settings that are known to work on D630 with Intel Crestline X3100 and nVidia Quadro NVS 135m GPU under Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina (nVidia models only for Mavericks 10.9 and above). These settings were tested and verified with BIOS A16, A17, A18 and A19.

Onboard Devices:
. Integrated NIC = enabled
. Internel modem = enabled
. External USB ports = enabled
. Parallel port = ECP
. Serial port = COM1
. PC Card and 1394 = enabled
. SATA Operation = AHCI
. Module Bay Device = Enabled
. Flash Cache Module = Off
. ASF Mode = Off
. Microphone = Enabled
Video:
. Ambient Light Sensor = Off
. Brightness = max
. Brightness (AC) = max
. Primary Video = Onboard Video
Security:
. Admin Password = not set
. System Password = not set
. Internal HDD PW = not set
. Password Change = Permitted
. Password Bypass = Off or Reboot & Resume Bypass (or any other value)
. Wireless Switch Change = Denied
. Wi-Fi Catcher Change = Denied
. CPU XD Support = Enabled
. TPM Security = Off
. TPM Activation = Deactivate
. Computrace (R) = Deactivate
Performance:
. Multi Core Support = Enabled
. Dynamic Acceleration = Off (Can be set to On only with Penryn CPUs, keep Off with Merom CPUs or FSB and therefore CPU speed is reduced)
. SpeedStep Enable = Enabled
Power Management:
. Auto On Mode = Off
. Auto On Time = xxxxxx
. USB Wake Support = Off (USB wake support operates only when system is on mains and then causes Sleep/Instant Wake issues)
. Wake on LAN/WLAN = Off
Docking:
. Undocking Method = Hot Undock
. PCI Slot Monitoring = Enabled Silent
. Universal Connect = Enabled
POST Behavior:
. Adapter Warnings = Enabled
. Fn Key Emulation = Scroll Lock
. Fast Boot = Minimal
. Virtualization = Enabled or Disabled (only required to run virtual machines)
. Keypad (Embedded) = Fn Key Only
. Mouse/TouchPad = Touchpad-PS/2
. Numlock LED = On
. USB Emulation = Enabled
Wireless:
. Internal Bluetooth = Enabled
. Internal Wi-Fi = Enabled (keep to Disabled if you have an Intel card, they're not supported and need to be replaced)
. Internal Cellular = Enabled
. Wireless Switch = All
. Wi-Fi Catcher = Enabled
. LAN/Wi-Fi Auto Switch = Off

The above settings are compatible with sleep/wake mode of operation and use of Wireless on/off switch. BT + Wifi services resume on wake + wireless switch re-activation (Wifi may require manual network re-selection after the latter).

 

[RobertB]

 I have mine D630 up and running again after a video breakdown.

Mine is running with Bios A17 but I see that some of you are running with Bios A18!

On the Dell site I see that A17 is the last version.

Where to download the A18 version and what are the advantages over the A17?

 

thanks,

[Bronxteck]

i think A18 only added encryption to the firmware.

[Hervé]

A17 and A18 bring nothing of value to our D630. They simply provide additional security for firmware encryption.

 

Edit: same with version A19.

[Hervé]

I have just come to notice that BIOS A18 and A19 modify the System Number from -595B to -3A5B. Whilst these latest versions neither bring new particular features nor affect behaviour in OS X, they are however incompatible with unlocking passwords provided by the well-known BIOS password generator tool (Dogbert's tool included in EDP) which only supports System Numbers ending in -595B/-D35B/-2A7B.

 

As such, if your D630 BIOS is locked with an Admin password, you're unable to unlock it if BIOS is above version A17. Please note that having a BIOS Admin password set does not prevent BIOS downgrade from Windows using the package available off Dell's support web site or directly from a USB key using the extracted .hdr file.