Lenovo Y400 / Y500 - unlocked BIOS / wlan whitelist mod

[ufoman]

I can say that everything works OK with the vbios mod and the ultrabay GPU. Benchmark results appear to be proper, and a fair bit of graphical issues in games related to old drivers are now gone.

[milotait]

YYEEEESSSSSSS!!! You guys are freakin' geniuses.

Here's how I got it to work:

Use DOS version of NVflash.

Follow svl7's guide to but make sure you first turn off write protection with nvflash -r for the Ultrabay GPU which is index <1>.

Then flash ONLY the Ultrabay GPU (remember it is GPU 1).

Press y twice to confirm and wait until it reports that it has flashed successfully.

CTR+ALT+DEL to restart and PROFIT.

I see u use 306 driver, 310.9 or older driver u don't need modding the bios!

[radicalatheart]

Putting on some RAM heatsinks won't help a lot. If you guys want lower temps then repaste and see whether you can get some more pressure on the GPU die (and CPU), this helps a lot. I modified the backplate of my GPU and temps really went down. Just be careful not to crush the die.

That's probably caused by your overclocking software. Try Nvidia Inspector. I had a lot of issues with precision.

You don't want your CPU to run at the limit, same for GPU. GPU is probably about 105°C as well, but it should start to throttle at about 95°C or more.

Also @all... don't use furmark as long as you want to have your card functional an running.

I'll prepare a volt modded BIOS when I get the chance, but there really doesn't seem to be a lot of thermal headroom at the moment.

Is it easy to reach the CPU? Did you have to take the whole laptop apart?

I have Arctic Silver 5, doesn't seem to be good.

Depending on the current headroom we have now we could possibly undervolt as well and overclock at the same time. But from my experience I noticed that mobile chips detoriate fast when getting hot too often. My GT-525M could do 0.83v first at GT540M clocks while stock voltage was 0.95v for example. But in the end I was left with 0.9v.

@milotait: upgrading to latest BIOS is recommended if you are having issues. Flashing BIOS each time is risky. So it's up to you. I personally prefer having latest BIOS version simply hoping there are less bugs in it or more features.

[svl7]

I don't have an Y500, but here are some pics of the machine disassembled: http://forum.techinferno.com/lenovo-ibm/2773-y500-disassembled-pictures.html

So... not it's not easy, but doable.

[radicalatheart]

I found the voltage table for the GT650M in the VBIOS at offset 0x73DC

At 0x73EA we have our voltage offset we have to change I think.

Or the voltage offset is:

1025000mv - 812000mv = 213000 = 0x34008 which looks like bytes 0x73f8-0x73fa reversed. But that's not Little Endian format as far as I know so it's not right I think.

In theory the GK107 chip should be able to handle 1.138v (remembering the GTX650 voltage). I believe it ran stock at 1.110v

But what I don't get is, if I read correctly, our GT650M is running at 1100mV according to VBIOS and 1025mV in reality

I included the modded vbios, remove the zip extension, it is not compressed or packed. I added 0.075V so I should have ended up with 1.175v

Seems like voltage stays the same. So there must be a lock or a ceiling somewhere as expected that locks it to 1.025v

gt650m_oc.rom.zip

[William Christian]

So can anyone else report on their successful SLI overclock, settings and benchmark/stability. I'm curious how far everyone has been able to push the GPU's stably without any voltage tweaks.

[radicalatheart]

looks like 1.075GHz is the limit here for core clock. Memory was at 5.0GHz (80GB/s) during testing. Didn't go far with memory. Still 1GHz is a nice achievement. (+25%)

You can use EVGA OC Scanner X and Furmark for testing. You can use nvidia inspector to see if the memory controller is 100% loaded during testing. If not 100% loaded during testing I would back off 50 MHz - 100 MHz when the display driver crashes. It's very difficult to fully load the memory controller.

I hope I helped you.

[Sn00pX]

Just as an addition for "possible errors" if you want to flash your bios to unmodded 2.02V and you get error "DC error", plug in the battery

[RedLionRisen]

I can get my card up to 1110 Ghz fully stable in games.

[William Christian]

That is essentially what I was running, just wanted to see if anyone else had pushed it more and if it was capable of more.

Anyone have a guide for overclocking the processor using the multiplier in the modified 2.02 bios? I have seen a lot of talk about people successfully overclocking it a bit but no real indication of how (or instruction).

[radicalatheart]

I actually wonder why I should overclock. I only play age of empires 2 which is a 1998 game

[octiceps]

Anyone have a guide for overclocking the processor using the multiplier in the modified 2.02 bios? I have seen a lot of talk about people successfully overclocking it a bit but no real indication of how (or instruction).

I have also seen others mention this but with no pictures or other evidence. I myself have spent a lot of time poking around in the modded BIOS and I don't believe such an option exists.

In the rare event that the i7-3630QM is overclockable, it would not be through the multiplier. Only the i7-37xxQM and i7-38xxQM have partially unlocked multipliers (4) while the XM ones are fully unlocked. It might be possible to OC our CPU using SetFSB to increase the base clock, but IIRC it is incompatible with Ivy Bridge. Plus using this method disables Turbo Boost so you'll have to bump up the BCLK enough to compensate otherwise you may not not see any gains.

All of this is assuming, of course, that you can somehow keep the CPU temperature in control. Even at stock it's already close to reaching its limit.

- - - Updated - - -

I actually wonder why I should overclock. I only play age of empires 2 which is a 1998 game

What a waste...

[radicalatheart]

I have also seen others mention this but with no pictures or other evidence. I myself have spent a lot of time poking around in the modded BIOS and I don't believe such an option exists.

In the rare event that the i7-3630QM is overclockable, it would not be through the multiplier. Only the i7-37xxQM and i7-38xxQM have partially unlocked multipliers (4) while the XM ones are fully unlocked. It might be possible to OC our CPU using SetFSB to increase the base clock, but IIRC it is incompatible with Ivy Bridge. Plus using this method disables Turbo Boost so you'll have to bump up the BCLK enough to compensate otherwise you may not not see any gains.

All of this is assuming, of course, that you can somehow keep the CPU temperature in control. Even at stock it's already close to reaching its limit.

- - - Updated - - -

What a waste...

Overclocking is not really worth it. I mean CPU sided. 99% of you guys dont need that extra CPU power. I do virtualization and ArmA 3 and some PS2 Games emulation. I need that. And still this i5 is powerful enough.

The GPU in SLI is also pretty powerful. But for the extra FPS may be worth it.

I could buy a new 300-400$ CPU but I am going to save up all my money for Broadwell probably and the 800M series.

Age of Empires 2 supports SLI. Only 1% usage on both GPUs :')

[William Christian]

It's odd, I ran 3DMark after overclocking the GPU's and got the 2nd highest score which shows its obviously working as intended, and while Nvidia Inspector shows GPU core clock at 1100 Mhz 3D Mark shows 405Mhz. When I pull up the Highest 3D Mark which is SpooN^ it shows his at 1100. Any idea why it may not be registering when 3D mark does a scan?

[svl7]

I never had 3dM11 register the proper clocks of any Kepler card I tried.

[William Christian]

I never had 3dM11 register the proper clocks of any Kepler card I tried.

I was just surprised to see someones actually registered and mine did not.

[octiceps]

Age of Empires 2 supports SLI. Only 1% usage on both GPUs :')

LMAO I'm guessing you're playing the new AoE 2 HD from Steam? Funny how they have SLI support for such a non-demanding game.

[octiceps]

It's odd, I ran 3DMark after overclocking the GPU's and got the 2nd highest score which shows its obviously working as intended, and while Nvidia Inspector shows GPU core clock at 1100 Mhz 3D Mark shows 405Mhz. When I pull up the Highest 3D Mark which is SpooN^ it shows his at 1100. Any idea why it may not be registering when 3D mark does a scan?

I never had 3dM11 register the proper clocks of any Kepler card I tried.

I was just surprised to see someones actually registered and mine did not.

Yeah 3DMark 11 is also showing my core at 405 MHz on the scores page. That's actually the core speed in the lowest performance state (P8). If GPU P-states are enabled 3DMark seems to always report that number regardless of how much you overclock. For the results that are showing the correct core speed I'm pretty sure those people are forcing P0 using Nvidia Inspector. It makes no difference in the scores either way. I leave the P-states where they are because overclocking only affects P0 and the core clock in P5. I don't have to worry about manually switching back and forth and this automatically saves power when idle.

BTW I noticed that after flashing the vBIOS, Nvidia Inspector and GPU-Z both report the default core to be 835 MHz when in fact it is still 790 MHz. So those of you who flashed may get confused when GPU-Z and Inspector show a core clock that is +45 MHz higher than what it actually is. Anything that reads the clock speed from the sensor, however will still report the correct value. Doesn't mean anything but just thought you guys should know if you didn't already.

GPU-Z and Inspector both show a default core speed +45 MHz higher than actual:

However, the sensor readings are still correct:

[radicalatheart]

LMAO I'm guessing you're playing the new AoE 2 HD from Steam? Funny how they have SLI support for such a non-demanding game.

I don't know if they have SLI support. I see GPU usage on both cores that's all but I think it supports it. hard to tell

[octiceps]

I don't know if they have SLI support. I see GPU usage on both cores that's all but I think it supports it. hard to tell

It wouldn't matter either way though LOL.

[cubaniche]

Quick question. I am trying to flash my Y500 with the modified v2.02 modded bios. I have created the modded file using the 'fix' but it is generating a .rom file extension and not .bin...is this ok to flash the .rom? I mean, I dont think it makes a difference, but just wanted to make sure...thanks in advance!

UPDATE:

Nevermind! I did it and it worked flawlessly. Cant wait for my advanced-n card to arrive tomorrow so I can get my dual band back. My old sony vaio fw140 three years old has dual band, couldtn believe this lappy and many others do not.

Thanks svl7!

[octiceps]

Quick question. I am trying to flash my Y500 with the modified v2.02 modded bios. I have created the modded file using the 'fix' but it is generating a .rom file extension and not .bin...is this ok to flash the .rom? I mean, I dont think it makes a difference, but just wanted to make sure...thanks in advance!

Yes it is supposed to be a .rom file.

[cubaniche]

Yeeaahhhh...I figured as much. Just got a little confused with the .bin extensions I saw with the backup and in the instructions. In any case, it's all good and done now

Thanks for the quick reply!

[octiceps]

Yeeaahhhh...I figured as much. Just got a little confused with the .bin extensions I saw with the backup and in the instructions. In any case, it's all good and done now

Thanks for the quick reply!

No problem. Good to hear you were successful.

[raven_ninety]

Is there a way to set the fan to always run at 100%? I've tried speedfan but it can't even detect the y400's fan.