NVIDIA Maxwell VBIOS mods - 900m series overclocking versions

[pro.dj]

My post was ignored, hope someone will see it now...

You sure that GPU is throttling? May be CPU multiplier drops dead?

I had same issue with my old Acer, there is one cooler and heat sink system for CPU and GPU.

So, when CPU was stressed on turbo multiplier it was getting GPU eventually to 74 degrees and exactly on this point CPU multiplier was dropping to 8 (800Mhz) leading to horrible fps drop.

So I used ThrottleStop 3.50 to prevent this.

[Makarolis]

Hi, does anyone have stock vBios for 970m Asus Rog G751jt ?

[Klem]

Hi, does anyone have stock vBios for 970m Asus Rog G751jt ?

Here you go.

ASUS970M.zip

[Rikoshet]

Hi svl7! Months ago I flashed my 970m with bios from first post. Now I'm trying to flash the buios from this thread:

http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/3119-%5Bbios-vbios-mods%5D-prema-mod-stock.html#post54056

Now, when I trying to flash OC1.1 version, with *.bat file or directly in CMD, the flasher gives me "ERROR board ID mismatch". I've tryed all nvflash versions from techpowerup.com that support my card, al versions gives the same error... Options like " -4 -5 -f -u -p" gives help info about using nvlash! And using "o" option gives another ERROR: Firmware image filename must have a valid extension, and mine is "rom", downloaded from third post!

Any idea on how to proceed?

Thank you!

[thegh0sts]

Try the nvflash that's on prema's site.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Rikoshet]

Try the nvflash that's on prema's site.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

That did the trick! Thank you!

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Hi everyone,

I have an Acer Nitro VN7-591G with 960m.

Am I correct in thinking that the vBIOS is thus part of the system BIOS?

If so, how do I go about flashing it (and backing it up in the first place)?

So far, I have got as far as this:

1) Download latest BIOS from Acer.

2) Extract components dumped using PhoenixTool.

3) Looking at the vBIOS with Maxwell BIOS Tweaker 1.36.

Thus I'd like to know the following:

1) How to back up current BIOS? Is it possible to pull out only the vBIOS?

2) How to flash vBIOS? Does it involve modifying the vBIOS and then inserting it into the system BIOS and flashing the whole thing?

Many thanks for any tips / advice!

[Jimbo Mahoney]

OK, here is my current thinking, having tried to backup my current BIOS without success:

1) My BIOS has portions of it that are locked. (FPT gives an error 26 when trying to dump my BIOS).

2) However, the latest BIOS on the Acer website contains the 960m vBIOS inside it.

3) Since the BIOS from Acer is flashable to my BIOS without overwriting the portions specific to my system (e.g. Windows key), I should be able to simply modify the latest BIOS download.

I'm going to learn one or both of the following:

1) How to modify the downloaded BIOS without "unpacking"

2) How to "repack" the modified 960m BIOS into the system BIOS for flashing...

If anyone has any tips/advice, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Thanks to klem, I've managed to back up my BIOS, or at least the "BIOS" portion of it, using a different version of FPT.

I think I'm now at the point where I can do the following:

1) Extract modules using "Andy's Phoenix Tool".

2) Modify the 960m vBIOS using Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker 1.36.

3) Repack the module using "Andy's Phoenix Tool".

4) Flash the BIOS using Acer's tool (I believe I can modify the ini file so that it will proceed even though the versions are the same).

HOWEVER, I'm not comfortable doing this until I can recover from a Brick situation and sadly, I cannot seem to get the laptop to flash the BIOS in so-called "crisis" mode. I've also posted on the Acer forums about this, but here is what I'm getting:

1) Hold Fn + Esc keys while powering on the laptop.

2) If a USB flash drive is inserted AND it contains the BIOS file with the name "HadesSX64.fd", then it proceeds into what I assume is crisis mode - the screen stays black; the fans spin up briefly to max and the USB flash drive is accessed. However, it then simply shuts down again and does not actually flash the BIOS.

If the file is any differently named or the USB flash drive is not present, then it proceeds to boot normally, suggesting that is indeed in crisis mode, but I do not understand why it's not flashing the BIOS.

Once again, if anyone has any advice...

If / when I finally manage this, I will be sharing my experience so that others can choose to unlock their 960m - I am frustrated at the +135 MHz ceiling and from what I can tell by the voltage and ASIC quality, this could be a great clocker...

[AnoMiller]

You sure that GPU is throttling? May be CPU multiplier drops dead?

I had same issue with my old Acer, there is one cooler and heat sink system for CPU and GPU.

So, when CPU was stressed on turbo multiplier it was getting GPU eventually to 74 degrees and exactly on this point CPU multiplier was dropping to 8 (800Mhz) leading to horrible fps drop.

So I used ThrottleStop 3.50 to prevent this.

I am 100% sure, I used GPU-Z to monitor my GPU usage and GPU-Z doesn't show CPU stuff does it?

Anyway, so I found out ASUS' genius idea to make vBIOS a part of the BIOS which makes it impossible to extract the vBIOS or to flash the vBIOS without touching the main BIOS, nvflash doesn't work too. It seems really hopeless now, I guess I just have to live with this and get another laptop that doesn't limit everything. My laptop is a ASUS G551JM with GTX 960M, if anyone finds a way to modify the vBIOS, please let me know!

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Success!

I've successfully modded my 960m BIOS.

I'm using FPT to read the BIOS, Andy's tool to unpack, Maxwell BIOS Tweaker to mod and then Andy's tool to repack and FPT to flash (after putting laptop to sleep).

What a hassle!

[thegh0sts]

Can't do 1337?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Can't do 1337?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Yup.

1202 + 135 = 1337, which is the default that my card boosts to without a BIOS mod. I don't fully understand why the boost table only goes 1202....

Anyway, long story short, it seems this card is right on the edge anyway.

With a BIOS mod, I was only able to achieve 1433 MHz on the core with a slight voltage boost (from 1.156 to 1.2 using nVidia Inspector).

Because this only took my Bioshock benchmark FPS from 50.7 to 52.0, I'm not going to bother.

At least I know that there's not much steam left in the 960m, at least not without boosting the voltage.

I must admit, I've struggled with the voltage tables - I couldn't get it to increase the 1.156 voltage without using Nvidia Inspector.

I didn't have the patience to keep tinkering with them, flashing, then investigating what they had done. I tried shifting them all to give a minimum of 1.2 V, but this made things unstable (graphics driver crashes) so I bottled out and flashed back to default.

On the plus point, this was the highest 3DMark11 score (5500) for an i5 / 960m that I could see.

I might revisit if I find the time to invest in understanding how the voltage tables work.

[thegh0sts]

I think you missed the point, it was meant as a joke: 1337 = elite

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Jimbo Mahoney]

I think you missed the point, it was meant as a joke: 1337 = elite

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Ah yes...

The comment was too subtle. It would have been better phrased thus:

"OMG, u meen your gfx card isn't able to run steady b00sts at "1337" speeds?"

[antoine52200]

Hi everyone!

i've been searching this forum for a while now, and i can't find a custom vbios for my g751jt 970M 3Go. Apparently there is one only for the 6Go version.. Am i correct?

[Riri-Fifi]

Hi

Compatible Vbios MSI GT80 Titan ?

[Ianc]

i wonder what the difference is between prema's 980m vbios and svl7 / jonksss 980m vbios? which is preferred?

I was wondering the excact same thing, I have an AW17 with a 120hz screen and recently flashed my 980m with the prema 1.1 bios. The reason for this i stumbled around and found a nvflash version that would let me flash it in windows after i had disabled the gpu in device manager.

the previous gpu i had (780m installed) was a solid performer and worked really well with the svl7 bios loaded onto it. So what are the differences between the two bios's as i would love to try the 980m svl7 bios if i can flash it the same way i flashed the prema bios..

Thanks in advance

Ian

[Robbo]

I was wondering the excact same thing, I have an AW17 with a 120hz screen and recently flashed my 980m with the prema 1.1 bios. The reason for this i stumbled around and found a nvflash version that would let me flash it in windows after i had disabled the gpu in device manager.

the previous gpu i had (780m installed) was a solid performer and worked really well with the svl7 bios loaded onto it. So what are the differences between the two bios's as i would love to try the 980m svl7 bios if i can flash it the same way i flashed the prema bios..

Thanks in advance

Ian

Might not be worth trying the svl7 980M vBIOS if you're getting good overclocked performance with no throttling from the Prema version. I think there's the ability to overvolt/overclock/unlocked sliders on both versions (certainly on the svl7 version anyway).

[Blacky]

Hello guys,

So I took the plunge and bought an MSI GTX 970M.

I have then installed it in my aging M17x R2.

The card seems to be partially working:

It the sense that it boots up and gets into Windows but the image is all wrong:

Even at BIOS POST the image is all messed up.

I've tried the external monitor on VGA and the image is fine there.

I think it's because of my RGB LED screens.

Any idea how this could be fixed by editing the vBIOS?

The original vBIOS is here:

http://blacky.bestmail.ws/CLEVO%20BIOS/other/GTX970M_3GB_MSI.rom

Any suggestions or ideas are welcomes.

[Klem]

Hello guys,

So I took the plunge and bought an MSI GTX 970M.

I have then installed it in my aging M17x R2.

The card seems to be partially working:

It the sense that it boots up and gets into Windows but the image is all wrong:

Even at BIOS POST the image is all messed up.

I've tried the external monitor on VGA and the image is fine there.

I think it's because of my RGB LED screens.

Any idea how this could be fixed by editing the vBIOS?

The original vBIOS is here:

http://blacky.bestmail.ws/CLEVO%20BIOS/other/GTX970M_3GB_MSI.rom

Any suggestions or ideas are welcomes.

Try flash vbios from the first page of this thread.

[Blacky]

Fortunately I can do that... since I have 2 MXM slots.

I have installed the 970M for testing purposes in the second MXM slot and it works. Of course the system won't use it, but I can access it's vBIOS and run some diagnostics on it.

So if the flashing bricks the cards, I can easily fix it.

Will test now and come back with the results.

[Blacky]

Ok. so here it is:

Original MSI stock vBIOS:

- colours are messed up on the laptop display

- display port, VGA and HDMI are fully working.

- the image is crystal clear on display port and HDMI.

benchmark: http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img905/690/UnOgxG.png (ran on my secondary display)

Nvidia GTX 970m - 'OC edition' rev0

- image on laptop display is messed up even worse

- system will post

- there is no image when I get to Windows unless I boot into safemode

- unable to test HDMI, VGA, DP

- even when placed in the secondary MXM port the card won't start and device manager will show an exclamation mark with code 43.

Prema's 970M Clevo vBIOS mod (https://biosmods.wordpress.com/clevo-mxm/)

- image on laptop display is messed up (worse then on stock, not as bad as with the one in this thread)

- system will post

- you can boot into Windows but now, besides the colour problems you get ghosting and lines

- I didn't test VGA, HDMI and DP, but I think they will work

So, no luck yet. But I think this could be fixed with the proper vBIOS.

My Kepler based 860M is working fine so far in my M17x R2, apart from the fact that when the display is turned off, it actually turns completely white instead of of going dark.

[Klem]

Ok. so here it is:

Original MSI stock vBIOS:

- colours are messed up on the laptop display

- display port, VGA and HDMI are fully working.

- the image is crystal clear on display port and HDMI.

benchmark: http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img905/690/UnOgxG.png (ran on my secondary display)

Nvidia GTX 970m - 'OC edition' rev0

- image on laptop display is messed up even worse

- system will post

- there is no image when I get to Windows unless I boot into safemode

- unable to test HDMI, VGA, DP

- even when placed in the secondary MXM port the card won't start and device manager will show an exclamation mark with code 43.

Prema's 970M Clevo vBIOS mod (https://biosmods.wordpress.com/clevo-mxm/)

- image on laptop display is messed up (worse then on stock, not as bad as with the one in this thread)

- system will post

- you can boot into Windows but now, besides the colour problems you get ghosting and lines

- I didn't test VGA, HDMI and DP, but I think they will work

So, no luck yet. But I think this could be fixed with the proper vBIOS.

My Kepler based 860M is working fine so far in my M17x R2, apart from the fact that when the display is turned off, it actually turns completely white instead of of going dark.

Ok. Now you can try flash this 3 different stock MSI vbios for GTX 980M.

MSI980M.zip

[Robbo]

Ok. so here it is:

Original MSI stock vBIOS:

- colours are messed up on the laptop display

- display port, VGA and HDMI are fully working.

- the image is crystal clear on display port and HDMI.

benchmark: http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img905/690/UnOgxG.png (ran on my secondary display)

Nvidia GTX 970m - 'OC edition' rev0

- image on laptop display is messed up even worse

- system will post

- there is no image when I get to Windows unless I boot into safemode

- unable to test HDMI, VGA, DP

- even when placed in the secondary MXM port the card won't start and device manager will show an exclamation mark with code 43.

Prema's 970M Clevo vBIOS mod (https://biosmods.wordpress.com/clevo-mxm/)

- image on laptop display is messed up (worse then on stock, not as bad as with the one in this thread)

- system will post

- you can boot into Windows but now, besides the colour problems you get ghosting and lines

- I didn't test VGA, HDMI and DP, but I think they will work

So, no luck yet. But I think this could be fixed with the proper vBIOS.

My Kepler based 860M is working fine so far in my M17x R2, apart from the fact that when the display is turned off, it actually turns completely white instead of of going dark.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone test a Maxwell GPU (eg 980M/970M) in an M17xR2. It's possible that Maxwell just aren't compatible for whatever reason. For instance, Maxwell are not compatible with M17xR3 - won't POST. Maxwell is compatible with the old M15x though. If your system is heavily related to the M15x in terms of when the product was released and the way the BIOS and system is set up, then I think you've got a good chance of getting Maxwell to work in your machine - could just be incompatible though. I'm not convinced a different vBIOS is going to fix it for you. If anything I would think that your BIOS settings and other factors might be more important in getting it to work. For instance, Maxwell in dedicated GPU mode (No Optimus) will only work on M17xR4, A17, and M18xR2 if you have Windows 8, disk GPT partitioned, and within a 'pure' UEFI environment (no legacy boot option selected) - so these Maxwell GPUs can be very specifically incompatible or compatible based on very specific factors and settings. The factors needed to get a Maxwell GPU to work in your M17xR2 might be very specific as well, that's even if it is gonna be compatible - just letting you know what I've learned in case it can help you at all or give you some ideas.