CookieMook

SUCCESS!!! Ok, I have just flashed the final full update with no problems at all. Ever since the earlier patch flash, I have had no more BIOS freezes or black screens so that seems to have been the issue. I guess I have one of those pre-prod boards after all. Thanks a lot for all the support Prema. I'll run a few tests to ensure stability, then the OC fun begins. Is there anything I can do to help others that have the same board revision as myself avoid these headaches? It was really touch and go for a while there but all seems fine now. I can post any motherboard info you may need to help pinpoint the board IDs that may be problematic. Cheers all.

Hi Prema, Thought I would chime in, It took a few tries of step 1 freezing/rebooting, but I managed to flash the last files you sent (the ME Fix last ones). I was on pins and needles while step 2 was taking place, and thankfully I got no freezes during step2, The flash was successful and the system seems stable now. I will do a few more power cycles, then attempt to flash the full update. So far so good!!! I'll chime in once I get the full update flashed to give everyone a status update. What an adventure lol . Thanks again

Ok thanks Prema. I will try this when I get back home from work tonight. Just to confirm, I use these latest files to flash with the usual method: step 1, reboot, step 2, shutdown, AC power out 30 sec then reboot. Then I flash the files you provided a couple posts back: redo step 1, reboot, step 2, shutdown, AC out 30 seconds and reboot? Should I load defaults between the two flashes or only after the second flash? If the BIOS freezes or I get a restart with black screen between step 1 and step 2 do I still go ahead with step 2 or do I need to have a full sequence of step 1, reboot and step 2 with no hangs for the flash to be successful? Thanks again for the great support.

Hi Prema, I was finally able to download your custom BIOS files, however I was not yet able to flash. I tried the normal method with step1, reboot, step2, etc, however the first time I tried I got a BIOS freeze after the step 1 reboot. I tried hard shutdown, then got another BIOS freeze (on the prema logo). Third time I got step 1 + reboot + step2 started, but BIOS froze when it got to 50% of reading the flash (first step of step2). Now at this point I am really worried that the BIOS will freeze when I get to the erase/write step and essentially brick my laptop. I have tried to reduce the max cpu clock multipliers to 30, and set the cpu performance to energy saving mode and disabled intel rapid start. It seems to be more stable now (at least I can boot into windows now without it freezing on boot), but I never know when the BIOS is about to freeze. Each time I got BIOS or windows freeze, I could still control the fan speeds (fn+1) to max and back again, so whatever is controlling that still worked (I think it is the EC but not sure). Are there any other settings I should change to ensure BIOS won't freeze on me while trying to flash? Otherwise is there another way of flashing (recovery using Fn+b?) to prevent BIOS freezes during flash?. Thanks a lot for your support.

Thx Prema. I'll definitely give it a try once I'm able to download it: I have 5 posts now but still unable to download files for some reason. As an update, last night things got progressively worse with Windows freezing more and more often requiring hard shutdown. This morning I was able to boot into windows, so it seems a little random or maybe in some way heat build-up related although CPU/GPU temps looked fine in HWInfo last night so I don't know. I'll report back on your custom version as soon as I can. Once again thx for the help. From what I read on your mod blog page, my symptoms seem similar to another user that had a pre-prod board, is this what you're thinking as well? Is there a sure fire way to know if you have a pre-prod board so we can prevent these issues for others? Let me know if you need any further data from my system in the mean time. Cheers.

Thx for the response, though there is something definitely weird happening: I uninstalled XTU and the last few times I tried to change settings in the BIOS it froze in the BIOS (still at stock clocks and multipliers). Required hard shutdown (hold power button for 5 seconds). The second time the BIOS froze in a row + hard shutdown it tried to restart itself again with the black screen (no GPU or LED backlight) and auto-shutoff a few seconds later, all this at stock clocks and multipliers. My system was stable even at +4 bins overclock with no extra voltage (I had previously set in XTU and ran for many months), so I know it can't be the CPU crashing at stock clocks and multipliers. Does your BIOS mod need a certain vBIOS to be compatible? It certainly seems like something is not quite right in my system. I had also loaded optimized defaults (F3) prior to attempting any of this, with the only change being the boot order for harddrives, so I can't see why it would fail to boot due to OC failure (no OC the last few tries) or wrong settings (loaded defaults). The way I successfully booted into windows (as I am writing this) was to unplug the AC and reboot. It may be coincidence, but after crashing 3 times in a row (freeze in BIOS twice, freeze in loading windows once) with AC I tried something different. I don't know if this helps identify the issue. Any ideas? At this point we've ruled out any interference due to XTU since it has been uninstalled. Thanks.

Hi Prema, I have successfully flashed your bios mods v2 on my p370sm3 (now have BIOS 1.03.03 and EC 1.03.01) and can now access all the unlocked features, and followed the guide to a T (step1, step2 then remove ac power fro 30 sec, then reboot). However I am getting some weird behavior: first thing I noticed: in the bios main page on the System Memory line I have the name of my gpu card (Nvidia GTX 780m), then on the line of GPU I have 80.04.xx.xx. (likely the vBios version) and on the vBios line I get a date. It seems some register is missing or wrongly configured and the values are offset from where they should be. I am still on stock vBios for the 780m (single card installed). Second thing I noticed: when applying changes + reset from BIOS, it will attempt a restart, then the screen will be completely black (GPU seems to not be activated at all) then just shut back down after a few seconds. When I manual restart after this then the screen is back to normal and I can enter BIOS or boot into windows. Restarting from Windows also yields the same result (Win 7 ultimate 64 bits): computer reboots, black screen (GPU not active) for a few seconds, then auto-shutdown. If I boot manually after this everything seems ok. Third thing I noticed: the CPU overclock settings in Performance Tuning of BIOS do not seem to "stick". After shutdown they are still a their default values. From this I have a couple questions for you: 1) Does this weird behavior mean I have one of those pre-prod boards that needs a special bios flash file (bought Sager NP9380 3D in August 2013)? If so could you send me the link to the right bios/Ec files plz? Otherwise do I need a more recent vBios on the 780m? 2) I still have intel XTU installed in windows. Could this be interfering with my settings (I haven't opened the application in windows and still the settings are reset in bios) and should I completely remove intel XTU from windows or are both BIOS and XTU overclocking compatible? Thanks a lot for your hard work Prema.

Well good to hear you got it working! It is weird that uninstalling/deleting the BT drivers in Device Manager didn't yield the same results. I have heard from a few people that they required a full shutdown (not just restart) for changes to take effect, so perhaps the key would be do uninstall/delete the current BT driver, then full shutdown, then reboot and let windows detect the "new" hardware and install its default drivers and finally install the intel ones. Well in any case, good to know that if all else fails, physically removing the card seems to yield results. Cheers

Hi, I have a P370SM3 with a 780m stock clocks and stock vBios. When under load (gaming) the card will regularly hit the 92-93 deg C mark then the fans will start to spin faster to cool the card down. I'm reading on this forum that the temps should stay below 80 deg. Is this still the case for a laptop? If so, is this normal behavior for stock clocks and vbios or should I investigate a repaste job or look for updated EC/mainboard bios to help with fan speed control? Also, would the vBios linked in the first few posts help in this case? Thanks.

I started having issues with my bluetooth as well (still on win 7 64 bits though). A few things to try that have helped me: 1) Check in Device Manager to see if you have bluetooth device listed. If not, run a scan for new hardware changes to see in Win10 recognizes the bluetooth at all. 2) If you have the device shown with a yellow exclamation mark (Likely with error 43 in the device status when checking the properties) try uninstalling then scan for new hardware changes. Windows should install the MS drivers. Then try re-installing the intel bluetooth drivers. 3) Make sure Bluetooth Support Service is set to automatic and started in Services. In my case, for some reason this was off and bluetooth would never get started on boot-up. 4) Run an elevated command prompt (cmd run as administrator) and type sfc /scannow. In my case this was needed to clear the bluetooth driver issue and it is now working fine for me (I have the dual-band Intel AC7260 in my system) Let us know if this solves the issue. I'm waiting a bit before upgrading to Win10 but it's good to know if basic functionality that I need will remain.