IdeaPad Y500 BIOS Mods (overvolting, overclocked out of the box)

[pierrePoutine]

for those with i7's and modded bios, whats the temps like when some of the cores are disabled? or do games now use more than 2 cores?

[rplacd]

for those with i7's and modded bios, whats the temps like when some of the cores are disabled? or do games now use more than 2 cores?

On a related note, I'd like to see how that affects battery life as well - I expect the SLI config to take up the lion's share of power consumption ('tis a fair deal at the price), but I don't mind just having another means of squeezing time out of the battery.

[RedLionRisen]

for those with i7's and modded bios, whats the temps like when some of the cores are disabled? or do games now use more than 2 cores?

How do you go about disabling one or more cores? Is that only in the BIOS, or can it be done with throttlestop? It might be nice for battery saving.

[RedLionRisen]

Is anyone else getting random BSOD errors with the overvolted BIOS? I'm getting them, and can't figure out a particular reason...

[octiceps]

Is anyone else getting random BSOD errors with the overvolted BIOS? I'm getting them, and can't figure out a particular reason...

Set all clocks back to default. See if that fixes it.

If you have the memory dump I suggest submitting it to Eight Forums or Seven Forums and having the people there take a look at it. I've diagnosed and fixed many a BSOD in the past this way.

[jester_socom]

Is anyone else getting random BSOD errors with the overvolted BIOS? I'm getting them, and can't figure out a particular reason...

Download BSOD Viewer made by nirsoft.

Tell me the BSOD code and explanation and driver that caused the crash

I had BSODs as well before. But it was related to USB and AHCI

I solved it by first removing intel rapid storage technology and then downloading latest Intel INF Update Utility on their webste

I dont think my mod can cause it, but let me know what bsod code you get.

I also found a way to increase the 3D clocks when on battery. But I am not going to touch that.

[RedLionRisen]

Thanks jester. Here's what it gives me from the latest BSOD. It's similar to the previous ones listed in the program. Also, these crashes tend to occur when I'm not at the computer, when the computer is entering sleep mode or shutting down:

053013-13821-01.dmp 5/30/2013 9:39:23 AM KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x0000001e 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+75bd0 NT Kernel & System Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Microsoft Corporation 6.1.7601.18113 (win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+75bd0 C:\Windows\Minidump\053013-13821-01.dmp 8 15 7601 295,088

ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+6d5fe fffff800`02e1f000 fffff800`03405000 0x005e6000 0x5147d9c6 3/18/2013 8:21:42 PM Microsoft® Windows® Operating System NT Kernel & System 6.1.7601.18113 (win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533) Microsoft Corporation C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

hal.dll fffff800`03405000 fffff800`0344e000 0x00049000 0x4ce7c669 11/20/2010 6:00:25 AM

kdcom.dll fffff800`00ba5000 fffff800`00baf000 0x0000a000 0x4d4d8061 2/5/2011 9:52:49 AM

mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll fffff880`00cb9000 fffff880`00d08000 0x0004f000 0x4ce7c737 11/20/2010 6:03:51 AM

PSHED.dll fffff880`00d08000 fffff880`00d1c000 0x00014000 0x4a5be027 7/13/2009 6:32:23 PM Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Platform Specific Hardware Error Driver 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255) Microsoft Corporation C:\Windows\system32\PSHED.dll

[kh90123]

But this is better, no? No need to run the highest voltage and performance state when you're not gaming. Would increase battery life as well.

Yes it is better.

- - - Updated - - -

I errored. Your first versions do scale down the voltage at lower clocks/p-states. I must've been drunk when I first examined it, lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Nice! The most stable one I can get with my single 650m about 1205 core, 2450 memory. For MLL I have everything turned up in the game settings, except AA is off and physx on, and that gets me between 30 and 60fps with the new drivers. The first time I tried to run the game it cooked my cpu, had it going up to 106 according to HW monitor :/. After that, I use throttlestop to turn off the turbo boost state while playing it. In fact, I'm doing it for all games, since gpu is still far more of a bottleneck than an i7 cpu. Running at 2.4Ghz for any game gives you power to spare, and keeps the temps around 85 or below even while playing Metro (vs. 95+ for most games with the GPU overvolt). GPU stays at 78~80 or below.

My temp is usually not that high when playing Metro Last Light. Seems like the game doesn't load up the CPU all that much, as compared to some other games. Crysis 2 made my CPU a lot hotter than Metro. I don't like micro stuttering so i have Vsync on for everything, for the most part I get about 40 fps in Metro Last Light. I haven't played Metro Last Light all that much, been playing Metro 2033. I think Last Light has better optimized code, so I can run one setting higher. In Metro 2033 I play on high, average of 40-60fps, with all the fancy Advanced Physx and Advanced Depth of Field off.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks jester. Here's what it gives me from the latest BSOD. It's similar to the previous ones listed in the program. Also, these crashes tend to occur when I'm not at the computer, when the computer is entering sleep mode or shutting down:

053013-13821-01.dmp 5/30/2013 9:39:23 AM KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x0000001e 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+75bd0 NT Kernel & System Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Microsoft Corporation 6.1.7601.18113 (win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+75bd0 C:\Windows\Minidump\053013-13821-01.dmp 8 15 7601 295,088

ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+6d5fe fffff800`02e1f000 fffff800`03405000 0x005e6000 0x5147d9c6 3/18/2013 8:21:42 PM Microsoft® Windows® Operating System NT Kernel & System 6.1.7601.18113 (win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533) Microsoft Corporation C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

hal.dll fffff800`03405000 fffff800`0344e000 0x00049000 0x4ce7c669 11/20/2010 6:00:25 AM

kdcom.dll fffff800`00ba5000 fffff800`00baf000 0x0000a000 0x4d4d8061 2/5/2011 9:52:49 AM

mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll fffff880`00cb9000 fffff880`00d08000 0x0004f000 0x4ce7c737 11/20/2010 6:03:51 AM

PSHED.dll fffff880`00d08000 fffff880`00d1c000 0x00014000 0x4a5be027 7/13/2009 6:32:23 PM Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Platform Specific Hardware Error Driver 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255) Microsoft Corporation C:\Windows\system32\PSHED.dll

I used to get it but I no longer get it after I fine tweak my overclock. I also ran disk check (chkdsk /f /r in cmd). It takes quite some time for the first run. I have Samsung 840 Pro, and it still took 30 mins on first run.

You could download Microsoft debugging tool and read the .dmp file with more details. Link here: http://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/archive/2012/07/18/reading-a-memory-dmp-or-other-dmp-file.aspx

Regarding the temperature, after all the fine tuning and all the mods I have a hard time getting the GPU to 90C now. The most it will go is low 80s. If the CPU is under heavy load and churns out a lot of heat, on my Y500 the main GPU is always about 5-6C higher than the Ultrabay. I have some Shin Etsu thermal paste coming in which I believe should be better than the MX2 (which is what I used), but all these repasting is quite a bit of work and I gotta finish up my research first.

Now Haswell is coming out, and the GTX 780M is also out, so I am less inclined to mess with the settings anymore. I am debating if I should get the new Alienware 17in (or Sager or MSI or Asus) with a Haswell CPU and GTX 780M, and give this Y500 to my brother.

[clarenc3]

Massive kudos man, runs like a charm on my Y400. I'm getting slight overheating or weird rendering problems though when memory is on 2.5GHz, and when gaming I need to use inspector to pull down to about 950MHz/1900MHz. Could be the worse cooling in the Y400 or a bad copy of GT 650m? Any chance you could make a similar "eco" with lower P0 settings, probably more suitable for Y400 users?

Cheers

[RedLionRisen]

After a few weeks of being too busy to play games, I can confirm that the use of nvidiainspector .bat files to overclock the gpu have been leading to the BSOD issues. Problem is it happens on clock/memory settings that were below even the point of stability on the other BIOS versions :/. I'm not sure why that is. Has anyone else had BSOD issues with the overvolted BIOS? Maybe my card just can't handle the voltage or something...

[n1smo]

After a few weeks of being too busy to play games, I can confirm that the use of nvidiainspector .bat files to overclock the gpu have been leading to the BSOD issues. Problem is it happens on clock/memory settings that were below even the point of stability on the other BIOS versions :/. I'm not sure why that is. Has anyone else had BSOD issues with the overvolted BIOS? Maybe my card just can't handle the voltage or something...

[z974]

Is 75 degrees normal for a 650m in sli under full load on a benchmark loop? whats the recommended operating temps for our video card?

[liteon6x]

i dont see the link for the eco mod on the front page

[n1smo]

Is 75 degrees normal for a 650m in sli under full load on a benchmark loop? whats the recommended operating temps for our video card?

75C is not bad at all but really depends on which benchmark you are using. No need for concern until it touches 90C.

[rplacd]

I've probably missed something small-but-significant, but here goes: I attempt to flash my onboard 650M that's already been worked over with a fixed 2.02 BIOS flash with an overvolting BIOS, and nvflash screams "Supported EEPROM not found". Can I presume I've inadvertently haven't done something I've assumed I've done?

[rplacd]

A late addition: I've just also noticed that the NVIDIA Inspector won't touch the onboard GPU's clocks either - in fact, it can't read much off it; note how a temperature of a constant 53 degrees is recorded, even on a FurMark burnin.

[n1smo]

A late addition: I've just also noticed that the NVIDIA Inspector won't touch the onboard GPU's clocks either - in fact, it can't read much off it; note how a temperature of a constant 53 degrees is recorded, even on a FurMark burnin.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7899[/ATTACH]

Furmark doesn't support SLI currently. What you are seeing is your ultrabay sitting idle at 53c.

[rplacd]

Furmark doesn't support SLI currently. What you are seeing is your ultrabay sitting idle at 53c.

You're entirely right: I run Unigine Heaven, and clocks scale up as expected. So it turns out to be an entirely different issue - sorry for wasting time with the false association.

So I should come clear with the actual question: how do I flash the separate VBIOSes here onto the MB's 650M? jester_socom's original post links me to svl7's sticky, but he only provides BIOSes with modded VBIOSes already included - the only instruction I get wrt VBIOSes modded separately is to use nvflash, but since that isn't working I presume that's not what I'm supposed to do.

[octiceps]

You're entirely right: I run Unigine Heaven, and clocks scale up as expected. So it turns out to be an entirely different issue - sorry for wasting time with the false association.

So I should come clear with the actual question: how do I flash the separate VBIOSes here onto the MB's 650M? jester_socom's original post links me to svl7's sticky, but he only provides BIOSes with modded VBIOSes already included - the only instruction I get wrt VBIOSes modded separately is to use nvflash, but since that isn't working I presume that's not what I'm supposed to do.

[liteon6x]

how does a 1200/2500 mhz sli 650m stack up against a stock 670/675 mx in terms of performance

[octiceps]

how does a 1200/2500 mhz sli 650m stack up against a stock 670/675 mx in terms of performance

[liteon6x]

A bit faster than 675MX, way faster than 670MX. But 675MX is a great overclocker and can beat it once overclocked.

[RedLionRisen]

I think I'm going to go back to the SVL7 unlocked BIOS without the voltage mod. For whatever reason, my system is very unstable (the BSOD on waking/shutting down problem) whenever I have the card overclocked, no matter how tame the clocks are (even at 1100 Mhz, stable on stock voltage). I'm assuming this has something to do with the card not liking operating at 1.1V, ot just something else in the BIOS...

[rplacd]

The modded BIOS already includes the modded vBIOS for the main GPU. If you have SLI you need to flash the vBIOS of the Ultrabay GPU separately using NVFLASH. All instructions and files are in svl7's sticky. Read it carefully.

[Aikei]

I have a question... Bios v2.03/2.04 only for GT 750M users or not?