Acer MXM BIOS Mods and discussion (was: x920G vs. 9600M GT)

The card is likely dead then.

 

@ .NetRolller 3D

Hi, thanks for this thread, is helping me a lot.I have a 9920g and i have to replace the graphic card , if i get an "9600M GT 512MB DDR2" and i flash it with your bios driver "NEW! Aspire 9920G (Phoenix, with unlocked menus, updated 2011-11-06): http://ifile.it/ej0c3oi/CV120_MXM_V2.WPH"
will work fine¿?
Thanks

 

Likely not. Get this card instead: nVIDIA 9600M GS DDR3 512MB MXM II VGA Card HP 5189-3743 | eBay

This one is designed for the same HP TouchSmart as the 9300M GS that is known to work.

 

Hi,
we from HP hdx dragon thread are still on hold on project upgrade from 8800M gts to 280M gtx
Our notebook has vbios integrated into sbios, as a nice side effect we can flash different test vbioses and never be afraid to brick mxm card.

280M gtx comes with Clevo 62.92.78.00.07 vbios, notebook screen is black, brightness is on, external VGA output is perfect

if original HP 8800M gts vbios 62.92.23.00.17 is flashed, notebook screen is fuzzy, mis-aligned pixels, only 256mb DDR are avaiable etc..

we had try numerous vbioses,
only a couple were with relevant results:

62.92.5A.00.04 bad colors,1024MB ram, no 3D performance even with edited tables in Nibitor
All others vbioses acts quite same
for example
62.92.6E.00.10 pause 30s beeps on boot, screen black, 1024MB DDR recognized

I've fixed performance tables with nibitor and patched 30 seconds
beeps with 01 74 47 B0 1E to 01

Card is working perfectly on this vbios on external vga screen, I even played
Crysis2 for an hour on Extreme details
core 585 shaders 1400 memory 800 MHz

Is there any possibility to fix bad image? Could you please analyze what different mxm structure is present between
HP 8800M GTS (62.92.23.00.17) , Dell Quadro (62.92.5A.00.04) , 3700M (62.92.6E.00.10) vbioses?
I would be the first to make a good donation to you in case of success

Notebook screen is LP201WE1 LG LPL0050 WSXGA or Chi Mei N201J4-L01-C1 WUXGA
I even consider use external hdmi output and connect an lcd controller to notebook screen if no solution
can be found with bios mod.

I am using nvidia 295.18 drivers right now if its relevant

Take a look at pictures

With 8800M



Close look fuzzy screen



With Dell Quadro


screen black with 3700M vbios

Vbioses to analyze and HP HDX sbios structure
http://www.icemap.it/280M.rar

Take a look at resume file too (280.xls) in may be really handy

Please let us know something, we rely on you.

 

@ .NetRolller 3D
Can work another 8600m gt 512 pulled from an MSI laptop ?

 

I've dumped my actual memory (HP Bios v.F41 with slic mod, whitelist mini pci devices, dual ida patched, 8800M GTS vbios ) with RW-Everything hope it may come handy to you
Deposit Files
I've tryed to use your Mxmparser program opening some vbioses but everytime I receive no output and no error code..Am I doing wrong?
Just FYI HP HDX comes with 8800M GTS or ATI HD2600XT, if you would like to investigate further on mxm stantards over two different sbioses

 

Mxmparse should be run on the SBIOS, not the VBIOS.

Also, most SBIOSes are compressed, and have to be decompressed before running mxmparse.

 

Thanks, I've already decompressed sbios with Hpunpack tool, there are many files then, don't know which is the right one to look with Mxmparse, please take a look at sbios structure I've uploaded for you.

Update: more info on known sbios structure
9D000_OSBI bitmap intel logo
9F000_NVID bitmap nvidia logo
90000_HPLO bitmap hp logo
A0000_SMM2 APIC
C0000_G8E_ video bios
C0000_VIDE video bios
romBlock cpu microcode

HDX schematic, pay attention to page: 20 Crestline, 29 MXM card , 31 LCD Conn.
http://www.4shared.com/document/NbCTvij5/2122201.html
WSXGA LCD Datasheet
http://www.icemap.it/LP201WE1-F11.pdf

Update: I keep trying new vbioses , one from Asus 62.92.83.00.12 is a little promising,
notebook post without mxm beep error, screen appear only after windows 7 loaded with bad color like Quadro vbios but performance profiles are all working straight , also temperature sensor!
Hdmi is not enabled.
Windows 7 shows 1/2 multiple monitors in screen resolution menu
http://www.icemap.it/asus-g92.bin

 

Hello. Such card on the laptop 9920g will approach?

Acer nVIDIA GeFore 9300M GS 9300MGS G98-630-U2 MXM VGA Graphic Card DDR2 256MB

 

Yes; that was the one I used for experimentation. (However, some people reported driver issues.)

 

@ .NetRoller 3D

Thanks for your great work.

I have a 9920g with the 8600m gt card. The card is death.
I baked the card to flash the modded sbios.
Now i pluged in this card: 9300m gs with 512 MB DDR2 ram.
Now display shows incorrect colors.
I flashed vbios "9920g_9300mgs.rom" you posted early in this thread. Now the display is ok. After installing the drivers in Vista i started GPU-Z for testing the new card.
And now i wondered, it shows me only 128 MB of ram.



Now my questions:

Is it possible to fix the vbios to work correctly with the full ram or is there somebody who can send me a working vbios?

 

The amount of RAM reported in GPU-Z is not determined by VBIOS; it is the actual amount on the card. Check the RAM chips if you don't believe.

 

Thanks for your reply.
Is there any way to test the card is detected correctly? Becourse with the original acer vbios (card was send with) gpu-z shows me 512 MB RAM.

 

No way, the 9300M GS was never built with 512MB. (The HP BIOS is from a 256MB card.)

BTW, here is a VBIOS for the 9600M GT GDDR3 and the 9920G: request download ticket | 9600mgt-ddr3-9920g.rom - ifile.it
And the FX 770M: <s> request download ticket | 770m_9920g.rom - ifile.it</s> EDIT: Does not work; it seems that this VBIOS doesn't support EDID-less displays at all.

More details on the mod soon (including a tool to help modding other BIOSes).

ATI cards cannot be modded, and probably newer will. The GT200 family is also currently unmoddable.

 

Hi ! I'm from Romania,a new user on this forum...after i read some pages here i decided to upgrade video card on my 6920g....
today i bought an used geforce 9600/512 ddr3 from an acer(i dont know exact model) with broken screen.....
it doesn't work....
i update my bios with v.116mxm posted here at first page by netrolller3d.....the logo "mxm" does not appear/ i see an extra options in bios menu....it work with old card 9500gs.....strange....
with new vga card,windows boot fine,i heard windows start sound but ....screen is black....
vga is VG.9PG06.006
any sollutions?
is any danger to keep old card 9500gs with modded bios?

PS excuse my english !

 

The modded BIOS won't break older cards.

With the 9600, do you have image on the external display?

 

thanks for reply....i didn't try with any external screens...for the moment i don't have any dvi device in my house....

 

@.NetRolller 3D
Did you read my help request about 280M proj.?
Do you think it can be accomplished?
Or at least can you help me enable HDMI output on non-8800M gts vbios? and find appropriate LCD controller?
Regards

 

@no-tech: The HP BIOS is completely alien to me, I still haven't managed to decipher the Int 15h handler. Plus, one of your pics of the error shows the even-pixel and odd-pixel LVDS links getting swapped, which violates MXM. (In the MXM structure, I can specify either "use the first link for the whole image" or "use the first link for odd pixels and the second one for even pixels", but there is no option for "swap even and odd links".)

In other words, the LVDS cable is wired wrong for MXM support.

 

I have a Acer 7720G. I upgraded my video card from 9300m G to 9600m GT. But I get the black screen. I can hear windows start up sound.

Is there anyway I can fix this?

I tried borrowing a 9650m GT card from my friend's laptop and surprisingly that worked.

Thanks in advance.

 

Plug in an external display and do a VBIOS update. Likely your 9600M GT was shipped with some odd VBIOS that doesn't work well in Acers.

EDIT: Just read it in the other thread that it's an Asus card. Some Asus 9600M GT cards are VBIOS-less; worse yet, there is no space to solder the VBIOS ROM to. But trying an Acer VBIOS is still worthwhile - the flasher tool will tell you if the card is ROM-less.

 

Oh that's a good start at least!
Do you think LVDS cable can be simply rewired? I have HDX datasheet showing LVDS pins.
Or is this not an option as I need for ex. 62.92.6E.00.10 vbios or at least 62.92.5A.00.04 because of no 3D performance table,full 1024DDR RAM working but show no notebook screen or bad color?
Can we chat somewhere, anytime you free? I have many questions left, send me pm please

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-f...9600M-GT-199-99-Free-freight-wholesalers.html

mine is GT too like in picture bellow,existing bios is soldered....vg.9pg06.006....is this the reason for witch it doesn't work on my 6920g?

 

My card looks exactly like the one in your picture

 

maybe .NetRolller 3D can help us with an idea...I don't think my video card is broken because the machine where I took from was functioning very well, it had only its screen broken....
thanks a lot....

 

Again, please test with an external display.

 

oki,tnks...i will test the beast today on a hdmi device....i will come back with results...

 

Can't spot it, but I guess thats what happened.
Thanks very much for all your hard work on this .NetRolller 3D your a genius !

 

Hi Guys

I've swapped my broken 8400m gs card with new 9600m GS (not GT) 512 ddr2 on my Aspire 5720ZG laptop and
I'm getting ERROR: MXM Structure not foun or invalid msg during boot + 30 sec delay with beep.

I'd like to try this bios mod from first page provided by .NetRolller 3D
Aspire 5720(Z)G, 7720(Z)G (InsydeH2O, with unlocked menus and integrated EFI shell, probably fixes external display issues, updated 2011-11-24): request download ticket | icl50_1.45_black_edition_40.fd - ifile.it
but at first I'd like to doublecheck with you.

Laptop has InsydeH2O Setup utility / current bios version is V1.19 /
Any tips where could I download InsydeFlash?


Thanks

 

Download any of the official BIOS updates (1.45 is the newest), and extract it with 7-zip. Then, edit platform.ini to enable "user option mode" (which basically means, allow user to select the BIOS image to use).

 

Thank you NetRolller 3D.
Latest bios from acer comes as a executable file, no archive.
I've used bootable USB + freedos + flas**t + your modded bios
It Works Like A Treat! Thanks a lot

 

I told you, extract it (the executable) with 7-Zip. It is possible for one file to be both a valid EXE file and a valid ZIP file at the same time. (Just like it is possible to make a file that is both valid JPG and ZIP - a great way of hiding ZIP files with the help of a hex editor.)

 

g;ad to see this project is still rolling along it would be cool to one day see if it is possible to add micro codes. not sure whatever happened to RickiBerlen or any of the threads we were posting in about that stuff.

 

Hi NetRoller 3D,

My Geforce 8600M in my Aspire 5520G is also broken. Exactly as Malau I replaced it with an Geforce 9300. Everything is ok, also the amount of RAM is correct. However in contrast to Malau I get at power up a kind of "countdown" (which counts back from 30). After it's finished, the Aspire starts up perfectly, without any (other) error.

I also found the difference of these cards, Malau has an Geforce 9300 from Vendor Asus, mine 9300 has Vendor Nvidia.

Does somebody has here a correct 9300 Acer (or Asus) vBios (with the corresponding flash utility)? For any help many thanks...

 

@ lion10
I can send you a backup of my vbios (org. acer) but in the moment i am at work. Can you send me one from your nvidia-vbios.

Edit:

Here is Acer 9300 vbios:

Dumped from this card: http://www.elektro-export.de/epages/es114318.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es114318_Elektro-Export/Products/GRA-12[2]

 

@lion10: Did you install the modded SBIOS? (Without it, the card will count down, beep, and downclock; as the MXM structure is missing.)

 

Hi .NetRolller 3D,

I have a 7520G with 9600M GT inside (substitute for the burned 8400M G) and I'm getting the MXM Structure not found or invalid error with the 30 s delay and hence limited performace.

I've searched through this forum but it looks like nobody has tried your solution on this notebook, and I'm thinking about testing it but I've never tried flashing cards myself... do I need to get a USB floppy first?

Thank you!!!

 

@zarkob: Use the 7520G BIOS.

And for the 1000000th time: You do not flash the card! It is the motherboard BIOS that has to be patched. The only machine that also requires flashing of the card is the 9920G.

 

@.NetRolller 3D Thanks for the quick response! But you wrote that "The 5520G BIOS may also work on the 7520G, but this is untested", so i guess I have to try that one, didn't find the 7520G BIOS listed here...

BTW, I found instructions on flashing BIOS, they state I need to use "WinPhlash.exe", is that correct? (Please excuse my newbieness! ;-))

 

.Netroller, do you realize you could get a lot of customers if you make an Ebay listing page to fix MXM structure not found or invalid issues?
Its a simple matter of exposure - even within the group of people upgrading their laptops, only about 50% of them are willing to search a forum.

I don't suggest you do this simply for profit - I suggest it because if you don't, someone else will probably start doing it - with YOUR modded BIOSes.

 

He got it to work - by modifying the socket itself.

Like, completely removing the pink part, to isolate pins.

 

@niffcreature: It's illegal to do that in Hungary without an expensive license. I do not wish to pay huge $$$ in taxes for nothing just to claim the BIOS mods as my own.

@zarkob: Yes, you need WinPhlash.

 

@.NetRolller 3D: Thank you very much! I'll try it out, only now I found out that you've replied on my post in the other thread (I didn't get an email about it so I missed it)

 

@ .NetRolller 3D,

I tested running the latest 5920 sBIOS v3, and it does make all the performance steps on the G96 core. I am using a 9600M GS DDR2, which has the four performance modes. It makes 4468 3D Mark'06, at default clocks, and runs nice and cool, between 35'C - 69'C. (Originally this 9600M GS only ran in the first two performance modes, with the first of your SBIOS fixes. As was the case with the 9600M GT.)
Maybe soon I will put the 9600M GT in the 5920, but it is happy in an 8920.

Anyway, so users like yaincoa can flash their 5920's to your latest SBIOS, and reflash their VBIOS's back to normal. (I.E. Removing the edited 'two performance step' VBIOS which allowed the 9600M GT to clock up max.)

I realised recently there was a possible fix for some of the 5920 9600M GT stuff allready. Only I did not make the connection. On this Nvidia forum, there were users who had the 9500M GS running on the 5920 almost two years ago.
9500M GS flicker with Powermizer enabled - NVIDIA Forums
I first posted there: Posted 12 April 2010 - 03:32 AM

Only they mentioned their SBIOS was the same ver. 3813 as the rest of us were using. Acer had replaced 'under warranty' their faulty 8600M GT's with 9500M GS's, and 'therefor' given them a SBIOS which would run them. I and others at that time could not get the 9500M GS to run with Acer website SBIOS ver. 3813.

I suppose it might be of interest to ask one of them to upload a copy of their SBIOS made by Acer which runs the 9500M GS. It will most likely run the 9600M GT too. Though we have your version for that; but maybe you might be interested to see what Acer did.

I never did get to testing your newer 8920 SBIOS btw.
Also congrats on your Tosh GT230M, that must be very fullfilling.
I kind of had hope of making one myself, but then someone else ran into difficulties a while ago with screen compatibilty. I kind of thought, oh well, never mind then, maybe I will pass on that.

@ blackened87,

I never did alter the SBIOS fan settings for the 9920. I found a free Phoenix BIOS Editor, but still the text was not in high level language, i.e. English. However .Netrolller 3D did post pointers in the first few pages of this blog to make the SBIOS editable in English.

Though I now doubt I will make the edits to the SBIOS, as I think the 9920 will be being sold sometime soon.

Also I wanted to say that I thought one of your ideas really good. You mentioned that if you could have fitted a power hungry Quadro in your 9920 you were going to change the power line components. I've never seen anyone mention that before and it's allways worried me. Likewise I would like to put a fast MXM III HE in the 8920. (GPU core cooling aside. HE card extra tab issue aside.) I would need to increase the power supply to the laptop by 30 watts I guess. Therefor I'd be running input of 120W across power lines which were originally running 90W's of the original charger. Unfortunately I have no schematic of the circuits at the front end where the power comes in. Therefor I don't know what the tolerances or power ratings of the components there are. Good stuff blackened87. (I am an electronics graduate. Well Dual Hons anyway, with some further electronics study including at a science institute university.)

 

The reason why the 9500M GS cards that Acer installed as replacements did work with the 5920G is not that there are 2 different official v3813 SBIOSes. It is that the cards installed by Acer have special VBIOSes in them that either work around the MXM structure bug (see the VBIOS-side workaround that I posted earlier in this thread), or have their entire MXM structure parsing code disabled, relying instead on hardcoded/default configuration data in the VBIOS itself. This way, the parser bug (infinite loop upon encountering an unknown substructure ID) is never hit, and the cards "just work".

So, it is the VBIOS of these users that you should be interested in, not the SBIOS.

Also, no need to make further edits to the 9920G SBIOS - I've already published a fixed version, along with matching VBIOSes for the 9300M G, 9600M GT and FX 770M. I'll soon publish a how-to for modding other VBIOSes.

A HE card will never fit a 9920G; the extra tab will collide with the CPU socket's screw. ("Normal" MXM-III cards will collide too with the socket corner, but not the screw, so you can probably just file down the corner.)

The 8920G might be different - however, be aware that many HE cards downclock if the HE tab is not connected, even if the MXM structure indicates that enough power is available through the regular connector.

 

@ .NetRolller 3D,

Oh yes; the 9920 will not take MXM III cards of any type. I explained that quite fully on page 34. (Worth re-mentioning though.) http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/575866-acer-mxm-bios-mods-discussion-x920g-vs-9600m-gt-34.html
It collides with the whole CPU socket, (as well as the CPU locking screw which I pointed out), and the ram brackets, and many other PCB components. Additionally, you see, under the 9920 GPU is a space on the board clear of components. That fits the size of an MXM II card. (Picture attached to show.) Free Cloud Storage - MediaFire and Free Cloud Storage - MediaFire
This allows for the components on the GPU not to collide with anything on the mainboard. MXM III exceeds the length of MXM II by 22mm, (as previously mentioned). Therefor components on the underside of an MXM III would have no clear space on the mainboard.

Yes I saw your post 9920 SBIOS + 9600M GT/FX770 vBIOS on page 57.
[Btw would the 9600M GT version would run the 9600M GS. I think probably not, even name and clocks aside].
Link for the "9600M GS DDR2 VBIOS" 9600M GS DDR2 512MB vBIOS.bin if you ever need it: version vBIOS 62.94.4A.00.12. This since they are not on the TechpowerUp site.
I was not making a reference to fixing the 9920 SBIOS in order to make GPU's compatible. Blackened87 and I noticed that the fan switching seems to be singularly controlled by the CPU temp. We were discussing the need to find the GPU fan switch on temp. That was way back, maybe twenty or thirty pages.

Ref 8920:
I do not know how the 8920 will fare with a MXM III HE (HE = 'high end' card). This MXM upgrade page recommends against an MXM III-HE on an MXM III socket.
MXM technical before 3.0
The first main paragraph under " Left: Regular. Right: HE connector" is the first part of their argument.
The paragraph under " Mechanical compatibility question #2" is the second of their argument.
Contradictory to this "MXM-Ugrade" page opinion, though, some have done it. Though I have not read of an 8920 fitted this way, so far.

Yes, with reference to "Power Throttling" I had read about that on page 70 of the MXM Graphics Module document. Though this is the first time I read that some cards will throttle if the HE-tab is not connected. I wonder if that coincides with what MXM Upgrade say that the HE tab is alone an extra power tab.

I have been curious about a new card for the 8920, and probably an MXM III (maybe HE, depending on spec/safety). I have been googling for MXM III HE tab info. (I can't find much though. Just mostly people saying their upgrade to an HE card worked.) I did find some GPU pin-out documents though.

Originally the 8920 shipped some models with the 9650M GS which is an MXM III card so space is fine. Also I tested an MXM III card nVidia go 6800 in this (genuine 9500M GS) 8920. For an MXM III in an 8920, if this page is correct it leaves a lot of scope for 8920 upgrade: Mobile PCI Express Module - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It claims the MXM III socket is good up to 75W. Maybe that refers only to the MXM-HE socket though. However you run straight in to the power issue I mentioned with blackened87 above. Also the power issue 'MXM Upgrade' mention on their page, (reference the link at paragraph two on this post).

Ref: Acers v. 3813 5920 + 9500M GS fix
That's fine. Like I said, a) we don't need Acer's version, we have yours; b) I drew you attention for your own interest if you had any.

 

Many thanks for your super fast answers and sorry for my late replay...

I dumped now with nvflash my "generic" 9300m GS vbios to a file, - Malau, please check if it is ok for you. SORRY!

About "flashing the new Acer GF 9300m vbios", can this happen under windows with nvflash? I absolutely don't trust my old floppy disks, - so a flash under DOS might be highly risky...

The modded SBIOS is only needed when no original Acer based MXM card is used, right? So when I flash this Acer GF 9300m MXM vbios it should run without modded SBIOS...

To Malau, can you provide me a download ticket for your vbios please? thanks!

Update: After around three months I see that I "7ziped" the wrong files. Now it should be the correct vbios image.

 

@ lion10

You don't need to use floppies for the vBIOS flash; no worries. There is a guide to vBIOS flashing on the Techpowerup site. It suggests use the HP Bootable USB Tool so you can flash from a USB stick. (Better have a small USB stick handy then. Or you can even do it from CD.)

All the different ways of doing are on this page.
Guide to Video BIOS flashing

This TechpowerUp link gives you a drop down menu to all the guides to all the options to vBIOS flashing. (Plus direct links for the apps you need.)
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34

[I have a tender spot for floppies now, since they rescued my system BIOS - phew.]

 

Thanks for this input! Will check it when I get the Acer 9300M GS vbios, - Malau's download link seems to be broken...

 

@ lion 10

My downloadlink is broken. But now the file is attached in my last post.
Thanks for your file.