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

I used rom file gt240m for GT230M but I still have a black screen but hear the sound welcome

 

I have not tried but I doubt it because this version is designed for PC cards (PCI-E) I am looking for mobile. I wrote to the seller of this KARTA GRAFICZNA NVIDIA GT230M ACER 7751 5739G F-V (4111165403) - Allegro.pl - Więcej niż aukcje. card can provide me with the BIOS file.

 

You're right, sorry about that. I wouldn't try it either.

 

You didn't have the welcome sound before? Have you tried with external display?

 

I was looking long and hard at the GT230M, GT240M,and GT330M options. At the time, NetRoller's BIOS's were down but are now back I think on page 122. (There are some I can't identify what they are for). Still I figured if I got a 230 or 330 then I could use the GT240M BIOS and mod the clocks. However I then wondered if that would work, because there must be two GT240M BIOS's. An Asus one which we know works in the 5920-8920, and it's an MXM II vBIOS. Then a second Acer one which I think won't work, coz it's MXM 3 (for a type A card). The trouble is, the TechpowerUp site it doesn't say which BIOS they have listed, and they have only one. Therefor I never got round to the 230 330 solution for a graphic card.

Maybe that is why you don't get an image on your 240M flash. I bet NetRoller could shed some light on that though. Net's a genius.


@ Triturbo,

Hi T-t. Nice new picture you got. Yeah I missed the forums, but I read the MXM thread to catch up as well.

I have been a hussy though :laugh:, because I have been a 'laptop' traitor . I aquired a cheap single-core P4 PC and then discovered it supported dual core, and bought one. Then I started thinking about the PCI-Ex16 slot, and I bought a little hottie desktop card. It's ok that I can max graphics settings, but the CPU bottlenecks, so I need to go core-i.

My 8920 GPU died, and my 5920 still going strong. I kept drooling over the MXM III cards that potentially would have fitted my 8920. I think there was a GT360M, but Net wasn't around with the magic BIOS hands. I think everyone missed Net.

 

I tried with external monitor but no signal. I got VBIOS GT230M (MXM III), but I still have a black screen. Maybe NetRoller will appear online and will update the links.

 

It sounds like you mean you used the MXM 3.0 file. MXM III is something else. (I made that error in my post above and had to correct it yesterday.) If you have the MXM 3.0 file that I think that's your issue. (I am absolutely sure NetRoller once told us MXM 3 vBIOS won't work for an MXM II system.) Isn't it possible to work out which is NetRoller's 230M vBIOS? I thought someone had in the last few pages.

 

Yes my mistake I have a tab on the connector (1.3/2.1) loaded GT230M. GT230M VBIOS to it but its connector (3.0).

I wonder whether the ID are correct?
I have used this file

 

If you can see an error, then I think that's progress. They say knowing the problem is half the battle.

I re-read the last few pages. It was DoZe who claims to have NetRoller's 230M vBIOS on page 124, but problems I think. Still might be worth getting a copy of it. Also Triturbo posted the Asus GT240M BIOS on page 125. That is where I would start, but it seems not to have worked for you. Asus is the MXM (II) 2.1 vBIOS, and is meant to work in the 5920 without even modded sBIOS.


EDIT:
@it-corwd,
ah, I see you posted again with update. If you have image only when windows loads, 8920+9600M GT then you need the modded sBIOS. See NetRoller's post on page 122 for the files. That was solved ages ago, and is way back in this thread. I know, coz I have one and I did it. I am still with version 1 of Net's BIOS. It think there was some discrepancy as to whether the HDMI passed audio with that version. I can't check that because I have never had an HDMI input monitor with audio. If Net has put up a further version, then likely it was fixed coz Net was working on it.

 

umm kinda old but last I recall it was 9600 GT with vbios flash will work in acer aspire 9920G? or does 9920G need a bios flash ontop of the vbios flash on 9600 GT?

I want 9600m GT to work on the laptop's display rather than external monitor.. please help lol!

 

umm any help lol

 

mm bump x10

 

I think it needed both and you can find a working link to them a few pages back.

 

Hi im kinda new to that stuff but i have a acer aspire 5720zg and recently my orginal 8400 broke so i get 9650m gt - and now problem starts because everytime im instaling any driver for nvidia my screen bo blank - i mean after restart i get a windows logo then "bam" blank screen nothing happens - i flash the bios to 1.45 black edition and still no clue whats going on :/ anyone could gimme a straight answer what to do and where i need to slap my laptop to start working properly ?

At the moment i made some research how i can fix my 8400 and i found one solution - bake it. so i did and graphic works at the moment i dont know for how long but for last hour i did an furmark test and no problems.
Still i dont know what's going on with that 9650m gt - blank screen all the time in the bios show's 0 video memory .. anyone with any ideas ?

 

probably a dead card?

 

Hi, I've posted about this in another thread but we we're able to solve the problem and I think more people can see here.
I have a 5020 which came with a ATI HD3470. I want to upgrade this to an nvidia GT 9600. I've flashed the modded BIOS as per instructions and it is definitely flashed and I've ran driver cleaner to remove the old ATI drivers - but the 9600 will not boot. At first it would not post BIOS or any image on screen and my laptop would beep twice rapidly (parity error). Someone from the other thread told me to reset CMOS, and I did using "CMOSPWD". After re-inserting the 9600 I got a little progress. I no longer got the double beep parity error and my laptop will actually boot into windows (I can hear the startup sound) but I have no image on screen. I managed to run DXDIAG blind and save the log, and this didn't show up as there being anything graphics-wise inserted into the laptop - it was just blank in that area. I leave the laptop on to try and install standard windows drivers and reboot a few times, nothing happens. I've ran the nvidia driver install blind, and nothing happens - I assume it doesn't detect the card and fails. I've ran the laptop to an external monitor via VGA and I get no picture, the monitor detects it is connected to something but there is no output. I cannot use the HDMI as this has never worked on my laptop.

I'm not sure what else I could possibly try. Does anyone else have any suggestions? Could I try flashing a vBIOS of my card, could that possibly help? Does anyone have a vBIOS of an ACER GT 9600 DDR2 512mb? It was pulled from a working laptop with a broken screen.

Thanks

 

TechPowerUp website - VGA BIOS collection.

Btw do you mean your laptop is 5920? If so, I just wrote out the account of 5920-9600M GT here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/396320-acer-mxm-models-cards-249.html

 

Hi, yeah I did mean the 5920 ... its been a long day! I'm not quite sure what you're trying to draw my attention to - i've flashed the "5920G_MXM_V3.WHP" modded BIOS. I did this with my old card so I can see that its worked. I'm also trying to run the DDR2 version of the GT 9600 which runs cooler. For some reason i'm just not getting anything from my GT 9600 I wish i'd bought a GT 9650 now cause it runs out of the box!

To summarise:

I flashed 5920G_MXM_V3.WHP using winplash64 (HD 3450 inserted so I have picture)
I wiped CMOS with CMOSPWD
I inserted GT 9600
Boots into Windows 7, but I get no image. DXDIAG shows nothing connected.
The laptop also boots into Windows WITHOUT any card, but shows a WHITE screen. With the GT 9600 I get a black screen.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of TechPowerUp, I wonder if flashing a vBIOS will help.

 

Your story was strange from the start because it should have been plain sailing once you flashed the system BIOS. It should be plug and play with a 9600M GT. However you said you got no POST, I think. That is normal for a 9600M GT in a 5920 'without' a modded system BIOS. Anyway it seems you managed to nudge it to do the right thing with the CMOS operation you did.

My suggestion as you asked is try other vBIOS versions, and you are going to have to blind flash. E.g. I have a 9600M GS which works in my 5920 but shows no image in my 8920. E.g. Previously in this thread someone had an 8920 and 9600M GT that showed no image. I suggested trying another vBIOS version and it worked. (If you look on TechPowerUp, it says on some of the vBIOS's which laptop they are for.) I'd keep a back-up of the original card vBIOS too.

Secondly I am curious about your system BIOS flash. Only someone who knows a bit more can advise you if it has worked properly. I assume it has. I have never heard of doing anything to the SBIOS once it has flashed i.e where you say wipe CMOS. If all else fails, to be sure you could use your ATI card to return to the un-modded SBIOS. Then flash back to the modded one.

 

I see, that makes sense now. Looking at the model number I can see the card isn't 512mb DDR2, but 1024mb DDR2 - I got that mixed up. The card was pulled from a working Acer 6930 (with a broken screen). I'm going to try flashing the Acer and nvidia vBIOS from this selection and hopefully one of them will work. I'll also try flashing the old sBIOS back and then reflashing the modded sBIOS, but I doubt that is it. I'll use NVflash from the instructions here: [GUIDE] NVIDIA VBIOS flashing (obviously i'll have the 9600 in during the vBIOS flash so i'll have to do it blind).

Thanks for your help

 

I think that is a nice card for the 5920. It's going to be much cooler than the GDDR3 version. My DDR2 9600M GS is 'very cool'.

I had a GDDR3 one in my 5920 and had to take it out, because it was going to 91'C+ under normal gaming. Unless you get a GT240M or a modded 330M, I think the DDR2 9600 is the best card. Everyone grumbles about heat also from the 4650 and 4670 which have GDDR3. I'd be interested to hear the gaming temps of the GT240M, but no-one ever reported them. An educated guess tells me DDR3 (on the GT240M/ 330M) will be cooler than GDDR3 RAM.

The heatsink in the 5920 isn't too effective I think. I wondered about making some cuts in the aluminium part of the heatsink, where the air blows over. I thought if I increase the surface area that the air blows over it should cool better.

I just had a look at 9600M Bios's on the TechPowerUp site. They will all be compatible with Acer I think. (Many Asus cards work in Acer, but someone else might know about Asus 9600's.) If two vBIOS's have the same version number e.g. Version: 62.94.4A.00.23, they are the same.

If you dig through this thread you'll find the strokes for blind flashing. Off the top of my head, I think it is: nvflash -4 -5 -6 (name of bios file.(correct extension)). Then press 'Y', and then 'Y'. Check it though. (Someone will correct me if I am wrong.)

 

A bit over 70ºC. This is on my modified cooling. For comparison the HD4670 at default voltage hits low 80s. So on stock cooling it should be around low to mid 80s, maybe 90, depends on the heat-sink's revision.

 

Yeh, I mean I am never sure whether to risk getting a 240M. I'd be in despair if it ran too hot, and I had to turn around and re-sell it. I know of under-volting, but modding stuff like that is not really my thing. I'd need it to run at OK temps at normal settings. I tested under-volting the 9600M GT a bit in the 5920 and it made little difference. I even had it downclocked to 9600M GS clocks (-70MHz) and it was still quite hot. The next thing to do was downclock the RAM, but then you may as well get a DDR2 card.

(For comparison my DDR2 9600M GS hits 70'C max all standard specs. It's cooler also with the Penryn CPU. I have seen CPU and GPU temps in the teens and twenties respectively after a cold boot. Significantly what is does mean is the system fan generally runs one level quieter in game.)

I think if a GT240M stays under 90'C, that's acceptable.

 

I've had no luck with my 9600. My laptop just doesn't detect it under any conditions. I reflashed the modded "5920G_MXM_V3.WHP" BIOS using phlash16 in FREEDOS while I had the working HD3450 in, then switched the the 9600. This gave me a blank screen but Windows still booted because I could hear the startup sound. I booted back into FREEDOS (GT 9600M still in) and tried to flash a vBIOS in nvflash blind with the parameters "nvflash -4 -5 -6 vbios.rom" and "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y vbios.rom", both times I got a rapid double beep which I think means "no device detected". I booted into Windows 7 with the 9600 in and started up DXDIAG blind then saved the result - it doesn't show that any display device is connected.

I'm stumped now, I can't think of anything I can do to get my laptop to detect the card. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

I believe it should, since I think those are overclocked estimates. I've never run it stock And it hits 715/1030 from stock 550/790

 

I think you misunderstood the vBIOS flashing procedure. "nvflash -4 -5 -6 vbios.(correct extension)", is followed by 'Y' and 'Y', because it asks you questions to proceed. You press 'Y' to confirm. [Check this though, and I think there is a guide on the TechPowerUp website for this exactly.] When blind flashing be patient. Give it time to ask you questions, then type your 'Y', and give it time to flash. Wait a few minutes, in other words don't interrupt the flash proceedure.

Anyway go back a step. As you're sure you have the modded system BIOS installed you're half way there. (With your ATI card in you should notice that the Acer boot up screen is not green anymore, but now black. If so your modded BIOS is running.) It must have flashed otherwise it simply wouldn't post with a 9600 in.

You have to make a tiny modification to the vBIOS .rom files you have downloaded. Copy the .rom file and paste it, maybe in the same folder. Change the extension to .bin (binary file I guess). [Again this should be in the TechPowerUp website guide to flashing vBIOS.] Now the file is in the correct extension for flashing. Try again with new file type.

If at the end of all this you still don't get an image, flash every other version of the DDR2 BIOS. (.bin file.)

One more thing though. I am thinking about your 9600M GT. I presume that the Nvidia code on the chip is G96-630-C1. That attributes to the 1024MB DDR2 9600. However there is also a 512MB GDDR3 version with the C1 revision. (Usually the GDDR3 version is G96-630-A1.) I know clearly you said you checked your card type, but double check. You mustn't flash a DDR2 version vBIOS to a GDDR3 card.

To recap C1 revision nine times out of ten refers to the DDR2 version of the card.
A1 revision only applies to GDDR3 cards.
However a few GDDR3 cards were made with the C1 revision Nvidia chip, instead of the A1 revision.

To be honest I am a little worried your 9600 is faulty.. At least when you have exhausted every possibility, you can be sure. Every possibility that it just needs another vBIOS though.

 

Hi, i've tried flashing all the available vBIOS on techpowerup for this card, using the instructions from the techpowerup forum. I tried "nvflash --protectoff" also in case the card happens to have some write protect on it (nobody else seems to do this in guides so I don't think it is common) and that made no difference. I tried to get nvflash to dump the current vBIOS to USB stick, my thinking being that if it dumps something at least I can see if the card is being detected at all - but this just corrupted the memory stick both times I tried!

I'm now pretty convinced that the card is faulty, i've contacted the seller and already got a refund for it. I can get a GT 9650M for only about £10 more than I paid for the GT 9600M so I'll just go for that. I know its barely any faster and will run a little hotter, but i'm happy to go with that. I can spend some time trying out some cooling mods. I'd get a GT 240M but the MXM ii model costs over twice as much as a 9650!

Thanks for your help anyway, appreciated.

 

If you can get your paws on a 9650 at a good price that's a good choice. Remember LaptopVideo2Go for the drivers. Someone will tell you how to install them, or google it.

 

Hello, my 8600m on the 5920g is faulty...I have a 9600m gs, but black screen: can I try with a modded bios? if yes what bios?
Thanks

 

The modded BIOS's are on page 122. .NetRolller 3D's post.

You can use 5920 V3 BIOS. You will have to do it blind if you have no image on your laptop. It has been discussed in this thread how to make an external disc to flash a BIOS. You will have to go reading through. It got extensively discussed when people were starting out. There are a few ways to do it, CD's, USB sticks, or like I did with an external floppy drive.

 

Hi guys, same problem here:
Acer aspire 5920g with blank screen (i have to mod the bios for my new 9600gt)

I've read many pages about this thread but i still not solved my problem, for the updating the mxm v3 bios.

(i still haven't the fdd)

Which version of crisis disk do you use? i've tried 1.0.0.4, 1.6.9.5, 1.7.0.18diff_size without succes.

I tried the usb bootable + autoexec but the laptop goes to in to an infinite loop.

Can you help me?

I own a 8gb usb pendrive (with led); 512mb sdcard + usb drive (without led).
I have already removed the video card from the laptop

 

I used one that was posted here by a forum member called iJoe09, (or something like that). I got an external floppy drive from ebay for a few pounds. All the versions I tried did not work until I used iJoe's. Other members I am sure got other ways to do it like CD, DVD. You'll have to go looking.

 

Hey everyone, now the last thing I want is to be a newbie that is asking to be "spoon fed" information, but would really appreciate some help, I really am trying to take the info in but I really struggle to grasp new info and this is getting confusing.

I have an ACER 8920g that came with 9500m gs as standard, which blew up 2 days ago.

I have literally just ordered a ddr3 9600m GT. For some reason I think I have mis-interperated this thread, as in the 9600m gt will work with this laptop without any mods once in windows, by using an external display. I have screwed up, haven't I?
Even to get it to work on an external display I now *think* that I will need to mod the bios wont I?

Without the 9500m gs working, its going to be a real struggle to get up and running, right?

Could really do with some advice people.

ps: I know its not much but in return if anyone needs any info on the inside of an 8920g , wants pics measurements etc it would be the least I could do to give back to the community.

EDIT for u6b36ef : I saw on page9 post #88 in your post to netroller, you say that you tried the 9600mgt in the 8920g and it worked from the start, but am I right in thinking that was on a standard 8920g + netrollers sbios ? No other mods? Thanks

 

8920 + 9600M GT gives an image when windows loads on the internal display. Fit it, then flash to NetRolller's SBIOS.

 

Thanks u6b36ef, that's good to know. Hopefully will be plain sailing.
Do you recommend the 8920 sbios or the 8920 v2 sbios? Both are still available for download. I saw some problems with the v2 sbios on the 5920 IIRC
Thanks, mark

 

I dunno, coz NetRolller pulled the V2's down when the 5920 V2 crashed. However I thought at the time the V2 5920 had different work done compared to the V2 8920. The 5920 suffered from the 9600M cards not clocking up, so NetRolller set to work on that after V1. IIRC that is why I said the 9600's worked in the 8920 from the start. (Whereas I think (don't quote me) that the V2 8920 was just getting the HDMI to send sound.)

I would go with V1 first. If you're brave try V2, but have a recovery set up ready, or at worst be prepared to solder a new BIOS chip. Or wait until someone confirms the V2 successful. I have V1 working. Really though I think NetRolller would have not put up V2 if there was anything to worry about.

However also like I said recently the 9600M GT in the 8920 sometimes you get no image and need to flash a different vBIOS aswell. If you get one of those you'll be struggling. For now though keep fingers crossed that you get a match.

 

Really appreciate you taking the time to explain all that, really useful.
Yeah will keep fingers crossed and see how I get on. I have also ordered a 9500m gs cheap just incase I cant get the 9600m gt running and also as a spare card.

Will defo just start off with the v1 version and see how I get on.

Just out of interest, whats the best card you have heard of someone getting running in the 8920g? From what I gather it seems to be the NVidia 240m gt, although some of those Toshiba cards are pretty good spec but need the mods eh

 

Yeh the GT240M is the best un-modded card. Isn't the Tosh 330M just higher clocked.

The 8920 has space to seat MXM III and IV cards if you are willing to do it. You can buy an MXM III heatsink from the 8930 which I think will fit. However MXM III-IV use more power, and it's up to you if you want to risk it. You'd probably need a larger PSU to do it as well.

The cards I can think of are:
MXM III - 9700M GT
MXM IV - 8800M GS, 8800M GT, 9800M GS, 9800M GT, 9800M GTX, (and their respective Quadro). There's a GTX 280M in MXM IV.

It seems as many users have posted seems that MXM III and IV run in MXM II slot. Long story - you'll have to look it up.)



It's nice to get more GPU power. Bear in mind though that your CPU will become the bottleneck.

(There are some interesting Tosh and Asus cards that I think need BIOS chips adding. You'd need an MXM III vBIOS for them aswell. Things like GTX260, and 360. They use much less power for more result in performance than the older MXM III-IV cards.)

 

This bios for acer 5920g is for flashthe bios of pc?

 

Hello for some time trying to run on the GT230M 5720zg, and I was able to run on VBIOS extracted from SBIOS Toshiba, but I have a problem where when you turn on the computer cooling fan comes on full speed, they manage to sign, and the computer is switched.
Does anybody know what can be the reason?

 

Have you soldered a vBIOS chip, or you have embedded it in the system BIOS?

 

Solder MX25L1006 who programmed the programmer ISP.

 

Who did the work? Maybe it wasn't successful. You could try the embedding option. It's pretty easy, I've tried it myself. Basically it is like this - use Phoenix BIOS editor to open the BIOS, locate Option ROM, delete one of them, rename the vBIOS with the deleted ROM's name, upload it to the BIOS, build the BIOS, flash it with Winphlash and that's it.

 

The work I was doing alone, I do not know much about the structure of BIOS, or integration is possible only for Phoenix BIOS my acer has a BIOS-based Insyde. It can tell you how I should pull the VBIOS file with BIOS Toshiba?

 

Oh, you have 5720ZG! Sorry, I assumed that you have 5920G Well, obviously something is not right. Have you tried the GPU before you've soldered the chip? Did it get to Windows?

Since I'm not good at assumptions - does it output picture?

 

This is not the external image, I have a picture on the laptop display, I wonder whether correctly I used phoenix tool, file rom who isolated it is strange not displayed the clock parameters in NiBiTor.

GPU certainly is working.

 

NiBiTor is not the go-to program for checking vBIOSes. It doesn't recognize quite a lot of the vBIOSes out there, especially the mobile ones. Sadly I'm not much into nVIDIA to recommend you something else (if such thing exists).

So, you have an image on your laptop display (you can see boot screen, Windows loading etc.) and 1 or 2 minutes after the boot it shuts down? If yes, then you are not cooling it properly (what do you use?), that's option one. Option two - have you cleaned the old drivers? You should enter in Save Mode and clean the old drivers, use Driver sweeper for the task.

 

@.NetRolller 3D : I have some questions for you!

First: I have an HD4670 1GB DDR2 on my 5920G, but it gives me too much problems:
- overheating (because of a sh***y fan), the system doesn't consider the temperature of the GPU to adjust the fan speed (with 8600M GT it was "another world")
- Audio via HDMI doesn't work: it's recognized in the Windows Device Manager (AMD High Definition Audio Device), but when I connect an HDMI cable, Catalyst alert pops up saying that an HDMI to DVI adaptor was connected and that I have to use an external audio cable to make the audio working on TV.
- flicker problem (only on first display) when I extend or duplicate display on another one (connected via HDMI or DVI, doesn't matter)

Can you explain me why it does this kind of things? Where is the problem?
Also, looking at the VBIOS and at the PCB of my card, it's easy to see that it's a 'fake' HD4670. Just a renamed HD4650 with higher frequencies. (PCB Part Number: 109-B80631-A00, vBIOS Part Number: 113-E16100SS-F02)
I already tried to flash an Acer HD4650 vBIOS on my card, but it doesn't POST. In fact, I've RMA the past GPU because of flashing other card's BIOSes. The strange thing is that a guy working at the service center told me it worked perfectly (on a different notebook, I think).
Do you think that if I flash VBIOS and SBIOS from the first thread's page the card will let 5920G POST?

Second: How can I modify,or at least view, GPU memory timings in its BIOS?


UPDATE
Flashed .NetRoller 3D BIOS (5920G_MXM_V3) succesfully, but no improvement. Nothing is changed.
I've tried to flash ALL the 14 HD4650 Mobility BIOSes available at "techpowerup" site, none of them worked. When the computer is about to POST it beeps three times: 1 long, 2 short, and that's a video card error. Anyway, with some Acer vBIOS I can actually use Windows on another display connected to DVI port. The internal display just show a white screen with some lines and random colors appearing over time (I heard this is called "shadow screen of death", or WSOD or GSOD)

 

Hello guys, I am a new member in this site. I have a problem, I installed a GF9600M GT 1GB DDR2 mxm-II card on my acer aspire 5520G. It was successful and works but the problem is every time I start the computer during the POST this message appears.

"ERROR: MXM Structure not found or invalid.
Reflash MXM ROM or add MXM Structure and associated callbacks to SBIOS!
POST will be halted for 30 seconds and performance will be limited to
balanced performance mode until this is resolved..."

The gf9600M GT is the 1gb ddr2 version and bought it from ebay.
My card is just running more or less half only of the default speed for core, memory and shader speed.

It seems I need to do something to my system bios or whatever and I know that its risky and might result to corruption of the bios if not properly done.

Can you guys help me? Because I have no background on this kind of problems.

View attachment 114077

 

Have you flashed the modified BIOS? If not - click here, search for "IC50133_MXM.WPH", download it, flash it (the BIOS flash utility should automatically save your current BIOS, if not, save it), reboot and you should be fine. Good luck