M17xR2 7970M Crossfire vBIOS issues

Greetings. I have finally acquired a pair of 7970M cards from a Clevo laptop, put them in my M17xR2, but the software installation was a pain. Default vBIOS wasn't a problem until the drivers were installed, after that I got a ton of BSODs. After a night of atiflashing (and different problems. Blue screens? Got 'em. Solid teal screens? Yup. Black screens without booting? Sure thing. Black screens while system actually boots in the background? Why not?) I have found a stable setup with supposedly Clevo 015.021.000.002.042768 and with one Dell vBIOS, I think 015.021 version as well. However I get a strange issue - GPU-Z detects the cards, But can't read the specs, they seem to have 0 MB VRAM, no texture fillrate and the GPU is clocked at whopping 0MHz as seen in the screenshot below. Right now I'm attempting to reload AMD drivers, but I'm not expecting much of a success.

Any solutions? What version of drivers should I use?

Any verified vBIOS that can allow for CF connection? Or, dare I dream, one that has proper support for fans, all the audio outputs, and so on? In other threads concerning this issue the links have went the way of the dodo, thus I'm refreshing the whole debarcle.

Thanks in advance, I am very keen to get this baby to full specs

 

As far as I am aware, only an older particular AMD driver worked for this machine with the Clevo 8970m for Xfire

 

Same with 7970M? Any idea which one?

 

Nope, I have only seen the Clevo 8970m from @Raidriar not sure if he tested other variants

 

I’ve tested several variants. Only Clevo 7970M V1.2 and Clevo 8970M will give native fan control. Dell 7970M, Dell R9 M290X, Clevo 7970M V1.0 and V1.1, MSI 7970M and R9 M290X will not give proper fan control. None will work in crossfire configuration past driver 17.3.3. Search for my VBIOS mod for M17x R2 8970M support

none can have enduro support in the vBIOS or else the system will not post at all

 

What's the vBIOS version for CLEVO 1.2? My default one that I've just put back in is 015.024.000.002.043595.

Is the vBIOS for 8970m compatible with 7970m? I've read that the former is basically the same when it comes to architecture except for 2 extra gigs or RAM, but I don't want to brick them.

 

Ok, I've found the method, mine seem to be 1.2 rev because of the messy solder joints on capacitors, I'm setting up 16.2 Catalyst right now.


Edit: Aaaand it's down again. While installing, fans went haywire, the screen went black and everything is not responding. Dammit.

 

Can anybody help with access to these attachments? https://forum.techinferno.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=5646
I'm not a fully privilaged user of the TI forum, and this pack taunts me

In the meantime, will attempt Radeon 13 and 15 drivers, each time with proper driver wiping. Wish me luck.

 

This is not a reliable method of determining which version 7970M you have. Almost all Clevo 7970M regardless of version have sloppy/manual soldered caps

 

Ok, then, what is? I still don't see any solution...

 

I'm attempting another thing, which I've done before, but not fully - put in one card, boot (it does) install (so far it works end benches properly, and even has >0 GPU frequency, and then install one of two I have extra, one from Dell, one from CLEVO. Let's see what happens.

 

Aaaand, ladies and gentlemen, we. HAVE. LIFTOFF!!! It appears that swapping the cards around, plugging in one first, installing Catalyst 15.7, rebooting, outing the second card in and connecting it with X-Fire, bargaining, denial and finally acceptance, it seems that the crossfire is at least OPERATIONAL. So far I'm getting pretty lousy benchmark results (on 3dmark 11 it's choking like crazy, <20 frames) with 330W unmodded PSU, but it's working. With 240W while launching the benchmark it starts loading, the screen goes blue (as in ultramarine blue) and just reboots. I'm guessing not enough power, but further testing is required.

 

Likely the case. Nahalem CPU is very power hungry around 45-55W on stock speeds, and one 7970M can eat 90-110W easy. As you see you will exhaust the PSU very quickly

 

And as a sign from heavens I have accidentally found 0DHMC LED RGB screen for cheap now it's just a PSU mod and my job is done here

 

@Raidriar
Just to add the v1.1 clevo 7970m I had, did have ec support for fan control.
However, there was an issue with random white bleach screen on boot-up and hence having the unit in sleep mode was my work-around for several years.
Sadly, that clevo has now died and looking more closer, there was a lump of solder on rear black caps connecting with resistors. I think this bad solder may have resulted in it's demise/failure checkerboard screen.

Anyway, on to the 8970m and happy days.

 

Would you be so kind to post your 7970M vBIOS? At this point I am not sure which revision of CLEVO I have, I would gladly try other versions. If you still have it somewhere, that is.
Mine appears to work with native fans in single, with X-Fire there doesn't seem to be the problem as well, but given that it goes into ultramarine blue screen when I try to run anything in crossfire I am starting to believe one of the cards is a bust, the clue being that cards have the same exact vBIOS, but only one works properly when running single. If cards are swapped I get infinite BSODs. Ordered another one for testing, also from CLEVO.

Furthermore only the original vBIOS (revision posted here before) appears to run correctly. Others as I've stated before, tend to not work at all or show stuff like no clock or VRAM. When the card arrived I will attempt to flash the old with new and backwards to see best results.

 

It was the thames vbios that only worked on my v1.1 The other vbios would not allow 3D functionality.
You can check what version you have by looking for the sticker on the back of the card.

From memory it was a big thread with the crew back then @sangemaru @Nospheratu and @flingin
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...imate-installation-and-tweaking-guide.720908/

Thames vbios:
https://ufile.io/ywdbkbtk

 

The problem is there is no sticker declaring vBIOS version :/

 

Aaaand there we are Crossifre-X enabled, working, bricking PSU

It turns out the secondary card was indeed bust. The UltraMarine Screen of Failure (UMSoF ©) went away as soon as the new-ish card was put in place and flashed.

Unfortunately, neither the vBIOS provided by @TR2N nor the CLEVO 1.1 (015.024.000.001.043596) sucked out from the secondary second card didn't work, the former causing BSODs, the latter forcing me to blindflash, while in default the AMD Catalyst recognized it as turned off card.

For anyone interested, the 015.024.000.002.043595 vBIOS will be attached to this post for future reference and if someone find him-or-herself in a pickle, while maxing out a decade old beast such as this one. Worked in my case. Maybe it can help someone.

Now all that is left is to hack the 330W PSU, with which I haven't had too much luck so far, but I'm keen to succeed.

EDIT: it turns out it was merely a thermal throttle of the GPU. Once on a cooling stand it performs flawlessly.

EDIT 2: it's not as flawless as I thought, I had to cut down the CPU to stock 55W rather than 62, but for now I'm getting stable P8000 in no longer supported 3DMark 11 once I pull through with 330W mod I hope to get more. Any clues on what values should O put in the vBIOS editor for a fairly stable results? I wish to undervolt it, what were the voltages that worked for you guys?

 

My 8970M crossfire score for reference:
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12683533

 

Nice
I've just made a mistake and let the Windows update by itself. After a bunch of crashes it finally did update and it has swept my AMD drivers along with brightness control. However, I am happy to report, there must have been an actual quality update in the meantime, because the KD_EnableBrightnessControl trick (where you change all of the KD value in regedit to 0) works fine. Maybe it's related to the LED-RGB screen (because it seems to do it with color adjustment), but to all of you sunbathing on front of your M17XR2 - do not despair. With default drivers the Crossfire works (just beaten my all-time record by going OVER 9000!!!! ), bit there is a way to tweak screen brightness.

 

Brightness control is broken on every driver after 17.3.3

 

Broken as in doesn't work at all or requires tweaking? In my case it works. Try for yourself if you still have yours, on CCFL after fix it works normally after the regedit, on LEDRGB it flows through blue going down and yellow going up, but hey, can't argue with results.

 

Finally, I've succeeded with the PSU upgrade. Turns out I was soldering the PSUID chip the wrong way round... T_T Just for future reference, circuit-wise the ID line needs to go towards the laptop, and the negative nodes soldered together to the PSU. I assumed the other way around by interpreting imsolidstate's schematics.

Anyway, without any GPU OC I'm getting results like this, finally:
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13743359
Looking for some vBIOS values to slap into my cards, since no bios from around works well with my pair of cards. Any clues for state values? With Afterburner if I increase the clocks beyond a certain point I get a ridiculous boost in performance, and after that a drop to PowerPoint levels. What is the sweet spot for 7970M?

 

Link score is broken. I think max returns were around 950 core 1400 memory

 

New link, must've deleted it while pruning my score list (over 100 positions):
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13743394
I was able to find a stable set around 910/1270, anything above that it starts choking for some reason. Again, it gives 80/90+ FPS in the first benchmark and after around 10 seconds it throttles down to about 10-20, and then steadily climbs to ~50-60. At this point I'm usually canceling the benchmark, because there is no point to complete it.
The CPU is at around 75A/93W @140MHz and 25 across all cores (which it doesn't fully utilize, this is an OC in progress, but it's stable enough to complete XTU benchmark without BSOD), I don't think it reaches the power limit of the PSU. Unless there is something I'm missing. From what I've seen while browsing the vBIOS it seems to be set at power limit of 84W. That gives us what, like ~260W? Still plenty of room to devour the wattage. Or the PSU mod is failing with power throttling down to 240+limit. I've followed imsolidstate's guide for the adapter (just did it internally, without modifying the circuit board, mine was much different to what was presented).

 

Double post.
Also I'm experiencing some problems while trying to run Timespy. It loads the system info for a very long time, and after that all I get is a lot of black lighting and a very stuttery experience. DX12 not present? How do you reckon? I'll check it later.

 

It is definitely overloading the PSU. With no overclock and running the cards at 0.975V it is not uncommon for me to measure 245W being drawn at 900/1250 and no overclock on the CPU. I need chip mod + 330W PSU but I’ve been lazy.

 

So I'll need to check my soldering again. The PSU is the Dell 330W, with PSUID chip piggybacking on the ID line. Judging by what you wrote and the PSU is limiting output without shutting off, since it's still a 330W, but all of it points out to no connection between negative node of the PSUID chip and GND. Will check my soldering later tomorrow.

 

Has anyone tested the M17X R2 with dual 8950M yet?

 

8950? As in Firepro M6100?
As for 8970M I see plenty of people, @Raidriar being one of them, the benchmark result he posted in this thread is for 8970M in CF.
As for the 8950M/M6100 I recall someone mentioning those cards being available with CF connectors, I assume they would work just very very hot, being the FurnacePros

 

No fan control requires hwinfo

Some more comparison result for you:
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13746543
CPU TPL increased to 100W, BCLK increase of 5%, ratios 26-26-25-25
GPU Undervolted to 0.975V @ 930/1500

Max observed power consumption in this run: 204.8W at the final combined load test.

For sure it will need 330W PSU if you want to attempt crossfire benching with an overclocked CPU.