M17xR3 - VBIOS UPDATED (10/12) - nVidia GeForce 460M/580M/560M (see post#1)

You guys are freakin' smart. This whole thread is just a bit beyond my expertise. If I didn't have 2 kids and a wife, I might have time to learn a thing or two and be right there with you. Sigh. Aging is not so fun.

Anyway, we're setting up this conference call thing. It started on the M18x 580 thread, but anything mobility GPU is on the table for discussion. If you want to attend, jump out on this thread and check it out. Whenever you guys decide you're ready to set it up, just give me a list of workable times/dates, and I'll string it all together.

 

I'll flash this vbios when I get home and then run a few benchmarks.

 

Dell posted the 560M version yesterday. Post#1 updated with link and information.

 

Dell has posted vBIOS for the 460M today.

 

thanks for the heads up. I've updated post#1 - all 3 GPUs now have links to the current DELL VBIOS releases.

 

You guys think its worth flashing the V-bios for the 460m? I'm getting ready to sell the thing on friday and idk if i should flash it before then or not

 

It probably would not hurt to do it for the next owner if its going to save them some grief in the future.

If it were my machine i would and honestly flashing this stuff takes no effort especially the way Dell handles it all for you.

 

Why are there new Vbios's for the 460m and 560m? haven't heard any reports of them throttling!

 

I tried it... Im still throttling

 

Hey Team,

I got my M17x a few weeks ago. I haven't noticed any throttling in the system, but I did notice that there was a recent change to the available hardware specs just a few days prior to my order. The unit originally shipped with 1333 RAM. A few days later when I was looking at making an order, this had changed to 1600. I was wondering if perhaps they had either 1) changed the RAM the unit shipped with or 2) it was a later revision of the system.

In any case, I only once saw the unit slow down and it was on Deus Ex. The framerate dropped off substantially and just never recovered. I think it was a driver error. After I restarted the system it was fine and I didn't see the issue again. Haven't tried Crysis yet. I'll throw down on that one and see.

Installed the latest Vbios yesterday. I didn't notice any difference

 

Hi!
Try Furmark software see the graph below...if you see the voltage drop and graph going down as soon as temp touches 78°C+ it throttling... May be i heard too that New heatsinks are definately have good past and faster cooling too ...

You can see my video here...
Alienware M17x R3 580M Throttle at 77°C Furmark graph - YouTube

Regards!

 

burned, reboot, pressed 'y' to all. ok, how do i know its ok? i mean, what befenits it has for being an update? (for 460m)

 

OK so I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. For some reason I can't get my system to boot from cd/dvd. I have burned the image to both a cd and a dvd without success. I have hit F12 and selected cd/dvd and even changed the boot order in the bios settings. i am not getting any type of prompt to boot from cd it simply continues with the windows 7 boot sequence. Am I missing something completely obvious?

M17X R3 - i7 2630QM, GTX 460M, 16GB DDR3-1333 G. Skill, 1080p 60hz, 128GB Kingston SV100S2, 750GB WD Scorpio Black,

 

Try disabling the HDD's from the boot sequence?

 

Thanks Bill, but I don't know where to "disable" the HDD's from the boot sequence. I can move them around in the bios settings makeing them the last to boot from, but it still won't boot from cd. it tells me the network is unplugged when it hits the Network boot and then goes straight to the HDD.
Sean

 

Was afraid of that. That's why I put the ? at the end. Some BIOS's will let you disable a device from the sequence. I'll run down to the lab and see if there are any M17x's in I can look at.

 

@Shnogger. Perhaps burn the CD again. Use a slow speed as sometime errors occur during burning and thus you are unable to boot.

 

Well, I learned something new today. Just looked at a brand new r3, and sure enough you're right. Puzzling. Seems there should be an option to highlight a device on the boot sequence screen and hit spacebar or something to disable it from the boot order. I guess verify the bootable disc works in a known good optical drive to make sure the image is good. Or do as widezu69 suggests and burn it again at 2X. I've had this work for MSDN iso images that would not boot.

 

ok so I put the cd in my old Inspiron 1720 to see if I would get to a boot option and nothing. I downloaded the file again, then burned a new disc in my M17 at 4X still nothing. so I burned a copy in my Inspiron at 3X and still nothing. tried the disc in the Inspiron and I could get the Bios flash screen to come up...put it back in my M17 and still nothing.
I put in my original windows cd and tried rebooting and I get the "press any key to boot from cd" so I tried rebooting again with the burned disc and windows just boots up normally no option to flash the bios.

 

Very weird. Maybe try physically removing the HDDs since you are just flashing a VBIOS and shouldn't need them?

 

this is weird.. today i turned my pc on, and it was left on black screen just before login screen. dunno why, i entered again with f12 into the cd, and reinstalled the vBios. and now it works. second time installing. what happened? hope it doenst do this again... frustation to have a 2k+ laptop with errors lol

 

Just pulled the drives out and it booted from cd just fine so it flashed the vbios and all is good. Still don't understand why it wouldn't boot with the SSD and HDD in.
thanks for you help.

 

Running Furmark, the card never goes beyond 67 degrees. I don't think I'm hitting that thermal limit.

Wait, okay, I see what you're saying now.

Yes, if it gets up at 78, it did throttle. But it was hard to get it up there. I was running Furmark for about 10 minutes and it peaked at 76. I had to block and exhaust fan to get it to 78. FPS dropped in Kombustor from 227 to 45 until temps hit 60 and then it started back up again. I'm going to let it run for an hour or so and see if it will throttle on it's own if I just have the exhaust clear.

Also, just propping the back of the unit with my wallet dropped the GPU temperature from 77 to 67 degrees. It's been running now for 5 minutes stable at 67.

 

Hi!
You definately need to keep the laptop elevated from back so air flow is clear... Also it highly depends on your room temprature... If your room temps are well near 22-24°C or lower then you will not see temp higher 65-70°C with laptop elevated... But if your room temp is higher it would really effect temps for your laptop temp to rise slowly higher... If you using in it high room temp try switching to room with airconditioner ON... If you are not facing temps going high you can boost your cards clock with these Vbios try 0.87V and then you can further go to 0.92V here...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...throtting-fix-no-need-modify-system-bios.html
You can easily over clock over 750/1500/1668 Mhz (you can go higher if stable) and enjoy your full potiential of your 580M card....

Regards!

 

seems like my 460m won't go over 840Hz OC on the clock speed, it just throttles to like 200Hz till i revert it. It kinda makes me mad cause the card is only hitting 64C according to the temp sensor. Shouldn't it be able to go higher?

 

how do you find the Vbios version that you have?

 

GPU-Z, download is here:

techPowerUp! :: Downloads

 

thanks tried to do the Vbios update but it failed still at version A1

 

How did you try to flash it? Can you provide more detail? steps take and resulting error message?

 

downloaded the program burned it to a disk rebooted the laptop, F12 booted from cd, and hit B to continue, Y then Y again it started to install, install complete and very fast is said failed or error hardly had time to read it. and went to it is safe to shut down.
started back up just fine ran cpu-Z and went to the graphics tab it says version A1.
hope this helps
Note I do have the 460M OC using MSI Afterburner.

 

one of two possibles here that I see -

1. Bad burn - might try to burn again and re-flash.
2. Remove the 460M OC and revert to stock. Doubt this is it but doesn't hurt to try.

 

GPU-Z shows bios version 70.06.3B.00.08 is that the updated bios ? i do not see the A02

 

I believe that is actually correct -

VBIOS: 70.06.3B.00.08

 

Thank you for all your help.
Now just need to wait untill the GTX580M come down to a normal price range.

 

Exactly why iis this a worthwhile (and urgent per dell) download?

 

Well, as soon as I received this m17xr3 from outlet, I updated the vbios. Now under GPU testing, it goes up and down from ~475 to ~620 in the GPU core clock. Is that normal?

 

Anyone tried to update vid drivers to 280.26 GTX 460M after the VBIOS update. I did and had no problems, I did not have to MOD. the inf file.

 

Yep its designed that way it normal...Dell is Just fooling us so that temps don't rise quickly...and in game you will not feel the games throttle like earlier...This M17X with 580M complete wate of money...

 

Anyone? Por Favor

 

Forgot to mention : I have 70.26.29.00.06 with 560m.
(Eurocom card)

And ever since I upgraded 740QM to 940XM the throttling is more present - even at stocks clocks sometimes.

Pls comment

 

throtling on 560m ? vau.

My 580m vbios is 70.24.2b.00.06 - this is vbios from factory. (the A01 part is missing). its already the new vbios , or the A01 means another version i dont currently have ? thx.

 

to be sure, can anyone post here the name of the previous bios (what was it) for gtx580m ? I dont know if 70.24.2b.00.06 = 70.24.2b.00.06 A01.

Thank you.

 

I want to extract the new 560m vbios from the iso that dell provides but its not possible as it does not show. Cause I am not sure it will work with my eurocom card I figured I will investigate it a bit first before flashing..

Anyone have experience in this or can someone just post the rom or bin file here ? Many Thanks

 

From my understanding with being on the conferance call with the the sole Alienware graphics engineer, the new vbios adds in GPU states between P0 and P1 so the clock rates won't drop as dramatically as previously instructed by the first vbios. At least this is for the 580M.

 

Thanks DR. Will await specific improvement info on 460m before updating anything.

 

First time I've heard that one. Why don't you call and get a refund? Of course you'd have to defend your "complete waste" claim, I would imagine.

 

I wouldnt say that. I have exactly this, and im 100% happy with this config. Its working perfect, I have 580m, that ISNT throttling. (10 hours AvP game DX11 ultra settings test made)

 

Mind explaining how you got that? I've put in the new vbios and my 580m still goes down to 73.6/162/147 *very* often, I didn't really notice a change.. And my set up is almost identical to yours (i7 2860QM, etc)

 

I have 6 days old (better would say new, M17xR3) machine. I didnt do anything special. bios is A08, vbios is 70.24.2b.00.06, both from factory. drivers installed 285.62 WHQL. on my CPU and GPU is IC Diamond (I check it again.)

 

Hah yeah that's identical to mine, albeit mine is about 2 months old hence the vbios wouldn't be 70.24.2b.00.06 by default. But I believe my bios was A08 from factory, and I also have IC Diamond on my CPU and GPU.

Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to wait for the "step 2" then if you didn't do anything special.