Almost got a DELL 7970M to fully work on my G73JH - Advice needed!

Guys i need some advice. Has anyone managed to find a VBIOS to run a DELL 7970m so that the GPU fan doesn't always run at full speed?? I spend the whole day installing and modifying heatsinks to make it work. Stock vbios wouldn't even POST so i had to disable the chip and blind flash. I will make a full tutorial if i fix the fan. Everything works from HDMI to Drivers. Here's a small teaser (Note i left the cables connected to the EEPROM so in case i flash a VBIOS that won't POST i can fix it without dissasembling the whole thing - i'm writing this from my G73JH - i don't have another PC ):



VBIOS tested (and not) so far:

backup.rom 95462FB612FFB7B021927CC837B5D3B2 128kb This is the VBIOS that came with the card - won't even POST
1.rom Dell7970m.ROM 40647138A561E29BB4E93696C0BD20CA 128kb (TechInferno) - FULLY working except fan issue -
2.rom 7970M.ROM C191AA570CB58556FC1DC145DCB8F6EC 128kb 7970M (from TI_RJT).rar (Clevo HM teste G73jh working, enduro off, 850mhz) - POST WORKING, HDMI working, Driver BSOD
3.rom 7970clevoHM_1075v.rom 018739199F91FD65F1ACFE189CBB7BEC 128kb Clevo_7970m_P1x0HM_ov (clevo HM overvolted) - Driver BSOD
4.rom By_cleiton7970m.rom 4897063E8CED85640CAE8786AD1CB6BB 128kb Seems to be working, I got HDMI audio output too! - Fan issue.
5.rom Dell7970m-uv-0950v.ROM E7008962FBA832408A102F0607225B0F 128kb (TechInferno) - FULLY WORKING except fan issue; what i'm using at the moment
6.rom Clevo.HD7970M.2048.120605.rom 5E3400F8AB3B634BA4B8281C1850EB9B 128kb Clevo P370EM-online techpowerup-Not working - won't even POST

EDIT 4: More info
EDIT 3: Note that i found out max clock goes only to 450Mhz, and 300Mhz idle for Vbioses that boot to Windows. Also when i'm playing flash video (i.e. Youtube) the screen will go all fuzzy colours forcing you to close it.
As for the BSOD i'm getting with the other vbios is: 0x7E ( 0x0000007E) atikmdag.sys (Catalyst 14.9)
EDIT: If i don't fix the fan issue i'm going to fix it manually using a hardware fan controller (i have ready) since i'm planning (actually waiting shippment) to add an extra input fan
EDIT2: More testing and updates.

 

Suggestion list:

Try to reset cmos or reflash system bios and reset cmos, you shouldn't be having fan control issues.
Regarding the low clocks, you might be too undervolted to go max clocks, try using the version of the TI vbios that is at 0975 or 1V or above.
Regarding driver BSOD, try using amd express uninstaller, reset, and install the GPU using Catalyst 13.1 drivers and upgrade from there.
Alternatively, yea, fan controller mod. Not exactly pretty, but I've also used it before to great success.

 

Tried an msi vbios?

 

Thanks for replying Meaker. Sorry for making a new thread; i believe this is better.I haven't seem to come across a MSI vbios, but i've got a collection now of ~20 different vbios. I did try some others a couple of hours ago but i'm not home at the moment. From what i found out so far is that the DELL card won't do proper fan control with any Vbios. However this is a really easy fix for me. The most important problem now are the clocks. 450Mhz in furmark, 300Mhz idle with all vbioses that boot to windows. I believe it is a driver problem since other vbioses that give bsod, is because of the drivers. running catalyst 14.7 (latest)..which version should i downgrade to? Thanks

 

Thanks for the reply. I didn't see your post since i'm on my phone (not home). Why do you think system bios reset would help? Are you running a dell 7980m on a g73jh? I'll try it when i get home and report back

 

Sadly either there is damage to the card (since i bought it from china used) or this version which is the newer one won't work properly.
I've tried many Catalyst version; 12.6, 13.x, 13.1, 13.4, and i get BSOD when using a Clevo vbios. However with 14.7 sometimes the driver will be unable to load so that it will switch to VGA drivers preventing BSOD.
As for the fans, it seems it's not possible to control it through the vbios as the card must have the proper electronic circuit on the board.
What i found out with the dell vbios that are working, the core clock will stay 450mhz under 3d load (furmark, cinebench, etc). The only way to force a power change in the profile is to use UVD (play video, youtube etc.). The memory will jump to 1200mhz and the core most of the times to 850mhz giving you this nice screen in a couple of seconds:



I then tested numerous vbios checking each one. The oldest DELL one was the most sucessful as while it had the same problems for JUST ONCE time it played a youtube video at full clocks without any issues, but as soon as i closed the video it gave me the nice PSOD (psychetellic screen of death). At least my cooling seems alright as in furmark for 5mins i didn't pass 44oC. Here is the list and a rar with my bootable usb. Now i have to manage to return the card and get my money back as i bought it from aliexpress..(first buy too from there ).

Flash drive with roms and scripts: Zippyshare.com - flashdisk.rar


Another think i noticed, even though atiflash verifies the vbios correctly after flashing, when i save it after it will have different MD5 hash from the original file. The same happens if i save the vbios in a windows enviroment. Why is that?

 

At this point I would suspect the card too, it should have worked by this point.

 

Yeah it's certainly the card, but i'm not sure is because of design or fault. I wouldn't trust these chinese sellers either way, probably taken off a broken alienware. There other users that used the same card and had the same core locking problem so i guess the latest revision just doesn't work (this one came with .22 vbios which is the latest). I've now ordered a new Clevo 7970m rev v1.2 which is known to be fully working. I hope i manage to return this one and get a full refund (seller says 30 warranty).

 

Good luck with both cards, let us know how you get on

 

No worries. I didn't bothered to disassemble the whole thing again to check for any pcb damage/shorting as i'm waiting for the Clevo one. It seem a bit stupid now that the 980M was announced, but still no 4K among other things so i guess i can go another 2 years with this setup.
Funnily though i did some more testing since i read something about incompatibility with the screen (since it's only detected as Generic PNP screen), so i used my HDMI screen, and weird things are happening. I tried multiple configurations, and basically sometimes it will jump to proper clock speeds 850/1200 and stay for awhile, then 450/1200 in 3d..it's like it doesn't know which power profile to use, something in the words of incompatibility with the HM chipset, and the screen. When it jumps clocks it will produce flickering on the screen, and sometimes the PSOD in both monitors. Basically the system does not even freeze so it's just weird things happening with the graphics card, so we can't even say it is a screen of death as it only affects one screen when both are connected. I run 3d mark Sky diver and while it run in 450Mhz i got really nice score for the clock speed something around ~6800 and only 43oC temps which is awesome.

Edit: I just now checked and windows detects the laptop screen correctly, AMD catalyst does not..

 

Alright. My clevo card came today, just installed it with more upgrades, works perfect and i stored 6205 points in 3dmark 11 on stock clocks I'll make a new thread on that. However i took the DELL card out and there is no visible damage at all. Probably just incompatibility with the G73jh.

 

Its good to know im not the only one having the problem with the clocks just idling. Mine is a clevo or msi card though as my fans work also the power diods are huge compared to the dell ones. But yer same problem itll only boot with a dell vbios and some clevo ones yet the clevo vbios's give me bsod every time. im thinking my card must be the newer version of the clevo 7970m that is apparently set up more like a 8970m " don't quote me on that I read it somewhere" ha ha

 

Ha ha just realized I said the exact same thing you said about the 7970m being like the 8970m never mind

 

Yeah i know. What Clevo version of the card do you have? V1.1 or V1.2..only V1.2 works and is supposed to be older than v1.1. Check out my other thread here for more details on getting the Clevo card to work fully: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...desoldering-heatpipes-lapping-guide-more.html

 

Maybe the dell card had an inherent fault in it, it can happen.

 

Just an update on this. It didn't! I flashed it to the stock vbios before i sold it to a guy with a M18X R1 (which doesn't officially support it), and it works perfectly on his system (just needed a modified system bios to detect the card). So I was correct about the chipset incompatibility.

 

Well at least someone has a working card at least, good luck on finding another from a different brand if you try again.

 

Correct, but Meaker you forgot i got a CLEVO one which works perfect on my other thread

 

Lol well it is hard to keep track