Asus vBIOS V3: Everything but perfect PowerPlay

This is a modification of the vBios released by Gary and Asus to resolve GSOD. Updated on September 27, 2010

Download (At your risk. I take no responsibility if you brick your G73)
- MD5 Hash: CE1549E3AAF66C876C74BB53DAEB3A40
- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2V896N86

Stock vBios (Gary's Asus)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6667252-post1.html

Bricked your G73? Blind flash, courtesy of IceDragon7
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6647309-post155.html

WinFlash Failure Warning

First when you flash with ATi WinFlash and you get a fail notice. DO NOT RESTART YOUR COMPUTER. First flash it again with WinFlash with the default bios, until you get success. Then restart and either use DOS method or reflash with WinFlash.
- Just make sure if you get Fail, reflash with default until you get success, should be fine.

Option 2: In DOS, courtesy of schockie

1). Create a bootable USB stick. This will format your USB drive, everything lost. To do it, instructions here: How to format a USB memory key
2). Download ATi Flash: techPowerUp! :: Download ATIFlash 3.79
3). Place the ATi Flash and the vBios on the same USB drive.
4). Restart your notebook and press F2 when it starts to get into Bios.
5). In the bios go to boot screen and select your USB-Drive-Boot.
6). You will be taken into a Windows 98 Screen.
7). Type the directory of your USB Drive and then type: "ati-flash -p 0 vBios3.rom"
8). ATiflash is the action you want to do, the ''0'' is the video card you want to apply it to (on the asus g73 there's only one, so always 0), and the ''stockv3.rom'' is the file you got from this forum, so the name could be altered. Press enter, and voila!

A/C Mode
3D = 700/1000
2D = 300/1000
UVD = 400/600

Battery
2D = 100/150
3D = 400/600

OverDrive Unlocked

 

HDMI works too?

 

HDMI Audio, HDMI Video, all working.

 

Can you sum it up why is this BIOS better then the original vBIOS please? Hell, I don't even know what overdrive is lol (sry Mobility 5870 is my first ATi GPU)

 

No. You can use google, search function or actually read what I wrote in my OP.

 

nice work Ziddy! This has everything I want.

Before I flash though... I'm just a little bit paranoid about mediafire andmy net connection. Can we get a CRC checksum for this vBIOS or an upload in a checked container (.7z or .rar) so we're sure we're not using a corrupt download to flash with? Did you flash in win or boot off a dos stick in your own testing?


Dreven: This vBIOS has lower voltages, so lower temps on idle. It has Powerplay settings that put your core/mem at 200/500 instead of 500/1000, so longer battery life and lower temps there too, and finally it enables Overdrive, a seldom seen automatic overclocking feature of the CCC meant for use with the x1800 cards. For this vBIOS, you can crank up the automatic overclock to 860/1200, though your card likely won't be able to handle quite that much.

This is pretty much perfect.

 

VGA and HDMI and Powerplay working?


...SIGN ME UP. I'll give it a try sometime in the next few days. Been a crazy hectic week. Thanks Ziddy!

 

Thanks for the answer. So with this vBIOS the VGA runs on 200/500 on default and clocks up to 700/1000 if I start a game?

For the record, does the Clevo+MSI's Mobility 5870 vBIOS have these factory enabled?

 

Glad to hear it worked for you too!

 

Updated with a 7zip container and checksum.

I used winflash to flash my vBios.
techPowerUp! :: Download ATI Winflash 2.0.1.11

 

Hey there, I just flashed it- it works great, except AMD GPU Clock tool reports that the GPU Voltage is 1.15, and the two supported voltages are 1.05/0.9- but trying to change the voltage does nothing.

EDIT: Also, trying to change the GPU Clock in ATI Overdrive seemingly does nothing- it states that it still is at 700 after selecting 800 and applying.

 

Did you try playing a 3D game?

 

No, not yet. I'm nervous to, as I'm not sure if the voltage is 1.15 or 1.05- and I can't seem to change it either. I'll try and see if it is, in fact, overclocking.

EDIT: Okay, now it's saying it's at 800, when all I did was close CCC and reopen it. Doing so again made it report it was at 700- I think this may be a bug in CCC.

 

Didn't Quagmire broke his VGA with ATi Winflash?

 

Just updated mine without issue. Won't be able to test it until later. Slow day + laptop + aircard = weeeee!


*edit* Hrm, seem to be running a few degrees hotter on idle.

 

+repped! Tyvm ziddy, will try this later tonight.

Technically yes, but the likely cause of his bad flash was that he was editing the BIOS values himself and had a bad roll of the dice. ziddy did the same work, but got a good config for his edited bios where everything works and won't corrupt the rom.

 

Plus he made the appropriate sacrifices to dark powers.

 

For the record, mediafire is infamous for being an unreliable filehost and is incredibly prone to CRC errors and checksum failures.

Could be the reason for the corruptions and/or vBios flash bricking.

 

hey guys, after updating the vbios, will ati overdrive allow my 5870 to reach 860/1200 if I can't OC the engine with the stock vbios past 790?

Thanks!

 

Yeah, bad download? I'm not sure what he's using to checksum with either.

I use WinMd5Sum Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives
since it's free and portable. 7-zip for some reason refuses to checksum the file (or any file, what's up with THAT 7-zip?!)

Anyways I've tried SHA and CRC checksums of every type and description I can think of and can't get a match. md5 would be nice, or maybe just knowing what ziddy used would help.

I'm getting an md5 of:
1f79ab1ee3bb08e60f14f3bd8c685d86
on the .rom file. Anyone already flashed and OK want to paste their md5 so I know mediafire didn't hose my download?

EDIT: Winkeye: No. 860/1200 is pretty freakin high. That's not a value it WILL go to, it's a value the software lists as the absolute max.

 

Awesome. I'll have to try this. I've been getting gsod's on every set of drivers except the original. I've been wanting to update the vbios but needed the vga output to work. Thanks!

I swear Asus should be paying the people here who spend thier time improving thier product.

 

lmfao. 10char.

 

ah, that's lame. I managed an 850/1250 OC for a single 3d vantage run but I haven't been able to reproduce it =\

 

Hmmm, interesting...

I'll try tonight.
will update the result.
thanks, ziddy

 

I await the vBios fail/success poll in the coming days.

Along with the AC power poll thingy.

 

I think it would be more productive to leave the voltage as it was (btw what was the original voltage?), since you could get a higher stable overclock out of it - thats the point of enabling overdrive isnt it?
And doest the clevo bios work the best - dont all features (vga, hdmi, overdrive) work with that one or is there some problem with it im not aware of?

 

Here's a mirror.

 

Chastity Have you tried this vbios? What can you say about temps, stability?

 

not yet, no. been asleep, plus work keeps getting in the way

 

Will be waiting for your updates.

 

I just read the Clevo bios has some downsides (hdmi and powerplay not working).
But please do tell what the original voltage was?

 

Original voltages were 1.15 and 0.95.

 

Thank you for the info.

 

Well I got a chance to install it and so far so good. Havent tested the HDMI but VGA is working fine. I'm using it right now to my second montior. Enabled overdrive with a conservative overclock and so far no issues. I even updated to the newest ATI drivers and ran it through its paces and its looking ok so far. My stock bios couldnt handle any of ATI's newest drivers prior.

BTW, I flashed it through Winflash like Ziddy. worked as intended.

 

I just flashed it using a boot flashdrive + atiflash. No b0rkage thus far. (In my work truck on an inverter no less) Need to setup 10.6

 

Ziddy this vbios is fantastic, I'm getting more than 3 hours on battery, GSOD is all gone(so far) HDMI and VGA working for me. Not to mention ATI Overdrive is just awesome. Also, I'm running on 10.6 official drivers and I got a 7.4 Graphics on WEI. (was a 7.2 before)

Much thanks to Ziddy, Xeven, and whoever worked on this, my G73 feels complete now.

 

What settings are you using to get 3 hrs?

 

I'm getting about 3 Hours and 4 minutes on Quiet Office.

I'm doing mostly web surfing, and I've got LCD on 40% brightness.

 

I wanted to report that flashing via USB worked fine. I figured I will use "autotune" in the overdrive utility to pick a clockrate and test Starcraft 2 to see if the GSOD continues. I am running the latest 10.6 drivers. Thanks for the vBIOS!

 

How to save original bios?

 

Just hit save when you're running Winflash and presto.

 

Could someone please write how to flash vBios step by step?

 

For those who want to do their own Bios.

What I did was use ATi Winflash. Press save, and that saves your Bios on your GPU, default bios, named bios.rom.

I used Radeon Bios Editor. I load a vBios that has OverDrive unlocked. Then I load the default bios I saved. Then you can go and enter 860/1200 to unlock your default bios. In the voltage/clock tab can choose what you want from the four.

So if you don't like 1.05v or .90v then you can do it yourself.

Well how to make your own is above. The reason why I chose .90 instead of .95, that is for Idle anyways, so might as well get more battery life if possible.

Alienware is using 1.05v and they seem to be very stable with cool temperatures. I know 5150joker has some insane overclocks with no extra cooling, no air conditioning or other odd ideas benchmarkers come up with.

But I think maybe 1.15v maybe more stable, dunno. But I found 1.05 to have more stable temperatures.

 

Just a simple question:
With this vBIOS does the TwinTurbo button still apply its overclock to the GPU?
I presume it still does but it's just to make sure...

 

What?!, I thought TwinTurbo just affected the cpu, and in most cases just made it slower not faster.

 

does the laptop run hotter with this vBIOS?

 

FYI: Twin Turbo only effects the CPU and RAM, not the GPU or VRAM

 

If you lower the voltage, why would it run hotter?

 

It sas the voltages have been set to 1.05v and .90v...what are the default voltages?

 

1.15 and .95