Asus vBIOS V3: Everything but perfect PowerPlay

Press the power button (if you havent reconfigured the defaults in advanced power options this will do it)...

 

The trick with opening the vbios with overdrive unlocked and than the stock vbios doesnt work, overdrive is still disabled.. or am i doing something wrong?
Edit: got it working, nevermind.

 

Okay can someone give me a pro's and con's list for doing this and a numpty's guide of hoe to do this.

I have a G73 with no probs at all (touchwood) with the 10.5 beta drivers (8.74)

 

To reconfigure just to go Control Panel, Power Settings. And from there you can set how it goes to sleep. Whether you press power button, close the lid or just go to sleep after 15 minutes of idle etc.

 

Anyone ever looked into this ? I have pretty much the same problem on my medion akoya X7811 (based on MSI 1727 whitebook, aka GX740).

The difference is I'm not using the vbios given on this thread. My 5870 came with a much more recent bios, even more than other X7811 had (the ones sold in germany). I can't explain why, this is just how it is. The X7811 had issues with powerplay not working, and I gave my vbios to those in Germany who had issues with it, and it fixed it for them.

Here's a screenshot of RBE with this Vbios :

Bild: new2sksl.png - abload.de

Bios version is 012.020.000.025.035757

These are the default voltage settings on the vbios (the ones I had when I extracted it from my 5870).
Powerplay swiches correctly, and overdrive works flawlessly as well. I have not tried VGA or HDMI but I suppose it works.

Anyways, everyone who tried this bios and changed voltage settings had everything working fine, their voltage was indeed lowered, and temperatures as well, drastically.
Everyone but me. I flashed this vbios after editing voltages to 0.95 for Clock info 00 and 0.8 for all the rest, and even though powerplay still worked correctly, the voltages I monitor are default stock voltages ! Meaning 1.15/0.95, not even the 1.05/0.9 that my bios had before editing it (see picture above).
I have not monitored my voltages before flashing, so I can't tell if it was 1.15/0.95 or 1.05/0.9.

One last thing, I cannot disable overdrive in the CCC panel, whenever I untick "enable overdrive", when I hit "apply", "enable overdrive" just ticks itself back on... Has anyone had this problem before ?

So well, I would like to understand why my voltages don't seem to change even after a successful flash... (I extracted my vbios after flashing, to check if it was really my modded vbios that was on the chip... and yes, it was there indeed with the 0.95/0.8 voltages).

 

Danteleet, could you put your bios online for us to do some tests?

 

It is online, I'll pm it to you. Anyone who wants it can pm me.

Keep in mind however that this is a medion akoya X7811 vbios, based on msi 1727 whitebook / msi GX740. This is not an asus vbios and everything is done at your own risk

Btw, small update on this : almost everything works fine now, and I'm not sure I know why.

I went in CCC and disabled powerplay... then omg it worked... partially !!

On idle, on sector, I'm getting 405/1000 @ 0.9V while I'm supposed to get 0.8V.
All the rest seems to work :
Load / Sector : 700/1000 @ 0.95V (see furmak stability test on picture below)
idle / battery (power saving mode) : 300/400 @ 0.8V
Idle / Battery (high performance mode) this is where it gets weird : 405/1000 @ 0.8V

I don't understand why on battery high performance, I'm getting 0.8V on idle, while there's only one clock setting with the 405/1000 clocks in RBE and it's set to 0.8V in my bios !!
Anyways, I'm going to reinstall ccc and ati drivers and not enable overdrive, I'll see what happens then. Btw, overdrive works very fine as well.

Here are a few screenshots :

Furmark stability 4min 82°
Imageshack - furmark82.jpg

740/[email protected] (+100 points in furmark)
Imageshack - 7401000bench.jpg

EDIT : oh, btw, my current settings.... : http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8858/currentsettings.jpg

 

@Danteleet: I'll stick to the Asus / ziddy v3 vBios that works at stock, OC's very nicely, and all the hardware works as it should, kthxbye.

 

This is probably the best things you should do, mine is not an Asus bios, kthxbai.

For those interested, I'm writing a thread in the MSI section with more info.

 

I noticed after I did the flash using the v3 bios, at the windows loading screen when the colors of the windows logo converges, that flickers slightly right before it goes into desktop, is that normal because of the new clock settings on desktop? Anyone get this?

 

I'm no bios pro but what benefit does this vbios do? Whats the pros and cons of this? I would like some insight before considering putting this in my machine.

 

Try searching for vbios in these forums, or wikipedia. or whatever. you know, do your own research.

But I'll answer your question: the vbios fixes problems that some people experience with their ATI cards. They're not getting sufficient voltage, so overclocking them will fix it - the vbios just makes it permanent.

 

Not the answer i'm looking for. I heard it lowers the power consumption and improves battery life. Some say it increase the performance as well.

 

Happens to me too. I'm not sure why exactly.

It all depends on what you chose to do with your vbios.
If you chose to use it to overclock your gpu, then yes, better performance. If you chose to use it to undervolt your GPU, then you will get less heat, lower consumtion and better battery life. You can also find a compromise between those two.

 

This vbios does both, lowering power consumption by having lowered voltages to the gpu in both ac and battery and it enables overdrive so you can oc for games if you wish.

good to know this may be a normal thing then.

 

I'm not psychic
If you already "heard" that, why didn't you say so? If you ask a vague question, don't be surprised to get a vague response. Ask a precise question? You'll probably get a precise respond.

Example:

Q: What is water?
A: It's a wet substance you drink.
or A: 2/3rds of the mass of earth
or A: Liquid
or A: a word representing a concept of a physical state of a chemical composition

None of those answer the question:
Q: What is water made of?
A: Hydrogen and Oxygen, covalent bonds and all that jazz.

Lesson: If you don't get the type of answer you want, you're probably not asking the right type of question. The answer is right, the question was not.

 

so I figured out that my vRAM doesn't much like 1100 MHz by letting the system crash a few times before dropping the clocks to 1000 MHz. GPU is happy at 750 MHz, though.

Thanks for the vBIOS!

 

I flashed my vBIOS like instructed, and installed the 10.6 drivers afterwards. I used to have the default drivers installed(the ones on the driver disk), after having the 10.6 drivers crash on me when tested earlier. Before, when I played Crysis with the old drivers it didn't crash, and just now, it did. I played for maybe ten minutes before it happened. I also played a bit of Half-Life 2, and when I tried that on the 10.6 drivers without the new vBIOS it crashed instantly, but now it didn't crash at all in the few minutes I played. So it is clearly more stable on the 10.6 drivers now than before, but apparently not stable enough. Is it still possible that the issue is with the driver?

Is it still important to overclock to have a stable system? Or was the vBIOS supposed to fix that. And is it possible to flash the vBIOS back to its original state? Thanks a bunch!

 

Well I spoke too soon and started to get GSODs with this BIOS.

It was a good try though! So I'm back to the MSI vBios and no HDMI for me...

 

My question is fairly detailed. I ask whats vbios and the pro's/cons. You answered half of the question.

 

You may still require an OC to stabilize. Try 705/1100 and see if it still crashes.

 

For many it improves stability, it offers a 200/500 setting for battery saving modes, uses 1.05v/0.90v settings for cooler temps and longer battery life, and unlocks Overdrive for easy clock changes. Plus all your hardware works (HDMI + VGA)

 

Well it seems that my secondary hard drive died. It doesn't register when I go into "Computer" at least. How the hell did that happen!? Anyone else with this problem? Where can I find the original vBIOS?

Edit: And now it is alive again. What the f? Is it the vBIOS screwing with me? And are the fans blowing a bit harder after the vBIOS flash, or is it just my imagination?

 

Overclocked and played Crysis for about an hour on my lap yesterday. Was running 800/1100. It's definitely running hotter, with AMD GPU tools reporting the highest spikes into 98-99C. I will say that it was a ridiculous 84F in my house yesterday.

I think I'll probably dial it back to stock 700/1000 again. However, I do like that my system appears to be pretty stable with it and that I have the option. In addition, running 200/500 the rest of the time is a really nice feature.

Thanks for the hard work on the vBIOS to everyone involved.

 

Just to add, if you need an OC for stability, you don't need to do a full 800/1100. 705 seems to get the job done.

 

Oh, given, mine wasn't for stability. I just wanted to see if I got a big enough improvement in Crysis. It's kind of debatable. I don't have stability issues *knock on wood*.

 

Seems like I manage to get the setting working beautifully. Now is Overdrive part of P2G power setting?

 

Overdrive should be a tab in the CCC that you'll have to unlock and then you can manually over/underclock as well as create profiles (my favorite part of changing the vBIOS).

 

Hmm, flashed to Ziddy's vBios v3, and it went smoothly and all that. I have overdrive unlocked (and am figuring out how to set specific profiles)

Other than the lower voltages, lower temps and presumed stability with 10.6 (haven't done the upgrade yet), I'm facing a slight niggle. :/

On the stock vBios, playing DXVA with MPC, GPU downclocks to 500/1000. No flickers of any sort because the memory wasn't downclocked.

On v3 vBios, it downclocks to a brilliant 200/500, longer battery life and much lower temps while watching movies, turning this behemoth into a rather "portable" media center. Only issue is that the screen flickers at the start of playback (downclock) and at the stop (when restore to default clocks).

Gonna have to live with those flickers or not use DXVA I guess.

**Edit**
GPU downclocks to 200/500 when watching Youtube vids. The screen flickering when it down clocks gets annoying. Any way to set it so only the core clock drops to 200 and the mem clock stays at 1000 while rendering these vids? I still don't get how to use overdrive/powerplay and profiles in conjunction.

Also, isn't dropping from 700/1000 to 200/500 automatically an overly dramatic drop just for playing vids and youtube?

In anycase, I'm searching for a solution to all this and the best I can think of at the moment is using AMD GPU Tool to boot at 200/500 clocks then switch to default clocks using shortcuts when I game and forgetting Powerplay/Overdrive and profiles (which as I mentioned twice already I can't figure out how to set the clocks for profiles).

*hint for guide*

 

I wish it was smart enough to stay downclocked until something 3d started up.

 

That has nothing to do with video. The HD5870M has a built in video processor. so the core clock or memory clocks should have no impact. That's why for video watching on even desktop GPU, it's downclocked as low as it can go.

The problem is ATi and video acceleration. For some reason 480p, SD videos are not supported. Have you tried maybe watching the youtube videos at 720p if they have it?

If they don't, you can just set the Flash to not use hardware acceleration.

 

I'm still having GSOD and related problems with this vbios... some observations from the last 12 hours of use, with ziddy's vbios3 and catalyst 10.6:

700/1000 clocks: GSOD during a youtube video.
705/1100 clocks: Bad Company 2 screen turns white, hangs after 10 minutes of play. Sound continues and I can Alt-Tab and close the game. No GSOD but this crash didn't happen with ASUS drivers.
800/1100 clocks: Left 4 Dead 2 freezes and screen turns a random colour every 10 minutes or so. The sound loops over and over, but the game recovers in about 1 minute. No GSOD but this didn't happen with ASUS drivers.

Are there any other options for me to try to get my system stable? I get a big fps boost from the catalyst drivers so I really don't want to go back to the old ASUS ones again.

 

I think you have bigger issues than just a vBIOS. I think that GSOD's are hardware-related and I think you should call ASUS and get it RMA'd.

 

I'm confused about something. I have the overdrive tab now after flashing, but i can't change anything in it. Its all greyed out. So is it something i'm missing or doing wrong?

Ok i got it working... DIdn't see the key. How stupid of me

 

I updated to Catalyst 10.6 and it still does the same with the downclocking automatically even on 360p videos, but now, I DON'T GOT NO MORE SCREEN FLICKERING.

Thanks again for the work Ziddy. And salutes to all those involved.

 

Can you try removing your battery and playing it plugged in into the outlet and see if GSOD still occurs?

 

I tried this and it doesn't fix the problem... thanks for your idea though.

 

Have you tried a slight underclock? Just for giggles try 650/900

 

Could someone walk me through setting up profiles with Powerplay?

Idle/Web @ 200/500
Gaming @ 700/1000

I don't seem to be able to figure out the CCC. :/

Also, the slider option on my core clock for ATI Overdrive only goes down to 700. I can't go lower than that unless I used the AMD GPU Tool to set the clocks manually @ 200. Mem clocks go down to 500 though.

Edit
How does this go hand in hand with the Power4Gear power profiles too? So many different options I'm rather overwhelmed.

 

I figured it out somewhat. Power4Gear automatically downclocks in accordance to Quiet Office/Battery Saving when I select Maximize Battery Power while Plugged In.

So that works nicely for now.

Although I do want to know is it possible to specify your own clock settings in custom profiles via the CCC?

 

Yes. I do that for gaming/normal use. I have one profile set to 200/500 (so that I can go back to that when I'm done gaming) one set to 700/1000 (for gaming) and one for 800/1100 (for OC'd gaming- still testing temps but it looks like it's running too hot for my tastes).

 

So I just got my new A2 last week and have been trying to get it running on 10.6

I've tried Xeven'sV2 vBIOS and got crashes w/ video playback
Now I've just installed Ziggy's, but now it locks up shortly after I run anything.
I'm running BIOS 209

Also, after installing, the stock CPU turbo monitor started bouncing up and down during idle. I've since reverted to stock vBIOS and Driver, but the turbo bar still bounces around 2GHz, though by not as much. I have no idea why this would happen, since it is the CPU.

Thanks!

 

I haven't noticed any temp decrease when using the modified 1.05 vbios voltage. anyone else see an increase, decrease or stay the same on their temps with this?

 

Originally I thought I was seeing an increase but as time has gone on things look relatively the same. However, it has been a lot hotter in my house, so potentially there is a decrease. That's the problem- any evidence is going to be purely anecdotal unless you have some serious climate control.

 

I note a 2-3C temp drop in the same operating conditions (using stock clocks 700/1000).

 

I've noticed my gaming temps lowered about 3-4C

 

High five. *SMACK*

 

Thanks, this has been mostly stable so far - only a couple of crashes, in Dirt 2, but I'm not even sure that's the laptop's fault because I only got the game yesterday. Lots of L4D2 and BC2 playing with no problems. There hasn't been much of an fps decrease either.

 

I set Overdrive to 710/1010 to try out the vBIOS V3 but the current values only change to 700/1010...no GPU Clock change. Did I miss something?

Plus, when I click test custom clocks, I get only thick gray vertical bars...is that right?

ATI 10.6

 

I see red and green hues. Sure you're not colour blind?