Help flashing ASUS G73jw 460m vBIOS?

I apologize if I have posted in the wrong place. I tried to follow along forums and various guides, but after the better part of a day I'm just at my wits end.

I have been experiencing sudden shut downs when doing even moderate overclocks in games like Skyrim, Borderlands, and SCII. I originally posted here with extensive monitoring data screen shots [see bottom of page]:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...3645-g73jw-shuts-down-if-i-pulled-plug-6.html

After doing some more research, I saw mention of some sort of voltage cap on the 460m roughly around 0.92 (one that I observed myself) that might be functioning as a sort of power bottleneck, and thus causing sudden shut downs during power hungry games. I've seen people achieve amazing clock rates with modified vBIOS's, and hoped that I could do the same.

I've managed to make a back up of my original vBIOS using GPU - Z, and convert it to a .ROM format using NiBiTor that nvFlash can use. I also acquired a modified vBIOS that a gentleman named Saltius uploaded to mkvtech, that allowed higher voltages to be fed to a 460m (from what i understood).

Beyond this though, I can't do much. I can't get the bootable USB drive with nvflash on it to work at all.

I apologize for the drawn out message. I thank the numerous notebook enthusiast out there in advanced for their help.

 

Here you go: Droplr•vbios flash tools.rar

Includes HP USB Format Tool 2.23, NVFlash 5.100.0.1 and DOS system files from Win98.

1. Use the USB format tool to format your flash drive as a FAT32 DOS startup disk.
2. Your flash drive should now contain 3 files: command.com, msdos.sys and io.sys.
Copy nvflash.exe and cwsdpmi.exe and autoex_.bat to the flash drive as well.
Place the modified VBIOS on the flash drive, with a filename not exceeding 8 characters.
4. Boot from the flash drive (press Esc during the Asus logo to enter Boot selection menu). It would be a good idea to memorize the keypresses needed to boot from the flash drive.
5. Once booted, enter:
nvflash --save orig.img
This will save the original VBIOS to "orig.img" on the flash drive.
6. Enter: ren autoex_.bat autoexec.bat
This will rename the autoex_.bat to autoexec.bat. Now the next time you boot from the flash drive, it will automatically flash the original VBIOS from orig.img. This is in case something goes wrong.
7. Enter: nvflash -5 -6 -A your_vbios_filename.rom
NVFlash should flash the VBIOS now.
8. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot.

If it goes wrong and there's no image on screen, blindly boot in to the flash drive again, wait a few minutes and press Ctrl+Alt+Del. Hopefully the original will be restored.

By the way, what is your VBIOS version?

 

Are you monitoring temps?

My computer, same as your, was shutting down similarly during gaming.

Run a program like hwinfo and check max temps after gaming a little. I used a can of compressed air and took off the memory cover on bottom of laptop and blew out an unbelievable amount of dust. Now I can run oc'd at pretty decent setting and never get over 60°c

 

When stress-testing both GPU and CPU at the same time the CPU maxes out at 79C and the GPU at 86C (overclocked).

 

I'm no expert but my jw shuts offs at 90°c maybe the sw shuts off at less temp.

I would recommend cleaning the air vents with compressed air, only costs a few dollars and helped me out.

 

Responses !!!!! Thought this thread had died.

To respond to what was asked....

1) I'm positive its not my temps (see below). In fact, an ASUS rep told me on the other forum i posted on to boost my voltage

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums...omp/NVIDIAGeForceGTX460MTMPIN0Temperature.jpg

2)My VBIOS version is 70.06.0C.00.08

3)Thanks for the instructions. The ASUS rep posted directions that looked a bit different though, but I'll have to look into it more. Either way I feel like i might be in over my head a bit, so will have to take my time when doing this...

 

You mentioned the commands needed to boot from the USB. After I set the boot priority to the USB, do i need to include a filepath in the BIOS or just leave that entry blank?

Also, when i last tried this (unsuccessfully) all i saw was a cursor flashing on a blank screen that was totally unresponsive to any key i pressed. I will hopefully have some time tonight to mess around with this some more, but should i encounter the same issue, what is it that i need to type to fire up this program on the USB?

 

I didn't change the boot priority and you definitely don't need to enter any filepaths in the BIOS. Do not enable EFI or UEFI.
I just pressed Esc during the Asus logo.

 

Thank a ton, looks like it worked. Far more intuitive than i thought it would be. Check out the voltage below:



Definitely pumps out a lot more heat though. Had the notebook cooler on, with a window open + fan blowing cold Colorado air directly at my computer and the load was still 5 degrees higher than usual.



Idles at 39 and went up to 75 ... so definitely have to watch temps more closely when I'm in a warmer environment. MSI and CPUID below:





I'm gonna keep testing this thing out. If the shut offs stop, then I'll notify some of the other forums experiencing the same issues.

 

Nevermind .... the shut offs only became more frequent, even on less conservative clocks like 749MHz.... looks like I'm flashing back to the original vBIOS...

 

Tak1959....

Those last screengrabs are the giveaway...
not sure if you suggested this was a modest overclock.. but these numbers are about as high as they go.. every chip (and thermal paste etc) will have varying capabilities to try 'pushing' for..
Heck even the power supply supplied with our laptops may vary in the output power capability that it can supply to the laptop.
I found when I was on the threshold of pushing my system to 'max' that the power drain was too much. (I have had desktops that would reject my proven stable overclock if I added another harddrive or plugged in another USB device, and thus sucking more power - clearly I was on the edge)
When I have had moments like yours where the machine switched off (mid use and holding all of its temperature ) I would switch to an external monitor.. the massive amount of power headroom now available in the laptop would allow the overclocks to run smooth...
Those numbers though...!
For YOUR overclock you should gradually raise the numbers (possibly with memory done seperate to core, and not with the processor 'overclock' running).. We need to know the 'strengths' for each of the parts...

Anyhow whilst I do from time to time scour these forums; it will be unlikely for me to read this thread again.
I appreciate you as well may have moved on from this project by now and may not get these words...

Seriously don't suggest those timings though. I know others CAN hit them. I have not rethermal pasted, and I have never held those timings. Close though, and so I step the numbers back a little to offer the chipset some 'breathing room'.
Know your beast. Spend some time with her! Know her peculiarities.
And btw check if you NEED to overclock.. I now run most of my games not overclocked simply because with all settings at ultra and all details cranked I get the performance I seek.
I don't use antialiasing simply because fullHD on a 17" screen just DOESN'T NEED IT!