vBios For G73

Noticed there are some great differences between the Alienware and Asus HD5870 Bios.



Not sure if anyone wants to try and edit the vbios to fix the powerplay?

My vBios and ATi Settings

Edited Xeven vBios V2: http://www.mediafire.com/?zrwdowwmdhk

Xeven Great Work! Love the Overdrive.

Alright I edited your vBios to 1.05v like Alienware. Check out these temps running Unigine 2.0 with high tessellation for 10 minutes with 800/1100 overclock

Fan noise minimal, it's incredible.



Also I created 2 Profiles now.

Performance: PowerPlay Setting Maximize Performance
IDLE: Powerplay Setting Maximize Battery

This way with hot key can just switch back and forth really easily

 

Anyone tested it already? Does it brick or not? ;-) How about HDMI?

 

This might be suggested already but still i'm going to suggest it.

There are G73 owners on this forum that do not have GSOD issues, well issues with the GPU in general.
What would happen if we copy the vBIOS of such a GPU and flash it into faulty GPU's?
It could solve all the problems including Powerplay and HDMI!

 

So in the mean time both MSI and Alienware have released a new vBIOS which downclocks the memory but we still have to hear from Asus.

Who said that Asus support was great? I'm not seeing it people.

The Alienware one even has a 100 / 150 defined for battery idle and low performance requirements like browsing the net!!! It's almost like only MSI and Alienware listen to user problems and Asus just ignores us.

What the hell Asus! Fix this!

 

It's great because they support the laptops for a long time. Often, the support isn't "fast", but they kept putting bios updates out for the eee 1000H for a long time after it was discontinued.

 

my G73 goes haywire if I try 150MHz on the ram

 

Anyone here know how to edit a bios to add more additions to the power settings? I know we can use RBE to edit the current voltage and clock speeds, but can we add more settings for it? For now it's just power, battery, video watching... not sure what that fourth is.

No only Alienware has. MSI is for GX640 and that will brick your HD5870M. So far, only Alienware. I think part of this blame should go to ATi. I do not think it's coincidence that ATi, MSI and Clevo were the first to support and none of them have properly functioning powerplay, only Dell/Alienware does.

Personally I think you should sell your G73 and get something else. Your negativity is starting to become aggravating, I don't think you have posted anything positive in the Asus forum and you seem really angry about the G73. Why do you want to keep something that angers you so much?

 

I think spending the money for a G73 allows for some venting rights. This conflict with the vBIOS and the latest Cats is annoying, and the item is sold as a gaming machine.

 

Agreed, but Pulsar is just so angry. I don't think it's healthy to keep something that makes one so angry. It's one thing to be aggravated or annoyed, but Pulsar seems to be hyperventilating to me on these forums. And not only that, I don't these issues are that big of a deal anyways. I would love it if Asus provides a properly working powerplay vBios, but atm it's still better than Clevo, MSI vbios for HD5870M, only Alienware has a better one.
- The new MSI vBios is full of bugs atm. Can't get out of sleep mode etc. Agreed at least they are working on it, but it's for the GX640 not the GX740.

But unlike you I am not that annoyed with the latest Cats at all, quite happy with it. And for me it is a gaming machine.

 

Well, I am still awaiting for Xeven to do some vBIOS wizardry and hit a solution.

 

Yep. If he can somehow merge the Alienware settings into the Asus vBios, I'll call him God of HD5870M.

 

Ea est un Domine. Domine est ATIorum.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

I doubt it will be fixed with a Cat release, unless the Cat comes from Asus, but it will probably be an antique edition.

btw, lol

 

but we can do this with Ati RBE program???
we can adjust voltage, clock and fan speed or not?

 

I have a perfect working g73 (knocks on wood).

I know about the GSOD's, whats this HDMI issue people are talking about?

 

Citation? Link?

 

Don't know of any HDMI issues. I can say that the HDMI works great here.

 

Maybe it's the issue where games and Blu-Ray movies look and sound great on my LCD TV

 

I believe this was the thread referring to an upgraded vBios that led to HDMI no longer working but PowerPlay and Overdrive working, and fixing the GSODs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/482491-gsod-fix-g73-owners-vbios-update-guide.html

That's the only HDMI issue, via a non-official upgrade, I can remember.
Other than that, HDMI works fine out of the box.

 

You mean a positive "issue" for a change?

Maybe something like:

If only the 1080p output was lower and the colors weren't so vibrant. And, what's up with the 7.1 sound? Too many channels when you only have two ears. Why does my 15 foot HDMI cable work?

Seriously, I haven't seen anyone post lately about HDMI problems, but if someone is having a problem with their HDMI port, maybe we can help?

 

Oh that's right, the disabling of the HDMI port because someone chose to use a different manufactures vBIOS. Forgot about that one. Yeah, that one won't get fixed until ASUS releases their update.

 

Those who have GPU problems, what vbios is on their cards?

I have no problems what so ever, currently using catalyst 10.5

My vbios is Video BIOS Version: 012.017.000.004.035992

 

can you check your CCC Info center under Graphics Hardware and list your BIOS part number? Also, can you make a backup of your vBIOS and put it somewhere online so I can experiment with it? Use ATIFLASH to create the BIOS backup.

 

Why the updated ATI mobility drivers fail on some systems, now that wouldn't be pointless.

 

I think I have the same vBIOS and no issues:

BIOS Version 012.017.000.004
BIOS Part Number BR35992.001
BIOS Date 2010/01/04

PM'd...

 

Ugh! Just got a GSOD right now. I'm going to give ASUS some more time since I live near a ASUS Authorized Repair place. Oh yeah kinda off-topic but if I was just going to ask them to replace the GPU they wouldn't do some unecessary things like cleaning my HDD would they? Kinda pointless to back something up if they were just replacing a specific part of the machine.




Oh yeah, hopefully if you guys find a solution maybe send it over to ASUS for a look. It might just help them in fixing it for the mass public.

 

While my CCC says the same thing:

BIOS Version 012.017.000.004
BIOS Part Number BR35992.001
BIOS Date 2010/01/04

GPU-Z reads it slightly differently:

BIOS Version: 012.017.000.004.035992
Release Date: Jan 7, 2010

 

Likewise.

10char

 

I have never had any BSOD occur on my g73. I play MWF2 and masseffect2 for hours on end and never had any issue. Im using latest bios and latest ATI official drivers.

 

I have the same vBios and 10.5 works well with me.

 

Exactly what I have. No issues yet.

I'm still running stock drivers but will probably update after reading this...

 

Just wondering if there is much improvement between the stock driver and the catalyst 10.5 that you have noticed?

Mine is running fine with stock, so was just going to leave it as is for awhile. If there was a noticeable frame rate increase in Crysis or Metro 2033 I'd upgrade though.

 

The Main thing why I needed the new catalysts would be the DXVA Support for videos and for my Adobe Photoshop CS5 GPU Performance Enhancements. For games I'm not sure yet

 

well, as an added caveat, my VGA port fried on connecting an external LCD on the Asus 10.1s.

Although apart from that...no other issues so far on the 10.1s.
Video BIOS Version: 012.017.000.004.035992

 

Odd that there would be a 3 day difference. It's a significant amount that can't be explained away with time zones, day light saving time or the like.

 

I actually don't know if there is any improvement.
When I got the computer and checked WEI the graphics got 6.0 score. I had read that it should be 7,2 so I uninstalled the ASUS driver and installed 10.5 and the score went to 7,2.
Havent looked back since.

 

The WEI score of 6.0 has nothing at all to do with the ASUS stock drivers. WEI reports 6.0 because at the time the test was done with Microsoft's generic drivers. All anyone has to do is re-run the test with the stock ASUS drivers and the score goes up to 7.2.

 

I did that, but it was still 6.0
Hence the update to 10.5

 

Cheers for the info, re-ran the WEI test and went from 6.0 to 7.2, as you said (On stock drivers).

 

Then the only other thing I can think of is you didn't have the stock 9.12 ASUS drivers installed or properly installed. I know for certain that the stock ASUS 9.12 drivers give a 7.2 rating, because that's what I use and that's the value currently shown in the index. The only time I saw a 6.0 was when the generic Microsoft drivers were used after doing a clean install. Later after installing the stock 9.12 ASUS drivers and re-running the test, the index went from 6.0 to 7.2.

All I'm saying is the stock 9.12 ASUS drivers would have done the same thing.

In any case, I'm glad you got it sorted out.

 

Yeah, thanks, i was kinda nervous when i noticed, reading about all these problems people have been having with the 5870.
I thought i got a lemon.
As it turns out tho, i havent had a single gpu problem yet!

 

Has anyone made any progress on this or found any hints on the web?

 

In regards to what?

 

Hi all,

Long time lurker A1 owner. I also have the same bios as everyone else that does not cause any issues with 10.5...

However

Like all of the ATI catalyst drivers, when using HDMI to output picture to a secondary monitor - in my case a 60" Pioneer Kuro Elite - The catalyst driver would output a picture that would NOT fill the screen. 10.+ catalyst drivers down sized the picture on my monitor to approximately 50"

Stock drivers do not have this problem and fill my screen perfectly

For this reason I have stuck with the stock drivers and have gotten incredible, error free, performance either on the notebook's screen or running it to my Plasma.

I have to say, I'm a fairly serious desktop gamer, who never owned a notebook because of a bad price vs. performance ratio, until now. Needing a notebook for work while traveling, I took the plunge. I'm so happy with this machine. And I'm a pretty snobby (read: addicted) destktop gamer running an I7 920 OC'd to 4.0 and a Nvidia GTX 275x2 SLI with 6gb of 1333 and a Velociraptor. I'm still amazed how close the performance of this machine comes to my desktop, I'd say somewhere near 75%.

That being said, as a desktop gamer who owned an ATI card and system before my current desktop rig, I all too well know the pull of chasing driver updates in hopes of performance gains. And I did this as an avid OC'er. But in having the G73, I know I'm not going to be doing any serious OC'ing because of heat issues via form factor, so chasing drivers doesn't make sense when the stocks are working so well.

I'm over 30fps on even Metro 2033 at High settings with the TwinTurbo OC and 800/1100 clock. It dips a little but it's very playable.

Crysis Warhead and BFBC2 always stay in the 40fps, dipping into the 30's but never under 30. Crysis Warhead I was running at 1920x1080 with both the OC's everything set to "Enthusiast" on the Advanced Graphics settings with shaders set to "Mainstream" and got an average of 40fps when playing.

For a portable rig under $2K that is incredible.

And for once, instead of chasing frame rates, I'm playing games.

And I'm guilty of still playing the "game" of chasing frame rates. I just updated the drivers on my desktop rig to the beta's for NVidia's whole new driver version that includes ION support (driver version 275.. vs. the current 197. series) And you know what? My FPS in Crysis and BFBC2 dropped considerably And within minutes I was back to the previous drivers.

If the stock drivers are not giving you any GSOD's or other issues, I can't recommend enough to go back to them. If you're running your machine to a large format display, they work better than anything in the Catalyst 10 series (albeit the only real issue is the aforementioned screen size issue on a large format monitor)

Also, I am running the G73/5870m on the oft mentioned 800/1100 OC on the stock drivers, and my memIO temps never got above 94c and approx. 10-13 degrees less for the other temps when doing more than 2hrs of gaming. I didn't bother with any stress tests as it's clearly evident that no games will push the temps to a to a potentially damaging number the way these stress tests do. And why shorten the life of your card if those temps will never be reflected in real gaming use/performance? (My ambient temps while OC's are 75-78f in my apt. in Los Angeles)

The performance difference when OC'ing the ATI 5870m to the 800/1100 is pretty considerable, I have to say.

Go back to the stock drivers and play your games. When ATI releases a Catalyst driver version that specifically addresses the 5870m line of cards, then try experimenting. Otherwise, you're just continuing to risk system instability by chasing drivers for performance gains that almost always really only bring 1-3fps improvements (if that)

If you're playing the G73 with a large format monitor or projector over 50" then definitely stick with the stock drivers.

Cheers!

 

I can verify this to be true. I recently rolled back to the stocks, and after updating, I cleared all previous WEI data, and re-run all the tests, and both
aero and gaming graphics get you 7.2.

Also, the Core i7 is awesome!

P.S. the 10.1's found on Asus's site aren't for the G73. I actually experienced lower FPS in GTA IV with the 10.1s than with the 9.12s. Also for reasons, which are still up for contension, my VGA port fried while I was on the 10.1s from Asus.

 

As I just mentioned in a similar thread about the same issue, it sounds like your overscan settings are changing display size on the screen. In CCC set your overscan to 0% and this SHOULD fix the issue. You'll have to do some digging, but it's in scaling options.

I know this b/c I had the same issue at one point

 

That's good to know. I was playing with mine, and I know my plasma is set to no overscan (have tested it with calibration discs) but I had a little underscan when I output via HDMI to the set.

 

Unfortunately for me, I NEED to be on Cat 10.5 to get the load time fix for Battlefield Bad Company 2. What I want is a fixed vBios officially from Asus that does whatever the Clevo/MSI bios have done to give me stability. But right now I am suffering with an HDMI port that doesn't work.

FIX IT ASUS!

 

Look at the link below for the v2 vBIOS. It's a modified Asus stock vBIOS with some better settings, and oddly, somehow the VGA port got disabled, but the HDMI works. If you still have stability issues using it, use Overdrive to set the RAM to 1100. (I find 705/1100 and 800/1100 work very well)