W90 Limit Breaker Guide .V2

***Update Version 3.3 of this guide is now out to enable Windows 7 support and add support for newer drivers 9.11+ Go HERE***

Here is the new limit breaker guide for the Asus W90,
included is flashing & driver update guide and new tools for overclocking your system.

Purpose: To give you the tools and knowledge to easily update your stock old age video card drivers to a much newer release (9.4 currently), also includes the tools needed to break the overclock limits of the video cards and break the limits of overclocking the cpu via turbo gear. Thus the name Limit Breaker!

How: By changing the bios on the video cards to allow a standard modified driver to install and then manually installing the modified 9.4 drivers, also includes the programs/tools need for overclocking the CPU/GPU in Windows for more performance.

-Updated from the last version is the flashing procedure, now the use of ATIFlash has begun, it has shown much safer and compatible with the new card types the W90 has started to ship with. The older guide with Winflash could not properly flash the new card type. Also new is the GpuTool that properly overclocks the video cards for nice gains in video card performance.

-Standard Warning-

While I feel this guide is very easy to follow and safe, you are playing with fire here, so if not properly handled you may end up burned. In theory modifying the gpu bios would void your warranty most likely and if you fail to follow the steps or have some unforeseen bad luck you may "brick" your computer.

----> Download Asus W90 Limit Breaker Package V2.1 <----

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guide Start

Part 1 - Preparing your bootable media

The W90 comes stock with a master/slave bios setup, your second card having a slave bios means that it depends on the master card to run, it also seems to make it incompatible with any driver except the included Asus one.

Flashing to master/master has proven to have absolutely no ill effects on the system and performance remains the same, infact a benefit is that if you ever had your original master card die, you can use the second card to run the system still.

To do this we need to use a program called AtiFlash, its a DOS based program so we need to get into DOS to use it. DOS based flashing over the years has proven safer and faster than Windows based flashing.

Everything you need is already compiled into a burnable CD .iso image. Just download this .iso and burn it to a disk and boot from the disk and this step is done.


Download Links
Kens Super Ultra Cool Bootable CD .iso HERE (You can use the CD exactly the same as the Flash Drive with the commands below in the guide, but Ken also put some extra commands into his disk to automate the command process. Details can be found HERE)

If you do not have a spare disk at hand or choose not to use one, but have a usb flash drive that you would like to use, you can instead boot from a usb flash drive.

This method takes a bit more work but all the files needed to do it are included in the limit breaker package.

1.) Open the folder called USB Flash Drive Boot

2.) Open the hpflash1 folder and install the HP USB Storage Tool

3.) Run the tool after its installed you will see a window like this, follow the instructions from top to bottom in the picture:

From W90 Limit Breaker

4.) After following the picture click the Start button, when this is done you should have a fresh formatted USB drive with 3 files in it.

5.) Now Open the atiflash360 folder and drag all the files inside onto your flash drive.

6.) Now open the W90 GPU Bios folder and drag all the files inside onto your flash drive.

7.) Everything is ready to go, should look like this:

From W90 Limit Breaker

(dont panic if you noticed the bios files are not the same name, I have changed them since the original release of this guide)

Bootable Media is Done! you should now have a USB drive or a CD ready to boot with containing all the files needed for the flash.

Note - Thank you Ken @ GentechPC for making the bootable .iso image


Part 2 - Booting into our media to use Ati Flash

No pictures here for this part (yet) as I cant take screen shots in DOS and I dont have my camera with me tonight so read along carefully.

First of all we need to boot our media, this is not as easy as it sounds or should be.

My W90 came configured so that it would not book from a USB Flash Drive, but it should boot from CD with no configuration just look for the "Boot from disk hit any key now" message and hit a key in time (if not follow the steps below but just set your cd-rom to boot instead of the usb flash drive)

For those of you using the flash drive we need to go into the W90 system bios and set it up so that it boots from the usb instead of the internal hard drive.

Booting From the USB Flash Drive

1.) When you turn on your W90 and the Asus splash screen comes up press the F2 key.

2.) Your system bios will open in a moment and you need to arrow key over to the BOOT section.

3.) Inside somewhere you will see a section called hard disks or hard drives. Arrow down to it and hit Enter

4.) The first HDD should be highlighted hit Enter again and a selection menu will open allowing you to change this. In my case I pick the one called Sandisk, you will choose what ever your flash drive is called, then hit enter to change it.

5.) After you have your Flash Drive set as the first device press the Esc key to exit this menu and go back one section in the BIOS.

6.) Just above the hard drive menu should be one called boot device order or priority, arrow to that menu and press the Enter key to open it.

7.) Now again just go to the first choice and hit the Enter key and arrow down till you see your USB Flash Drive, hit Enter again to save the changes.

8.) All done setting up the boot device just press the F10 key to exit and save the bios.

9.) The computer will restart and we should all be ready for the next steps.


Part 3 - Flashing the GPU Bios with ATI Flash

At this point we have just booted into our media and are in DOS looking at the command prompt.

Welcome to DOS! hopefully you have seen it before but if not its easy to use and we dont have much to do here.

Ati Flash can do many things, if you just simply type "atiflash" (without the quotes) and hit enter it will list for you all of the commands you can use, press any key to scroll down through them as its like 3 pages long.

When your back to the prompt again ready to type a new command this is all you have to do to flash your second card to a master and be able to install new drivers.

1.) Type (without the quotes) "atiflash -p 1 MSTR-OR.bin" then press the Enter key. Thats it, it will tell you its flashing, and some other info and should be done in about 5 seconds. let me explain what we just did.

atiflash - the program needed for the command
-p is program (aka flash)
-1 is the adapter (0 is your master card or primary adapter, 1 is the slave or secondary adapter)
-MSTR-OR.bin is the Bios file we want to program to the adapter

About the BIOS files: I used the same name theme on my files in the USB guide as Ken used in his .iso so that the steps are the same for everybody. Here is how we named the files.

MSTR- OR.bin = MSTR - Master as in master bios, OR - Original as in the original unmodified bios right off the factory card.


So we have 4 BIOS Files Total

MSTR-OR - Original master card bios
MSTR-OC - Master card bios that I modified to allow a higher overclock in overdrive
SLAV-OR - Original slave card bios
SLAV-OC - Slave card bios that I modified to allow a higher overclock in overdrive

Important - Dont get Master and Slave mixed up! MSTR = master SLAV = Slave

The reason we have the slave bios there is so that if you ever wanted to you can flash back to the original state of the machine. If you had to do something like RMA, I would do this.

The OC bios I have modified to allow a much higher overclock than normal in overdrive in the ATI CCC, but we have discovered that the overdrive function isnt actually boosting card performance! So we found a AMD overclock tool that works instead and that is included in the package called AMD GPU Tool.exe I have not tested if my overdrive bios increases the clock range on that tool yet.

Important!! - While this step above is simple and straightforward this is the only part of the whole guide that you can really actually break something if you did it wrong. Take it slow and pay attention. If you did something not so smart like flash a Slave Bios to both of your cards guess what? Your not going to have a working video card anymore as a slave card cant boot the system. Also make sure your on mains power with a charged battery so you know the computer wont shut off while flashing

If you want to flash my modified OC bios on both cards its a simple task booted into your media just type the following:

> atiflash -p 0 MSTR-OC.bin
> atiflash -p 1 MSTR-OC.bin

The first is going to flash the master card with the modified bios, the second will flash the second adapter with the modified master bios and your good to go.


After Flashing

1.) After finishing the flash procedure it will tell you to restart the computer just press Control + Alt + Delete to restart.

2.) Press F2 at startup to go back into the system bios and restore your hard drive and boot device settings to how they need to be if you need too.



Part 4 - Installing the new drivers!

Ok now we are all done and back in Windows, its time to install the new modified 9.4 drivers onto the video cards.

Prerequisite: Have the stock Asus drivers already installed on the system, we are only updating the video card drivers, but will keep the old ATI control panel so it needs to be installed.

1.) Install the Included 9-4_vista64_win7_64_dd.exe to the default directory and exit out of the installer when it comes up, you will not install anything via the regular installer.

2.) Copy the ATI Folder located in the Modified .INF folder over the top of your ATI folder located on the C: to replace the original .inf files with the new ones.

3.) Get into your Device Manager (I usually click the windows start button, right click on "Computer" go to properties,and then click on "Device Manager")

4.) Right click your 4870X2 display adapter (the first one is the one I use) located under the tab "Display Adapters" Choose "Update Drivers"

5.) Choose "Browse my computer for driver software"

6.) Choose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

7.) Choose "Have Disk"

7.) Navigate to the directory where the modified .INF files are located for your driver (C:/ATI/Support/9-4_vista64_win7_64_dd/Packages/Drivers/Display/LH6A_INF/) is the default for the included drivers.

8.) Choose the 2nd card name/option and the drivers should install.

That is it, if the card name changes for both cards (it should) your all done! If the 2nd card name did not change follow the steps above again for the 2nd card also.


CPU Overclocking

This is so easy compared to the above, but somebody may still need a little help if they never used SetFSB before.

You need the "beta" version of SetFSB included in this package in the programs folder to work with the W90

> Open SetFSB
> Select the PLL Code ICS9LPRS929AKLF
> Click the "Get FSB" button
> Scroll the big bar to the new desired FSB
> Click "Set FSB"

From W90 Limit Breaker

You should take this in small steps and test for stability with a tool like WPrime (run the big test and let it finish, if temps stay cool and no errors its considered atleast semi stable.


GPU Overclocking

Use the included AMD GPU Tool.exe and just increase the sliders to the desired value and hit apply! I would test for stability with the built in FurMark program or with 3dmark Vantage and take it in slow steps (I found my max to be 620/960 ish for stable overclock but others have seen much lower values so test your own system for max values)

 

You rock Vic, thanks for the dedication. Now lets break out those 9.6

 

I gave my whole night of free time + some to get a guide up tonight, maybe tomorrow night I can look into the 9.6 drivers more.

 

Hi there,
great job vic as usual....However, i did use the bootable cd i made from Ken, and it is impossible to flash the slave card with the master bios, because when you type M98MOC or M98MOR it doesnot give you the choice to select the two cards, it only flashes the master card... and so on for the slave one...So can we type "atiflash -p 1 M98MOC.bin" using the bootable only without doing it with a usb stick? I think it would be helpful for everyone to use...
Good luck, Doope.

 

Oh kens is setup differently?

I have not used it but dont know what your saying exactly.

As long as you type the command it should work. Adapter 0 is the original master and adapter 1 is the slave.

So if your at a dos prompt type atiflash -p 1 M98MOC.bin to flash the overclock modified master bios to the slave card.

 

LOL sorry if my english is not proper!!
What i tried to say, is that in the Ken's guide he doesnot say "atiflash -p 1 M98MOC.bin" , nor "atiflash -p 0 M98MOC.bin" nor anything.. the only command we can use in the guide were:
-M98MOC
-M98MOR
-M98SOC
-M98SOR
Though the purpose of my question if we could use your command in ken's bootable cd....
Doope.

 

yes it should be exactly the same, just he put the files on a CD instead of a USB Drive, the program will work the same still.

Try it and let us know.

I dont have a disk on hand to burn.

 

Vic, you put 520 core instead of 620 core. I just didnt want anyone to get confused about it.

 

Fixed, good catch.

 

Terrific visious, but seriously the risk is just too much !!! *cry* I wanted to overclock it !!!

 

I think the risk is so little now with this new guide that its virtually non exsistant, the only reason I wont say there is no risk is just for liability reasons.

 

Yeah I just noticed that, I've made another ISO and added new command:

-type M98SMOR and press enter: SLAVE with Master BIOS

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/W90VP/W90Vp-V2.zip

 

Ken I dont know how you made the disk and how it has its own uniqe commands but what I really need is one that just has the 4 bios files and ATI Flash on it so it boots into dos and all the normal ATI Flash commands are used. This way the guide works for both with no additional steps or confusion.

 

Type Dir and press enter and you'll see all files is there includes ATIFlash.exe.

I made my own command and I had to rename the BIOS file since DOS doesn't support long file name:

M98-1 (Master Original Bios).bin > M98-1MOR.bin

M98-1 Overdrive (Master Increased Overclock Limit).bin > M98-1OCV.bin

M98-2 (Slave Original Bios) .bin > M98-2SOR.bin

M98-2 Overdrive (Slave Increased Overclock Limit).bin > M98-2SOC.bin


So with the boot disk you can still use ATIFlash.exe with it's own commands.

 

Hmm file name thing sounds strange.

My goal was simply to have the same instructions for the usb flash drive and cd.

I may have to spend time redoing the package now and the guide if I cant find a way to do that.

So this is what we will do, Both of us can remake with the same short names and I will update the package and guide tonight.

MSTR-OR.bin - Master Bios Original
MSTR-OC.bin - Master Bios Overdrive Limit Modified
SLAV-OR.bin - Slave Bios Original
SLAV-OC.bin - Slave Bios Overdrive Limit Modified.

Sound good Ken?

Those are sort of self explanatory so easy to understand.

 

Will do, I'll make another disk.

 

Great! Im downloading my own package now to fix it up lol, I cant sleep anyways for some reason.

Edit: all my edits to the guide & package are done, just have to wait for it to upload to post the new url, and once I get your new CD URL we should be good to go.

 

VBIOS boot disk V3:

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/W90VP/W90Vp-V3.zip


-type INFO and press enter for adapter info

Master:
-type MSTR-OR and press enter : MASTER with Original BIOS
-type MSTR-OC and press enter : MASTER with Overclocked BIOS

Slave:
-type SLAV-OR and press enter : SLAVE with Original BIOS
-type SLAV-OC and press enter : SLAVE with Overclocked BIOS
-type SLAVMSTR and press enter: SLAVE with Master Original BIOS

For RMA:
-type RMA and press enter: Flash both Master and Slave to original BIOS


File name:
MSTR-OR.bin - Master Bios Original
MSTR-OC.bin - Master Bios Overdrive Limit Modified
SLAV-OR.bin - Slave Bios Original
SLAV-OC.bin - Slave Bios Overdrive Limit Modified.

 

Awesome, so now they can use the same commands for the disk as well as your special commands. LMAO @ RMA as a command

You have to teach me how you made your own commands, I guess you type one thing and it translates it into the actual atiflash commands sort of like a macro correct?

Guide is up and functional again, has your new cd link, and the package download link is back with the updated guide/files.

 

RMA command will make easy for people.


The commands is actually just a batch program, you can use notepad to program it and name the extension to .bat, for example, MSTR-OR is MSTR-OR.bat and inside the bat file it has this command and switch :

atiflash.exe -p 0 MSTR-OR.bin

 

Ahh makes sense, I use bat files at work to make some command line stuff easy, I also use .bat files to do my manual video encoding.

I just didnt relize you can use it in dos like that without the extension. That means probably do not need to type .bin at the end of the bios files also.

Makes me want to put some in my package now.

Like type "New Drivers" and it will flash the slave to master and put "Break my Computer" and it will flash slave to both cards (just kidding lol)

If you have nothing better to do can you zip/rar your .bat files for me and send it to my email?

Edit - MS DOS 8.3 Naming Convention. 8 characters with a 3 digit extension. I guess that what we are bound by. Though I thought that was old dos like Win 95. I used Win 98 DOS.

 

Hey guys a little help here . Does anyone have a list of the must have software for a gaming laptop ( obviously w90 ) ?

 

This package is the only must have

But I like to use Winamp for music, CCCP (cobined community codec package) for my codecs and movie player. I use a quad core cpu monitor for a vista sidebar gadget, cpu-z to monitor cpu stuff, gpu-z to monitor gpu stuff.

Thats all that comes to mind right now.

 

Hello vic,I still need more detailed guides in some procedures.

1.which card should I pick?


2.after navigating the the folder, I see two different .inf files. Which one did you use?


3.there are still two card names. Does "Choose the 2nd card name/option and the drivers should install." mean to choose the downer lower one ?


I have tried many times, almost all attempts failed. Either the second cards didnt work or texture/shadeing errors in games.

One attempt in which I didnt encounter fatal texture/shading errors is that I selected 303.inf for the upper card, then uninstall the driver of the second card, reboot,select 238.inf for the lower card(whose name after rebooting became "standard VGA" bra bra ),and then choose upper "4870x2M" for both cards. But in this case the second card always works at 550/800(not decrease to 350/200 automatically when not running games).

I am exhausted now. Please help me!

 

magnificent job, vic

 

I've updated the Info Booth link to point to this version 2 (it originally pointed to the v1 guide).

 

Hey, is there any difference in the drivers/bios since the last guide? I still have those installed and am not sure if this includes new stuff or not.

Thanks.

 

Drivers/Bios are the same, new flashing method that is safer than the last and tried to give directions that are easy to follow.

Added the GPU overclocking tool.

 

Any one have any luck win Windows 7 or Vista with 9.6 drivers and the Master/Master config?

 

Hey viscious, can i get some information about your ASUS W90 when overclocked (both GPU and CPU OC'd).

What im really after is your memory timings for ram when your at 2.7-2.8ghz with q9000.

And what is the memory clock you run on your 4870.
Hope you have some free time on your hands hehe.

Cheers
Cata

 

Memory timings are the stock boot ones, dont know them off the top of my head but can get it later for you.

My highest stable OC for GPU is 620core and 960memory

but I tend to run 615/950 just to be extra safe, but I only overclock for benching with the gpu's there stock speed is more than enough for any game right now (well maybe crysis could use a boost, I have not actually tested with OC on that game yet and it was below 60fps)

Really could use that 11% boost with the 9.6 drivers...

 

Awesome, that would be great

The oc is pretty good too, have you ever thought about crossing the 1000 barrier on memory? Since its based on an m98 core (like the 4850) a GPU bios flash should allow it to effectively hit around 1000-1100 i think? I know that the 4850 can be flashed safely to these.

The 9.6 drivers promise alot, just the crossfire that you guys have issues with i think, and the fact that WERE STILL MODDING inf files...louzy ATI team.

I think your tech database site is malfunctioning for the comment system hehe.

 

The memory timmings for the stock ram in the W90 are...
5-5-5-15 @2T

No I cant go past 1000 on memory I got errors in furmark @970, though furmark is like a 100% max load I could maybe pass 3dmark or something with higher clocks.

 

The 5-5-5-15 timings are only with some processors.. Others give 6-6-6-18. I suspect the bios does not fully know what chip your using and loosens up the timings. The X9000 has loose imings and the E8435 I'm using does this. You can also use that memset utility from Xtremesystems.com to manually set timings on all the mem settings except the Cas setting. I did this with the X9100 and achieved a much higher fsb. It will even set it as you start up if you chose too.. very handy utility for processors like the Q9000 and it's low multi.

 

the 5-55-15 timings are the DDR2 667 SPD settings, thats the speed the ram boots in.

the 6-6-6-18 are the DDR2 800mhz timings but since the ram divider is not set to run the ram at that speed those timings are not used.

maybe a different cpu (like the QX9300) boots @ ddr2 800mhz since it does not have the full 15% OC in turbogear they didnt need to leave the ram as much room for OC.

I tried the memory tool in question but the CAS is the only one I really need to change, the tool did not allow me a higher fsb really.

 

Hey vicious, I got to go to school now, but see if you can help me . Every time I start the usb format it says " bad volume label " how can i fix this ?

 

Use a shorter or more simple name for the disk.

I used "breaker" without the quotes for me, as limit breaker did not work.

 

Viscous, have a look at that tool prehaps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/spdtool/

I think it may be able to help you there but im not sure, it probably could pass in 3dmark, as you say furmark is very hungry

I strangely enough have mixed ram timings on my machine, the sticks do not match hehe, some are 5 some are 6 at ddr2 800, dont want to OC until i can a set of ram sticks with some better timings and are twins.

Corsair appears to have timings like your ram, i shall look into them

But yeah, prehaps SPD tool can help you, i also know of another and will fetch the link.

 

Whoa that spd tool is hardcore.

If it works I will be able to verify easily if it is the ram or the cpu that is at its limit @ 2.7-2.8ghz.

I'll take a look at that one tonight and hope it works and that I dont break anything.

 

Hehe, im praying you dont break anything, besides the 2.8ghz limit Ill be happy if you break that limit

 

Can i use the same .inf for 9.4 vista32?

 

lol vicious thanks very much, it worked . Now unto the next steps ...

 

I do not believe so, but you can try, at worst it just wont work.

 

Well I do have a 2.85ghz Wprime run lol

 

file names are a wee bit different. Did anyone mod the 9.4's for vista32? I'm stuck with vista32 because of some manufacturing software I use for work!

I haven't had much luck seraching the owners thread for the mod'd 32's if they exist.

 

Your never stuck as the .inf files do not work you should setup dual boot.

Keep your 32bit install nice and clean and professional, then have your 64bit install totally all you with your games and stuff.

I have been one to have dual boot of the same OS just so I can have my professional look when I use my laptop at work.

See how handy dual hdd's is?

 

I have an OCZ vertex and an OCZ core running on my Asus. The Core stinks compared to the Vertex.. i'd have to get creative with partioning to make a nice dual boot off of the Vertex.

Somebody has to have mod'd the 32's.. i'll figure it out

 

Ahh see there is one of the reasons I am not willing to move onto a SSD yet, mostly its the cost though.

It take out that core and toss a 320gb or 500gb drive in there that will be more than enough for both OS's and a Win 7 in there too so you can be be tri boot like me

 

Haha fine, you can get the 2.9ghz prime run next

Baby steps

 

Well I got good news, it worked ! And it was so simple, thanks to everyone who helped make this possible, however now, I need help .

I hit max on the amd gpu and laptop got the blue screen, lol I dunno !
Can anyone tell me what settings should I put it on ?

Also the blue screen of death happened when I maxed out as well fsb, lol . I din't know !!!


What settings should I put both ? I am trying to play far cry 2 for about an hour overclocked .

Also what settings should I put the game on ? You know like the res. and the textures and stuff . Thanks .