BIOS modding for GPU OC fun and profit!!

seeker_moc, just don't know what to do with score

 

seeker_moc What do you think on post#345 questions

 

3) If you look in the last 10 pages or so, you'll find a bunch of A12 BIOSes. I plan on significantly updating the first page sometime soon, but it won't be today. Thanks to Kizwan over in the Acer board, new modded BIOSes will also contain a bunch more control options, like the ability to enable VT-d, change the trip point temps that control fan speed, change the temp where the CPU throttles, and many others.

4) That's the whole reason that overclocking is possible, every chip is minutely different. If every 5730 could hit 800/1000 speeds, then AMD would sell them as 800/1000. AMD only guarantees that yours will hit 650/800, anything above that (overclocking) is based solely on luck, and your ability to test it out. You might not be able to overclock at all.

5) Use the drivers from the AMD homepage. They're much more recent than the Dell ones (AMD releases once a month), and there have been many performance improvements and features added since the last Dell release.

 

Me neither, you have me stumped. Where did you buy the Dell from? You said that you don't have Dell service in your country, but is there another country that you visit, or a country where you have friends/relatives where you could send it in?

 

seeker_moc Gotcha! Thanks

 

No...

I thing this in not hardware problem...
it's somethink with app ...

 

may be there is something like ATI bios ..,
and there is power limit to ATI card
or in BIOS power limit

 

If that was the case, then it would affect everybody, and it doesn't seem to.

 

seeker_moc, i don't know what date this ATI chip were made...
Becouse new dell notebooks go with new bios.
when i bought this dell there already was A10

And I saw in the google than not only i have this problem ...
Need to see what other says with RGB screen

 

When exactly should errors start appearing?
I just ran OCCT with 800/975 clocks for a while and it said errors: 0
Is it temp related? Should I run it for an hour?

 

Mine doesn't appear to be temp related, it just can't cope with it. When I use Furmark (all on) at 800/960 I can start seeing artifacts in few mins, while the temps are still in the 70s (mever used OCCT so not sure if it's more punishing or not).

I reckon, if your temps are fine and you're not seeing issues/artifacts then maybe try the magical 800/1000 and see how you go.

 

seeker_moc, i done diagnostic test on F12 in bios
On the end it wrote
2000-0123
memory error code
but i don't think that 30% GPU goes down because of one small block error in memory

When i do diagnostic not full or other progams it says it ok..

But i will try to go to the warrenty and change ram

 

Wel, I'm currently running 800/1000mhz in OCCT and it's still not showing artifacts and error = 0..!!
Btw 75fps on default clocks, 95fps on 800/1000

 

Lower your Core clocks and see how high you can get the Memory clocks.

I just ran OCCT for the first time and it destroyed my illusion that 800/900 was just fine for me, thousands of errors with FPS at 84.5-85. Funnily enough Furmark and various games such as Mass Effect2, Assassins Creed2 and Just Cause2 showed no issues.

So I rolled back to plain old A09 and just used Rivatuner, set it to 700/950 and I had no errors and FPS were at 89. If I lower that to 675/950 then FPS were 88.5, so at the moment I can't really see any reason to raise it?

If you can do 800/1000 with no issues then lowering Core clocks may allow you to raise it much higher...

add: it's not that simple. Running 3DMark06 shows worse results (basically 1 FPS less per GPU test) after dropping the Core clocks even though OCCT showed higher.

 

Interesting
when i on battery or 90w or 130w always the same score
may be in bios need somethink to enable to eat more power
i tried all settings in bios enable and disable

Limitation of the motherboard to accept more than 90 watts

 

Make sure you are on the latest BIOS.
Also check you are on either balanced or high performance power plan ie (not power saver)
And make sure powerplay is enabled in catalyst control centre.

 

A12
enabled
Perfomance


Motherboard does not use more than 90w
or may be even 90w not use because on the battery the same score

 

Well, the 4670 (having only 128bit interface) is very Dependant on memory clocks. The OCCT test probably overloads the bus

 

But that's what I mean. For OCCT raising Memory clocks is much more important to get a good results, while 3DMark06 shows worse results.

I used 3 different methods to check it and all showed different results. I tend to believe 3DMark06 (lower) overall more than OCCT (higher). For reference, Furmark showed the same FPS and temps.

I think I just need to suck it up and put it down to having a very poor GPU compared to some here. I might just grab the Clevo 150HM with 485M and forget gaming on this lol.

 

3DMark06 is getting really old. Try Vantage for something more appropriate to our hardware. Vantage does a much better job of simulating modern games than 06 does. You could also try 11, but the results will make you want to cry.

 

I've significantly updated the first post. For anybody who's interested in this thread, or are using one of my modded BIOSes, please take a look, there is lots of new information.

 

holy crap that's a big find: the new BIOS options.

how safe is it to change the thermal control options though?

as well, does the "unlocked" term in the file "1645_A12_unlocked_5730_725_900-4670_750_900_A09.zip" also denote the unlocked BIOS? seems that way since you specify it in the prior file. i'm tempted to go for it even though i don't have any problems with throttling, but it would be nice to push the fan "kick-in" temperature a bit higher so it's not going off every 5 minutes (i have air conditioning at work and a cooling pad at home for that).

 

Yes, that BIOS, and all upcoming 1645 mods, will have the unlocked menus. I haven't changed my thermal options yet, as I don't have an issue with how they're set, but it should be safe to do. The BIOS even gives you a warning that it will kick on the fan at dangerous temps regardless of what you set it as. Give it a try and let me know what you think. If that OC is too mild for you, just let me know what clocks you want, and I'll remake it.

 

you're a god among smiley faces

i'll give it a go tonight with the new BIOS

as well, you may want to include a link to the thread that teaches you how to re-flash your BIOS, if you are already on A12/A09 (i think it used to be i nthe first post, but now it's gone).

 

Shouldn't need it anymore. Instead of downloading the .exe file that won't allow you to overwrite the same version BIOS, you now download the BIOS flasher (WinPhlash) and the BIOS itself (*.wph file) seperately, and you can adjust WinPhlash to ignore BIOS versions while flashing (set that way to default in the WinPhlash64 I linked to), so you don't have to 'downgrade' first anymore.

 

Oh, i see - that makes it a helluva lot easier for everybody now.

Is it obvious I didn't fully read your revised first-post? I'm building a large project in VS 2008 right now, so I'm doing my standard ADHD news updates

 

I think I'll have to try this out later- I always wanted to mess around with the fan speed / temperature triggers. Maybe if I bump all the triggers by 5-6C the fan won't come on at all when the laptop is idle, and maybe the fan won't kick into max when playing a game. Or maybe not.

 

Have to say.. wow! Haven't tried anything yet and need to learn what some of those things actually do, but that's awesome work.

It's not only for the GPU or CPU anymore, some of the SSD owners may know about the PM55 chipset and it slowing down the 4k writes/reads and access time, so I'm interested to see if I can use this method to fix that AND keep Turbo (disabling CPU idle fix puts Multi to 13 permanently for me).

BTW: 1645_A12_unlocked_5730_725_900-4670_750_900_A09.WPH. Is this for 1645 4670 systems with all the options open in BIOS (clocks 750/900).. .only cause I can see 5000 series card there also?

 

All 1645 BIOSes include both the 4670 and 5730 vBIOS, and uses which ever one is applicable. Before, I was creating only custom ones, so I'd only change one or the other depending on what was requested. For these 'standard' ones, I overclocked them both, so more people could use them.

I don't know what half of the options do either, and internet searching has yielded little results, though the temp controls are pretty straight forward.

This mod allows you to disable each C-state individually, so it might fix your idle problem. Though I have an SSD, and have no problems with my 4k speeds (4k 20MB/s read, 28MB/s write, 4k QD32 175MB/s read, 205MB/s write, measured with CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1).

 

Nevermind, the error didn't mean a thing. I was able to reboot and enter my BIOS, only to be warmly greeted by the new settings within the BIOS. I was able to change my thermal settings, bumping the low end of 55C to 61C. That should reduce the fan noise a bit. I'm also testing to see if reducing my memory speeds from 1333 to 800 will improve my battery life a bit. sometimes in meetings, every little bit helps.

OLDER POST:
strange, i tried flashing my BIOS, and it ran through the process fine until the very end where it gave me an error saying the BIOS could not be flashed, error code 200. i've attached the screenshot of the error window, and the progress window showing what looked like a successful BIOS flash.

i'll reboot and see if it's working and post back. hopefully it's just one of those strange BIOS flash glitches that doesn't affect anything.

 

Strange... I just re-flashed mine with the ones I uploaded to double check, and no issues.

 

Strange is right. I rebooted and found that the BIOS successfully flashed, as I was able to enter the new BIOS settings and change a few minor options. Primarily I bumped the thermal limit from 55C to 61C, and downclocked my RAM speed to 800MHz (I can already hear the people screaming "why would you do that?!").

Thanks again!

 

Glad to hear it worked. For the sake of curiosity, why did you downclock your RAM speed?? Though I noticed you can overclock it to 1600, but I haven't tried it to see what happens. Since you can't overvolt, I'd imagine it'd be unstable unless you had actual 1600 rated RAM.

 

I should be shot for saying this, but my primary reason behind buying this model of computer is for acting as a lightweight desktop replacement, not for games and multimedia. Speed is not a factor for me, and the above average GPU is a plus. I figure that I can downclock my RAM to almost half speed, I am being stupidly curious about if it will improve my battery life. The 3 hours I get is astonishing considering that this thing is pretty close to a desktop replacement, so if I can get 4 hours I'll be happy and amazed

 

Let me know if you get better battery life, if you do I'll put it in the first post. I just tried it out, and changing RAM speed in the BIOS to 1600 does nothing. CPU-Z still reports speed as 1333, and the WEI stayed the same (at 7.4). Though underclocking does, in fact, drop the speed to 800.

Edit: though this was with SPD 1333 RAM. I wonder if it would work with real 1600 RAM...??

 

Yeap that's what I'm hoping. Just on your numbers and bare in mind, I don't know what the 'standard' for your drive is, but as an example my Vertex2 without the fix:

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 21.512 MB/s [ 5252.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 38.012 MB/s [ 9280.4 IOPS]

With fix:
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 33.597 MB/s [ 8202.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 62.617 MB/s [ 15287.5 IOPS]

Sequential and 4k QD=32 writes/reads are ok either way, it's only access time and as you can see, 4k (QD=1) writes especially.

 

As an update, the BIOS allows you to disable all Cx states as a group, just C1E, C6, and/or C7 individually (C7 is disabled by default), but it not C3 individually as I thought. Still, play around with it and see what happens.

Also, what program did you use to measure your speed? I though my speeds were good, but maybe I'm not as fast as I thought (though my Hard Drive WEI is 7.7, lol). The Phoenix Pro is the same controller/ high-iops firmware as the Vertex 2. Still, I'm fast enough that I don't think it's worth disabling sleep to increase it.

 

That was with CDM 3.0 (x64).

I've been playing with the C states and I've settled on disabling both C6 and C7 (leaving rest as-is) for now. I took a quick look at the Intel paper and it says those 2 states stop the caches, so I'm trying to stop that but give it an option to use power-saving features.

Now using CDM 3.01. This is what it gave after disabling C6/C7 (Random test data):
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 29.120 MB/s [ 7109.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 68.624 MB/s [ 16753.8 IOPS]

This is with 0-fill test data:
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 36.057 MB/s [ 8802.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 69.691 MB/s [ 17014.5 IOPS]

It still does raise idle temps slightly (right now it's been idling and when I started writing this it's now showing 49-50 degrees while ambient is 28) and Multi is locked to 13 (720QM). I don't mind those idle temps (dropped to 46-47 now that it's only 24 ambient).

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/324692.pdf

Anyway, I don't have issues with temps and still playing around to find the best for myself. Let us know if you find something to try.

 

C3 stops the L1 and L2 caches for unused cores. Then C6 stops power completely to the unused cores. I was just reading that in order for turbo boost to function at the higher multipliers (more than 13x for the 720m), the unused cores must be shut down completely to lower overall TDP, which is why it doesn't function when C6 is disabled.

 

I flashed the unlocked BIOS (stock clocks) with no problems.

I bumped up the active trip point and high fan trip point, but seemingly neither has any effect whatsoever on the fan. It may be because my GPU/VBIOS is taking control of the fan since it is usually hotter than the CPU. Or maybe there are other options that must be configured.

 

It's possible that the BIOS will use the higher temperature of either the CPU or the GPU when tripping the fan to active. I will tell you that it is not the VBIOS, as there is no fan control data in there at all.

 

I think it's going to take some figuring out. I set the trip point to 71C just to see how it works, but the fan is still kicking in at 55C for the CPU (GPU was at 56), and cooling down to the usual 44C for the CPU (GPU at 48).

 

Hello,

I've try the 1640 (4670) mod Bios and i was frightened for a while, Flash is Ok : no errors, but after reboot black screen on the LCD panel but the HardDisk led indicate that windows is charging normaly.
Solve this by connect a screen to the vga output, use the key to switch on, and after flash with the Dell bios utility, reboot and everything is ok.

 

So it did work for you? If you open GPU-Z, does it show the new higher clocks? If so, that's great news, as we now know it works, even if there were some complications. Thanks.

 

No it did not work, i need to reflash with original A14. I think there is a problem with the Gpu bios, because thr laptop boot but there no screen on the lcd panel with the mod bios ...

 

Oh ok, I misunderstood you. Sorry it didn't work out. That makes it 0 for 2 on the 1640 BIOS mod, so I'm going to remove it from the first post. Thanks for trying it out though.

 

Has anyone else played around with the thermal settings yet? If so, how did it go?

 

Yeah.. I've tried and got the same result as you, no changes with when the fan turns itself on. I've tried disabling everything to see if I can make it go away and turned it up to 95 degrees (or something like that), no luck.

I guess if someone is experiencing thermal throttling, this might help but I can't see any changes with how the fan works.

 

to be honest, i can't tell. my fan doesn't kick in often as it is (i keep a very cool room), but when it does it's because i'm going over the 60+ threshold anyways. i set my thermal limits to 63C and 79C; i almost never reach 80+, only when if i'm working in someone's office with the thermostat set to "Hellfire" levels (like 25C). i have hit 82C once and my fan went into afterburner mode for a good 5 minutes.

i will try setting my "normal" thermal limit to 71C and report back when i can. i wonder if these thermal options are "available" like the Close Door buttons in most elevators.

 

One thing that seems odd is that there are only 2 values to access in the BIOS (that I saw)- active trip point, and high fan trip point, when in reality I believe there are 4 active fan levels (low, medium, high, very high).

The active trip point seems to have the correct default temperature value for the fan's low setting, and the high fan trip point seems to have the correct default value for the fan's 2nd highest setting. This seems somewhat promising, but it just doesn't work.