L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

hi guys just letting yous know that there was a new nvidia beta driver released today version number 304.79 it isnt showing up on there main page yet but it is there when you do the driver search

 

Wonder what, if any performance differences there are in this driver?

 

just installed it right now

aparently there are no major changes

here is the info avalible at the nvidia site

if you wanna read the whole changelog, here you have the PDF ^_^

304.79 Changelog

 

A11 0.83V/0.83V mod for the GT540m tested, like the A10 version for the past few months, seems to run perfectly fine. Thank you.

 

@cookiebrandt

thanks for the feedback

added to the first post.

0.83v running stable on a 540m is really nice

 

is There a way to unlock the voltage so that everyone can use it? I have a samsung RC730 SO4 with 540m, running at 90-92C with 690/1380/900 stable at 0,850V and turning it to 0,8300V would be helpful even if it's 2-5C difference. the frequency make no difference. The laptop has shutdown due to overheated 540

 

@Valentin N

as far I know, the only way to change the 540m voltages is flashing a modded bios, like we are doing here.

since you have a different laptop, you can try ask someone to mod the bios, or you also can try doing it by yourself with phoenixtool v1.93 and nbitor 6.03

 

Is there any way I can use my GT525M for nvidia stereoscopic 3d? maybe a possible bios mod converting GT525M to GT540M?

 

@hsihsaved

I also have a gt525m and I think I played games on 3d stereoscopic once.

however I needed to hook the laptop to a external 100 hz screen (recomended is 120 hz, but the 100 hz screen worked for me ^^)

I also noticed a big fps drop while using this mode, it seemed to render twice (one for each eye/color), so I got half of the usual fps, some games were playable, but some others wich just ran OK before, wasnt playable.

it worked fine for some old games, or new games with low configs.

but keep in mnd you will have half fps you have in normal rendering.

I also heard there are some drivers hack to get this working on any screen.

but I dont think this will BIOS related.

 

Since I suck at goggleing I couldn't find nbitor nor phoenuxtool v19.3, could you direct me to them? I did however find Award v1.97, the same as phoenixtool? So there is no way to make a general application for such changes? Thanks and well done with the modded bios.

 

@Valentin_N

dont worry.

I uploaded the required tools for you

BIOS_TOOLS.rar

I made some instructions, however I suposed your bios is phoenix based, else this will not work for your RC730 SO4 laptop

you will need to extract the tools, and download the latest bios update from the laptop site (we will work/mod that version)

probably the bios update will be an exe, so you will need to get the bios file. (usually a .wph, .rom .bin or .bios)

I managed to get L502X bios using this method

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/632899-modding-l502x-bios-project.html

after you get the bios file, open PhoenixTool.exe, and then, open the bios file with phoenix tool.

a folder named DUMP will be created.

now you will need to locate a 64 kb file (nvidia vbios)

short files by size will help, you also will need a hex editor to open the files and check its content

you can download hxd

Downloads | mh-nexus

example of a 540m vbios opened with hxd



you can see interesting info, like version, board name .. etc

you may find more than 1 nvidia vbios file, like in l502x case, the bios have several vbioses for different hardware configurations, like gt525m or gt540m

you will need the one from your card.

the board name for gt540m is "board - 1079df40"

and


the board name for gt525m is "Board - 1079df50"

you can see that text on the previus image

if you didnt found any 64kb file, you may need to open again with phenix tool one of the expanded files inside the DUMP folder, sometimes its needed, in L502X it was a little hard since it needed a second unpack so it took longer to mod per each mod.

(I needed to expand and repack twice)

here you can see the l502x bios structure as an example



well, after you got the propper nvidia vbios,open nbitor (included at the tools package) and open the file with it.

now go to to fermi voltages and modify what you need

example:



save the file, and now you will need to repack

example of a L50 1X repack procedure:









click on yes, and you will get the new bios file

it will be *filename*_SLIC.WPH

you can rename it like modded_bios_0.95v.wph or whatever you want if you want to clasify the bioses


the flashing procedure is the usual.

I warn about every bios estructure is different, so the procedure may be a little different on your bios, I also dont get resposable about any bricks caused by wrong modding/flashing of the bios.

 

I installed the A11 0.83, 0.85 BIOS for GT540m and it did everything I hoped it would do (so far, have it for about an hour now ). I installed it because I was getting GPU temps that were way to high and I hoped tot OC to improve fps in games I plan on playing.

I had these values for furmark (few minutes of the burn in test, till i got a semi-stable max temp)

Before the modded BIOS:

stock speed
88°C
750/950
92°C
800/1000
up to 96°C

After modded BIOS:

stock speed
78°C
750/950
81°C
800/1000
85°C

Still not the most jaw dropping low temps, but a vast improvement and actualy useable in gaming temp wise.

Well the performance in games will be the big test (will the 0.85 volt be enough to supply the card under long continueous loads?).

Thanks capitankasar!

 

@SemperEgor

thanks for the detailed temps before/after

as I can see you lowered like 10º the whole GPU ^^

added to the first post

yeah, the 0.85v should be enough to power the card on stock speeds and medium, high OC, but it might be a little unstable on very high OC

I think it will be fine at least on 750 for the 540m, but testing it on games is the only way to be sure ^^

 

Hey capitankasar! Just read the last 67 pages and wow, nice job with the BIOS I just have a few questions though:

1. If I flash one of the modded BIOS now, and then upgrade to windows 8 in a few months, will there be any issues? (will windows 8 have another BIOS that overwrites this modded one or is the BIOS untouched?) Sorry if these questions sound stupid.
2. Or instead, can I flash one of these modded BIOS after I upgrade to windows 8?
3. I was just taking a look at this post. I originally came here just to change the voltage, but those clocks caught my eye. What does each do, and what are the ideal settings/range?
4. As you said in the first post, undervolting reduces power consumption and allows for a more stable OC. Does overclocking increase power consumption at all or does it still use the same amount of power as stock while increasing performance? Not sure if this is a stupid question or not (probably is), but I was always the impression that overclocking increases power consumption.

Really appreciate your time! Sorry about all the questions, I never modded a computer before (only a smartphone, so I have some idea about how OC works).


And just a question for anyone who can answer, how well do you think NBA 2K12 will run with an i5, 6GB ram, 7200 rpm HDD?

 

You forgot to mention your GPU model! (525 or 540M?)

Either one, it should run fine on medium-high, if not high.

I would suggest you keep memory frequency at less than 950MHz, since it has little effect on performance and will produce more heat for little fps gain.

Nice OC's btw and your 10C lower temps are consistent from others and myself

 

Thanks for the quick reply It's 525m

 

@sweetnsour

hey

1 - I never installed windows 8, or any win8 beta, however I supose it will work fine, sine the changes on the bios are minimal and will probably never known it was modded ^^
2 - I supose the isnt important.
3 - core clock and shader clock are linked, this mean they both will go up or down when you drag one of them.
this is the main target to OC the card, the highest stable value you can reach without gaming crashes or artifacts, the better
the memory clock have almnost no effect at the fps, and raising it make it more unstable, it also generate more heat like matrix5 said.
I suggest leave memory clock as it is, and focus at the core, and if you want to OC the memory, do it after get the max stable core speed ^^

4 - well not sure of that,I supose the power consumition will be similar and may need less power with lower mhz speeds.

relating the voltage, the lower voltage the coolest temps, anyway insufficient voltages may result into problems OCING the card so much since it may not have enough voltage, however I suggest to start with the undervolted voltages, most people preffer those, higher voltages just bring a lot of heat to the card, however if you are interested into very high OC, give it a try after ^^


about the game, you can give a try to this page:

NBA 2k12 System Requirements and NBA 2k12 requirements for PC Games

just put the specs and if it meet the recomended specs it will be fine

edit: i completed the form with my specs and it said you can run the game with high settings.

I added the 550m instead the 525m because I have its clocks and performance at the moment ^^

if you OC your gt525m over 740m mhz core speed you will have 550m performance or better

 

Power consumption will increase when you overclock. The difference is that frequency makes less difference to power consumption than voltage. From what I remember, power consumption is proportional to the voltage squared, but is directly proportional to the frequency (there is a catch, in that higher frequencies often require higher voltages).

As for the overclocking stability, usually it is the other way round, where you get more headroom from higher voltage. The only thing that's different in this case is that the heat from the higher voltage made things crash, so it was a no-go. If the cooling system could handle things properly then you would have more headroom from higher voltage like normal.

 

@capitankasar and funky monk, thanks for the info.

Pretty much the difference between the 525 and the 540 is the clock speed?

And will overclocking the gpu shorten its life? I know that it should already be able to clock up to a certain point, but my understanding is that the gpu clocks at different speeds depending on the task. The point is, will keeping it at a higher speed shorten its life? The reason I'm asking is because I'm probably going to have this laptop for at least 5-6 years.

Thanks for helping a noob out


To anyone who can answer this, is it true that Directx9 games crash at a lower OC than Directx11 games? That's what I've concluded from the previous pages but I would like to have it confirmed. Thanks!

 

@sweetnsour

mmm, the difference between the 525 and the 540 is like 75 mhz I think

525m is 600 mhz
and 540m is 675 mhz I think

yeah, overclocking can reduce the system life, since like any other machine, you are using it more by overclocking it.

it is like a car, if you push it, it will last less than you leave it at the garage or just give a short play sometimes ^^

anyway I think overclock is worth of it since computers usually last very long time.

and I supose you will get another computer in 5-6 years.

so as for the moment, it would be nice to get the max performance avalible from your current machine. (keeping allways some cautions with the temperature voltage, and stuff like that ^^)

so my advice is go for it
a little OC will not ruin your computer and you will get some extra FPS, wich will be greatly apreciated on games ^^

I also will keep this laptop some years, for that reason I want to get the max from it



and yes, for some reason, DX9 games seems more sensitive to OC than DX11 games.

why? I dont have any idea, ^^

but it is a fact they do

for that reason, I like msi afterburner, I made two overclock profoles

one is stable for dx11 games, and the other one is stable for dx9 games ^^

 

I flashed my l502x with mod 83/85 A11
I checked with nvidiainspector and it was ok.

But today (several days later) I check nvidiainspector and it goes back to 98.

Why?

 

@dxluong

not sure why, anyway I noticed you are using nvidia inspector to OC the card.

I think it is a bad idea due you cant OC the most important Overclockeable feature of the card, the core, It also may be the cause of the modified voltage.

I suggest you use MSI afterburner to OC the card instead nvidia inspector, in my case I use nvidia inspector to monitorize the voltage and for some driver tweaks on some game, but never for OC.

 

@capitankasar


I am using the new a11 83/83 so far so good.

But when i open the nvidiainspector it show 0.98 for a few seconds and
then it changes to 0.83, cpuid hwmonitor show 0.83 so i think it´s a
bug in the nvidiainspector that takes a while to show the correct value.

 

@wendiko

yeah, it could be, I remember some other people reported similar things.

like temporally switching to another voltages and then staying at the desired voltages.

I think you are right

thanks for the info!

added you guys to the first post ^^

 

dxluong

The 0.98v is a problem with NVIDIA R300 drivers. Try the 296.10 driver and the voltage will be regular.

 

capitankasar,

I want to OC the system I've just bought, I want it to be stable but give me a better kick if I'm playing BF3 etc. What modded bios do you recommend I d/l? It's a little mind boggling looking at that first page with all the downloads.

 

@Jimbobbeers
mmm, you can start testing with the A11 0.83v/0.85v for 525m and see how much you can overclock stable with undervolted voltage ^^

if you are not satisfected with the overclock, try the overvolted voltage ones.

undervolted version go fine for most users but some people need the overvolted ones ^^

 

Hello,

I am kael, owner of a L502x with GT540M. I just registered to this site after seeing this thread.
Since I bought my laptop I had issues with games : crash/freeze. I played to wow, TOR, Diablo 3 and now to the beta of Guild wars 2.
With the last one I can't play 10min without having a crash. However I use the lowest graphic parameters.
By reading this thread I understood that others had same crash issues and capitakasar found a solution wihich also to OC (dell bless him ^^). but I don't really understand if it's somtehing only to overclock ^^.

I personnally don't want to OC, just solve this crash issue (I don't know know what is bios etc ^^) . If I dl A11 0.83v/0.85v for 540M, without touching to anything else, could it solve this? Or does I need to set up the card parameter like frequentcys etc that can be moved in the nvidia panel? If yes at how many to have a "standard" running of the card (no OC).

Thank's in advance for your reply.

Kael

 

Sounds like overheating, therefore I suggest you take the modded bios that underclocks the gpu to 0.83V

 

Just received my l502x but it came with a 540 instead of a 525 but I'm not complaining

Just flashed the A11 .83/.85 mod. I'm going to play a few games and see how it goes. Thanks for the mod!

 

Offtopic: I'm facing scaling issues on my laptop's display. My native resolution is 1080p. When I try to run a game (say Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Max Payne 3, Sniper Elite v2, etc) at 720p resolution, it doesn't scale/stretch to the fullscreen i.e. the game is concentrated in the centre of screen only occupying 720p out of 1080p and leaves rest of the area uncovered i.e. black. I even tried 768p and 900p but still facing same issues. Since due to optimus technology scaling is controlled by Intel Graphics, there is no option for scaling option in Nvidia Control Panel. How do I resolve it? Please help!!!

 

@kael

yes, those modded bioses currently are usefull for:

* overclocking
* reduce system temperature (by reducing GPU temperature using lower voltage)
* fix random crashes for the gt540m without OC

I recomend to flash the A11 0.83v/0.85v for 540M

let us to know if you flash it so I can add you to the first post ^^

oh, thanks also for your comments


@sweetnsour

thank you

* added to the first post ^^

@alvester

mmm, I never found this issue on mine, I also doesnt have a 1080p internal display, however I currently use a external 1440x900 display without any issues.

you can try update both intel and nvidia drivers to the latest version, you can also reset default values at the intel and nvidia control panels, anyway I have no clue about what is the cause.

 

@alvester
u really don´t got these settings in nvidia control panel?

 

@tmae

mmm, I dont have it.

tried also unplugging the external screen and using the integrated laptop screen, no diffence , same options :/

but definitly nothing about it



edit, didnt noticed about any similar setting related to your image.

using driver version 304.79

what nvidia version are you using tmae?

 

Apologies for the late response, but thanks for the reply capitankasar.

I played about with the 0.83/0.85 & then the 0.85/0.85. Temperatures are good, OC is proving to be a little bit more difficult though. Doesn't seem to make that much difference in framerate whilst OC. I'm aware there is the 0.85/0.98, but I'll be honest I'm not confident on using this as I don't want to reduce my lappy's lifespan drastically. Question is, when OC should I be seeing larger improvements in framerate than I am? or is the 2-3 from OC a standard?

 

@ kasar

am using 301.42 WHQL, but i dont own a xps 15.
i have a vostro 1500 with 8600m gt, so that should be the reason you don´t got that setting. But i wonder, why they skipped it o_0

 

I just tried running the A10 0.85/0.85 Bios (GT525m) with some mixed results

I did get a significant cooldown from about max 74-81C to max 62C and the performance scores remained the same in the MSI kombustor stress and video test which made me pretty hopeful for a higher overclock, but when I tried to run Dolphin, the Wii & Gamecube emulator, all the games I tried were running at about 1/2 their normal speed, even the games that always run at 60fps.

Does anyone know why this could be happening? The main reason I wanted to undervolt my GPU was to get a little more out of GPU hungry emulator programs but It's done the complete opposite so I reverted back to the original A10 bios to fix the problem.
Furthermore on bootup now I also get a message from the BIOS complaining about being unable to calculate the power input and something about the wrong charger. could these problems be linked?

I know I've got a l502x but It's only a couple of months old and I'm in Australia (220V mains power instead of 110V) so maybe this model's power needs are a little different?

I hope someone knows what's going on because I could really use a little extra cooling to maintain gt550m speeds and run wii games smoothly

(EDIT - It actually goes up to around 81-82 at standard settings and standard bios under a stress test)

 

unfortunately no..its because of the optimus technology..

 

I always stay updated with the latest drivers releases..don't know whats the issue..I also fiddled with the various settings extensively but couldn't find any solution..

 

@Jimbobbeers

dont worry about the late reply ^_^

I'm also sorry about my late delays, I don like the new forum style, the activity notifications emails take longer to arrive , thats why I dont notice about replies in time.

dont worry about the 0.98v bios, the temps increase are huge, and the overclock stability gain may not be worth of it, it even may become more unstable due the extra heat, I dont recomend it without doing all the hardware cooling mods mentionated at this topic (dust filter removal + repaste) and also a cooling pad.



well, 0.83/0.85 or 0.85/0.85 should be fine, the temps decrease allways help, and I managed to OC the card over 700 mhz with those temps (keep in mind default clocks for 525m are 600 mhz) on some games I get up to 12 extra fps, wich allways help a lot ^^


about your question, keep in mind the GPU is usually the most weak part into the laptops, specially at the l502x with the modern i7 quad core processors (well, in my case I noticed the i3 is also the bottle neck on some cpu demanding apps like bf3 and modern console gamming system emulators.)

that is why you should notice some improvement after ocing the card, getting more frames at the games, dont expect a super boost anyway, but you will gain some extra fps wich are allways welcome and make your gamming experience better ^^



@tmae

oh, I though the picture was from a xps 15, well, that is probably the cause ^^
probably may be related with optimus tecnology like alvester said.

@alvester

mmm, then dont know the cause,it could be related to some extra software you installed, did you installed some kind of software or patch wich could be interfering with the system graphic configuration?

anyway, do the problem persist while using a external screen?

 

Nope, nothing like that..

I don't have an external display to check it out. Nevermind, I'll figure it out.

 

I recently reflashed unaltered/unmodded A11 Bios and overclocked my 525M to 540M clocks. While gaming I noticed the temps were hitting 94C on GPU and 91-95C (varying) on all four CPU cores. This is the first time I'm monitoring temps and that too because after 10 mins of gaming my game starts to lag and I notice frames dropping. So my ques is, are these temps normal?

 

yeah, those temps are normal, I remember I got arround 95º or even more the first days I used the machine.

after hardware / bios modding and formating the HDD, temps greatly improved.

for example, I played SC2 at this morning and my GPU didnt went higher than 75º

most of time it was arround 69º, really cool and still had good fps with 700 mhz OCed core speed

currently using 0.85v/0.85v A11 for 525m undervolted bios

 

Thanks for the heads up. Otherwise I was thinking to get my mobo and gpu replaced too as I'm left with only 32 days of warranty.

I guess replacing thermal paste and removing dust filter helped you a lot in keeping the temps down...


PS: Just got my Speakers + Subwoofer, DVD Drive, Adapter and 1080p LED replaced today :-D

 

yeah, repasting and removing the dust filter made a noticiable difference ^^

give it a try

PS: is worth of replace a 720p for the 1080p screen?
I heard everyone is talking very nice of the screen, but I dont know about the total cost of the parts, I think I need two parts, the screen panel itself and the full-hd internal cable

 

Will give it a try for sure but at the moment I've switched back to your 0.83V/0.83V BIOS mod, keeping the 540M clocks intact. Temps have dropped to 75C while gaming but the frames drop still exist, only it has shifted from 10mins to 30mins now.

Actually I had the 1080p LED in the first place. Got it replaced due to the dead pixels. And I assure you that the 1080p LED is worth every penny. Its a bliss. See it for yourself at the dell store. At the time of customization the upgrade price of 1080p was Rs 6.5k = 115$ i.e. an year ago.

The bill for replacement (free) of LED I got from Dell mentions the price Rs 9.5k = 165$ and LED cable price Rs 334 = 6$. That makes it approx 170$. So I'm glad that I went for it at the time of customization. Customization upgrade at the time of buying does cost low though, than upgrading later (whether it be in warranty or not).

 

well, at least it seems you fixed your temperature issues with the undervolted bios.

not sure about the fps drops, it could be related with the driver version or something.

just make a test, when you got the fps drops, do alt+tab and check msi afterburner, specially the current core clock, if it is set to 203 mhz, the driver crashed and locked into that clocks, that happened me sometimes.

and you cannot set the clocks back to OCed speed or even to its original speed, for some reason it is locked, only way to fix it, is completly shutdown the machine, and then start it again.

well, I also noticed going into device manager and right click disable/enable the nvidia gpu also remove the lock.

not sure why it happens, but it happened to me sometimes instead of fully crashing, I supose it is some kind of crash recovery, wich set the card into minimal power speed in order to just work.

I think it was caused by a unstable OC, I fixed it by lowering a bit the OC , it was fine then.

thx for the screen info, well, I already have my l502x, and my warranty already expired 1 or two months ago.

that is why I was looking for the parts and cost , to check if it was worth of it, 170$ it seems a nice upgreade, when I get some cash I will give a look thank you

 

That's a weird issue. Will check and let you know..


PS: After frames drop I minimize the game, let the temps down for 5 mins and then resume the game again. This resolves the issue for me but only for 25-30 mins. Then I've to repeat the procedure again.

 

Tested it. Nothing like that happened with me.

My bad..Just checked with EVGA's OSD while in-game, GPU is still hitting 90-95C.

 

mmm more than 90º with a 0.83v bios is not good, what is your proccesor?

well, in my case I have a i3, wich generate less heat and doesnt have turboboost.

anyway even with the bios mod, I recomend the hardware mods mentionated before, using cooling pads also seems to help a little.