L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

@timewalker75a

the intel sb vbios?

mmm, you didnt mentionated it

the only intel vbios wich worked fine for me was the one wich jkbuha patched the table to allow the mini display port to work like the original vbios.
other ones I tested had problems with backlit and the minidisplay port of the machine.

also since you guys mentionated posible issues with text and other stuff and I didnt saw any noticiable improvement over the stock vbios I returned to the stock vbios.

 

you were linked to insanelymac .. there's a changelog
2137 from Lenovo works fine, so does 2130 from Inspiron 17r ... the connector table is easy to patch ..
the most noticeable thing is a full hd vesa resolution .. so that bootloader doesn't look squashed.

 

Do you think you could make an A12 version with both smm and the A06 vbios backported? I had 1920x1080 boot res and less artifacts with the A06 vbios in OSX. Now with A12, I get some stretched boot res and graphics glitches when playing video in OSX.

--Adeeb

 

I hope no one minds me asking here, but seeing OSX reminded me of this. Is it possible to dual boot OSX and Windows 8? I know that it can be done wth Windows 7, and if I am correct, the L502x does not support UEFI secure both since it is not a Windows 8 certified computer. I'll be doing some research on this myself, but I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

Sent from my LG-P509

 

hi. I have already test the biosmod for 540m 0.83-0.85 v12 with unlocked menu and it's ok.
however i have a problem, suspension in windows7 doesn't work and when I switch on the pc from suspension the screen remain black and I must restart my dell xps. have we solving?
do bios "for macOSx" solve this problem??
i'd like also a bios with 0,80volt 2D and 0,85v 3d. thanks capitankasar
P.S. sorry for my bad english

 

Was these bios for only the people who were suffering from crashes? What highest clocks have you been able reach on the 525m with these bios?

 

@timewalker75a

well, if it was at the another topic I may missed or forgot it, it is a little mess over there

anyway I just found, patched and tested a 2137 vbios jkbuha uploaded, it seems to work fine, no backlight, brightress or port issues.

repacked and reuploaded generic bios with both OSX and intel vbios mods.


@adeebm

I just uploaded a bios with a fix for sleep and a the newest compatible intel bios I found, let me know if it works fine for you ^^
if you keep having those artifact problems let me know and I will pack a bios with the one from a06, anyway this vbios is newer than the one from a06

ps: dell for some reason downgraded intel vbios from a06 to latest versions, so it should be fine now.



@sweetnsour


mmm, not sure, I never installed/used OSX, probably other users would be able to give a better answer ^^

@francy.1095

just made a A12 80/85 version for gt540m with the intel vbios and fixed module from a06 bios, check the first post and let me know how it run ^^


@Bkr

well, yeah, those bios also fix many of the crashes, however the advanced versions have more fixes and features, so why not give it a try?

mmm, highest stable clocks for 525m are 704 mhz, however I am testing now with different voltages to see if I can reach higher OCs, will let u know if I get more stable OCs ^^

 

I'm running win 8 and OSX right now. Not with UEFI though. MBR partitions and chameleon bootloader. Check the thread at [Guide] Dell XPS 15 L502X (Early 2011) Snow Leopard Install (possibly L702x too) - Notebooks - InsanelyMac Forum for info.

--Adeeb

 

Posting here to say that I've started my OC-testing!~ However, it seems that my laptop has always been somewhat afraid of overclocking, and many different settings have resulted in crashing. So my results may not be the best possible, but I'll still try my best!

 

Sorry i didn't reply back sooner, my windows died so i didn't get to test the bios. I'll report back when i manage to fix it, will do the same for the OS X sleep fixed bios as well.

 

Yeah... this is certainly taking longer than I had expected. So I can only report back on the short-term stability tests. Anyways, I did all of these overclock stability tests on the same "Going Hunting" mission from BF3.

Oh and capitankasar, I noticed that for some reason, after I flashed to the 540M 0.8/0.9 custom BIOS, my display is always now on its lowest brightness for everything before the OS loads. And also, in HWMonitor, nothing except for my battery info shows up. I'm not really sure what's going on here, but please look into it for me? :3

Anyways, something very interesting that I noticed when overclocking was that if I used 720p, my game would crash consistently at a certain point, when I get into the upper MHz. But if I took it down a notch (to custom resolution 960x540), it would be fine. So that's something interesting to note. Another thing I noticed was that the opening sequence for this mission tends to be very resource heavy, and results in more artifacting and less stability. So while some results may not seem to work in this test, they may be slightly more stable in the main gameplay.

Another thing to note is that due to the low speed, low bandwidth DDR3 memory that the 540M uses, changing the memory clock actually DOES have an effect on FPS in some games. I don't recommend messing around with it too much it does seem to still have a bigger effect on stability than performance, so a good idea would be to just leave it at default and change the core clock instead. If you think you're at the very edge of stability, or if you want to reduce artifacting, then you can lower the memory clock a bit, but don't do it too much or else you'll just start to decimate your FPS.

Ok ANYWAYS, after doing extensive reruns of the same thing over and over, I concluded that for 0.9V, the highest possible clock speed without getting MASSES of artifacting is 823 MHz. For the "Going Hunting" tests that I did, there actually is quite a bit of artifacting here and there, but I later found out that in a typical multiplayer scenario, there is very very little artifacting. If you want to get reduce the artifacting further, you can take down the memory clock by 100-150 MHz, but any more will be inefficient.
In addition to this, I did end up crashing with this clock rate somewhat frequently, so my prediction is that this borderline OC is not very stable. However, this may be different for your laptop and for the games that you play, so your experiences may be different. Though they may be worse.

Now, the first thing you'll notice if you're playing around with the clock rates around the 800 MHz mark is that they're so much higher than the stock clocks that they lock on to fairly sparse values. For example, if you try to use 817 MHz, it'll snap all the way up to 823, and 816 will go all the way down to 810 MHz.

I don't really like 810 MHz that much, because it doesn't offer that much more stability, so the frequency that I'd use for an aggressive, but viable everyday overclock would be 797 MHz (well, actually I was trying to get 800 but it just...). This clock speed is great because the performance gain is very close to 823 MHz, but it's noticably more stable. I don't know exactly how stable it is right now, but if you try to make 823 MHz more stable by bringing down the memory clock, you only get to shave off around 150 MHz from that before the performance starts to become worse than 797 MHz core clock (w/ stock memory clock).

...Oh man, what a long post. I hope you don't get totally bored from reading all this... I still have to do the performance, temps, and long-term stability tests after...

 

@Kitsunemimi

nice post


as for the brightress, not sure what it could be related, I also that is the v4 version of the mod (I didnt included modded module to fix the OSX sleep feature or intel vbios update, so probably software issues.

as for the HWmonitor, try reboot the machine, and load bios default settings, then check if hwmonitor keep having I ssues.

I noticed it get into troubles when you enter inside the thermal menus at the bios, not sure why, but it does, and only way to keep far from that is load default setings from bios and stay away from thermal menu.


lol!, I never had a single artifact while Overclocking, if it is unstable, the whole laptop freeze and the annoying buzzing sound appear forcing me to poweroff the machine manually.

well, I didnt touched the memory, it still on 900 mhz

moving up the memory makes core OC more unstable, so I keep it at 900 mhz ^^

about the core, I tried several combinations today, 1V.....1.05V .......0.87........ 0.84 ...and result were crashes crashes and more crashes even with the old stable OC frecuency for my 525m (704 mhz)

so I flashed back the 0.85v/0.85v and it was stable again, I supose my GPU doesnt like overclocking at all, but well, anyway I am happy with my 100 extra mhz ^^

I can say I tried almost everything by bios hacking, voltage modding and more stuff and it refuses to reach higher clocks, so I asume it is the max I can get from it

I tested it now and has been playing unreal tournament 3 and crysis 2 for like an hour without issues.

so as for me I will stop messing with the GPU for the moment

as for your artifacts, I think they are specially related with memory overclocking.

try set your memory to 900 mhz, and check how far you can go with the core OC ^^

 

All of those tests were with 900 MHz memory :<

 

well, then I supose you just reached your max stable core OC

I would say it is 797 mhz, you can check this by playing games for hours with 0 crashes or issues.

anyway, it seems the 0.90v bios mod improved your OC stability ^^

 

I was able to run 800/962 for about half an hour yesterday. (797 core to be exact!)

Its a nice improvement, but my GPU suffers from a strange "deterioration"

So it can take several days of use before I get a crash, then they become progressively worse and I have to down clock again.

Only time will tell if this will hold up, but so far so good - Thanks again!

 

Hey buddy, your GPU is not crashing but rather the system is downclocking it as I mentioned in god knows which earlier post powermizer has a safety function which downclocks your gpu (even if in game) if it reaches very high temps which (crashes your games) so I'm guessing you've been playing for different times or lets say in bed or at a table and or things like that and every day or so your laptop reaches that heat threshold which causes the system to react (just guesses).

@captain I'm very interested how you are going to go into implementing ivy bridge support to l502x qm27xx cpu's as ivy bridge is for the 3rd gen 3xxx cpus ? I did some reading (wikipedia) on what ivy bridge offers and if there is any chance to make that sh*t happen on thest laptops ... well that would be amazing lol

also captain you said you were going to look into that MVP software - did some reading on that too and it seems possible but - well I can't do it so it is up to you :/

 

Hmm, interesting. From past experiences, the crashes can occur within seconds to half an hour in the game. Nonetheless, I will keep an eye on the temps are report back if there is any change.

PS:

StarCraft 2 max temps average 0.85V = 70-73C
StraCraft 2 max temps average 0.90V = 71-75C
StarCraft 2 max temps average 0.98V = 76-82C

I suspect the 0.90V has possibly increased my overclock headroom because the temps remain low (on average) and the 0.05 increase in voltage

Cheers !

 

@MakeYouRage

ivy bridge support needs more cpu microcodes, and of course Intel ME hacking, and we are a little stuck on that.

about MVP, we are also stuck on the DSDT, so as for the moment, nothing yet.

ME hacking would also unlock Overclocking, but well, that would require at least some more extra time

 

@capitankasar

Can you post L502x A12 BIOS for GT540m ?
Voltages (0.83/0.85) with extra options,plus native speedstep and updated CPU microcode,intel vbios update to v2137 and sleep FIX for OSX

Thanks

 

USING THE SAME BIOS - GO for 750mhz Shader and 982Mhz on memory!

WORKING FINE IN ALL GAMES AND TESTS OF MINE.


GT540m.

 

@shrikant

done

check first post ^^

 

Hi capitan,

I am using V4 mod of A12 83/83 for 525m. It's fine giving me 787,1080 stable clock . Only problem is fan switching on/off constantly.

If you can give 80/83 and 80/80, i am more than happy to test one by one. A12 will be ok , but A11 will be better.

 

Mr.Captain this guy has the same problem as me - after flashing the A12 v4 for 540m with the fan control :/ I haven't yet figured out if it's due to the BIOS or some other software I used but the fan control is still not working properly. Hopefully I haven't done anything to the main board :S really worried now.

 

Thank you @capitankasar

 

@dhaneshbc

hehe,so many requests in a single post

well, since I am now focusing at the A12 bios, and also you are using now 83/83 I think there would be so much difference to 80/83, maybe just lower temperatures when the system is idle.

well, I made a A12 80/80 for you, 525m card and v5 mods.

give it a try, it is at the first post ^^


anyway, 0.80v is really low for 3D, of course you will get the lowest posible temps with this mod, but it may be also unstable, let me know how it works for you ^^



@MakeYouRage

mmm, try closing all gpu/cpu/temperatures monitoring related software.

some users said it fixed the issue.

I'm on A12 v5 modded bios and have no issues with the fan at all.

@shrikant





@all

mmm, there are a lot of incoming bioses requests those days, I manage to relase most of them, however the first post is growing really fast, so many bioses, and they are hard to sort/order/clasify now.

any ideas about how to keep the topic clean and user friendly?

 

Use a table. It may not be easy, but it's the most efficient way to reduce the overall size of the post, and still keep all the data.

So basically, make 3 tables, one for 525M, one for 540M, one for custom.
Then have the columns as: GPU model, BIOS version, 2D volts, 3D volts, MD5, download, mirror, notes.
And then have the rows as each different download.
You may want to make the "notes" column with small text.

That's pretty much the only thing you can do, given this forum's functionality. If you find the table syntax confusing, I can probably do it for you, but not right now.

 

I have tested this modbios: Custom voltage moded A12 bios mod for gt540m with advanced menus for L502X DOWNLOAD from mediafire /// MIRROR by ximinez
MD5 checksum: 2DFC63022D4DE49AE5101173787A8EFD
BIOS version used: A12
this bios mod has been tested by pending to be tested!
2D PROFILE: 0.80v
3D PROFILE: 0.85v
notes: voltage modded A12 BIOS for gt540m with a nice set of extra options,plus native speedstep and updated CPU microcode,intel vbios update to v2137 and sleep FIX for OSX, handle the new options carefully!
and work fine, but in 2d mode the true voltage is 0,83volt and it doesn't go down to 0,80v and the problem about suspension in windows7 is remaining....

 

@Kitsunemimi

mmm, I supose you are talking about something like this.

BIOS Version	Mod version	Card model	Voltages 2D/3D	Mediafire link	Ximenex's hosting	notes
A12	V5	GT540m	0.83v/0.85v	DL url 1	DL url 2	awesome
A12	V5	GT525m	0.83v/0.83v	DL url 1	DL url 2	crappy!

mmm, it could be, however I admit I am extremly lazy to update the whole post like that

and if I do, I think I would do it but by creating some kind of php site, with automated/dinamic content to prevent manually editing everytime I upload a file ^^

@francy.1095

I checked the bios file and the voltages are definitly the ones from the description.

must be some kind of software or driver issue with the monitoring software.

well, I dont have any issue with win 7 suspension, also the fix is only aplicable to the OSX sleep feature, windows users doesnt take benefict at all from that fix ^^

 

Tested The A12 540m 80/90, poor one!

No gain in Mhz over 85/85. Just gets more heat!

 

Hey captainkasar - reinstalled nvidia drivers to reset the powermizer registry(installed the newest beta just to try out). And also reflashed bios to 540 .80/.90 to reset BIOS settings. Now fans run normally I will no more be playing round with the fan controling program maybe try out powermizer manager again. As of now am not doing any overclocking but will try it out once I get everything nice and cool in my laptop.

Just some info though I just opened the bottom panel and left it like that do you think that could cause damage to the machine ? Laptop's always on top of a very good cooler (cooler master U3 - 6 fans 1800 rpm each) - right now laptop idling at about 32 33 degrees GPU 40 ~44 CPU. In games GPU goes to 51 + CPU to 60 +. I get some crashes though for some reason :/

Giving the 540 .80/.90 BIOS a green light without overclocking.

 

Both tested and working fine

Thank you!

 

@fauzulkc

thanks for the info ^^

then you are like me with the 525m higher OC tests with higher voltage.

aparently the setting giving better result for both cards is 0.85v

and in some cases 0.83v for 525m

@MakeYouRage

so it wasnt bios related huh?

idk why many people blame the bioses for fan issues ^^

I think I never had issues with the fan, maybe once before formating and Installing win7 ultimate x64 without all the bloatware.

thanks for te info

this confirms it is related with software, wich software you suspect it was causing the fan issues?

it may be a good idea to add it to the first post so all the other people complaning also will be able to fix it



oh, and as for removing the back panel, it should be a nice idea to improve airflow

just take care no strange things get inside the laptop or hit the PCBs from that hole.


I dont have any cooling pad, but I improved a little the temps by adding metal legs to the laptop, lifting it like 3 cm over the desk, I also removed the dust filters from the backpanel too, no just the one from the system fan


@Doixdd

thanks for the feedback ^^


@all

updated the first post with the users testing the bioses.

let me know if I missed someone

edit: testing 525m 86/86 I hope the stupid crashes go away, it seems like my last stable OC is not that stable at all ..... I guess if my card is sufering 'deterioration' like someone mentionated before :3

edit2: tried flashing 0.80v/0.80v and aparently good results, no crashes and awesome temps

 

@CapitanKasar

Perhaps you could merge all the BIOS releases so that unlocked menus, native speedstep, OSX sleep fix, etc. comes standard in all BIOS versions.

The only difference between all the BIOS mod downloads would be the version (A06,A12,etc) voltage and GPU make.

You would need to implement a release date/history into the post
Example:

A12 GT540M 0.83/0.85 | Mirror by ximinez |
29/11/2012 - Initial Release
09/11/2012 - Fixed OSX Sleep issue!
14/11/2012 - Added preliminary support for transformer mode
MD5 checksum: 022D368DE178C92DF012CFD3143AE49B
Untested! or Tested or Recommended!

You probably don't need to mention extra heat, better overclock, 2D vs 3D etc if it's already in you first post.

aaaaaand then you can list all your BIOS minions, I mean, testers in a list at the end

PS:

The 0.9V didn't last for me; so I'm back a good 'ol 0.85V @ 770 core.

Cheers!

 

mmm, are you talking about remove the old versions and remove the unnecesary/duplicated text from new ones?

mmm,yeah, that could be an option :3

yeah, 0.90 didnt gave good results to my gt525m, 0.85v and lower seems the solution for me ^^

 

Yeah, basically

 

@Capitankasar

Could you make me a 540m 85/95 A12. Thanks.


Fun Fact: Yesterday I used my laptop while keeping over a marble stone table and did gaming. Metaphorically, The laptop seemed to be freezing rather than Heating up. WORKS BETTER THAN MANY COOLERS!

 

Hi, sorry that I didn't really post about my OC adventures with 0.9V for a while.

I played around for a little while, and I ended up crashing even at 800 MHz. Slightly discouraging, BUT those results are still better than before (heck, my laptop couldn't even manage 777 MHz at 0.98V before), so I still have some testing to do! Unfortunately, the reason why I haven't gotten around to that was because I feel bad for having my laptop crashing too often, and my homework deadlines are starting to get really tight so I'll have to get back to the OC after I'm through with all this other work.

 

MD5 checksum: 022D368DE178C92DF012CFD3143AE49B
BIOS version used: A12
2D PROFILE: 0.83v
3D PROFILE: 0.85v

Tested, working fine.

 

@fauzulkc

done ^^

oh, and I think I will copy your marble stone idea , maybe playing over a glass table or something cool :3
@Kitsunemimi

well, not all games crash with the same clocks, for example I have a profile in msi afterburner with higher clocks for dx11 games, and another one with lower clocks for dx9 games.

for some reason dx11 games handle OC better while dx9 doesnt like those high OCs at all and I have to lower the clocks a little

in my case I do:

dx11 : 704 mhz
dx9: 680 mhz

@shrikant


thanks, first post updated

 

What games have you tested those clocks on?

 

What game(s) have you tested those clocks on? :O

 

704 mhz stable with : league of legends, hl1 engine games, hl2 engine games (source games), unreal engine games, cod waw, avp games,bionic comando, devil may cry, far cry games ,cod mwf 2 and 3, trine 1 and 2,starcraft, street fighter 4, and many others ....




680 mhz stable with: crysis 1 & 2, dead space 1 & 2, lineage 2 and probably all games

oh, you was talking to dhaneshbc.


well I will leave the post anyway ^^

 

Tested 540m 85/95

not bad!

 

What games have you tested those clocks on? Try crysis 2. It stresses everything in the laptop.I tried those clocks. Those clocks were not stable and didn't give out much performance. I'm running 700/1400/1000 for crysis 2. These give performance AND are more stable.

I have a 525m btw,

 

What clock are you using for memory? Are you leaving it at 900? I'm running at 700/1400/1000 They're pretty stable.

 

@fauzulkc

added as tester ^^

mmm, what do you mean with not bad?

do you mean cooler temps or higher OC stability?

@bkr


I did leave memory on 900 mhz, tweaking memory resulted in unstable OC for the 704 mhz.

I may try to tweak memory for the 680 mhz clock , but I notice the most performance boost while ocing Core.

 

Achieved more Overclocking With Core Clock of 801Mhz while i Did underclock the Memory Clock to 806Mhz, as I found a few artifacts while running NFS MOST WANTED for more than 20 minutes. Also Working Well In Lost Planet 2, getting about 30-40 fps at all mid settings, no blur.

The heat does turn on, getting 95 degree Celsius high.

 

I'm playing receroom racing experience. for the sake of testing, shift and gta IV are also played. for stability check, i'm using occt gpu. it's pretty good for checking errors. it will identify even minute artifacts we cannot see. 787/1080 doesnt give any error in occt or in game so far. anything above that gives instant error in occt and frequent freezing in game. Earlier, when I used 83/85 mod earlier, the max i was able to get was something like 756/1020.

 

if you suggest any other testing method, i will do that

 

the actual voltages i'm getting now with this bios is 83/83. it's not 80/80. i'm using gpuz and nvidia inspector. it's sure because my overclocking potential remains exactly same after flasing the bios. and no change at all. it seems the card wont accept anything below 83/83.