L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

The power saving settings are set to passive cooling when using the battery, prior to flashing to the A09 bios, the fan would still kick on, it appears to be operating correctly. Maybe some people complained to Dell of overheating with this new bios when gaming and using battery power? Anyone have problems with undervolting not providing enough power during 3d? Why would they make stock .95 if it can work at .85?

 

A09 bios is back on the dell website with changelog, I wonder if it's exactly the same as the A09 from the other day?

 

I will run a md5 test from the one I downloaded days ago, and the new one from the dell site.

edit: both files have the same checksum , so the bios file is exacly the same ^_^

false alarm I guess

 

Running your modded A09 .85/.85 at the moment, haven't played any games yet though.

 

Capitankasar, could you please make A09 overvoltage (0,85, 098) bios for l502x with 525M?
Thanks

OT: is there any way to turn off the boot loogo in bios? Are there any advanced bios menus to unlock?

 

Using the undervolted A09 for the 540m. Flashed fine, temps dropped considerably.

 

Have also flashed the undervolted GT 540M A09 -works great thanks.
[So much happens when you go camping for a week - argh my inbox!!]

800 (1600) 1000 is the absolute limit of overclocking of the GT 540M when undervolted- if I minimize a game the system crashes when I restore (card must need the extra power to "start up".)

785 (1570) 985 has a higher stability.

Games that used to crash will still crash if I overclock - can only be fixed by rebooting and keeping at stock speeds.

Thanks again for your work!! (Even though I have said it 100s of times already )

P.S. Reiterating that temperatures drop significantly, combined with a re-paste the results are outstanding. (70C 800/1000 Max Furmark Xtreme Burn-In, Post FX, etc)

 

@buch3r

thanks for feedback

@szczups

done,check at the first post, however didnt had time to test it, but it should be ok, since I made the similar changes for all the bios, give feedback plz ^_^

not yet

it should posible to replace the DELL logo with a custom logo, or maybe enable the POST screen with the startup messages, it also may be posible to enable the UEFI menu since I suspect it is already there, also saw another BIOS languages like francais, however I dont have the skills for those stuff yet, like I said, I am not a BIOS hacker, just a persistent user.
so I will apreciate any help on this ^_^

@FlipBack

thanks for the feedback,I will add you at the first post

edit:

@Matix5

thanks for the info

I wish I could make my 525m get higher than 675 stable, but it seems it doesnt like it, at least without crashes ^^

yeah, while combinating both mods the temperatures should be greatly decreased, keeping the system really cool, I already did on mine.

 

Hey Capitan,

So sorry It's taken so long long to get back to you about testing the modded, undervolted, BIOS for the 540m. I just got around to it and installed the undervolted A09 BIOS for the 540m.

Firstly, everything seems to be running normally so hats off to you! No problems here (so far!).

Secondly, however, the undervolted bios doesn't seem to have had too much of an effect on my temperatures. Previously, running coretemp, my temperatures were around 55-60 degrees whilst browsing/itunes/mail/the usual... using the undervolted A09 bios doesn't seem to have brought down my temperatures - I'm still hovering around 55-60 degrees. But, I only installed it about 15 minutes ago so early days yet.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but if I want to go back to the 'Official' Dell BIOS, can I just re-downloaded the Dell BIOS from the from their website, or install the FLASH_the_original_bios file in the flash bios mod folder?

Thanks Capitan, good solid work!

For info - 2630QM CPU.

 

Is the CPU temperature supposed to get lower too? Mine is like that too 55-60, but the GPU runs cooler while gaming.

 

CPU temperatures will remain unchanged - the current BIOS mod ONLY undervolts the GPU when in use. (Ordinarily the GPU is turn off (idle state))

You will only see an effect when you are gaming, etc.

 

@sevenofnine

thanks : )

well, since it is a 540m I was unable to test if the volt mod worked fine, so if you can pick the nvidia inspector while gamming on a window or minimize the game fast enough to watch the voltage in 3d/game profile , then you should be able to check if the volt mod worked.

about how to rollback to the original bios, you can run the "FLASH_the_original_bios.bat" file (my batch file allow to flash over newer or same bios version), or also can download the original BIOS package directly from dell's site , your choice ^^

@zjacobss

since the same Fan and heatsink is shared by te CPU and GPU, you also may notice small changes at the CPU temperature, but if you do, there will be way less notieciable than the GPU temp decrease.

edit: lol Matix5, you was faster while repling xDD

 

Thanks Capitan,

I was just thinking that the graphics card would run cooler generally (non-gaming) and that would have an effect on CPU temps purely through proximity btwn CPU and GPU. I checked inspector and it's running at 0.85v and is working well!

 

Thank you! I'll let you know how it works

 

I have tried your new overvolted A09 BIOS version for gt525m thanks !
2D PROFILE: 0.85v
3D PROFILE: 0.98v

 

@sevenofnine

your welcome : )

glad the mod is working for you , well, since the 540m is already running at 0.83v by default, it already should run at cooler temps when in idle status, however the noticiable changes are while gamming, the temps should be a at least little lower using the modded bioses. (since the 540m run at 0.98v on game mode by default against the 0.85v from the modded bios)

@szczups
ok, thx ^_^

@ricohunter

thx, added to the first post

 

Wow, nice mod!

Furmark before, 96C Max GPU. Furmark after 89C Max GPU.

Nice! Thanks!

Too bad you can't undervolt the Intel graphics

 

@thatdaveguy

glad it helped you ^_^

well,I think the intel graphics proccesor are inside the CPU on sandy bridge proccesors.

it may be done as son as we hack the BIOS to get access to some CPU features like voltage, BCLK ....

CPU overclocking would be awesome (specially right now, when I got adicted to dolphin emulator hehe)

 

@thatdaveguy: it would make no sense to undervolt the internal gpu, because when you need power you take the dedicated nvidia card and on powersaving or general purpose the internal GPU produces almost no heat. In general all Parts in idle consume far less energy then high perfomance mode, therefore the potential in energy saving is far more given in the voltage table of the cpu(the GPU is now "save" thx to this bios mod ). If we could change those voltages we could save a lot of energy and therefore heat and noise.
And i know that there is a huge unused potential in those cpus (when compared to the Desktop CPUs you can run 4.5 GHZ with 1.2V [which the mobile CPU has in Turbo] with ease).

MFG Jubeltrubel

 

thanks for your reply brother. the problem is sloved. now adays its possible to install mac os even on MBR partitioned drive. I have successfully installed the latest Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2. Now i do dual boot with windows 7. its great. My XPS is awesome now. just leaves only one more thing to be desired, to disable the optimus technology. so that Nvidia GPU is used all the time. which would be great. is it possible through bios modding ?

 

A9 bios is shyt on my system. Constant fan on and off.

A7 bios with tweaks does not suffer the on/off fan cycling.

Thanks for the A7 bios and the volt mod.

GPU doesn't break the 80C temp whereas before it was reaching 96C (near boiling temp).
Also MSI Afterburner overclock to 780/900 stable at 0.85v.

You are indeed the Capitan and rep.

 

as far I know that is not posible , at least on the XPS 15.

because the intel gpu is the one wich is directly conected to the laptop screen and minidisplay output, the nvidia just have the hdmi output and help the intel card sometimes

also, in the intel card, when it need to render some advanced video applications, it request nvidia gpu to render it, and intel gpu just show the finished images outputed by nvidia card.

so, as you can see, the nvidia card just act like a auxiliary card.

this have some advantages like the battery time while disabling the nvidia card when it isnt needed, but also disvantages like having to set up every app to make sure it uses the nvidia card through the nvidia control panel.

it is a bit annoying at the first system configuration.

this is like a mid point between power saving and performance.

 

ok so we cannot disable it. Its just that sometimes windows aero runs slowly because it is powered by intel hd 3000. if windows aero was powered by nvidia gpu it would be superb in dell xps 15 with normal HD screen.

xps 15 Full HD screens are powered by nvidia GPU and so does the windows aero

 

@ComputerStud

oh, srry, didnt noticed about your post, we posted almost at the same time.

well, thank you a lot for the feedback.

yes, some users posted the official A09 bios do strange things with the fan specially in battery mode, so the tweaked A07 should help in this case

what card and modded bios settings are you using?

(to add your nickname to the first post as tester )

@eggy_brahma

yep, as far I know there are no way to disable it.

however you may find a workarround for the windows aero thing.

I made a script to enable/disable windows aero service with one click

just create a normal .txt file, paste following and rename it to *.bat

for example aero_toggle.bat

I used it to save battery time and make fullhd playback more smooth with the intel graphics.

ussage is quite simple, just double click it to toggle on/off the aero.
note: sometimes you may have to run it twice when running it first time after starting the system

 

ok thanks. but i am confused about it. because when we set the Power Plan to Power Saver mode the windows aero automatically turns off. so is it same or different with your settings ???

 

no, you are right, the power saver mode automatically disables aero when in battery mode.

however this simple script allow to disable aero also in another plans, even plugged into the AC power.

I also use it a lot as a a pre optimization before going into games : )

 

oh i get it. thanks, will try it


yup works great

 

Capitankasar hablas español?

i found that the MD5 checksum for the A09 bios

3C8EA4113AF36830E173B48E1A359D71

dosent match with the one that i dowload =S

 

@koca12

///english///

since you posted the same post on two diferent topics I will reply it here:

yes, I talk spanish ^_^

the md5 checksum and .rar file I uploaded are fine.

the problem is that the md5 checksum I posted is applied directly to the L502X_A09_540m_83_85.rar file, and the md5 checksum you calculated is the one from the FLASH_the_modded_bios.bat file

///español///

como has posteado el mismo mensaje en dos temas diferentes te contestare aquí:

si, hablo español ^_^

el checksum md5 y el archivo .rar que he subido estan bien.

el problema es que el checksum md5 que he posteado esta directamente aplicado al archivo L502X_A09_540m_83_85.rar, y el checksum md5 que tu has calculado es el del archivo FLASH_the_modded_bios.bat

 

jajaja ok que pena. voy a probar esta bios undervolt para ver si me soluciona el problema que tengo con algunos juegos que se congelan.

Por otro lado aprovecho y te pregunto si al tener undervolt no afecta en lo mas minimo mi tasa de FPS? osea si juego bt3 a 30 fps voy a seguir jugandolo a 30 fps o podria bajar un poco el rendimiento. ya se que esto lo explicas en tu post, pero quiero estar muy seguro.

Muchas gracias por hacer este trabajo y compratirlo.

 

espero que se solucionen los cuelgues en los juegos, a mucha gente le ha funcionado esta solucion.

no, el undervolt (bajar el voltaje) no afectaria para nada en tus FPS, otra cosa seria que hicieras "underclock" (bajarle el clock) a la grafica o al CPU, cosa que si afectaria, en vez de eso puedes probar a overclockear un poco la targeta grafica de nvidia a ver cuanto consigues logrando que se mantenga estable

 

Hasta ahora todo muy bien, no he probado juegos que es lo que mas me intereza, pero si probe la temperatura con furMark y logre que pasaran de un maximo de 86 centigrados a 77 con undervolt, un gran logro.

Otro punto que quieria preguntarte es si es recomendable hacer overclock mientras tenga undervolt mi bios?.

Me refiero por que al overclokear la gpu necesita mas voltios para suplir la potencia del overclock.

Espeor me entiendas, y tambien si conoces de alguien que alla logrado un overclock estable (gt 540m) con tu modded bios.

Muchas gracias nuevamente. al rato testeare mis juegos y te hago saber.

 

yo haria lo siguiente, lo primero de todo, con mi bios de undervolt y los clocks por defecto mira a ver si los juegos se te siguen congelando, si el problema se te ha resuelto yo probaria a hacer overclock.

respecto a lo que preguntas del overclock, gente que ha posteado en este mismo topic a overclockeado la 540m bastante (si el ingles no es un problema, mirate las paginas anteriores de este tema), asi que no hay problema, el voltage en el caso de esta targeta parece dar mejores resultados ya sea de temperatura o estabilidad en valores bajos.

respecto a los valores de tu overclock, eso solo lo puedes descubrir tu probando y probando, lo que yo haria seria subirlo poco a poco y hacer pruebas, y en el momento en el que el overclock sea inestable, le vas bajando poco a poco hasta que te deje de dar problemas, ese sera tu overclock estable

 

Increiblemente mi problema con call of duty black ops a desaparecido!! ya no mas freeze muchas gracias por todo.

voy a empezar a probar con OC .

muchas gracias.

 

un placer ayudar

 

Se puede hacer undervolt a cpu para rebajar algunos grados de temperatura?

 

en este portatil aun no se puede, igual si se puede hacer en un futuro cuando el mod de la bios este mas avanzado

 

No offence guys, but this is an english speaking forum . While I appreciate there are other languages, if you wish to speak native either provide a translation so others can benefit ( like the original post by captain ) or keep it to pm.

 

You are right men, we just taliking about the gt 540m undervolt bios version that helps me to improve my games issues like freezing crashing and stuff.

i also ask for overclocking recomendations

 

@Risco
you are right.

@all
My apologizes to all relating the spanish language, it will not happen again.

I will make a brief text about all was being discussed on spanish

yep, like koca12 said, it seemed the modded A09 0.83v/0.85v BIOS fixed his crashes for Call of dutty black OPS and probably more games. he is also is trying to OC the 540m card since he already fixed the stock clock freezes with the undervolted bios.

and asked for a CPU undervolt, wich I replied to him that I though it wasnt posible yet, or at least without deeper in the bios mod

koca12 also reported furMark tests went from 86º to 77º after using the modded bios.

 

El Capitan Kasar,

Specs:
- 2630qm, 525m, Intel 40gb SSD, 750 gb 5400rpm, 1080p

The official bios A07 fixes the constant cycling with modding of Nvidia software. Whereas the official A09 leads to constant fan cycling.

BTW, since we're talking about lowering temp, most would benefit from shutting off turbo boost. The lower temp of the bios mod with disabling of turbo boost should bring temp down to 70-80 C (CPU and GPU, or at least on my tweak system).

Most do not need the turbo boost as Sandy Bridge is plenty powerful without TBoost. Unless you're constantly video encoding or using CPU intensive task, disabling TB will result in a nice reduction of temp.

 

yeah, disable turbo bost can be considered underclocking or limit the CPU clock to a fixed numbers.

anyway, cant that be done with software?, like the intel turbo boost utility wich came with the dell drivers (I couldnt even install it since my i3 doesnt have turbo boost technology), however I noticed about something in throttlestop software about disable turbo feature that might help to decrease temps.

relating to the BIOS modding, ahmed is helping me at the another forum to unlock/add custom menus to the bios setup utility, we may be able to add OC features and maybe an option to enable/disable turbo boost feature from setup application

 

I've read that setting maximum processor state to 99% in your power plan will also disable turbo boost.

 

540 user

a09 bios .85 volts

Ran furmark runs like 12 degrees Celcius cooler!

Annoying thing is the fan goes on every second on and off, since i got the motherboard replaced D: and it happen b4 using your bios update.
Is there a fix for this? besides disabling turbo boost.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of disabling turbo boost?
Thank you

 

just letting yous know that there is now the beta 295.51 nvidia drivers out which should help our gaming even more

 

@xxbadboys93
nice temps after BIOS mod
I heard about the fan issues to a lot of members, however I didnt had major problems with my laptop fan, specially since I replaced the thermal paste and removed the dusk filter. (well, I admit I usually have a lot of computers in the same room, that could be also the cause I dont notice it ^^)

maybe the A07 BIOS version works better, but not sure.

about the advantages and disvantages of disable turbo boost.

well, you probably will have lower temps and maybe a more quiet fan, in the other hand you may have less performance on CPU hungry or high demanding apps, since Turbo boost increase the processor clock (speed) when needed.

@daryld1988

thanks, I will give them a try, I also found usefull reading the pdf with the driver changelog while downloading the drivers

 

omg, there must be something wrong with this,(seriusly 1061 DLs of this bios?) there is no way that can be true when the most downloaded bios after that one just have 44 DLs. (the A07 540m version 83/85)

 

I think slowly, but surely, the word is getting out of your fantastic modded bios

There are many L502x GT 540M users with problems (just search "l502x gt540m crash" on the web), so this might contribute to why that particular file has so many downloads.

 

hehe thx

lol yeah, that is true, I also noticed about some users who posted in this topic asking their crashing issues went away with this bios

hey DELL! what about lowering the voltage in your official BIOS to avoid the crashes and fix the temps issues also to the non geek or non OC interested users? , maybe I should email them or something lmao ^^ , nah, probably ignored email and waste of time.

oh, I also got good news, I has been hexreading more files from the BIOS with ahmed's help, and I found a module wich a lot of voltage,BCLK, clock control, cpu frecuency and overclock strings while hexviewing that file,that means there is a lot of chances those awesome overclocking advanced menus are already there, hidden,just awaiting to be unlocked

 

@ Capitan Kasar

Yeah, I've been reading through the BIOS-Mods forum thread, cool stuff in progress!!

You never know, if you email Dell, they might send you a brand new upgraded XPS (or Alienware) to keep you quiet lol