L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

Yeah I figured out it's partly my fan and partly my heatsink. It seems to have worn out... It only spins at 4,000rpm now max from before being 4,600rpm to 4,700rpm which allowed 800mhz to be stable. So I pull the fan and removed the fan from it's bearing and put a drop of oil in the bearing hole. It allowed the fan to spin at 4,100rpm, so I got 100rpm from the oil but it's still not stable. It does however spend more time before crashing at 800mhz. So, I'm going to completely clean and re-oil the fan bearing again using alcohol to clean surfaces and oil to keep things quiet and fast. I ordered a new genuine brand new asus fan and heatsink and a none-genuine standard none-sealed bearing type fan which I may be able to mod to spin even faster than 5,000rpm possibly.

Thanks man yeah it's hardware limited to 1.00v so over volting beyond 1v does nothing. I'm thinking about getting a new board and putting in my ASUS K53SV. The ASUS K55VM is the same style board and looks exactly the same so it will fit in my case. I will have to mod my K53 case to fit it since there are some small variations. However the ASUS K55VM has the GeForce GT 630M 2GB which should yield some gains.

Otherwise I'll be purchasing a new laptop all together. I'm going for Eurocom since you can get a laptop with a 15.6" 1920x1080 lcd with a 2670QM and an insane MXM Video card using the Geforce GTX 670MX it has 3GB of video memory, 256bit memory, and 960 Cuda cores.

The GT540M has 128bit memory width as well as the GT 630M uses that same 128bit memory. The 128bit is what kills the GT540M on top of my laptop only having 1GB of video memory. The GT540M and GT630M have only 96 cuda cores. The GTX 670MX has 256bit memory and 960 cuda cores as well as 3gb of video memory. So I will be able to max out to 1920x1080 in game and all maxed out at perfectly high framerate. The other good thing is the MXM is upgradeable so you can upgrade as new MXM cards come out. Eurocom is the best manufacturer for laptops hands down and with a student or military discount and stripped down with no hard drive is about $1,000 USD. I was going to call them and maybe have it made with no CPU as well to get it down to $850 or so which would be insane. Anyway thanks the GT540M is a nightmare and I'm getting so sick of it!

 

@chris89

oh, so finally the card was hardware limited to 1V

well, this means my mods to your laptop over 1V was useless

well, I supose the same will go for the l502x bioses over 1V

and yeag, getting a laptop with MXM card slot will be good, upgreades are easy like that way

too bad the L502X dont have it, but well, I got it because my money was limited as allways and it was one of the best machines I was able to get with that HW, but hopefully I was able to tune it in order to get most of it



@evilnolo

if the games run ok bu after some mins it go slower, I think maybe the power plan or temperatures have something to do ^_^

also saw your pictures, a max of 96º isnt very good,mine never exceeds 80º, even with OC and very intensive games.

I suggest you the hardware mods we discussed here (repaste and dust filter removal)

consider also running a 0.85/0.85v modded bios for the l502x

this one should be the best choice for you
http://l502x.lag.re/L502X_A12_525m_85_85_Unlocked_Menus_v5.rar

also set max performance on nvidia control panel settings

 

When I play games with the .83/.98v mod, my computer just randomly restarts. Also, I've repasted my GPU and CPU but when running prime95 and msi kombuster my temps get to 98º, is that normal?

 

@Mang0
while playing games?

or when not using the gpu at all?

well, msi kombustor and prime95 stress the machine to the max, and specially if you run them at the same time, and with 0.98v you will get a higher temps, try cleaning the dust and removing the dustfilters if you didnt yet.

also try the 0.85v 0.85v bios I posted In the previous post

 

Oh thanks a lot, Ive been reading around the forums, and I deactivated turboboost in the Bios, It helped, my game no longer stutters (but i have tried only for a short time). Could that be the cause?... Also I guess Ill have to do the dust filter thingy, do you have some kind of guide over here that I can follow?

Im already running the 0.85 modded bios.

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

@evilnolo
well, keep testing with turbo disabled to see if that was the issue.
however , keep checking the temps, keep also in mind doind the dust filter thing will improve the temps a lot

 

Thanks!

I dusted muy laptop yesterday and removed this things from the main (center) hatch https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0wud5y5tw4x23h/2013-04-08 12.39.38.jpg , are those the dust filters?

I guess (from the videos of how to open the laptop) that the dust filter that matters most is the one to the left, just by the side of the air vent? Is there where the GPU is?

However with this 2 simple changes, I was able to play Tomb Raider for half an hour and my max temp was 80, so that is a huge change.

 

@evilnolo

yeah, those are the dust filters

however, by removing just the ones from the center hatch, it may just give a very small improvement, because the main dust filter to be removed is under the CPU fan at the case.

yes, that is, the most affecting one is the another one, take appart the whole laptop is required in order to access the dust filter under the system fan.

 

@capitankasar

Oh I see, so I guess I'll have the adventure of opening the laptop :S, I will also repaste the thing once I manage to open it.

Are there any negative side effects to keep the turbo boost off?

Thanks again.

 

@evilnolo
well, take this laptop appart at least once is recomendable, the dust filters removal and repaste are rally a "must have" mods, there are also some other interesting hardware mods like internal usb, bios sockets installation, internal switches for battery, etc ...


as for negative effects of turn turboboost off, well, it will keep turbo disabled, this means your cpu will not take advantage of the turbo frecuencies and will not reach anything over the stock frecuencies, this can be good for i3, but not very recomendable for i5 and i7 if you need demanding apps, but since you said you are ok with current fix, keep that

I would disable the C-states at the advanced bios features and set everything else on max performance, on bios and windows , power plan and gpu options.

 

@capitankasar

I am really not that technologically capable to do some of those mods. Although I have seen the tutorials. I have not seen or know about the internal battery switch, what does this do?

I have i7 so maybe after I do all the pasting and dust filter removal I re enable turbo boost and see how it goes. I'll check on to those other settings in the Bios then, C-states and Max performance on everything.

Also I'm sorry to have hijacked this thread. Im guessing all of this talk could be better suited in the L502x overclocking thread or something? Thanks a lot once again.

 

@evilnolo
yeah, dont worry, some of those mods are a little advanced, so as for now, the recomended ones are repaste and dust filter removal.

the internal battery switch is not needed at all, its just something I made to fast disconnect the CMOS battery (the cmos battery is needed to keep some bios settings like the system time)

welll, this topic also cover the L502X overclocking, since the original idea of the L502X was to enchance the ststem performance and lower the temperatures.

as far I know, at the L502X, GPU overclocking can be easly done with software like MSI afterburner.

but general overclocking is not posible without hardware mods, as far I know, I am the only one wich unlocked the general overclocking by tweaking the BCLK, it require advanced firmware flashing like a intel ME patch I made for this machine and the previous unlock of the descriptor (the descriptor controls what areas of the flash chip are readables/writables and to apply the ME patch, we need to unlock the ME region obiusly to be patched with software.)

 

@capitankasar

I'll be doing those mods then and buying a cooling pad also .

Yes Ive been using MSI afterburner. Once I manage to do the mods Ill try to OC a little bit. Do you have some recommended OC numbers that have proved to be stable for you? (knowing that Im on the .85 and have done the dust filter removal and re-pasting)

Thanks.

 

@evilnolo

yeah, cooling pads also help too

about OC, it differs from GPUs, it means it can be good for me but crash for you, or reverse.

at the moment I am running 700 mhz OC on my 525m at 0.85v/0.85v without issues, I just had to lower it for some games like dead space games, but run fine for other games.

 

@capitankasar

Well I have also a 525m paired with te hd intel 3000... so I could try your settings then? You leave the Shader and memory clock on default and just modify the core clock?

Edit: Do you recommend any special kind of cooling pad?

 

@evilnolo

well, you can start with 700mhz for testing, if it doesnt crash and you feel you can get more of it, try higher values, if it stop crashing, turn the OC down until it stop crashing

and I would focus on core clock, I didnt touched memory OC a lot.

I dont use a cooling pad, so I cant recomend you any

 

Request

I need ask a favor to anyone who have plans of taking appart his L502X in the following days.

if posible, I would like to get HI-res pictures of the onboard chips from the motherboard so the chip labels are readable,
something like this:



but from all the chips.

I have suspects one of the realtek chips may be compatible with a pinmod.

the goal of this is simplify the hardware overclocking process.

as for the moment, the process is very complex, it need a hardware programmer and desolder the whole chip.
but if this work, all of those would be unnecesary, it would be as easy as bridge a pin.

that would bypass the descriptor settings and enable ME region changes, that will allow my OC patch to be flashed without too much hardware messing.

at the moment I cant take appart my unit again for some reasons.

if someone is interested with contribudes with some pics, just let me to know

help apreciated

thanks

 

I everyone. My Dell L502x crash during gameplay (freeze).

it seems if i flash a custom bios, it can fix my problem. The bios version on my laptop is A12.

Wich custom bios i have to choose to fix my problem ?

Thanks and sorry for my bad english, i'm french.

 

@alphine03

if you have the gt540m, try this one:

http://l502x.lag.re/L502X_A12_540m_83_85_Unlocked_Menus_v5.rar

 

Thanks a lot for the quick answer, it seems to work !

 

i have some questions. if I use a modded bios would it void my warranty? Also could i go back to the dell bios if i decide to?

 

@zombiefan

not sure about the warranty, but you allways can flash back the original one.

for that , run the flash_the_original_bios file instead the modded one

 

Can everybody please state their current stable clocks? I'm having some trouble. I downloaded and applied the bios 0.85/0.85 cause I wanted to overclock to 740/1480/1080 but then it was winter. Now in the summer the whole computer crashes. Maybe it's the game (AOE 3) but can you please suggest stable overclocks and state the ones you are currently running on. Thankyou.

 

@bkr

stable clocks differs for everyone


for example, I have a 525m running at 0.85/0.85 and my stable clock are at 700 mhz, if I push a little more it crash, so I let it on 700 mhz

also you are OCing the memory a lot, try running the GPU with stock memory clocks (900 mhz) and check if it runs ok.


I suggest ensure the core is stable before going memory OC

 

Yes, it runs stable on stock clocks (stock voltage). I've already told you my overclock.

 

then, keep testing until you found the point you can get most of the system without crashes

on overclocking, testing and more testing is the only thing to do ^^

 

My gpu isnt detected anymore after flashing the .83/.90 mod
Also, could you make a .80/,98 mod for 525M and if I have UEFI boot enabled, should I disable Legacy Boot?

 

@Mang0

mmm, that is strange, did you tried to load bios default settings and reflash that version?

I uploaded the version you requested (a12,v5, 525m,.80v/0.98v)

 

The highest stable OC I can get with my GT 540M on my L502x is 780/1560/900 (haven't OC memory as it causes problems). Games like Bioshock and SC2 run okay but run better when I overclock the core to ~800 MHz, the problem here is that after a few minutes of gameplay the game will freeze and the sound will stutter. I can close the game via task manager, sometimes the whole laptop freezes so a forced restart is required.

To compensate for this I used a 1V (3D profile) BIOS, this gave a lot of extra heat (75 - > 80) and hence the fans go crazy. The overclock with this amount of voltage is still the same, anything above 780 is unstable, even with increased voltage.

A friend of mine has the 635M in an ASUS laptop. Her card easily does 800 MHz on the core, can probably do more. With the standard voltage. Temperatures are okay too. Runs Bioshock and SC2 perfectly.

Anything else I could try to get a better core clock? Currently I have reverted back to 0.85V (3D profile).

Thanks for everything you've done with this project and to those who have contributed.

 

Each chip will overclock differently and the 635M is the same as a 555M so it has a different GPU, so if someone else gets ~800 MHz yours might go higher or lower. For temperatures, if you haven't repasted your GPU and CPU, that would lower temperatures.

 

According to benchmarks it is only faster by the 555M by a few percent.

I understand the variance in chips, I just want to know what methods there are to get the most out of mine. I've seen someone here post theirs up to 890 MHz! (With memory overclock too!)

I have repasted GPU and CPU and removed all dust filters. AS5 was used. Temperatures are okay.

Why doesn't the higher voltage help much?

 

Capitainkasar could you make an A12 BIOS overvolted to 1V?

 

0.85v is what gave me best temperature and performance results for my 525m, it seems also fine for most 540m users.

higher voltage doesnt means allways the best OC results, thats why testing different versions result is recomended



@Muswolf

added 1V versions for both 525m and 540m gpus

 

Okay I'll try the 0.85V again, I am on 1V A11 atm and it is terrible, keeps crashing.

Why does the whole laptop crash then? Surely its because of insufficient voltage? I thought increasing the voltage would fix this problem.

Thanks! I'll try it now.

EDIT:

1V A12 crashed to BSOD with DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION error, I don't have an SSD so its hardware related.

Going to install the NVidia driver from the Dell website and test it with 0.85V.

This is all with 780/1560/900.

 

not sure, the whole laptop crash sometimes when the GPU driver crash, sometimes with newer drivers I was able to recover from crashes, some other not.

in dead space games, idk why the whole laptop started rebooting when I OCed the GPU or CPU

 

I'm trying some old drivers now, the ones on the Dell website. If they're no better I'll just reinstall the newest ones as they have performance improvements for the latest games.

Bioshock Infinite is a sensitive game in regards to GPU OC, crashes even with a mild one for me. I completed it now though so I don't have to worry about it. Now my focus is on getting the max stable OC with SC2.

Also running the Dell Diagnostic tool to check for hardware problems, the one of the recovery partition detected nothing.

I understand some chips are better than others, but how can someone easily manage a core of 890 MHz and now it seems my highest stable OC is ~750 MHz after tweaking the voltage all day?

 

there are some theories like the OC applies extra degradation at the system parts.

it makes sense since you are forcing the parts over its original specs.

I belive thats why.

it can be cause also due other reason like dust obstructing the heatsinks or fans, higher temperatures ... etc

there are many factors with can cause that

 

With low voltages the game crashes due to insufficient voltage. With high voltages it would crash due to temperature more likely than insufficient voltage, correct?

0.85V allows stable 780/900. I may add some to the memory clock as max CPU temperature was 80 and GPU was 71, to see if it boosts performance (as it is DDR3).

 

yeah, that is, voltage is important.

low voltage keep the GPU cool, but you have to provide enough to keep it working properly

higher voltage can overheat the GPU or even damage on extreme conditions.

best one is intermediate/fixed one.

my recomendation is 0.85v, it seems to be the one with better results to everyone.

anyway, feel free to test other voltages if you feel you can get more from the GPU

as for the memory overclock.

I dont recomend to mess with it, at least not before you ensured your core OC is stable.

this is recomended to make sure the crashes are caused by memory OC and not core.

memory OC make the gpu get more hot, and usually unstable too ^^

 

At 0.85V 780MHz on the core is stable. So I'm gonna start adding 10 MHz onto the memory until I get artifacts/instability.

Considering abandoning the 540M and going down the eGPU route. My laptop has no ExpressCard so I would have to do a DIY method with a mPCIe to ExpressCard adapter or something on those lines with a GPU and PSU. Thoughts?

 

well, when I bough this laptop, the 525m card was ok for most games, but now it bottleneck the machine, eGPU is probably the only posible graphics upgreade for this laptop using a mini-pci port
I think someone posted about using a eGPU here.

he mentionated the A12 version of the BIOS (original or modded) doesnt work with the eGPU, but the A11 does perfectly.keep that in mind if you are going to use it ^^

 

Yeah, it's a bit expensive though.

Okay thanks for the info, if I go ahead with it I'll flash the A11 BIOS, should resolve it.

Here's a thread of someone who managed to do it with a L502X, I've posted on here to see if they can help me get it all setup, I'll keep you updated.

Dell XPS 15 L502x + PE4H-PM3N + GTX 650 Ti @ 1.1Opt

Thanks again.

UPDATE:

Setting up a GTX 650Ti (~£110) with the PE4L-PM060A (~£60) and CoolerMaster Elite (~£30). It will be PCIe 2.0 so almost like PCIe 3.0 speeds!

 

@capitankasar

Sorry for the rather late reply
When the cd is in you can hear the cdrom spinning but the button keeps blinking and the screen stays dark.
I tried the usb idea you gave, but that just comes up with :

Remove disks or other media.
Press any key to restart
(i press any key)
Operation system not found

Any ideas on how to sort this out, been busy with work so had no time to try and fix it. Got some time now and am considering just reinstalling windows, would prefer an alternative though

Cheers in advance.

 

@pogster88

well, you can reinstall windows if your BIOS is partially damaged (I think that was your problem ^^)

as for the fix, you got it

you was able to boot the recovery capsule from the usb.

then it means your system seems unable to boot the recovery capsule from the CD-rom, but it does from the usb stick.

then do following, place the BIOS.cap file at the root of the usb stick (wel, I think you already made this)
now place the usb stick at the usb from the right (usb esata combo one)
place the recovery cdrom inside.

keep those usb and cd inside and follow the whole process of the recovery proccess from the first post.

you should be able to recover it by following that

 

Hey guys I've ordered an MSI GTX 660 with a CoolerMaster Elite 460W PSU. Also on the way is a PE4L-PM060A which will allow me to connect everything up. Once I recieve everything I'll update you again. So far this has costed me ~£235 and I'm looking at paying an extra £10 for some software to get it to work. Expensive, but the GTX 660 can max out games at 1080p so I should be good for a couple of years!

 

@capitankasar

Well i tried the duo cd rom and usb combo and i guess you can say there was some progress.
The power button stops blinking at some point and load screen appears. I then select cd/dvd and then this comes up:

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1 (build 083)
Copyright bla bla bla

This product is covered by one or more of the following patents:
US5, 459 US5 etc. etc.

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Series v2.37 (10/28/10)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM


Any ideas? Turns out as a cruel twist of fate, i don't have my windows CD with me so I'm gonna have to just figure out a way to fix this

 

Also I'm not 100% sure if this is relevant but from everything iv read about PXE-E61 people say its a boot order problem.
My boot order is the default one, removable drive, hard drive, usb storage device (this one does not appear on boot list, only in bios set up), cd/dvd/cd rw drive, esata, network, diagnostics.
No idea if this is useful or not but thought i would post it just in case

Edit:

In case anyone reads this post before my other post is approved by an admin, this is a follow up post. Just making sure there is no confusion

 

How come when I run Kombuster or Furmark to test my overclocks, they're very stable even if I run it for days but when I play games it just crashes in a few minutes?

 

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-58997.iso
Thats Windows 7 Home Premium x64, burn it onto a disk and you can install from there.

 

Thats what was happening to me too on .98v mods.

More voltage doesn't always it will be more stable. Sometimes the chip just doesn't overclock well.