L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

@tw,

Thanks for replying.

They differs only from form factor, no speed advantages, right?

 

Hi CapitanKasar!

Passing by just to thank you for your effort and work, helping strangers around the world (i'm from Brazil, and by names, i know there are a couple more on this thread too) =D
I have a DELL XPS 15 i7 (L502X, 2nd gen.) and got the same problem within video card. Any use of the GT540M could crash the whole system making me hard-reboot the notebook. A day before yesterday i flashed your modded bios (A12, recommended one) and lowered clock to 625MHz with nVidia Inspector. Tested 2 times, for about 3~4hours each, straight, and no crash or reboot at all. Playing League of Legends and Awesomenauts (both aren't cpu leechers, but still...), seeing vids and etc, which would normally not work.

I'll be testing a bit more, with more games and etc, but wanted to really thank you.


Ps.: did any1 here experienced problems with the HDMI port? I searched a bit but couldn't find anything related. Also, i was having the problem before the bios flash, so im just wondering.
Ps2.: what about you post a "buy me a beer" link, so to whom want (and can), will be able to pay you an ice cold beer? :hi2:

 

@Cassianno

thank you for your comments

well, if you are already using the low voltage bios, you can try raising a little the clock, maybe to 650m mhz.
anyway you may already tested it and lowered if it is unstable.

I experienced some issues with the hdmi port when OCing the GPU and with some apps using the GPU wich was not suposed to do.

my advice is go to nvidia control panel, set the prefered gpu to nvidia card, and then set all the non 3d intensive apps such as windows live mail, skype, and all the other desktop stuff manually to intel graphics until no one app is using nvidia gpu, you can check apps using gpu at the nvidia activity tray icon.

first test it with the laptop screen, and then try connect it to the tv via hdmi.

I also had some issues with the hdmi getting a black and white image, however that got fixed by reinstalling graphics drivers.

what kind of issues you are having?
crashing, image distorsions, freezes ?

lol, about that link, I previously posted a donate button on my sig and the first post, but the moderatos removed it fast , they started asking it is against rules and bla bla bla bla, so I supose the same history will go with that kind of links xD

 

Hi, general question on the modded BIOS for a 540M L502X ...

My son currently has this system. To eliminate the crashes he was getting with some racing games I used NVIDIA System Tools to underclock the 540M to 600 MHz. Now if I install the 0.85v BIOS mod should I be able to eliminate the underclocking, or are users still underclocking to totally eliminate any crashes? Thanks for the info.

 

Form factor is identical, electrical requirements for mSATA and mPCI-E do differ and thus you can't put an mSATA disk in mPCIE slot. This generation of laptops has no mSATA support and v secondary slot it's only meant for WWAN cards.

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk 4

 

@jrbdmb

users who installed the 0.85v bios reported the crashes were gone or greatly reduced allowing at leat some higher clocks or even default ones in most cases.

go for it

feel also free to test the advanced version of the bios with updated and unlocked stuff ^^

 

Oh well, those moderators...

My problem is just complete distortion of screen hehe. A total "mix" of colors... really strange. With notebook screen everything is fine. I'll try to clean up the port and get a better HDMI cable, just in case...
About the GPU clock, yes, ill try to raise a bit, but for the games i'm playing, even the onboard is enough, so i'm really not losing anything hehe.
About setting up the profile, i usually put everything on onboard and only the couple games i play on offboard. To ensure, sometimes i change the global profile.

 

oh, I see.

do the whole thing get those strange colors since the begining?

mine was black and white last time I used hdmi, had to reinstall nvidia drivers to fix it.
now it runs perfect.

try also give a check to the PC windows resolution/ color options and nvidia control panel, also to the tv configuration, and if posible try on another TV if you arent using other hdmi devices on it to ensure the tv isnt the cause

 

Well, still seeing a crash with the 0.85v mod and iRacing (though much better than the multiple crashes observed recently). Hopefully underclocking a bit (either to 650 or 600 MHz) will eliminate the issue. But I am liking the reduced heat output, thanks!

 

Just wanted to post thanks for this great thread.

Got my XPS 15 just how I like it now This really is the best forum thread I've ever seen in my life, I'll say it again!

 

@jrbdmb

glad to see things got improved

let us to know if with 650 mhz it works ^^

@justinkb

lol

there are better threads I think, thanks you so much anyway

 

Hi

I have Dell xps 15 l502xwith gt540m.

Crashes randomly maybe due to overheat? Used to be able to run Street fighter 4, Lol, any game and it wouldn't crash but I've had it over a year now and it crashes alot. I reduced gpu clock speed and it helped a little. I tried to flash a lower voltage bios but it didn't work, it said same or newer already installed? I have bios A12 installed and i'm not sure which one to use.

I heard maybe this problem is also related to not enough power from a tired charger. I moved to Japan and I know the power from the outlet is a little lower than UK. For example my hair dryer runs half power. Maybe this is why my laptop can't chug out enough? I'm not sure the problem really. any advice?

 

@shibbyiu

yeah, overheat is usually an issue at this laptop.

however this can be fixed easly by some hardware tweaks like repaste, clean heatsink and fan, and remove the dustfilter.
lower voltage GPU also helps a lot.

that is not posible, my flashing script already overide the version check.

are you flashing the bios using the .bat file script I provided?

check the first post for more info.

not sure about your power issues, never saw anyone at this topic with those kind of issues.

 

Hi, I know i'm kind of a noob in such things, but, I have a L502X, and when I play games plugged in, it freezes/crashes after maybe 15/20 min. This never happens when on battery. I assume it must be related to overheating of some kind. I thought using a custom bios to tweak my graphic card could help in that, but knowing you guys are the professionals, i wanted to know what do you think i should do, and which bios should i use. I don't really know wether i have to downclock my GPU or change the voltage or anything.

Thanks in advance!

 

@NoName320

on battery it disable or limit a lot of things since the powersave stuff.

thats why it run on better peformance on charger pluged and also crashes usually happens there.

try the undervolted bios we suggested, and if crashes still happening even with the undervolted bios, you will have to underclock the gpu core a little.

repaste, remove dust filters and cleaning heatsinks and fan also helps to redue heat ^^

if u have the problematic gt540m , try this one

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

 

I think the laptop is too difficult to open up. I saw a video and it looked very confusing, if i break this laptop my world gonna end since I live in a foreign country with barely anyone to talk to and this laptop is essential for work, if it breaks I'll look like an idiot infront of about 1000people. Anyway I used the undervolt bios and my card is also underclocked and I was able to play a bit of League of legends and Duel of champions just fine for maybe 8 hours. I got a little excited and loaded up Street Fighter 4 but it crashed almost immediatly. I did turn the graphics card clock back up for that game though, I used to be able to run it 60fps+ on everything maxxed out, with the clock lower the game runs around 60fps with settings lowered but its not good enough. Feel so sad, Bought this laptop to play that game, I used to run it on low settings on a 1.66ghz dual core. It worked for about a year but now it sucks.

Undervolt might have fixed the crash with underclock, but its annoying, games like diablo 3, starcraft 2,sfivae, really need default clock on the graphics card.makes the difference with about 5fps too low. diablo 3 chug-a-thon often or rarely. I live in Japan where everything is overpriced but maybe a laptop repair shop can do something about it. Not sure i'm comfortable with them poking around with it though, the world thinks Japan is advanced but actually its not.

 

@shibbyiu

the default clock is 675 or 672 for the gt540m

what are the settings you lowered it?

you just need to lower it slowly until it stop crashing, basically keep it the higher posible without crashes.

 

Its on 532/780 at the moment. Preeeetty low. This is what minimized crashing before the undervolt. I only tried SFIVAE on default clock and it crashed immediatly. My cpu also limited to 99% to prevent turbo boost. Pretty annoying trying to play anything really, wind waker is full 30fps 99% ofthe time but the 1% its not makes me want to switch off. I think sfivae is a lost cause, that game and HOMM 6 demo crash almost instantaneously. HOMM6 is supposed to be goosed for nvidia cards.

I found the section for stuff like arctic five in a department store but didnt have the balls to buy it.

 

Hello again CaptainKasar,

Do you think we can upgrade the Wifi card to Intel 7260 Dual band N?

ARK | Intel® Dual Band Wireless-N 7260

 

Hello guys and many thanks to capitankasar and all the guys that are working on this project!

I'm just letting you know my intentions with what you already done within my first post here coz i'm really tired and need to sleep ( all night searching and testing possible fixes-workarounds for the L502X freezing/crashing gaming problem )

In my next post i will let u know what partially worked for me till now with what i did ( if it really interest you ) and i will ask for a guidance on which of the L502X modded bioses i could use for my gt540m.

As i said i will ask for a guidance, so details about my system will be posted as soon as i sit again in-frond of the laptop... Note that may take 1-2 days coz i'm kinda focused on my uni exams now!
I'm willing to test a lot with your modded bioses, so temps, clocks, etc will always included from now on.

Till next post, keep on the great job you are doing!!!

Many thanks again,
andrkour

PS: I am really sorry if my English are a bit bad, haven't written for a long time since i'm a Cypriot studying in Greece.

 

Anyone know which is better to disable to reduce CPU temps: turboboost or hyperthreading?
My graphics card has been crashing, but the temps have been rather low (maxes at 70 C). However, my CPU hits 95 C at the same time.
I'm pretty sure its heating up the heat sink faster than the fan can cool it, so after a few games, the graphics driver crashes due to what seems to be overheating.

Edit: Did some testing.
Disabling turbo boost reduced temperatures up to 20 degrees C in one game of League of Legends. (Hitting only 75 from 95 before)
Disabling HT reduced temps less, but still significantly. (Hitting up to 85 from 95 before)
However, disabling turbo boost hurt gaming performance for me significantly, as LoL isn't optimized for multicore I think. Ended up disabling HT.

 

Hey guys!
I am using the undervolted bios and did the mods to improve the airflow and also the repasting and my temps improved a lot but recently they are up again so I want to repaste again. I think the cpu heat sink doesn't fit correctly because of the thermal pads on the gpu memory, I read in some forums that there were some people who swapped the pads for a thermal paste. Would it be adviseable to remove the pads, I think there would be a gap between the heat sink and the memory chips though I think the heatsink would fit better on the cpu and the gpu. What do you think?

 

@ airstev

Personally, I would leave the pads on the memory as they do help dissipate head. They also compress very well so I don't think they will have too much of an effect on fitting the heat sink.

@ NovaTornado

How are you disabling Turbo-Boost? - Just FYI, you can set CPU Max State in Windows power management to 99% and this effectively disables turbo. You can then create shortcuts and hotkeys to different power plans so you can disable turbo with essentially the press of a button for different types of games!

 

CPU is way too hot shouldn't get 85C at full turbo boost, you have a poor connection between the cpu and the heatsink. That or just need to mod the fan to full speed via vga bios mod, I could build one for you if you want.

GPU is unstable because of voltage regulators overheating.

Figured something out about not only the gt 540m but all laptop gpu's and all laptops!

When overclocking the gpu the only real stability issue is the Voltage regulators for the gpu. They are open on the board and have no heatsinks or anything. Add ultra low profile copper heatsinks to the voltage regulators and you can push the overclock.

The only reason why any overclock crashes and why anything beyond 1v is not obvious is because the voltage regulator over heats instantly and becomes unstable.

Add heatsinks to the voltage regulators and push beyond 1v which is in fact a true voltage it will do, just have to keep the voltage regulators cool.

I pushed mine to 900Mhz core clock after adding copper heatsinks to the voltage regulator and had to pump 1.125v into to pull off 900mhz!!! Huge Heat but it's stable and damn near 20FPS increase from 800MHZ!!!

Oh yeah and don't mod the casing of the laptop by increasing the air intake hole. It's actually IDEAL to just block the air intake like put something over the hole. Then crank the fan to 100% either through GPU bios mod or hardware fan mod. That way the fan will suck the heat from the inside casing including the voltage regulators and provide epic stability and better temps!

Later

 

@chris89

thanks for the info

do you have pics of your mod?

It should be usefull to all gt540m and maybe gt525m users too since the gpu is really similar to know how the voltage regulators looks and where they are located.
also watching the heatsinks you used would be interesting

 

Hello .

I have problems in my XPS l502x
stutter in any game and become very hot and i can hear the noise of fan .
any one see this problem before ?

 

@bassemmixez

if you have the gt540m gpu then it is a pretty common issue, if you have the 540m try flashing this bios

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

about the noise of the fan, not sure if it sounds blocked or something like that, you may need to clean the fan, heatsinks and remove dustfilters to keep or improve the system cooling efectivity

 

yes i have this 540 m
i already try some bios but i will try this now .

 

can u tell me which best driver for GT 540 m .

I install the last one 326.80

plz if u know one better than this let me know

 

mmm, there isnt a better driver, latest ones usually are the most complete and better ones

I am running 314.22 WHQL now

 

I found that 320.49 causes the least amount of issues since i tested the beta drivers and noticed some weird hitching in some games. You can run 775 maybe 800 core clock if ur fan is at 100% too

This ultra low profile heatsink can be used to cool the cpu voltage regulators and the gpu regulators, but they both may be together. So the vregs are by the cpu socket but also may be found around the gt540m...

1 of these heatsinks per VREGS, meaing one can cool all of the individual regulators. Add them using thermal adhesive, mod vga bios to 100% fan or pull "PWM" probably yellow since red is positive and black is negative so yellow has to be PWM signal. I'd just mod vga bios to 100% it's easier and u can revert without pulling the laptop apart again.

The cpu socket is in the middle, to the left is the gpu, top is northbridge. If the northbridge doesn't have a heatsink on it or any cooling from the stock heatsink. It will require an additional heatsink to keep things stable. There are tons of vulnerable spots to make this laptop fail over time, Not unlike ALL other manufacturers. These chips NEED to be cooled for long long life span. However we should all learn to except engineers and companies cut corners to make more $$$$$$$$$. So it's not about a Superior product, it's about making a crappy product PRETTY so people will buy it. Go Eurocom as your next laptop company, it will NEVER disappoint because there is NO SUCH THING as INSTABILITY on Eurocom laptops. Eurocom laptop bios have an enormous amount of options/ features since the company writes custom made bios to all laptops. Chalked full of out of the box overclocking.

 

Ah crap, I just repasted my laptop this summer too. Maybe I messed something up when putting it back together. Took the heat sink off after initial paste application to see if it was spreading evenly and just stuck it back on without more paste.

I ended up disabling turbo boost after a trial run with HT off. I end up still crashing with turbo on, much less often with only HT on and cooling off periods between games. Also dropped the clock speed of my GT540m down a bit to help...

 

Yeah pull it apart and clean the heatsink and chips off flawlessly. Then first set the heatsink back on and make sure it doesn't teeter totter on the chip if the heatsink isn't sitting flat. Bend it a couple times and put the heatsink back on and look at the contact of the GPU and CPU at an angle to see what kind of contact your getting. It needs to be PERFECTLY flat on the CPU and GPU to get perfect cooling performance. Once you get it bent just right be VERY careful not to bend it out of whack.

Just add a dot to the cpu/ gpu/ northbridge if the northbridge is cooled. Then use your finger to spread a thin layer perfectly even across the DIODE. Then place heatsink on and press on the heatsink directly above the CPU/ GPU/ Northbridge DIODE to make sure contact is perfect. Then tight in CRISS-CROSS like tightening a Cylinder head on an engine, or Lug nuts on a car. That way you don't have all the pressure on the left side of the chip. You want EVEN contact.

GOOD LUCK BUDDY

 

I dont think I can bend the heatsink. If I remember correctly, its a pretty thick bar of copper. I'll try repasting again over thanksgiving break. :x Damn, this laptop is a to take apart. Also, the repasting guide had all its images removed I think xD Thanks for your help though.

 

Once you do it enough you'll have it apart in 5min.... 20 to perfect the re-paste, 5 to put back together.

Shouldn't be too bad. Good luck

Sometimes you need to make sure contact is perfect with these cheap laptops it's crap quality so they bend once touched.

Insure perfect contact and bend the pipe if needed to ensure perfect contact and the pipe bends easy just bend tiny amounts of needed... obviously you have issues with the heatsink connection because 95C is poor connection/ poor re-paste. A poor re-paste won't do 95C because it will be a complete disconnection with zero contact well 5% or so if its hitting 95C it throttled or it wouldn've hit 150C in a hurry. If the repaste is done right, right away you will see 30C on CPU and GPU at idle and maybe 75-80C Max in turbo hyper threading mode with full cpu/ gpu load. I see 65C on gpu and maybe 80C on the 3Ghz turbo boosted 2720qm with Hyper threading enabled... I only see 80C when under insane gpu/ cpu load. Just Insure a Perfect re-paste and dial back the clock on the cpu via Windows power options the max percentage to 99% to start and maybe 95% if it's still too hot. Just an FYI all games on the planet right now run perfectly with no reduction in fps at just 1.6Ghz with hyper threading enabled and temps are super low... That's what I do...

 

Hello my friend
i try play Fifa 14 demo but it still stutter

any other solution for this ???

 

@chris89

<3333 you for that last post edit

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...wnload-gpu-voltages-more-224.html#post9374460

how do you attach the heatsinks? well, more specifically how you prevent them from get away from the regulators, hotglue? you use thermal paste also?


PS: those eurocom laptops really looks great, I think my next laptop will be one of that


@bassemmixez

if you are already using the undervolted bios, you may have to underclock the gpu core a little too.

it is on 675 by default

try move it to 650, or 640

 

i flash the version that u give me it .
How i underlock the gpu ??
using program or what ?

 

@bassemmixe
yes, use msi afterburner, it is at the first post.

anyway, how your gpu temps are going? you may need to repaste it and remove the dustfilters if you didnt yet.

 

http://img.techpowerup.org/130919/nvidia_20130920_002013.png

 

How i make this ?

repaste it and remove the dustfilters

 

@bassemmixez

well, I would not use nvidia inspector to OC, some people reported issues with it.

I suggest to use MSI AFTERBURNER instead, like I said it is at the first post, downclocking the core is as easy as move the core slider to lower values.

to repaste and remove the dustfilters you will need to take appart the whole laptop, if you feel ready there are several guides at this forum ^^

I think I linked some of them at the first post too.

 

please check

 

@bassemmixez

good, not sure why it doesnt show the driver version or the shader clock slider, but yeah, thats how the underclock should be
apply, let the app opened, and try gamming with 640 mhz as core, let see if it crash with that values.

 

it still crach but when i check the value when i playing i found it reach to max

plz check the pic and let me know if this problem have solution

 

well, your max core value goes to 641 in the graphic, so it keep your custom value.

try lower the core even more, to 620

if it still crashing, try lower the memory to something lower like 850 mhz,

if it still crashing with 600 mhz core and 850 mhz memory, then your gpu may be damaged or bad cooled, if it fails with the 600 and 850 values, I would try to take appart the machine and fix the cooling system.

you can also try lowering those values even more, however the performance will be really poor.

 

my laptop stopped crashing on league of legends.

but its kinda weird, will crash immediatly on streetfighter iv.

world of warcraft, i can play all day, but for some reason at night time it crash immediatly, i touch the laptop and it is not hot so i have no idea.

 

sorry i have no idea how to edit.

during one crash i was able to alt tab for a moment and checked my gpu clock speeds. even though i had lowered them, during the crash the nvidia settings was showing as default settings. i dont know why, maybe when it derps it resets the setting.

 

well, yes, in my case, when the OC is unstable, the gt525m reset down to 600 mhz.

in your case, I think you are downclocking, however, it runs unstable and it get to the default clocks, wich are higher and even more unstable.

well, you dont have many options, try repaste the machine if you didnt, you also may have to downclock even more, the memory too, if still doesnt working, yout GPU may be damaged and you may need a motherboard replacement

 

GPU is not hot when it crashes but the CPU is. I noticed that WoW also loads very slowly sometimes and then will crash after 2mins of standing around a city. Other times the game loads very fast and I can do anything for 8 hours no problem.

League of legends first game to have crash problem but now it runs fine.

I miss playing SFIVAE though, another cpu intensive game.

Starcraft 2 never crashes but crappy looking Duel of champions (a card game) would crash.

Its almost asif when a particular effect occurs the game will crash. Very rarely their is graphical errors in games, in WoW i have a quest item but the description background is luminous green.

How can i replace my motherboard, I'm out of warranty and live in Japan. Next to akihabara maybe some geeks their can fix it but i dont trust them with my laptop. If i ask them to repaste i think they will charge me so much money and take a long time.