L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

@micmax

Did a few quick tests:

Prime95 only (In-Place Large FFTs/8 Thread)

75-82C
The 2630QM however reduces it's 2.60GHz turbo down to 2.20GHz after 1 min, constant 77-80 @2.2GHz. Interesting that there is a 5C variation in temperatures between core 1 & 4; likely a poor repaste on my behalf.

Furmark only (Dynamic Backgound/Xtreme burn-in/Post FX/1366x768)


Stock 672/1000
Max stabilised temp of 64C after 3 mins
OC'ed 780/985
Temperatures immediately jumped to 68C and remained stable for further 3 mins

Simultaneously for 3mins (OC'ed GPU)

CPU @ 86-90C, automatically down clocked to 2.0GHz after 1 min and remained at ~90C (reached 94C initially)
GPU @ 77-80C

^^Because of the XPS's shared heat pipe by the CPU and GPU, I think this is it's biggest weakness ^^

Ambient temperature: ~18C

At the standard voltage, the GPU would easily reach 85C+

I regularly play SCII - if I remember correctly generally the CPU reaches a max of about 81C @2.60GHz turbo (50% usage/4 thread) and GPU a max of 70C (OC'ed 100% usage). This is probably a better real life scenario.

PS: Dust filter has been removed and repasted with AC MX-4

 

Update 3:
Dust filter has been removed and repasted with Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra.

Prime 95 (Inlarge) together with Furmark Burn in.
2670QM (99%) goes up to max. 88 C°; 540m (760/950) to 77 C° max.

3D6@775/975/CPU full performance = 64 °C max. GPU, 10329 P.
2670QM = 78 C° max.

Idle, Powersave-Modus, GPU Temps 40 - 44 C°, CPU 40 -55 C°. Depending Fan on/off.


Great Temps. i think. Don't know whether Liquid Ultra or the dustfilter makes the difference, may be both.

 

:O
nice!
that is definitly the true ICE edition of the XPS 15 laptop

PS: I added you to the first post matix ^_^

 

@ micmax

Those are some nice temps you have there, escpecially with the 2670QM

 

Yes, indeed, but in central europe it's winter now.

 

Haha, im living in germany and there is basically winter too, but the winter doesnt reach my room Due to walls and stuff
Nevertheless, your temps are great! I will definitely do it myself.

/Dev

 

hi, when u say bf3 run very smooth u are talking about single or multyplayer? because with my i5 and oc vga to 710mhz i cant run game iso smooth.....

and for an online gaming 60 and more fps are the only solution.

when i play under 60 frame it become unplayable.

 

I only play SP. I assume in MP you need an i7 much more than i need.

 

edit-----pls delete

 

Hi all,
that mate he is talking about is me .

I am using

since a few days now, tested it playing SCII. Without the mod I had following temps for my cores:
core0: 99
core1: 98
core2: 100
core3: 99

With the patch it worked fine, highest temp peak was 85°C. Weird is, for some reason it only worked for one day. First I thought a reboot after I installed the mod & it was working fine somehow reset the bios to default,
but checking with nvidiainspector it still shows 0.850V on the gpu (whilst gaming). Before I applied the mod nvidiainspector has shown 0.950V whilst gaming.

However, the odd part is I get huge temp spikes again - up to 100°C - still running your modded bios. Same temps I had before applying the bios mod.

The fan should still be clean as we cleaned it with a compressed air spray & vacuum cleaner, shortly before using your modded bios version.

Repasting with "Liquid Ultra" is scheduled for upcoming thursday. I am also going to remove the dustfilter during the repaste.


Any ideas why running the modded bios resulted in ~10-15°C less CPU temp the first day but stopped working for some reason right at the next day?


Regards


EDIT:
I just played SC2 again, checking my temps; 95 95 97 99 (Running your earlier installed modded bios).
So I installed it again, played SC2 again - temps went down to 86 peak!
Next reasonable thing to do was to reboot computer again, without re-flashing bios with your mod and the result was quite surprising:
Playing after reboot CoreTEMP shows huge spikes again, 94 95 96 99!
So for some reason the A09 bios mod gets reset for me right after a reboot. I confirmed that twice now - does anyone else experiance that issue?

The most confusing issue is:
- applied your mod, -> -10-15°C, nvidiainspector shows 0.850V on GPU whilst gaming (3D mode)
- reboot OS -> temps in CoreTEMP back up to 90+°C, nvidiainspector STILL shows 0.850V on GPU whilst gaming (3D mode)

So, assuming nvidiainspector shows the voltage on GPU properly AND assuming CoreTEMP is showing the °C on CPU-cores properly, why do the
temps rise right after a reboot?

 

capitankasar is there anyway to lower the intel integrated graphics voltage i think this would give us a big temperature decrease as it is also the same chip as the processor

 

@quaaak

added you at the first post
that is weird, are you sure you didnt flashed another bios again?

take in mind this mod only mod the GPU voltage, wich result in GPU temp decrease in undervolt cases, so CPU temperature changes shouln´t be as notieciable as the GPU temps changes (even they both share the same heatsink and FAN)

to make sure the correct mod is installed, you can enter to bios app utility by pressing F2 key at startup, you should see a modded BIOS text at the top of the BIOS setup.

make sure you installed the correct bios version, for example, if you have a 525m gpu and you install a 540m gpu modded bios it will make no effect at all at the voltage, since the modded vbios will not be loaded

also while gamming, make sure you check GPU temperatures with nvidiainspector.

in this case it should report 0.83v while not gamming, and 0.85v while gamming.

if this is correct the mod is running fine.

anyway you should check the GPU temperature, it may also affect a little the CPU temperature, but not as much as the GPU one.

repaste and remove the dust filter will help.

if you are interested in decrease CPU temperature consider disable turboboost, however that may affect performance in some apps.

edit: mmm, I think no one experienced similar issues with the BIOS, that bios also is the most tested one by the users, so I dont know what can be the issue, you can give a try to the A07 modded version, it may helps, try also to reset the bios setup utility after reflashing the bios, but I have no clue about what can be the cause.

@daryld1988

well, there is no easy way of doing that, or at least I am unable with my current skills.

maybe if we unlock some menus in the future there is some way of lower the general CPU voltage, improving temps.

 

What about gt 540m moded bios 0.83 - 0.84? it could work?

 

@koca12
with the tools I use I just know how to set the voltages I said at the first post.

(posible values for 525m card: 0.83v,0.85v,0.95v,0.98v)
(posible values for 540m card: 0.83v,0.85v,0.98v,1V)

 

can he flash ur modded a07 straight over the modded A09?

 

Yes, I neither had Windoze-Updates nor did I flash an original/other bios after I flashed your mod.

Well, the fact that the temps of the CPU are decreased by 10-15°C running your mod (before I do a reboot after installing your mod) indicates that the GPU influences the temps of the CPUs quite a lot.

I double and triple checked that with nvidiainspector and entering the BIOS at bootup. Still reads "BIOS MOD by CAPTAIN KASAR", so I assume its still your mod.

I think I was quite careful installing the proper version as its my working laptop and I can't afford losing any data . But yeah, I got the 540m and got the proper mod version for it, according to post #1. Just confirmed that, too,
by re-flashing to see if its the reboot that resets the impact on the temps for me for some reason.

GPU temps with your mod installed but having had a reboot inbetween: 80.0°C (according to Hardware Monitor).
So I just flashed it another time (your mod) and went ingame, hardware monitor told me GPU is at 72°C, after ~1 hour it peaked at 75°C.

With your mod before reboot:
GPU: 72-74°C, peak @ 75°C
core0: 82°C
core1: 83°C
core2: 87°C (That one is always slightly higher, I assume it has the worst position getting all the heat from the GPU)
core3: 84°C

With your mod after reboot (when it doesn't work anymore for some weird reason):
GPU: 79°C, peak @ 80°C
core0: 95°C
core1: 96°C
core2: 100°C
core3: 97°C

Conclusion:
- when I had a reboot and your mod somehow "disapplied" the GPU is 5-8°C warmer
- affects my CPU cores a lot, with your patch running the CPUs are 10-15°C cooler

Its the correct mod running. Nvidiainspector shows 0.830/0.850 2D/3D.

Funny: As you can see above it is effecting the CPU cores even more than the GPU - Hardly imaginable how great the warmth coming from the GPU over the heatpipe passing the CPU is influencing the cores.

Scheduled that for thursday, oléeee

I'll use that as last resort if the repaste etc. doesn't get my CPU cores down to <=85°C.

If anyone out there could recheck their temps running A09 mod after they had a reboot (ofc not the reboot when flashing the mod ) - please let me know if you have similiar issues like I described in my FORMER POST!

Yeh, I'll probably downgrade to A07 and install your A07 mod tomorrow. I assume I can simply flash your A07 mod over the A09 mod? Or do I have to downgrade using the original A07 BIOS from DELL before I can apply your A07 mod?

And what do you mean by "reset the bios setup utility after reflashing the BIOS"? How do I do that?

Regards

EDIT:
spelling ;p

 

@tmae

yes, downgrading bios to older versions is posible with my custom BIOSes
I included some flashing parameters at the batch files wich should bypass the version checking.

@quaaak

thx for the extended info.

from what I seen, you installed the propper BIOS and it seems properly installed.

well, it seems like your main issue is temps got increased again after rebooting the machine, I must admit this is a really rare issue since the changes made at the bios should be permanent.

however I'm still curius about if you still get some temps improvements over the stock (non modified BIOS) after rebooting, I mean if you still get lower temps than original bios even after get the temps increased a little after reboot.

yes, like I said to tamae, it should be posible to downgrade to previous or similar versions (original, or modded) using the scripts I provided, each bios mod package also contain the original bios rom file, for example, modded A07 package comes with the original A07 bios, and modded A09 comes also with the original A09 bios, all you need to do is execute the propper script (flash original, or modded bios)

flashing original bioses directly from dell executables without using the scripts I provided may have issues flashing similar or older bios versions. (AKA it dont let you to flash anything similar or older).

this happened to Matix5 once cause he was skiping my scripts and flashing manually with withflash.

by reseting bios setup utility, I mean, getting into the BIOS setup utility, and in the last tab, there must be a option that set everysetting to default settings (AKA clear cmos), I heard it is a very recomendable option after every bios upgreade since it may have some issues loading the previus bios configs.

then , after reset the bios settings and reboot, you should be able to reconfigure the bios options to your desired BIOS setup configuration again. (boot priorities, passwords, enable or disable devices ....)

 

No, after a reboot the temperatures are just the same like when I run the original DELL bios.

Okay, thanks for the information, now I know what you meant. I'll try to get it done tomorrow (downgrading to A07) - I hope that makes the changes permanent for me!

Still I am looking for other people using the A09 mod to verify its not just a problem on my end, what I've experienced.


I'll keep you posted!


Cya

 

Is it possible that quaaak has a different Nvidia Bios version or a new Hardware Revision?

That is a assuming your XPS is a recent model.

 

Imo it is vice versa. The CPU temperatures influences the GPU temperatures.
Check your powerplan. Best way to manage i7 temperatures is disabling turbo boost = max. CPU performance 99%.
Capitan's Mod only influences GPU temps.

 

mmm, in that case, the chances of getting brick would be great I think.

and since dell have the same bioses for all the XPS 15 R2 users, I dont think this will be the case.

@quaaak

I think this is may be a software related issue, since the voltages are being read fine, and CPU temperature can also affect the GPU since they both share the same heatsink as micmax said.

tweaking the CPU plan may helps.

also maybe reistalling or upgreading GPU drivers could help, but probably not the cause.

 

I've got a ~6 months old Dell XPS 15 i7-2720QM, nvidiainspector shows BIOS: 70.08.44.00.11 GPU: GF108 REVISION: A1
EDIT: Driver version: GeForce 285.62 WHQL [r285_58]

The hardware plan on the Dell website shows that the GPU and CPU are using the same heatpipe (pretty common). Though the heat from the GPU is passing the CPU on its way out. Also I sort of have proven that the GPU temp is influencing the core temps a lot, when kasar's mod is running i get 10-15°C less on the cores, when its not running the cores' temps are way higher.
Afaik there is no CPU undervolting mod yet, is it? I'd love to test that, too.

I'll test other GPU drivers, if that fails I'm going to try the A07 mod later tonight.


Thanks for your help guys, really appreciate it. Still looking for other people running the A09 mod who are willing to test if its being reset after a reboot for them, too.

Greetings

 

cause of quaak is too lazy to give some feedback, i´ll do ;=)

okay so,
he reflashed to original bios and checked the temps, CPU temps just get the same high (high 90´s) as expected, and the GPU gets about 6-8 degree warmer, too. (86 degree)

so in conclusion, it seem like the undervolt is fine, there´s just some kind of bug, which throttles the cpu just after flashing the modded bios. i guess the turboboost is off right after flashing.

with turboboost unabled + modded bios he nearly gets the same temps as after flashing the modded bios + turboboost on ( CPU 84° instead of 85°)

 

@tmae
that makes sense

I think that should be the real cause.

the problem was also he seemed to be more worried about CPU temps than GPU temps (atm this mod only work on the GPU, so CPU temperature changes will not be as notieciable as GPU ones)

 

yeahh, mainly the CPU temps of his xps are much too high. i thought it might give him some degree on the CPU, too because of CPU and GPU having the same fan. but this isn´t noticeable yet, because the CPU is getting MUCH to warm. but as he mentioned above, on thursday we repaste and remove the dustfilter + he has an zalman u3000 cooling pad + the modded bios. so i think the temps will decrease a lot.
i´ll keep you postet.

 

Lies! I'm just a busy man ;-)!

Yeah, just done all that stuff tmae described in his post. Got the package with the "Liquid Ultra & Cleaning Set" delivered by UPS today, tomorrow I'll go to his place & repaste, remove dust filter and test the temps before and after.

I hope that with the dustfilter removed the cooling pad (Zalman ZU3000) is going to have more effect on the CPU temps.

We'll keep you posted!

 

@capitankasar just letting you know i now have my gt525m stable at 830/1660/1080 this is due to me installing the new nvidia 295.73 drivers that were just released this week

so these new drivers combined with your undervolting to 0.83/0.83 is the perfect combination try the new drivers and increase your overclock and i reckon you will be pleasently surprised

 

Hola!

Just repasted 2 hours ago, also removed the dust filter!

Amazing results:
Without my coolingpad (because I'm in tmae's place right now) I get 74 73 76 76 on the cores, that is more than 25 degrees less than before repasting with the "Liquid Ultra" & removing the dust filter, considering I had 92 95 96 100 using a cooling pad.

GPU is now stable at 74°C. Thanks a lot for your mod, that's a temp drop by 6-8°C.

Oh, also I'm running the new drivers for the 540m now, no problems at all!

Greetings

 

@daryld1988

nice OC

specially compared with your previus 773/1546/1080 speeds

didn't knew about the drivers could also improve OC stability, but well, I lost nothing by testing
I was using 290.53 beta till now.

my current clocks are 700/1400/915

I will try to push the OC a little more with the new drivers and will give some feedback.


@quaaak

great results over there , glad you got the cpu temperature problems away

yep, that was the reason I highly recomend to remove dustfilter and repaste to all people worried about temps, performance and system stability ^_^

 

i have a dell xps 17 l702x gt550m, i want to over volt my gpu but i do not know the steps to modifying my vbios voltage settings, can you help me?.. i'll appreciate it if you can with a guide and links to the software needed.. i've been searching online the whole day and other forums don't just seem to hit the spot

 

@yungbenny911
Sharadeos already created a topic for the xps 17 bioses (I think you already posted there), however it has been a while since his last post, also if you want to do it by yourself you will need to:

requeriments:

1 - download the latest bios update from dell (asuming you want to mod the last bios)
2 - get the required bios wph file and the whole flasher folder using the instructions at the fist post of this topic
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/632899-modding-l502x-bios-project.html
3 - you will need following software
* phoenix slic mod 1.93 (to dissasembly and reasembly the whole bios)
* nbitor (to edit the nvidia)
* a hex editor (optional)


procedure:
1 - get the bios wph file using the methods described above
2 - get the slic mod tool and open the bios.wph, this will disasembly the bios inside a folder named DUMP
it will dissasembly some files, if it only output some little and big files (4 in my case), you will need to find the biggest file and open it again with the slic mod tool. once it extract all the modules again you will need to search for the correct vbios, I think its size is 64kb, you may find some of them, because in the xps laptops there are many hardware configurations and the bios include several vbioses.
you can use nbitor or a hex editor to find the propper one.
4- use nbitor to open and edit the vbios
5- when done, you will need to reasembly the whole bios with the modified module (modified vbios), you will find more info about this at this topic
(UEFI) Dell XPS 15/15z L502x/L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO
you may need to reasembly twice, or at least I had to do with the rom file inside the wph file, and the wph file itself while moding the xps 15 bios.
6-when done, flash the modified bios.wph and cross your fingers.

if this confuses you , ask Sharadeos for more info or to do the whole task since he already acomplished it.

in a last instance, if Sharadeos dont reply or still missing in action or dont want to pick the task, I can try check your bios, but you will need to send me the wph file and a GPU-Z screenshot from your machine.


edit:
@daryld1988
I got the new drivers, however I didnt noticed any improvement over the current stable values for my card.
:/

have the same issue, OC seems stable testing higher clocks with software like OCCT for hours, but those higher clocks crash with buzzing sound with games like dead space 2 after some minutes.
for that reason I stick with my current stable clocks on all apps. (700/1400/915)

 

OH! Quick reply... Thanks for that . Unfortunately, i wont be able to do it on my own, because it's a little complicated for me, and this is my only laptop at the moment.I would like someone like you who has worked with bios modding tools to help do it. The other guy has not replied in a long time maybe he's busy with stuff .... so will you help? if you can help do it for me, here is a link to my A16 Bios (winflash folder) extracted with the directions you listed and snapshots of my GpuZ.

Bios modding and Screen shots.rar - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

Thanks in Advance!

 

@daryld1988
@CapitanKasar

The same goes for me with the new drivers, fine in most stress tests/ benchmarks but is "crash happy" once I start a game.

 

@yungbenny911

ok, I checked your bios

the structure is almost identical to the XPS 15 one.

all interesting modules are inside this file

F33E367F-41D2-4201-9CB7-AFA63DCCEEC9_0_5.ROM

wich requires to be opened with Phenix Slic MOD

I also located the right module being used as your nvidia bios

the file is 5A35B51E-9A1A-4D88-AEBB-E3DF29DC3F68_1_961.ROM

the file is 64Kb and it is attached at this post (this is just the video module and CANT be flashed directly)

however,I cant get nbitor working with that vbios since Aparently the 550m bioses arent suported yet.

I would need to ask Sharadeos about how he changed the voltages without nbitor support since my hex editing skills are really limited, he also said something about 70.06.32.00.04 (your vbios file) is not avalible yet.

so as for the moment I cant go any farther.

however, you have the video bios, so you can try to handle it or ask someone to mod it, then I can reinsert it back into the main bios and you can test it.

I'm almost sure it isnt that dangerous since the intel IGP will take the video if the nvidia vbios fail to load.


@Matix5

yep, I allways wondered why that still happening, aparently it is stable, but it isnt really, so we have to test manually ("playing" games randomly expecting a crash) till we found the Real stable clocks.

if someone can give a propper explanation it would be highly apreciated ^_^

 

i guess that reply was meant for me "yungbenny911" lol ... it's all good, thanks for trying, i can wait till maybe they can mod my own bios version. my laptop is a 3d model so only the 550m Gpu is enabled. i don't have optimus. Bad luck everywhere

 

@capitankasar yea i jus found it to be the case with mine also the interesting thing is that it only crashes with skyrim and batman i tested it with saints row the third this time as i had completed skyrim and it never crashed once at my 830 clock and i played that game for hours

but then i tried running skyrim at the exact same clock speeds and it lasted merely 15 minutes before the dreaded crashing im beginning to think that maybe its the memory installed in our laptops that is causing the crashes because why can saints row the third play so well at higher clocks and yet skyrim and batman cant

 

@yungbenny911
oh my bad, wrong quote , you are right, hehe ^_^ (post edited)

anyway, are you sure you dont have optimus?

about the 3d model you are talking about, I think it is only related with nvidia stereoscopic vision, 3d glashes and stuff like that, but as far I know the L702X also have a intel IGP, I also saw a intel graphics module similar to the L502X while checking your BIOS.

you can confirm by checking the device manager.

if there are two screen adapter devices (one fron intel, and the other one from nvidia) it uses optimus




@daryld1988

yeah, I noticed some games crash more than others, I think dead space 2 is the game most crash when it dont like the clocks, for that reason I usually test the OC with that game ^_^

huh, the momory?

are u talking about ram memory? or nvidia video memory?
I ran several memtest tests before and it seems fine, not sure if it is a memory related .

 

@capitankasar yeah i meant the actual ram sticks in our laptops as iv seen people with the same laptop and who have reported the same problems to dell and dell has always replaced the motherboard and also the ram for some reason which leads me to believe the standard ram may be the issue could you confirm if your ram is the same ram as standard or have you swapped your ram for a newer brand i am still on the stock ram provided originally with the system but i may be tempted to upgrade to a faster 8gb ram

 

@daryld1988

yeah, I has been reading also stuff from people having that issue, but most of them reported the mobo replacement didnt fixed anything I think, others even asked the FAN issues went to worse situation after the replacement.

In my case , one of the first things I did, was replace dell's memory modules (1 x 2GB and 1 x 1GB) with 2x 4Gb, it was a cheap upgreade but worth of it.

I had some crashes with the machine since the begining (old modules)
but after reformat and install OS again everything went fine.

now all I need is a propper GPU OC testing app, since sadly the only valid results I got atm are crashing apps while testing clocks wich overclocking stability apps reported as "stable clocks".

OCCT, COMBUSTOR, and the ati tool artifacts tool didnt helped to detect errors, they only detected some artifacts while raising memory clocks to the max, but didnt crashed or anything.

 

@capitankasar see my memory is still the stock 4gb ram provided from dell i will definately be looking in to getting this upgraded, i had also seen reports that skyrim was more cpu dependent so could also be down to our processors aswell i suppose but what seems odd to me is that saints row the third which is a directx 11 game can run with nearly all settings at high and ultra for hours on end without a crash at clock speeds of 830 and yet skyrim can crash at anything over 773 for me

 

yep, its strange ite depends the game itself, anyway I have no idea about why it does that.

I also heard that the same game for many people crash in dx 9 mode, but run fine at directx 11 mode.
I remember been reading something like this at WoW forums

 

Anyone have issues with undervolted bioses and the new 295.73 drivers? I'm getting some weird issues where it seems like something is crashing the entire desktop window manager to the point where all I can do is hold in the power button. I updated avast last night as well, so I'm back to the most recent betas to see if the problem still exists.

 

@buch3r

<-using A09 BIOS 0.83v/0.83v for the 525m GPU and have no issues with the latest drivers.

crashes happens only when I OC the GPU a lot and run games.

 

Hmm I'm not overclocking at all, but so far when using the most recent beta drivers with the A09 bios .85 I'm not having problems. I read somewhere that the new drivers lower the voltage to the cards?

 

i would like to try this, can you tell me which dust filter are we talking about?

 

@icallyou604

the one under the CPU/GPU FAN.

take appart the whole system is needed. as far I remember, when you remove the main mother board you have phisical access to the Fan and dustfilter.

it is like a sticker at the inner face of the plastic case, you need to remove it if you want to improve the airflow.

 

Some time ago i found a solution to my cosntant games crashing problem just by apply the 8.3-8.5 undervolted bios mode v9 to my gt 540m.

but recently arround 2 - 3 weeks, those problems came again =( i am very disappointed and dont know what to do =(.

my laptop crashed very ramdomly when i am playing Call of duty modern warfare 3

any suggestion capitan?

 

@koca12
did you OCed the card?

if you did, try with stock values.

are you getting temperature issues?, try disabling turboboost.
I also noticed rebooting from crashes can sometimes damage the filesystem.

try open a cmd window and type

chkdsk /f /r /v C:

if you also have more drives than C , run also the scan on them

for example, suposing you have a D drive

chkdsk /f /r /v D:


I'm playing call of dutty modern warfare 3 with my 525m OCed to 700/1400/915

a09 bios mod 0.83 / 0.83

and no issues at all

 

Well temperature issue, not at all my temps are 70 - 76 at full load

I did not oc for this game because it runs pretty smooth on hig settings

i will try the chkdsk scann

and waht about disabling turboboost? you think that it might work? how can i do that

thanks for helping

 

See? told ya