L502X modded bioses download (GPU voltages and more!)

the only difference at the moment, is the voltage ^_^

anyway I would try with stock bios first, since overvolting will generate extra heat

 

Some GPU's are going better with the undervolted bios , some like the standard bios and some love more volts ( mine 540 does ) you need to tinker with it a little and then decide what works the best with your hardware
good luck.

 

How did you find out that your GPU "loves more volts?"

 

by testing and more testing

the one wich get stable and let you go farther with OC is definitly the one for you

 

This question might be slightly off topic, but is there a way to 'lock' my GPU's clocks? It seems even when I'm in a 3d application it starts off at the default 600/900/1200 but then after a few minutes it just decreases to 50/135/101.

 

@maurash

why you want to do that?

that happen when the card is not being used at all and that enter into powersave mode, and when you start a GPU demanding app again it get back to the high clocks, it helps to savepower and generate less heat when iddle.

if it still happen inside a graphics demanding 3d app, make sure you added the .exe file correctly to the nvidia control panel, so it uses the nvidia gpu and not intel ones, make sure it uses the nvidia gpu by checking nvidia gpu activity icon at the system tray.
make sure also it uses the gpu by checking the gpu ussage with some tools like msi afterburner,GPU usage must be over 1%

the situation you described only happen to me after close a 3d app, and rest at the desktop for one or two mins, basically when the nvidia GPU isnt needed at all

 

It happens to me even inside the 3d application though, I've set it in nvidia control panel to use my GT 525m card globally.
This starting happening after my AC adapter was no longer recognized by the BIOS, I got a message saying "The AC power adapter type cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 90W AC adapter or higher for best system operation." perhaps this is the reason behind the GPU underclocking? If so i'm wondering if there is a way to bypass this slowdown by locking the clock rates.

EDIT: Another odd thing I've noticed is that the 'check boxes' for CUDA and DirectCompute in GPU-Z are not checked.

 

@maurash
this happened to me sometimes while I actidentally leaved the plug half-plugged, then I got the "The AC power adapter type cannot be determined" message, all I did was shutdown the machine by holding the power buttom, plug the power cord properly, and it was OK.

I dont think this is bios related.
this sounds like a hardware issue in your case, I would check the AC charger output with a multimeter to check if the output is correct, take appart the machine may help, but if your machine is under warranty you can ask dell about the issue.

 

Got my L502x today, and tested it a bit with Furmark. GPU (540M) temp w/stock A10 BIOS peaked at 74C. w/modded A09 BIOS (0.83/0.83), the Furmark temp peaks at 66C.
I don't see any need to overclock it quite yet. It runs Path of Exile nicely, so I'm happy

 

@ximenez
glad your laptop finally arrived today
huh? your gt540 support 0.83v at the 3d profile with no crashes?
you are probably a lucky guy
I rememer a lot of users complaining about 0.83v were not stable at games with the 540m, only did for some 525m users including me.

anyway that is good news for 540m users bringing new hopes to keep testing the 0.83v version

added you to the first topic

 

Yes, it works quite nicely with 0.83v on 3D. It doesn't like overclocking when running on 0.83v, unsurprisingly.
I haven't been gaming extensively yet, but looking at the temp history it doesn't look like it'll be getting any warmer. I don't think I'll be needing repasting and the copper shims I ordered...

 

Of course - once I actually mention that it works, it stops working immediately... Going to try 0.85 instead.

 

well, I supose it was too good to be true ^_^

well, 0.85v works fine for most 540m users, you probably will be fine there, it also give cool temps as far I heard.

also, since you already ordered the cooper shims, do the mod , that will definitly help with the temps

I wish I would have some cooper to try the mod, hehe.

 

Hi, I'm kinda noob at this... I have an xps 15 l502x (540m video card) and I have the same problem of many users with this laptop... random freeze with a pink/green screen while playing games and the only thing that I can do is push the power button... Seems like this is the only fix to this... I called dell and they told me that I need to format my laptop and I don't think that is gonna fix it... so here are the questions... after doing this can you go the way back and leave it how it was?
you need to format, right? If I do this I'll lose my warranty? if I do this I'll see some kind of reduction on my graphics?

Thank you very much!

 

Furmark gets the GPU temp up to 70C, and it looks stable.

 

Tested 3DMark06, and got a score of about 8500. Isn't that kind of low?

 

Underclock your GPU, or get Dell to replace your motherboard.

 

I did a 3dmark06 benchmark, and I think mine was around 8000, At stock speeds.

 

The score in 3dmark 06 is afected by the screen resolution , what resolution did you run it on ?

 

The default resolution. 1280x1024, I believe?

 

well, bios modding will probably void your warranty, however you can allways restore the original bios with the script I provided at every modded package.

if you want to return your laptop just flash back the original bios and there will be no way to know the bios has been modded.

I would try the A09 or the A10 bios for the GT540M with 0.83v/0.85v wich it seems it is the preffered one by users.

that bios reduce voltage (under Volt), if you still have problems you can also under Clock at the cost of some little performance. (reduce the GPU clocks with some apps like MSI afterburner)

those fixes helped many people, and will probably help you.

if it still crashing, ask dell for a motherboard replacement.

@all

I noticed some people get confused sometimes with overclock,underclock,overvolt and undervolt, so I edited the first post explaining those concepts in brief.

 

How much does removing the dust filter on the fan improve cooling? Right now I'm at an acceptable temp, but I am getting the itch to up the voltage and test the limits of my GPU

 

@JuntheKing
mmm, I dont remember exactly the temps I got after remove the dust filter.

also, since I did both repaste and dust filter removal at the same time while taking apart the whole system I cant confirm how much the single dust filter removal improved.

however I can say, the dust filter kinda blocked the air input.
so after remove it I put my hand near the air output with the machine on, and the airflow seemed to greatly improved, it were outputing more hot air outside resulting cooler temps inside also with the repaste.

at the moment,on iddle I have my CPU n 54º and my GPU on 46º

note: I'm NOT using a cooling pad

 

Hey,

I just registered and just wanted to thank you for doing this great job. I downloaded and flaashed the 0.83V/0.83V-BIOS for the GT540M and it seems to be perfectly working (played games for an hour). But there still is some awkward issue I'm having, when I'm in idle-mode, the clocks vary from very low to 3D-clocks - and I simply don't know why. Is there some tolerance somewhere when I can play around to get the 3D-Clocks out of my idle?

Thanks,
cookie

PS: Temperature in 3D went down from 71°C to 64°C (FurMark), Idle is now (when not clocking high) 39°C.

 

Lucky
Try 3DMark06 and see if it survives through that. Mine failed when running 0.83v 3D.

 

Already done, 3DMark 06 and 11 have gone through without artifacts nor crashes. At last some GPU-luck again, the last time i had an overclocking-friendly graphics card was my Geforce 2 MX

By the way, is there some progress with unlocking the CPU-voltage?

 

@cookiebrandt

thanks

also added you to the first post, are you using the A10 version ,right? ^_^

also like ximenez said, 0.83v without crashing on games with a 540m make you a very very lucky guy

well, in my 525m, the clocks also vary when opening any app wich is set to nvidia, check the nvidia gpu activity icon, it should be emty if you want to keep the card low.

the minimal mhz I saw the card is 51 mhz, sometimes it get to 203 mhz, and while comming back to 3d apps it get the 3d clocks again.

that also happened to me with the original bios.

there is no progress yet with the cpu voltage, well, to be honest there was a while since I noticed some news at the bios modding forums about this subject, the project is kinda abandoned there, so all I can do now is keep relasing new versions with just modified GPU voltages

 

Yep, it's the A10 version.

I think the awkward clock regulation was there with my original bios, too, but the fan was circling constantly so i didn't notice before Now it's like the graphic card's thinking "hey, no program opened, i'll go to 51Mhz...well, from time to time I'll go to 200Mhz to make it funnier...hey, it's really cold, so I'll go to 600Mhz to make myself warm again!" and all i do is looking at the only program opened, GPU-Z, and think: why? But it's just a small thing, I wouldn't have noticed when I hadn't looked at the temps

I'm sad about the progress thing But I'll post if I'll stumble upon something interesting that could help. Thanks again for the great work so far

 

So if I run my GPU at 0.83v/0.83v, and my GPU doesn't like it at all...what happens? Will windows still boot up/will I be able to reflash?

 

@JuntheKing

dont worry, if it is unstable, it will only crash on games or 3d apps, and after a reboot, you will be able to boot windows again and flash another version

 

Well you convinced me. I just loaded 0.83v/0.83v and ran furmark for 20 minutes. So far so good. Temps went down a few degrees, I think. Nice!

 

Is there supposed to be some correlation between the memory clock and the core clock when overclocking? When I adjust the core/shader clock I can definitely find a point where artifacts start appearing. However, I keep going up on the memory clock and I haven't seen anything yet. I am at 765 for the core and 1000 for the memory. I don't want to "over do" the memory clock, if that is possible.

 

@juntheking

glad it works fine for you

what card and bios version are you using? so I can add you at the first post


also, my personal advice is focus first at the gpu core to archive the highest clock posible since the core speed will be the one who will give you a fps boost

then you can start playing with the memory if you want after you get the core stable

 

If it goes as far as 1037, I wouldn't be willing to push it any further even if it is stable. As CK said, find your max GPU clock first and then increase the memory mhzs.

 

@captainkasar

I have a 540m card and using your modded A10 bios.

So generally speaking, once I get the core stable I can try to go as high as I can with the memory. Will I begin to see artifacts once I reach the limit of the memory OC as well?

 

@JuntheKing
ok, added you at the first post

yes,that is true.

however, you also can experience crashes with no artifacts if the OC is not fully stable.

for that reason I recomend to fully test the core OC with games and apps for hours before start overclocking the memory over the stock values.

doing this you also will know any inestability will be related with the memory and not the core.

 

What is the best app to overclock with?

 

msi afterburner works fine for me, it support multiple profiles , it can also apply the OC at system startup and it also show temps,GPU ussage and everything with a good looking gui,also very easy to use

the DL link is at the first post

 

I use MSI Afterburner as well. The featuers, as captainkasar mentioned are great. To be honest I haven't tried any other programs.

It's ridiculous how easy it is to overclock almost anything now a days, and not even have to do it in the bios.

 

I find that stability testing can be done a lot quicker by working backwards. What I do is I find a point where I know it will crash quickly and then work back from there. Once you get to the point where it can go for an hour without crashing or getting an error then you dial it back a little bit more and you can be fairly sure it won't crash on you. If you want you could draw up a scatter graph of the clock speed and average time taken to crash if you need convincing, it should be fairly hyperbolic.

I did the same when I undervolted my CPU and I haven't had any problems from it at all. While I might have been able to lower the voltage by another 0.025 or so if I had done the hours of stability testing suggested in the guide, I managed to do it all in an hour or so and got 95% as good a result.

 

Do most overclocks follow a hyperbolic trajectory? That is very interesting, didn't know that.

 

It mainly comes down to probabilities really. When you have a stable overclock, the probability of an error in calculation is so low that it never happens in practice. The higher you push the clock speed, the higher the probability of a malfunction. I should correct my previous statement and say exponential, rather than hyperbolic. I'm on holiday so my maths is a little fuzzy.

I should probably seek clarification on the stability of some clocks, though. Say you become unstable at 800Mhz, I'm not sure how things would work at say 400Mhz at the same voltage, whether it would still mathematically have a chance of an error occuring or whether beyond a certain point an error is physically impossible unless you get a freak cosmic ray or something.

 

OK, so what are people overclocking their 540Ms to? I've set mine to 750MHz now, with mem clock 1000Mhz. This appears to be solid.

 

I have mine @ 780 (1560) 985. Taking it higher results in crashes when I minimise/restore the fullscreen game window or instability after extended use.

 

I haven't done too much overclocking after undervolting to 0.83v/0.83v, but it definitely is not as stable overclocking compared to when I had the voltages at 0.83v/0.85v. At 0.83v/0.85v, I am stable at 800/1000

 

I am experiencing huge trouble with my L502x i7, 8gb, 540m. First it was weird cpu spiking to 99% that I got rid by doing so many tricks I am not sure what finally helped but I think it was removing Mcfee antivirus. Then my CPU went up to 100c !! when playing Starcraft2 and I had to do the 99% cpu trick to get it under control.

Now I am experiencing random crashes in Starcraft2 where I now and then have to use the power button and now and then I can kill SC2 but have to restart the computer to clear it from the task manager. Tried to play some CS:GO beta and it never crashes there. At the moment SC2 seems to be the only game that crashes but I have not played many other games in a while.

I tried the modded 0.85v version and ran Furmark 1.10 for 15 minutes without any problems. I also have the newest Nvidia drivers that just came out 301.24. I am getting really tired and every time I have called Dell it has been a major headache. So how did you go by to get them to actually do something? My only option is to send it across Canada for them to take a look at it and I just have a bad feeling it is going to take a month and not much is going to get done?

Any help is welcome at this point

 

Seems like you have the dreaded issues infamous among L502x owners. The only potential solutions that have seemed to work is undervolting. If that doesn't work, I think the opinion is to force a motherboard replacement with dell. Other's in this forum probably know more about other things you can try, but to me it seems like you have already ruled out many potential issues that could be causing the problem.

 

Just got off the phone from Dell, I am going to have to send it in and they said they will swap my motherboard, fan and heat sink. They will send a box that I then take to fed ex and it gets shipped. I really hope they do swap those things, the problem gets fixed and the computer comes back unharmed in 7-10 business days as they promised. This computer and Dell has so far been a nightmare for me, I think I will buy something else the next time /:

I will keep you guys updated on how things go. Just installed the original BIOS and removed all proof that any other BIOS has been on the computer. Will my HD get erased and do I need to remove pirated stuff from the computer before sending it in? I mean they are not the cops but you never know..? Thanks.

 

well, you can delete it if you want, but I think they will not care about it

anyway I would make a backup from everything you want to keep, cause they may replace or format the disk drive.


I hope you get your system working asap.

I dont think l502x is a bad computer, I'm now very satisfected with it.

with the modded bios, it allow a lot of GPU OC, it also have a nice sound system and specs.

having fun right now with Far Cry 2 on very high specs with no slowdowns at all

 

Running Prime and Furmark
Temps taken with: CPUID HW

Core0: 94
Core1: 97
Core2: 94
Core3: 91
Package: 98
GPU: 94

Capitankasr, yeah I like the computer as long as it would work :/ Hopefully after I get it back everything will work and I can really enjoy it.

I was also suffering from this stutter problem earlier that I got rid of when I removed McFee antivirus: Dell xps L502x Stutter Problem - YouTube

Just ran 3dmark06 and scored 7229 with the newest 310.24 NVIDIA drivers, and stock clocks on everything. Seems a bit low, no? Here is the result: http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16606640