Nvidia clockblock: vBIOS (unblocked in 353.00)

UPDATE 3: Overclocking is unblocked once again in the 353.00 hotfix driver

UPDATE 2: 352.86 and 350.12 have overclocking reblocked for those with locked vBIOS

UPDATE 1: As of the 347.88 driver, overclocking has been re-enabled for all of the previously affected Maxwell mobile GPUs, even those with a locked vBIOS

Original Post

Carried over from the original driver clockblock thread

Prema @ T|I:

Discuss

 

Nvidia trolling par excellence...

 

Overclock blocking in any form is a real negative for me, whether it be at vBIOS level or driver level, so I'm very disappointed to see the latest Alienware laptop, (amoungst others), that are now shipping with a locked down vBIOS. I'm not sure who's responsible for the implementation of these locked down vBIOS, but if it's the responsibility of the laptop manufacturer, then Alienware aren't doing too well given the meager 180W PSU debacle, and now a locked down vBIOS to boot! Either way I wouldn't buy a laptop that had it's GPU locked down like that - I'd buy one from a manufacturer that allowed overclocking; I'd go as far a sending it back for a refund if I had bought for example an A17 R2 and had not been aware of it's block on overclocking.

 

Nvidia just keeps on digging...

 

This brings a whole new meaning to the term "In before the lock!"

Really glad I got one of the early ones in my GT72.

 

same here!

prema is preparing to provide the older stock vbios versions, so that the users can have both overclocking and warranty

 

Much worse imo
If you brick the GPU during flashing, there goes the warranty.
If you break the GPU using non stock vbios or the notebook freeze for some reason and you have to send it in, there goes the warranty.

Both Nvidia and Alienware and Intel is making gaming notebooks for Hipster Joe now. He doesnt need to overclock his thin gaming notebooks while drinking cappucino at the cafe

Gone is socketed CPUs to allow you to upgrade or replace a CPU.
Gone is Extreme i7 CPUs.
MXM GPUs is slowly going away.
Companies like Alienware which fully supported overclocking earlier is now blocking it in BIOS.
Nvidia is shipping out locked vbios now.

Notebooks are moving further and further away from desktops

 

And to think these slimeballs are going to have this "big, great event" in just a few days with all this garbage shadowing them.

 

That "big, great event" is where they unveil GRID-powered cloud gaming to GeForce and Tegra based products. Wonderful, ain't it?

Nvidia has no shame.

 

Yeah it's pretty obvious their big surprise is some goofy cloud based device that further removes users accessing hardware of their own. They'll happily take a monthly subscription, keep the hardware for themselves, and give you latency riddled gaming.
Wow... I can't wait..

 

This is actually a diabolically brilliant move, because you can't really prove or disprove without poking around the vbios, and most news outlets certainly won't risk their reputation and link to Prema's post, regardless of how established we know him to be. Sadly to the average outsider, he's just Joe Nobody on the internet.

nVidia knows this, which is why they've resorted to these backhanded dirty tactics.

 

I have a feeling this issue will be mentioned in the AT article.

 

great start to the year nvidia!

 

In 2013 when I bought my alienware 17 there was so much to choose from and everything seemed like it was going uphill and things were looking good and now everything is coming crashing down all at once.

 

Not to rain on that, but if Nvidia knows a card shipped with a locked BIOS through the serial numbers, couldn't they treat changing to an earlier revision that allowed OCing the same as having a modded vBIOS for RMA purposes?

 

nvidia doesnt care about rmas, its the vendors that could indeed profit from such a strategy...

but seeing as clevo doesnt really care what the changelog is on vbios revisions, i doubt they even knew what they were building and shipping off to their customers there! see prema's post on that in the first clock-block thread

edit: I have contacted three large German tech sites (CHIP, Notebookcheck, Computerbase) and updated them on the current situation concerning the clock-block vBios. Let´s hope theyre gonna run this!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Wow. He totally missed the point.

 

What point?

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Wow who is surprised at nvidia? Seriously most of us didn't believe the backtracking nonsense surely!

They must be laughing in the office. Almost had em fooled.....

 

Well this screws with the whole desktop replacement business.

I can't see how nVIDIA would even benefit from this. I dont even...

 

That it doesn't matter which driver you have if OC is locked in the vBIOS. Why did he bring up next month's "driver fix" after explaining about the vBIOS? What a dumbass.

 

For the GPUs already out there with the older VBIOS?

He even says; 'for the existing GPUs...'

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

There are "existing GPUs" in the AW 17 and Clevo ZM which have already shipped and are in people's hands on this very forum which have the clockblocked vBIOS.

Anyway, he swallowed the Nvidia company line about OC enabled being a driver "bug" originally, so still a stinker like 99% of the idiots on websites and YouTube reporting on the clockblock.

 

He said the cards will be BIOS locked from further overclocking then said, but there will be a driver to allow overclocking later. Problem is the driver won't do squat if the BIOS is locked down from overclocking.

 

Let's see if the cards in a month or two still come with locked vBIOSes. Remember 347.09 has been out (and blocked) for quite some time; I would not be surprised that the "block clocks" order they gave back then (that we didn't know about) is just now trickling down into users' hands.

If say, 3 months down the line we aren't getting the old kind of vBIOS anymore from any manufacturer, well we know what they did.

 

Regarding alienware on this issue, with their decision to start the 17r2 and 15's lifespan with a 180w psu it would almost seem as though alienware also knew about this eventual "clockblock" in any of its forms as the 180w psu's would not provide enough power for an overclock, plus it would save manufacturing costs.
On top of that, the alienware reps have been "sending out 240w psu's" to those who require it but then that may also have been a publicity stunt to gain a positive reputation among enthusiasts after the insults that is the BGA laptops themselves.

tl;dr, alienware likely may have known about clockblock and provided their laptops with 180w psu's for a reason.

 

Yeah I agree, they don't really know squat about the wonderful realm of laptop gaming.

Also kinda annoyed me they joked about fiery, exploding, thermonuclear-esque overclocked laptops again. That's certainly not helping our cause.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

This is the problem. We are such a small minority. Nvidia could not care less about us than I care for a cockroach.

 

I was happy enough that Ryan from PCPer kind of stuck up for us in their last Podcast



This thread seems slow..

Have y'all given up?

 

I'm thinking the lockdown vBIOS are either due to OEM's wanting greater control of what the user does with their laptop, or perhaps this lockdown vBIOS is a hangover from NVidia's previous idea to lockdown their mobile GPUs (ie before they decided to reverse their decision & unlock overclocking on the upcoming drivers). If it's the the latter, then I'm expecting OEM's to release updated vBIOS which are unlocked in the coming weeks/months. We don't really know whether to target NVidia or the OEMs to get the locked vBIOS returned to their previous unlocked status - targeting both is the best bet for now I think. If I had recently bought a notebook & discovered it was locked down I'd be on to the OEM's first to get some answers from them as to why it is so!

 

Now are these all 9xxM series or just certain laptop makers like AW ?
I was going to buy a new laptop in a couple of months but this really put a damper on it for now till it's cleared up.
Hopefully builders like Mythlogic and others can have use there own BIOS for laptop owners have the freedom to do what they want.
Does Mythlogic use there own special BIOS to begin with?

 

So far we've seen locked vBIOS in Alienware & Clevo. I'd recommend contacting your prospective OEM to find out if overclocking is blocked in the vBIOS or not. I'd imagine the first person you speak to at the OEM won't know - might take some digging! (If you ask, then be sure to report back with any news.)

 

I swear I said this is what nVidia would do when people started out saying "at least we can still vBIOS mod" when the soft-overclocking block came out. Very easy to do. Encrypt the BIOS and forget about it, nobody is going to be able to edit it.

 

R9 390MX when?

 

The cancer has metastasized folks, and it's not going to get better...

• System BIOS flash protection
• Advanced UEFI BIOS signature enforcement
• Secure Boot
• BGA mounted CPUs
• BGA mounted GPUs
• Inability to do hardware upgrades
• Clock-blocked drivers
• Clock-blocked vBIOS

I've been chirping for a long time about the path to destruction and I am sure lots of folks wrote me off as being a grumpy, negative old man with an axe to grind. People need to wake up and stop living in a dream world. It's not going to be OK if Micro$haft's will is imposed. This neo-Hitler company from the Pacific Northwest is the major driving force behind this filth. They are the technology Gestapo god that all of the fanny-kissing harlot ODMs and OEMs bow before... His Majesty, their Filthy Father in Redmond that can do no wrong.

Now the reality is starting to set in. This tech Mafia we are dealing with is absolutely NOT customer-centric in any shape, form or fashion. They do not care about anyone but themselves, and for reasons that defy logic, they have all of the hardware OEMs and ODMs on a compliance leash with no signs of resistance on their part. With the help of their compliant worshipers that stand to make a buck in the process, we are swiftly moving to a production model where they own you and your machine. You only get to rent it, and only for as long as they want you to. Those that think this is only affecting Dell/Alienware and a few other laptops OEMs need to think again. These are the early compliance Kool-Aid drinker examples. This will be coming to a desktop near you. They have a vision of the future, it's not a good one, and all of the yes men are falling in line.

Windows 10 is going to be free to Windows 7, 8, 8.1 users. Ever stop to wonder why? Because they "love you" maybe? I don't think so. Beware... yes, there is a catch. If you believe their marketing spiel explaining their rationale, good luck with that. Have another glass of Kool-Aid. And, please don't have a surprised look on your faces when DX12 turns out to be a Trojan Horse with a nasty malware payload--with a valid digital signature from His Majesty, of course--that assists them in dictating what can and cannot be done with the hardware. When the OS refuses to cooperate, the API only does what is approved and firmware has to be signed, we're all going to be up the creek flowing with urine and excrement.

So, that fancy schmancy thing called a gaming notebook is going to be a pick-your-OEM fanboy Windows-based cookie-cutter console replacement with an integrated keyboard. Well, isn't that special.

And, all the Ultrabook gamers rejoiced! They have their thin and light feces that they have been praying for.

 

Soon 17" laptops will be a thing of the past too. 18" are basically dead. There is ONE 18" laptop in the market. The AW18 died and the GT80 took its place.

Only two companies are even close to trying to offer actual enthusiast machines right now. As much as I call it garbage for the CPU setup, the GT80 has a solid keyboard on it (that gamers appear to love) and its cooling is apparently pretty good. If its CPU was only socketed, we'd be doing things well.

Clevo is the other company. Screw HQ chips only; let's shove desktop CPUs back into it like we did 10 years ago when mobile CPUs sucked. Downside? No SLI model. Upside? Old MQ models still selling and still supported. But there's no real progress.

120Hz is dead.
High gamut screens are dead.
25ms response time IPS panels are being bought like crazy for gamers.
3K and 4K notebooks with integrated graphics or midrange (not even high end) are what everyone seems to want with those thin, 13" - 15" machines.
Big tech heads with powerful PCs and no need or desire to move around or use a notebook as a primary machine are bashing people who like beefier notebooks.
Everybody says "meh, I'll change my notebook in 2 years, I don't need sockets"

It's true. The enthusiast market isn't even dying. It's dead. Even AMD bringing it back doesn't help the software front with windows and secure flash BIOSes and all that other crap we all hate. It's not like our hardware isn't locked down enough already... half the BIOSes have a bunch of locked features, and god, Alienware's BIOSes were on a whole new level before. The amount of things in there was ridiculous. I'm honestly sorry I never got to use one. We're just relics of a past age right here. I'm glad to be one of those relics, but things are just going downhill like crazy and I don't know where to turn. Programs are being written sloppily because RAM is abundant and CPU power is abundant. New laptop users are hunting for absolute bang for buck, but they want to do all the latest, most unoptimized games. Moreso than desktop users and their silly chase for Assassin's Creed Unity at 4K (there's plenty of those people trust me).

*sigh* I think I'ma take a few days break from these forums. It's been depressing me the last couple days with everything nVidia has done/are doing, and Intel's push for HQ chips has been a gripe in my belly for the last 5 months on top of it. And next AMD is stalling and hell, I don't even WANT to go with them anyway. I hate fullscreen and that means I'd only use crossfire in what, 10% of games I ever play? *sigh* I need to forget about the whole tech world for a day or two I think.

 

I hear you. All of this nonsense makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and walk away. I'm not playing along with their let's all be happy with garbage and sing Kumbaya program. If I can't have things the way I want them, I'll just throw in the towel and give nobody any money for anything any more... hardware, games, nothing. I will find a new form of entertainment and use a cheap and disposable internet appliance for web surfing. I might even stop web surfing if they keep pushing all of the wrong buttons. All of this stuff that is going on is just way too stupid for words. Stone tablets and abacus worked for centuries. Nobody is going to own me or tell me what I am allowed do with my property and get paid for doing it. They can stuff their clock-blocked trash where the sun don't shine... then rotate on that until they bleed out from colonic hemorrhaging.

 

Well the good part is with a console focused gaming industry, these monster laptops of 2015 with desktop CPU and 980M should last 2-3 years. Hopefully Clevo continues to make something that doesn't have soldered CPU and that awful nightmare going by the names Optimus/Enduro/Switchable Graphics.

 

If that's the good news might as well buy a console and be done with it. At least that will last longer than 3 years.
Being able to upgrade is everything. Being locked out from doing everything defeats the purpose of having these machines in the first place.

 

Heh for the first time in a while I'm actually really glad I bought my P370SM even if I barely use it these days. Can't put a price on owning a piece of relic from what used to be the golden days of enthusiast DTRs.

 

An excellent article here from notebookcheck.net accurately portraying our plight!:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia...king-through-a-vBIOS-based-lock.137109.0.html

Looks like it could be thanks to Jaybee for letting them know about this, he's quoted in the article, and of course Prema for confirming the vBIOS lockdown, amoung other likely contributors.

Great to get this kind of coverage!

 

So far I have only heard of the Clevo ZM and new AW models being affected. Hope the P650SG 980M I just ordered doesn't have the clockblock vBIOS...

 

If the vBIOS is locked down are you gonna send it back, or flash a vBIOS that unlocks it & risk losing warranty, or perhaps just lump it & live with it? I don't think I could use it in the knowledge that there was all that untapped potential in the GPU not being used, I'd send it back & buy one that wasn't locked down.

 

The second option. Or the first one if the second one is not available.

I agree

 

Yeah, good call, hopefully the P650SG is reliable with very low warranty claims then!

 

nice! damn i didnt expect them to be this fast great to see theyre actually reading their mail *lol*

 

Maybe you get special treatment because you are a German

 

lol, well, i havent heard back from either CHIP or Computerbase yet (and also havent seen any news updates on this), so apparently that "advantage" is not universally applied

btw, im only half german