Problems overclocking 9800m GTX on a Toshiba Qosmio X300-13o

Greetings guys

I at last found a tool that can overclock my 9800m GTX on my Toshiba Qosmio X300-13o. nVidia System Tools seemed to do the trick, after trying with RivaTuner, PowerStrip and a few others.

However if I try to increase the any frequencies and then run a game the display driver crashes with the game after a few seconds of 3D rendering (running at those frequencies as seen by GPU monitoring), and I get a warning icon in the system tray saying "The display driver stopped responding and has recovered".

I'm 100% sure it isn't temperature because the GPU barely reaches 60C-65C before crashing.

I'm also almost sure it's not the drivers since this happens tons of drivers I used, including official notebook drivers, laptopvideo2go drivers and DOX optimized drivers.

Will tweaking the BIOS GPU fix this problem? I would like to hear your opinions since BIOS flashing is something I would like to avoid due to the risk, or maybe it might not be something that has to do with the BIOS at all...

Help will be greatly appriciated...

 

Just for an update, I found a pic on the net showing exactly what I also get:

 

You again?

What drivers are you running right now? What game are you playing when the display crashes? Specifically what frequencies did you overclock and to what values? When you uninstall and install new drivers, did you thoroughly remove the leftover files with Driver Sweeper?

 

What did I do comrade? Have I offended you before?

Currently I'm on DOX 185.85 driver, which are really good compared to other drivers I used.

All games crash, 3D mark seems to "resist" a bit more

Well, about anything more than 50-70Mhz than the original clock cause the driver problem

No, I didn't use driver sweep, but something is telling me it's not the driver... just a vague feeling though

 

Okay, let me rephrase. What are the current clocks, core/shader/memory, before you noticed the problems?

 

I'll have to go testing again, since I restored my factory clocks, that's why I obviously didn't include specific values. I will perform a few quick tests to see and will write back...

 

First test @ 570/1320/860 failed instantly, before temperature of the core even reached 60C!

will post with smaller frequencies in a while

 

Second test @ 560/1310/850 failed again, played for a few more seconds than before...

 

Try this: 560/1400/840. These clocks are of proper ratio and should work just fine.

 

crashed again @ 550/1300/840 and these are hardly beneficial overclocks... :s

I think you get the point... shall i post more test results?

 

I see your point. Can you fire up GPU-Z and send me a copy of your GPU BIOS? I want to see for myself what Toshiba has done to the 9800M GTX BIOS.

 

will test and answer back

 

Will do pronto... thanks for your good intention to help

 

Those evil little MEANIES

 

Wow, haha. What a bummer.

 

Fishy eh? Shall I proceed with a BIOS flash then or this will render my 9800 useless?

 

We can't flash the BIOS because we don't have a BIOS to flash it with, haha. GPU-Z can't extract your card's BIOS probably because Toshiba locked it. It's the same thing that happened to tuηay, except his EEPROM isn't recognised.

From the way I see it, you're stuck with software overclocking, and with a very limited overclocking range too.

 

Tunjay has exactly the same laptop as me, and he claims to have achieved 585/940/1463. If this is true, then my X300 should be able to do so too, or at least close clockspeeds...

What if I use the BIOS from another 9800m GTX? Perhaps even the 0617 BIOS that are said to be way better..

 

You can try. But if it fails, you have no backup of your original BIOS to fall back on. I still have my old 9800M GTX BIOS sitting around in a directory somewhere. But I would rather ask another Toshiba user for their 9800M GTX BIOS instead to reduce the chance of failure.

In GPU-Z, what BIOS is loaded on your card? Is it the 0608 revision?

 

#$^@$%#@WD#$2#!

 

Toshiba really locks it down.. Man that blows..

 

Jeez, she really does... I only hope to find some clue that it wont be risky to flash the BIOS...

 

That's some serious lockage, Nikko_300bhp. But I see that your card is using 0617.

At your own risk, you may use my old 9800M GTX BIOS to flash your card. I will put up the attachment with a timeslot of 10 minutes. I will PM you the password to open it.

 

Im sorry my friend, but I had to go to sleep (timezone xD)...

Take your time, but thanks for trying to help. I will research a bit more to see if the BIOS are ok to be flashed.

Btw why is my card using 0617 BIOS? There is HDMI supprot and its a single card laptop from the factory, so should they be the other BIOS?

 

Your laptop is indeed a single GPU laptop, but the 9800M GTX in your laptop most likely has an unused SLi socket just like my old 9800M GTX. 0617 cards have the SLi socket while 0608 cards don't.

Nevertheless, Toshiba put the lock down on your card's BIOS so theres absolutely nothing we can do about it. Unless you want to try and flash my BIOS onto your card and hope nvFlash recognises the EEPROM.

 

Now you have put more ideas on my head... hehehe

There are indeed SLi models of the X300, but using GTS version of the card. Does this mean I can add another, non-MXM 9800m GTX to my X300? I did non-MXM GPU swapping many times before... But I would rather avoid opening my laptop, since it's only 1 week since I got it and I don't want to void my warranty...

As of the BIOS, I will search the net to download BIOS and see what turns up.

You told me that you've seen how Tunjay managed to overclock his card... Can you briefly tell me (if you of course know/remember) what he did?

 

$20 says you screw up and it doesn't work. I'm not going to go further into the theory. Stupid idea. Don't do it.

You can always ask me or any other user that has the 9800M GTX for the BIOS.

I think he used NST to software overclock his 9800M GTX. I can't remember if he raised the voltage to get to his clocks.

 

Of course it wouldn't be a great idea. I wouldn't order another 9800m GTX just to see

Theoretically the GPU BIOS are independant from the rest of the system
including the system BIOS, right? However my concern is if there was some type of other alteration on the GPU itself by Toshiba, that will not allow other BIOS.

I will PM tunjay, perhaps he might share with me what he did to achive his clocks.

Again thanks for helping so far

 

That's correct, the GPU BIOS and the system BIOS are two different entities.

What I was concerned about was the power contraints of the laptop. I believe the X300 uses a 180W power supply. Two 9800M GTX's would already eat 150W leaving very little for the CPU and the rest of the system.

I am just as stumped as you are. I don't know what Toshiba has done to disable both reading and writing the GPU BIOS, nor do I wish to know.

tuηay's clocks pushes his GPU temps in red zone in gaming alone. If he ran a five minute stress test in Furmark or OCCT, his GPU would fry. Be very careful when you overclock your card, Nikko_300bhp.

 

I read somewhere in the forums about 9800m GTX overclocking

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=339589

This fellow here managed to overclock his 9800m GTX @ 600/1500/870 without reaching very dangerous temperatures I gues (73C max in benchmarking)

I had a similar problem with my previous Toshiba, but I could do some good overclocking before reaching the apparently "locked" frequencies

I pm'ed tunjay. From him I'll just want to learn how I will be able to overclock my GPU and then after some testing Iwill find appropriate frequencies...

 

Blacky's 9800M GTX is running in an M570TU, which has a far more robust GPU heatsink compared to the X305. If you manage to software overclock your 9800M GTX, it will get very hot at those clocks.

I don't count Vantage as a stress test. Furmark, OCCT, and long periods of intense gaming are my stress tests.

 

Quoted for truth

However, once I manage to overclock properly my GPU, then we will se if the X300's heatsink is robust or not. The laptop so far is as cool as a cuccumber (not literally of course ) as the two large fans beneath seem to do a really good job and the oversized chasis seems to disperse heat produced by components very effectively...

 

Mind sharing your GPU temperatures at idle and full load at factory clocks?

 

will do pronto, you mind if it's 3dmarkO6?

 

Oops, I forgot that one too. I don't count any of Futuremark's benchmark applications as stress tests. Run Furmark or OCCT.

 

Ran a 3DMark06, monitored manually the temperatures using nVidia Tools System Monitor (could get the log to work :s)

The room temperature is 28-30 (hot summer, no AC in the study, where my laptop is )

Top temperature I saw was 71C at stock clocks, most of the time was at about 65-63C however...

Pretty good temperatures. The 9800m GTX's core threshold is 90C so in a , especially in a cooler environment, there is a safe room for some beneficial overclocking...

 

Ok I will run Crysis, you can't go wrong with that I guess...

 

I've been playing Crysis at nativer res (1440x900) most high, textures very high, some post processing and shadows to medium and the top res I got was 70C, and stays STABLE at about 68

Will post results for another 10 minutes

 

20 minutes of Crysis:

DOX 185.85 @ Stock Clocks and a rather hot environment (it's 38 celcius outside! :S)

1440X900 - No AA - High-Med settings

Top temperature reached was 72 degrees, but mostly ran stable at about 68-69C.

With some proper overclocking reaching about 80 is not dangerous. If I manage to persuade my family and let me have my laptop in a room with AC then temps will be even lower I guess...

My friend, with all the respect for you and your will to help, heat is not the problem right now as you can understand

Aww, I wanna go to the beach, have a bath and a chilled beer... will be back later...

 

I have posted this before on this forum. Thanks to Toshiba, you are not able to read BIOS. I have tryed this with several programs before...

 

Editing clocks with effect temps so much. But if you edit voltage (We Toshiba x300-113o owners can't) your temps. will rise with 5-10 C

 

Sorry Nikko_300bhp. The liquor got to me and I fell asleep in my chair, haha.

72*C is a good temperature for factory clocks. You have more than enough room to raise the clocks to 600/1500/900 safely.

 

Those clocks are too high for stock voltage...

 

Try it, tuηay. You'll get a nice score out of it.

 

Okay, standby

 

So ?
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2995/crashw.jpg

 

Wow, your card has some serious issues if it can't operate at 600/1500/900 @ 1v.

 

Issue is the clocks. And Toshiba ofcourse...

 

Thats exactly what I get too guys... Im 99% its the BIOS... if I find out that flashing the BIOS of a "proper" 9800m GTX to our Toshibized one actually works, I will do it right away

Btw tunjay, how did you get the clocks you said to your profile!? :S I would be uber-happy with those clocks too

 

Yes, 585/940/1463 works fine for me but I usualy dosn't have the profile loaded.

Also read this therad if you want
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388335