The Official MSI GT60/70 970m/980m Upgrade Thread

You can still run Windows 7 with the 51X bios.

You won't get a redesigned radiator with a 970m for a GT70. Just modify the heatsink on my GT60 0ND and I was good to go. It looks a little different than the ones in the pics, but it's modifiable. It's not hard to see where you need to when you try to make the heatsink fit on the card.

 

but how do I put bios 51x if I have only 50x from the official website, where to take my laptop under 51x

 

@alabri check your PMs!

 

Finally received my fujipoly pads, which are 0.5mm and pk-3 and I am extremely satisfied with my temps!

 

Hi,

Am I able to OC my 970M?

Driver: 345.20
vBios: 84.04.1F.00.BD

Thanks

 

Can I setup Bios from GT70 2OD on my GT70 0ND? Gt70 2OD could be upgrade to BIOS .71x, my notebook could be upgrade only to .70x in official site, but bios .71x could be setup on version .70v, but version .70v could be setup on version .700-708. .700-708 this is .70x, I an right?

 

I also have an Ibuypower cz-17(Ivy bridge). As far as I understand it cannot be updated with a straight MSI bios? Is there any kind of work around? I would like to attempt this upgrade but my bios is from the end of 2012 and ibuypower does not have any updates for it as far as I can find. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Don't do it. You'll brick your system.

2OD is for Haswell. OND is for Ivy Bridge.

 

Great News.

an User from our german MSI Form has Upgrade his Medion Erazer X6813 (MS-16F2) with the GTX970M from the GT72 Upgradekit. The Card works great without any modified driver, he use the old GTX560M Heatsink (modified). Some words and pics: http://msi-forum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=107772 (all in german). He get ca. 8500pt in 3DMark11 with a old i7-2630QM.

 

Yep it's a very nice option for many older msi systems as the 970m is not too expensive.

 

Ok, thanks, I take bios 51x for GT70 0ND, 0NC, 0NE...

 

would this upgrade work for the 16f3?

 

Yep.

 

This is still a good upgrade choice since it allows you to extend usability of an older notebook system.

 

I have an ibuypower cz-17 which is physically identical to the gt70 with the 1762 motherboard. Is it possible to have Svet modify my existing bios to get it to properly recognize a new 970m? Or am i out of luck? Original post made note that ivy bridge based units needed new bios and help from Svet. Thanks

Ibuypower Valkyrie CZ-17
Bios E1762II1.30O
CPU - intel I7 3720qm
Video - GTX 675m

 

Have you tried PMing him on the MSI forums?​

 

Hello People,

its been awhile since i haven't been into this thread.. What's new?

 

I was just looking at your specs. What's the difference between the E16F3EMS1 VerT.19 firmware and the T.18 version

On another note, it appears the Prema bios is the one to have for the 970, correct?

 

The EC will mostly be things like current limits, fan profiles and keyboard settings.

 

Hey guys if any of you remember me posting about my super long boot times (unrelated to the upgrade, my 980m is awesome) it just fixed itself... After like 5 months it just works now so that's interesting.

 

Hello!
My configuration:

MSI GT70 2OC
firmware : 1763EMS1.517
Bios : E1763IMS.518

I upgrade from 770M to 970M. After that I have one issue - with FAN control when connect monitor to HDMI (fan go to maximum in randomly period of time).
Question is - Who have the same configuration of MSI and don't have this issue?

 

Would the 970m work on a 16F2?

Edit: Sorry never read earlier posts, i guess it works

 

Try updating the EC to sort fan issues, also is it really max or does it just rev up as multi display configs make the GPU clock up.

 

Thanks, but EC update is already done. It happened only with ext.monitor to HDMI connected. If connect to D-SUB all is OK.
By the way do you know what issue resolved in Bios - E1763IMS.51B instead E1763IMS.517? Because no release information about this.

 

I do not know off hand but your vga is connected to the IGP where as the HDMI is the dedicated GPU IIRC in that model which could explain the difference.

 

I found the same issue with another customer. He found that system lose temperature and put FAN in catastrophic mode.
But when I connect to D-SUB and play 3D, I used 970M and all is ok.

 

Must be an issue with the EC and waking in dedicated mode vs optimus mode and driving the display. You may want to speak with svet about that and see if that rings a bell with him.

 

Sorry, is the SVET worked in MSI?

 

Hi. Which way is safer to flash vBios? Through under Windows as your link suggests or flash under DOS with flash disk as Techinferno suggests?

 

Svet at MSI forum, but he does not work for MSI.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=148273.0

 

Svet - MSI
Svl7 - tech inferno
Prema - premamod.com

 

Svet's tool contains flashing utility with guaranteed result, and sometimes works even better than MSI's own utility.
There are reports on MSI forum that have mentioned about MSI's own utility sometimes bricked the machine during flashing.

 

Overclock works with newest 347.88 drivers!

 

Can I get an answer about this? Anyone?

 

Use Nvflash to flash your Vbios.

 

Nice to hear that

 

Okay I am going to but through under Windows when the system is up or through under DOS?

 

Ok so Svet told me unlocking bios will not add gpu support but updating can. Why is having Svet unlock it needed then as users are reporting.

Im tempted to flash my CZ-17 to the .51x msi Bios. Svet said there is a risk of a brick but that other gt60/70 barebones have successfuly updated to 51x/71x. and EC firmware. Should I try the card first with no bios update or update the bios first before purchasing a non refundable 970m. I really dont want to end up with a very expensive paper weight. My keyboard and soft keys look the same as the retail and some have changed it with the msi multi colored one. What is the difference between the bare bones and retail? Just some logos and styling?

 

Hello fellow Dominators,

I did a ton of research and spoke to a few MSI reps concerning the "official" GT72 upgrade program. It is not the news I was hoping for, but I figured I'd share the wealth with y'all. It's actually not too hard or much of a cost increase to get an official upgrade. For more info, please take a look at this other thread with Geno the MSI rep and it explains everything I was able to dig up...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-questions-for-the-msi-rep.761676/page-28

 

If our customers are interested in an upgrade to their GT72 they can simply contact us to sort it out.

 

My problem was the total lack of information MSI provided and the misleading video and website they posted. Not the resellers. You guys are here to serve customers, I understand that and my post is only to inform people interested in upgrading their GT72 with the knowledge about how to do it. I hope you didn't take offense, my hope is that this post will bring the resellers customers. I know I am not the only one wondering what is up with this upgrade program. Now people have a guide they can go to get their upgrades and reputable companies to help them out.

 

We are the proof that their upgrade program is crap, with our 970m and 980m GT60s and Gt70s. Like really I'm not really sure how they would even make more money because less people even have the GT72.

 

Where did you get them? They're not on Nvidia's site yet.

 

Hi guys, been watching this thread for a few months now ever since my GTX 675m broke down. So now, I got the 970m and installed it in the laptop, GT70 0NC. Also flashed the bios, current version is E1762IMS 71x as well as the vbios into the msi one. The drivers installed successfully and the GPU is detected properly by the laptop and its information in GPU-z and nvidia inspector are correct. However, despite all these, the GPU is never utilized. It has constantly 0% GPU load in nvidia inspector as well as in the nvidia control panel, showing that there is no activity. Also in games, the card is not detected as they use the intel integrated card. Benchmarking programs also use the intel card, and some even showing GTX 970m but is obviously using the intel one.

I have no idea what to do anymore as I’ve tried different things. I’ve tried using the different vbios, the clevo and the msi. In using the clevo one, the modded infs do let me install the driver but windows won’t boot. The msi allows for unmodded installation and it seems that it is successful since the GPU is there but applications never used it, everything uses the intel one.

As for the system bios, initially I flashed to the 51x and then changed to 71x. The bios available from the msi website don’t update the system bios, as they remain the same. Another observation is that upon booting, the power button light is white, indicating the use of the intel card. However upon reaching the windows logo, the button turns orange and remains orange all throughout which is weird since it means it’s using the nvidia card which never happens. Oh and lastly I have windows 7 64-bit. Really clueless on what I can do to make the card work right now, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

It may be a driver problem. You can try backing up your information and doing a fresh install of windows. Seeing as the computer is recognizing the card and booting up, you can try it that way, also make sure and checks your bios settings to ensure that the video card is the primary card for your laptop to use. Also you can try a uefi with windows 8.1 some ppl have had success with that when updating a graphics card.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try reformatting when everything else fails. I don't know where in the BIOS can I modify the graphics card settings. I can't seem to find anything related to the GPU. Is that option specific to a certain version? I can't try the windows 8.1 option as there is no OS installer available to me.

 

I just thought about another thing. I don't know if your laptop is equipped with SCM (System Control Manager) buttons or not. On the GT72 dom pro 010, there is a button specifically for switching between dedicated and integrated (UMA) graphics, but it won't work unless you have the SCM software installed. If you do have a button or can do within your MSI software package, you can try reinstalling the drivers like this. Install the SCM software if it is available on your laptop. Switch with SCM to the Intel GPU. (Usually after you use SCM, it will prompt you to reboot). Install the Intel GPU driver. Also, make sure you are installing drivers from the MSI website. Restart. Use the SCM system control manager to switch to Nvidia. Once you are booted with the NVIDIA graphics card, install the NVIDIA driver of your choice. To get the correct MSI 970m driver, look up a laptop in the support section of MSI that is configured with a 970m and download that driver. That might work. So for instance, you can try downloading the gt70 2293 video adapter and that might help. MSI drivers are preferred and it should work if you card is flashed with an MSI vbios. Then reboot and attempt to use SCM to switch between the intel and Nvidia GPU's successfully. Your issue may be that if you are using optimus and are on the intel side, it might install the nvidia GPU, but not properly. From what I understand, you MUST be currently using the nvidia card as the primary GPU when installing the nvidia driver. Unfortunately, I don't know if your laptop has this capability or not, because I am not familiar with it. Also the bios option I was talking about is labeled UMA or GPU or it might say integrated/dedicated. Make sure you are booting using the GPU or dedicated option, if your are booting into UMA or Integrated, then it might only be booting to the intel side of the house. I know this is confusing, but in a nutshell, To update drivers of either UMA or GPU, you need to be using the graphics option that you are installing. I hope that helps a little... Try this before you do a fresh install.

 

The laptop doesn't have the SCM but it does have the S-Bar, I think they're similar? Anyway, I also installed the SCM drivers and it did work but it only had the same functionality as the S-Bar, in this case, without the integrated/dedicated card switch since the laptop does not have that button. I also installed the MSI driver as you suggested but the problem persists. As for the bios, there really is no GPU option. However, there are other things that I observed: when the display GPU activity icon is enabled in the notification area, the icon is always grayed out and GPU activity is always none, also, the nvidia appears correctly in GPU-Z, nvidia inspector and msi afterburner but in dxdiag, only intel is shown. I really don't know what's wrong but I agree that it could be a driver problem that there could be some sort of conflict. But could it be a voltage problem? In nvidia inspector it shows 0.856 V, not sure if that really matters

 

Did you update your EC firmware that was designed for that bios version?

EC 1762EMS1.T24 for .71X

Quote from Svet
"the new BIOS which supports 7xx and other new cards, need to be combined with proper EC firmware,
to works fine, other users has tried to keep different EC, but new GPU wasn't initialized properly[low usage] and other report lockup issues."

 

Yes, my EC firmware shows that version but the one I used is from here:
http://forum.techinferno.com/msi/8907-msi-1761-upgrade-mobo-1763-a-2.html
There seems to be no problem aside from the GPU not being used. It's together with the 51x bios, I can't find something that's specific to the 71X, maybe this is the problem?

To further monitor the GPU, I used this tool:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26992-optimus-test-tools-finally-in-users-hands/

This monitors the Nvidia Optimus. From here, it does show that the card is not being used at all. Nvidia Test shows Nvidia as OFF and in the optimus state viewer, nvidia is constantly idle and has no references as well as no applications listed.