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

The BIOS uses the GPU code to generate the model, obviously if you use slightly different hardware it can make it go a bit funky

Glad it's working and ALWAYS take a backup of whatever bios you are using

 

I've already emailed myself a back up of both the original clevo and the msi vbios I'm currently running. Lesson learned haha. I'm just glad its working great. No issues found so far, ran firestrike and got 6515 as before with great temps. I am going to run some more benchmarks, and games, and use some overclocks to ensure I haven't lost any performance from switching to MSI vBios versus the Clevo. I doubt that is going to be an issue, but I want to ensure full compatibility of the vBios on this card. I figured I may as well go ahead and flash the card, I was going to attempt it sooner or later and the waiting game was starting to eat at me. No more modded INFs! This is great news for anyone that has 970m or 980m upgrades. I can't ensure it will also work on your systems though. It didn't play nice with mine until I used MSI latest Bios. Though I find it weird it worked fine until I installed the Nvidia Drivers and hit reboot.

Note: I am still using my rather old EC firmware from the first post. I still have not flashed the latest EC firmware that is suppose to have N16E compatibility according to the release notes. At this point if everything continues to work great I won't bother.

 

So issue resolved.
The BIOS shows the correct model due to GPU detected.

 

Can you post the link to that msi 970m 6gb vbios? I want to try it...THanks

 

http://www.filedropper.com/msi6g

Make sure you have the original on the usb ready to go just in case!

I have tested the vBios in BF4 for about an hour or so tonight, OC and rock solid just like the Clevo vBios. My upgrade is now fully complete.... until the 10XXM series

 

Roger. Backed up my vbios clevo incase.. And I've updated my nb to Win 8.1. Success!!!!

Can post a USB flash drive bootable? cant find one yet.. Thanks

 

This is strange... I was about to flash vbios to msi. and this is what it shows on nvflash



but on windows. this shows on device manager.




And when I execute a game. the game exits after the intro screen appears.. Can help me? thanks.. I am going to revert to windows 7

 

There isn't any specific guide on that unfortunately. You should make shure to not OC high and monitor temps constantly. XM chips tend to run hot. And if temps start rising to the higher 90s turbofan is your only choice. If I were you I would get a cooler 3820qm/3840qm (whoever is cheaper). It's 45W vs 55W on the XM with the same 8M L3 cache and -100Mhz on both normal and turbo states.

Nice notebook but that 860m might be a little limited in which settings you can use ingame. The GT60-2QD with a 970m might be a better choise if getting a new notebook.
Also it seems a Clevo barebone based setup.

 

Talon, could you tell me how did you back up your system BIOS?

 

for extract anf flash bios require nvflash 5.196

for extract you disable vga card driver in system control panel, run nvflash for backup or flash vga, after, reboot and re-enable drivers vga

my bios vga is 84.04.22.00.11 970m gtx 6gb clevo (not require inf mod)

 

Where is the page for 980M bios update?

 

Before you do anything open Afterburner or something that causes the power light to switch to orange. Then open the command prompt and try to flash the vBios.

What you experienced happens because the laptop is running off of the Intel GPU. Opening Afterburner or any GPU monitoring program will make the nVidia GPU active, and then nVFlash will be able to see it and flash the vBios.

The same thing happens to me every time I go to flash the vBios and forget to open a GPU monitoring program before hand.

 

So if I have an GT60 OND can I flash to the latest bios for a newer GT60, or am I stuck with the last one MSI put out for it (sometime in 2013)?

 

I'm not entirely sure on that superguy. Maybe someone else can chime in on that. I don't think I would flash those BIOS since you have an older IVY bridge based GT60. It would work out fine for me since I have a GT60 based on the same Haswell as the newer GT60 refresh. I also didn't select my BIOS from the 970m version download page, mine came from the GT60 2OD download page. I think its reading my system as a 2QD version because as Kevin pointed out I am using a MSI 970m vBios in a Haswell GT60. It will be interesting to list this system when I decide to sell it eventually. Frankenstein GT60.

I never backed up my system BIOS. I backed up my GPU vBios through GPU-Z though. I am pretty sure older system BIOS and ECs for GT60s are floating around here in someones guide somewhere. Can't remember which thread had them, but a user was backing them up for us at one point in case anyone wanted to flash back to older bios or firmware. MSI doesn't seem to list their older revisions which is bad IMO.

 

Heh mine would be in the same boat. Good point about the Haswell vs. Ivy procs. I've seen some people talking about upgrading with the Ivy procs and I wasn't sure if that involved a bios flash or not. I'll probably still update to the latest one for my model. Just not sure if there are any other Ivy GT60s out there with newer bioses.

 

Hey Troy, I ordered 980M from Nexoc too and I was wondering if you received any tracking number for your order from the store when they send the package? Shame that this forum have no PM system, or at least I can't find it...

 

Mmmmm what should I do if I want to swap the 675mx from my GT70 (I7 3630QM Ivy Bridge) for a 970M ?
Should I just flash the V-bios of the card and it'll work or is there more to do ?

(Amazing tutorial)

 

Hey there Sc00rpY. After I made my payment I asked for tracking number of the package. It was send by Fedex so really fast and without any problems. With who are you communicating from Nexoc? You already made the payment based on invoice?

 

my sister will stay in the hotel for a short time in the US and have to buy in a physical store in orlando, would have to be the best buy or tigerdirect, I can not buy on websites, and I'm on a budget, the most I can spend is $ 999 I have also desktop and the laptop would be just to play in outos cozy house.

which physical store recommended buy notebook in orlando?

 

I talked with Cindy H, already made the payment on friday but it was processed by my bank this morning, so I will wait one more day and if they don't e-mail me back by tomorrow, then I will ask for the tracking number. I will have a few more questions when I finally receive the card and I hope you can assist me with your upgrade experience

 

You have a low (3) post count. Get to at least 5 and the function should unlock for you

Modding the heatsink is your first step. Next, after physically installing the card, comes inf modding with your particular HWID. Check a few more posts back on how to do this.

 

Good news about the BIOS update! Hope can find a MSI 980m bios to go with the mod

 

Hey Thanatospy I would just go over to the GT72 980m owners lounge and ask any of the users to please do a vBios dump for you. I was able to get a GT72 970m 6GB card owner to do the vBios dump for me, and thats the version I am currently using on my 970m without issue after my system bios update. I doubt it will take long to get a response.

 

Please post the 980m bios!

 

You have to go beg over in the GT72 980m owners lounge.

 

4GB or 8GB VRAM?

 

We have all of the VBIOS, if you want just email me at [email protected] and I will send it to you.

 

Ok , what about optimus . Gt72 doesn't have one automatically switching to the Integrated graphics card . You do it manually by pushing a button. Our gt70 does it automatically.
So how optimous is going for you ?

 

Optimus works as it always has. When not using the 970m for games or whatever it runs on Intel card. Power button goes white.

 

Sure thing ask if needed. Will try to help as best as I can and the rest of the guys too I guess. It's a great bunch of people here

 

Can this be done with the 680m models?

 

Hey dale350zman I suppose it is possible just depends on heatsink. If you have the same as most on GTX780M then you have to make a little mod (see Talons first post) and you´re ready to go. If you have different heatsink you´ll probably have to modify it more or buy a GTX780M sink for GT70 models ;-)

 

GT72 has a HW switch that allows users to switch between Intel or Nvidia, however each switch done requires a reboot for it to become effective.

 

What I am curious about is after you updated your vBios to the MSI vBios, and after you installed the latest BIOS from MSI, your machine turned into a 2QD model (I think that's the model ). Which then no longer requried a modded INF file, because it's a recognized configuration that MSI is selling.

I'm looking to update to a 980m sometime soon, I hope. Lol. Seeing as MSI hasn't made a GT60 with a 980M yet, I wonder if the machine will still require a modded INF file even after installing the MSI vBios on the 980m, and installing the latest BIOS from MSI's site for the 2OD model? I'm guessing it will still require the modded INF. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

I don't think MSI will release a GT60 or 70 with a GTX 980M and will make this gpu exclusive to the GT 72, because it would make the cheapest GT72 worthless, they would self-compete (In my country, you can buy GT72 GTX 970M for 1500€, if they release a GT70 980M around this price, I doubt many would buy the GT72)
But the MSI resellers already upgraded to the GTX 980m, like Medion : http://www.medion.com/de/shop/demnaechst-bei-medion-medion-erazer-x7835-md99063-30018226a1.html

 

8gb my friend. Ordered it from nexco today, can't wait

 

I believe it's intel only or Nvidia only with no optimus. It's a hard switch.

 

The driver's INF most likely picked up the HW ID which allows the installation to go through.
MXM cards typically uses the same brand of VRAM IC thus flashing to a different manufacturer's VBIOS does not cause problems most of the time.
Otherwise, artifacts can happen should VRAM configuration mismatches.

 

This is the why my 970m cant start..
View attachment 118601

Updated the intel chipset 4000 with the latest one and inf7 drivers too...still Intel 4000hd working as 3d card for my nb...

I think i better ask people who knows how to edit this nvcvn.inf for the nvidia driver...

 

Kevin

can give me a dump vbios of GTX 970m 6gb that came from an MSI GT60/70. not the one with the GT72. I'm going to check on something.. Thanks a lot

 

Here it is.
[ Download]

 

Kevin thanks....

@All

Another question.. Is it possible to disable the following in an unlock bios? IGP : disabled (integrated graphics) PEG : enabled ? I can see these options in my nb though. AW 17 is also muxeless (except for AW18 and GT72 which is muxed) and AW users can disable this option for their 9xx card to function properly.. Dunno with msi but will try it. I know how to reverse if something goes wrong. Just unplug the wires of cmos batt hehe

 

No, this is a hardware's design limitation except GT72.
Below is how they are connected to each other.
Internal display <-> Intel HD Graphics <-> Nvidia Graphics.

 

Well you can disable the IGP but as Kevin points out you will loose the internal display (and VGA on those models with a VGA port) so there is no point as the dedicated ports are always dedicated anyway.

 

with nvflash 5.19 under windows.. Why can't I update it? I used the command "nvflash -6 xxxx.rom". The error message says: Board ID mismatch. How come?



why is there an error?


Kevin,

the vbios file you gave me came from GT60/70 series? how come can't update vbios? ID E910 does not match with ID E 905

Can I force this to update? the one that you linked is with optimus which I think is needed by my nb.... can help me if it's possible ? Thanks

 

Try also adding a -4 and -5 before the -6.

 

Omega there is no GT60/70 with 6gb vram. Don't flash a 3gb card vBios! Pretty sure you'll beick your card. Why don't you use the vBios I sent you. It came from a gt72 and works perfectly. Optimus too.

 

Try this one Omega:

Code:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5uljoOccztDam9uMUxFWFNqc0U/view?usp=sharing

plus new nvflash 5.196

Code:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5uljoOccztDRmo4QWc5aW5aZFE/view?usp=sharing

 

Any1 had lucky finding the msi 980m vbios?

 

@Talon
thanks bud.. didn't do that. thanks for the advice, I did update the vbios that you gave me and it worked but still the problem is there, 970m can't play on 3d games but installed the drivers successfully... I'll post a video later. Can't upload from the office