Upgrading the DGFF GPUs in the Precision 7530 & 7730

In theory, yes. If software writing via nvflash fails, one can always use a hardware programmer to directly write to the bits of the EEPROM chip on the card. It's a relatively straightforward operation, so there shouldn't be any problems... But things can always go wrong, so there's a definite non-zero risk of bricking one's card. Generally should never happen under normal operation, and provided one uses a voltage converter (someVBIOS chips are read from/written to at 1.8 V, whereas some programmers output 3.3 or even 5 V).

 

I see. Thank you for your explanation!

 

If your system is set up with graphics switching on (Intel GPU driving display) then you "should" be able to recover without a hardware programmer. In my M6700, I had a vBIOS flash to my Quadro K5000M go completely bad. I was still able to boot and run with Intel graphics and the Quadro card was showing as a bad/unknown device in Device Manager. I had to look up on Google/Reddit the appropriate flags to pass to nvflash to "force" a flash on the unknown device, but I was able to get it to flash properly on a second attempt.

I was pretty nervous about this, since the K5000M was pretty new/expensive at the time, and I thought that I might be about to have to find a replacement. Basically, you shouldn't flash a vBIOS willy-nilly and accept that there may be a serious problem if things go bad. If you are going to flash, do it with graphics switching enabled and from Linux if you can (less chance of a problem during the flash... I've had at least two attempts from Windows cause a BSOD when I tried to run a flash).

 

Correct. Thanks, I will give it a try this evening when I am off work. I am curious to see if your stock 80W vbios is usable on mine. If so, then maybe it gives hope for the 110W for both of us? Although I know the 110W is a different size card, so no guarantee. Also, if I can run your vbios, then would that not also mean you should be able to run my 90W one as well? Or so I would assume at least.

One thing to note that I did not mention before. After I successfully flashed the 110W vbios (successfully according to nvflash anyway), and went to restart windows, it took a lot longer than usual to restart, and ended up giving me a BSOD. The Stop Code was: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. So it is possible that it is some kind of power supply issue on the Lenovo end, or just a bad flash, corrupt bios, windows messing stuff up, or flat out not compatible lol.

 

Ok, update. I flashed your stock 80W vbios successfully according to nvflash. But, had the exact same result. Took about 5 minutes on the restarting screen, then BSOD with the same driver power state failure code. Then when trying to boot into windows, it just shows a black screen. So I am back on the P73 90W vbios now. I guess the boards on our cards are all just too different to be cross-flashable. It was a fun experiment though lol.

There are a few other laptops out there (such as the ASUS ProArt Studio) that have the 110W RTX 5000. But I cannot find any vbios uploads from them yet. They are still kind of new, so not surprising there.

 

@BlueBomber, at this rate I'll have to source for a hardware programmer and modify the VBIOS I already have and jack up the power limits. I don't know if the Mobile Pascal TDP Tweaker works with Turing, and NVIDIA has turned the screws on their encryption drastically, so one can't just change the bits in the VBIOS willy-nilly—at least, not after Maxwell.

 

Hello, @Ionising_Radiation! Huge thanks for all of the time and energy you have put into this. This whole thread has been a joy to read. I've learned quite a lot!

I am very interested in picking up an RTX 5000. I have read through the forum and it looks like the 8 cards you originally purchased have already sold, and a few extra folks have placed orders. By any chance, will you be placing another round of orders from Dell?

If so, I'd love to be in on it!

Just in case, I have already filled out the form you posted. Let me know if you need any further info.

Also, I would love to pay in advance. You have excellent rep on this forum and that goes a long way, but would you be willing to post a photo of the 8 (or 7 if the one is already installed in your machine) cards you have already purchased or, if you have already shipped them, an invoice (not a quote and with personal info blacked out) for those cards?

It would ease my mind about purchasing direct and I would be very grateful!

Again, thank you for doing this!

 

For those still looking for heatsinks, I found a supply on AliExpress. If the photos are accurate, these are the same DJBJA heatsinks with Delta fans that @Aaron44126 found on ebay.

Since it is AliExpress and since I am no master of the subject, definitely do your due diligence before buying! Also, it looks like there is a minimum order of 2, so maybe another round of teamwork/bulk buying?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000538814274.html

EDIT: In the fine print it says that this for the fan only, not the heatsink and fan. $70 is a crazy price to pay for a fan, most are under $10. I've contacted the seller for clarification.

 

Yeah that was my next option/last resort as well. Skimming through the thread, it seems like there has been some hit and miss success with the Turing cards. It seems cheap enough to get the programmer. But I was definitely gonna wait until I saw some success stories on there from Quadro RTX cards. Or maybe 2080 super mobile cards, since they at least have the same core/die as the RTX 5000 from what I understand. I wonder if we could flash that vbios lol. Definitely kidding, different VRAM amount.

 

Hello everyone. The price correction has now occurred, and I have closed the form. Any payments after the first group of five will be refunded. It was fun while it lasted. On the bright side, I am selling my Quadro RTX 3000, if anyone wants it, for cheap.