Modded Quadro 3700M BIOS - actual clocks stay the same, default clocks change??

Hi all,

This is what I did:

- Downloaded Nvflash 5.80
- Ran Nvflash and used the --save command to save m Quadro 3700M's original BIOS
- Downloaded NiBiTor 5.8
- Ran NiBiTor 5.8 and loaded the previously saved original Quadro 3700M BIOS file
- Modded the Extra clocks to 600/1600/900 up from the default 550/1375/799
- Saved the modded BIOS to a new BIOS file name
- Booted the laptop from my boot-ready pendrive and did a Nvflash -4 -5 -6 newbios.rom update, this finished fine
- Rebooted the laptop, loaded Windows all okay
- Launched GPU-Z and it reports the default clocks as 600/1600/900 (which is correct) but for some reason it reports the actual clocks as 550/1375/799.

All in all it would seem the new clocks don't stick. I've yet to experience this when modding desktop Nvidia graphics cards.

Before any BIOS modding took place I first checked to make sure the card was stable at these speeds.

Running Furmark confirms it's running at 550/1375/799 (default clocks).

Any ideas? I've searched through this forum and as far as I can tell no one else has reported this before?

Thanks,

 

what BIOS is it?

1600 is a bit much, its also the wrong frequency for the stability ratio of 1:2.5.
Try 1500.

 

Thanks for your reply.

The modded BIOS can be downloaded at here.

I've looked at it in NiBiTor several times and it looks okay, just how I used to setup desktop Nvidia BIOS's.

1600MHz shader works fine if overclocked via software.

I'll see if lowering it changes anything.

 

Unfortunately changing the BIOS to 600/1500/900 doesn't help. GPU-Z and other diagnostic software still reports that the actual speed is 550/1375/799.

 

Are you sure the shader/core ratio is set to a correct strap? Also after flashing do you load the bios again to see if the modded one was actually flashed?

 

I checked the clocks in EVGA Precision to make sure they conform with the default strap - I did this by simply leaving the GPU and shader clocks in sync.

In Vista NiBiTor can't read the BIOS from the graphics card but I've attached a screenshot of GPU-Z which shows the clocks read from the BIOS and those that are currently applied. This I think is also proof the new BIOS has been flashed successfully. I flashed via nvflash -4 -5- -6.

The only thing that semi struck me during the nvflash command is each time it says the current BIOS is flashed version .07 while the new one to be flashed is .05. I'm using the same BIOS from the card, previously saved via nvflash --save filename.rom so why it thinks one is .07 and the other .05 is somewhat perplexing in its own right. GPU-Z meanwhile always reports version .05.

The modded BIOS is also attached higher up in this thread.

 

Please put your BIOS in a .ZIP file and upload it via forum attachment.

Here is my Lenovo 3700m .08 BIOS http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/msi/58134d1289535428-gx720-video-upgrade-3700mroms.zip

Did you mean to type -4 -5- -6 here or is that what you actually typed?
I thought its usually just -4 -5 -6.
I believe there is a -J command that rewrites some "romstraps". Maybe that will help.

PS you can overvolt these cards to a 1.06v. They run VERY hot, but you can go beyond 285m clocks.

 

I've attached my modded 3700M .05 BIOS in ZIP format. Do you see anything wrong with it?

Is your .08 3700M BIOS from a Lenovo W700? I've compared the compile dates between mine and yours and it would appear the .08 version is older (08/11/08 Vs 06/17/08)

Also, in NiBiTor the voltages only go up to 1.03V. Do you mean it can be tweaked up to 1.06V via a HEX editor?

 

Try going to the device settings in nvidia control panel, then set the clock speeds to "Factory Shipped frequencies".

 

Must be the values in the BIOS since when I do the above it just displays 550/1375/799 which are the default clocks for a 3700M.

All this is even more perplexing given the facts their's many variants of the G92M GPU and after browsing this forum I've not yet encountered anyone having problems when editing their BIOS via NiBiTor.

 

OK I think I figured some stuff out. At least I feel like it.

My question is, why did I tell you that 1.06v would actually work, and why did I point you to the Lenovo instead of the newest HP '09 vbios in that same ZIP?

Because I didn't download your vbios until now, but I think you have a Lenovo card. And the HP cards cannot be overvolted. Was that a total coincidence or did you previously mention this was a lenovo card?

Anyway.

Observe board IDs:

The HP vbios do work on my Lenovo card with the same board ID as yours, but you should try the Lenovo BIOS I uploaded. I have complete control of clocks.

Also you can try the -J option before -4 -5 -6, but I'd recommend trying this with your original BIOS before anything else.

Overvolting is NOT a tweak. It will make the card run VERY hot, whatever laptop you are using, the cooling will be probably insufficient even at stock clocks.
It should be done with hexveiw in my opinion. You find the byte of your voltage by clicking it. 1.03v is 67, 1.06v is 6A.

What laptop are you running, and what brand is this card actually? Thanks a lot for the vbios, its interesting, I've NEVER seen it before.
If its unbranded, a ES or a Clevo vbios then thats really cool...

 

Okay, so if I understand you correctly then I should try your Lenovo FX3700M BIOS because as you've said you can change clocks and they *stick* once Windows loads - i.e. none of the problems I'm facing?

As for the card, it's Lenovo and it's from a Lenovo W700. I didn't previously mention it was a Lenovo card no, perhaps I should have, sorry.

What puzzles me, assuming your vbios is also from a W700 is that your vbios works (you can change clocks freely, reflash and they stick) and your vbios is older than mine (looking at the compile date) by about 2 months.

Could they have locked mine version of vbios while left yours unlocked? Can't think of anything else at this stage.

I'll try the -J option on mine and if that doesn't help I'll try your Lenovo vbios.

Like I say, never had this problem on desktop Nvidia cards, maybe they are locking mobile Nvidia GPU vbios's after all.

 

Yea, thats very interesting. Its not nvidia that is locking the BIOS, its Lenovo. Its understandable that they would do that. Generally there are a lot of customizations and possibly proprietary things that the OEM will do to the VBIOS.
Its surprising that all the HP vbios for the 3700m are unlocked actually because the 3600m are locked to only HP display modes, and 1600m are locked AND have an EEPROM unsupported by NVflash.

Its completely possible that lenovo decided to start locking the cards with vbios after a certain point.

Yes it seems like the other Lenovo bios will totally fix your problem.

Theres still a chance your card may be physically different, or it could be the laptop youre running it in.

What laptop are you using, laptop user?

Once you get this all figured out, it would be really awesome if you get into some extreme cooling mods and overclock this with 1.06v, do some serious benchmarking. I don't have the tools to improve my cooling yet. It will basically overclock like a 1.05v gtx 280m, maybe better maybe worse, you never know.

I kind of want to look into adding a performance mode for this card because they can get SO hot. It would be awesome if there was a 1.00v lower clocked mode that could still handle games and then the 1.06v for the serious overclock.
I mean, that would easily be a 100mhz core difference between 1v and 1.06v

 

I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad W700, you skipped when I wrote that above

Well it seems I need to try your BIOS, which has the same board ID so in theory at least should work without giving me a black screen. If it's still locked after that then could the system BIOS be limiting the clocks? Can't see how they would code that personally but who knows.

I assume you got your 3700M from eBay and it just so happens to be a Lenovo card?

The only Lenovo notebook that uses this card is the W700 so your card must have also been intended for a W700. You've installed it now obviously but do you remember any part number sticks on the card? I'm pretty sure there's a part number on yours which can be traced back to Lenovo's part list for the W700.

What voltage and clocks did you settle on yours? Did you give my *newer* BIOS a go?

 

I think it's the Quadro drivers.

BIOS clocks get flashed okay but when Windows loads default 550/1375/1600 clocks remain.

If I uninstall the Nvidia drivers GPU-Z can no longer report the card's clock speeds.

The card can still be overclocked in software (i.e. via EVGA's Precision software) but just not via the BIOS.

All this is perplexing considering I read somewhere on this forum that others have flashed various BIOS's to their MXM 2.1 Type III 3700M's and never encountered such issue.

 

Yep, I never had the problem.

You might want to try a clean install of windows, the can sometimes fix strange problems.

 

Try the NVIDIA 260.99 driver.

 

This is the one I'm currently using, same thing unfortunately.

Something interfering somewhere I guess, though it is strange that when I click "reset to default clocks" in either EVGA Precision or Nvidia's System Tools it also displays 550/1375/1600. It should display whatever's written to the BIOS as the 3D/Extra clocks.

 

I think the stock values are hardcoded in the BIOS by Lenovo.

 

If this is the case then how come others aren't seeing the same results with what seems to be the same BIOS files?

As far as I know there are only two "types" of 3700M BIOS's, one comes from Lenovo and the other from HP. The HP BIOS is apparently locked and doesn't work on Lenovo origin 3700M MXM 2.1 Type III-HE cards. Given this there's not much choice what to flash and as such this just brings me back to the question of why haven't others witnessed this problem?

 

I don't mean the 3700M VBIOS but the BIOS of the Lenovo W700 you have.

 

I see, but how is this programatically possible? The Lenovo Pheonix BIOS would have to have an intergrated 2nd VBIOS of a 3700M which it inits to set the clocks?

 

I don't know how Lenovo accomplished this.
I have a HP 8530w with a ATI Mobility FireGL V5700.
The VBIOS for it was/is in the BIOS.

 

Sure, okay, well I'm pretty sure the Lenovo W700 only uses a VBIOS on the graphics card itself because:
a) otherwise I wouldn't be able to flash it via the nvflash utility
b) I couldn't read it from the graphics card device in the NiBiTor utility

 

Sometimes the vbios is shadowed into the system bios.

So after you flash the vbios, try to reflash the sbios and see if that helps.

I read this on laptopvideo2go forums about HP notebooks. Not sure about lenovo.

Here is a link:
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/to...in-a-hp-8710w/page__view__findpost__p__121499

 

Actually there should be some more Clevo BIOS but they can't be found. Also, the HP BIOS is NOT locked, I think you can use it on the Lenovo card.

 

A successfull flash doesn't imply that the VBIOS is used in normal operation.
The W700 BIOS overrules the VBIOS.

 

Well I updated to the latest W700 system BIOS and no change in as far as what GPU-Z reports.

I looked at the unzipped files of the W700 system BIOS and couldn't spot anything remotely Nvidia related. Either the code is within one the BIOS module files or who knows what else.

If the system BIOS is overriding the vbios then it's doing it in some proprietary way. Also, while it resets the clocks it doesn't prevent overclocking via software once the vbios has been initialised. Must be doing it at boostrap.

...or Lenovo did the smart thing of inserting a script into its release of Windows. In that case using a clean OEM version of Windows 7 would work. Haven't tried the latter yet, simply due to it meaning downtime while I get everything setup again (programs, settings etc.).

 

Is there a fix for this, I have the same problem?

 

No, there's no fix as far as I'm aware. Must be locked from within the system BIOS.