Gx640 Vbios Beta

I have it. So far, it appears the Powerplay issues have been resolved! However, I did notice that my 3DMark06 score has suffered by about 400 points! I haven't tried Vantage yet. Use caution with this, I will not be responsible for any damage you do to your system. I got the file from Warner, the MSI tech who originally posted this thread in the MSI support forums. I got his permission to post this, but again, use caution. THIS WILL NOT WORK ON THE GX740!!!

GX640 (1656) & GX740 (1727) New VBIOS Pending Release

Here is the file. It is in the form of a bootable ISO. I posted it on Mediafire (thanks to Dead2th3world for the suggestion).

http://www.mediafire.com/?zjm40gg3aq0

 

When do you think this is getting a final release?

Also, what method are you using for flashing the VBIOS?

 

What actions does the powerplay do? Downclock+undervolt or just downclock. And if so, what are the downclocked frequencies?
Thinking if it's worth trying the update or not, because with disabled powerplay I get good performance and no black screen issues whatsoever.

 

The bootable disk has a Win98 DOS version with a batch file that runs the app to flash the VBIOS. Very easy to do. One of the biggest problems with Powerplay was standby issues that resulted in black screens and downclocking of the GPU that made it run at x1 PCI-Express speed. So far, I have gone into standby a couple of times and it has not done this once, and the GPU stays at x16. With the old VBIOS and Powerplay enabled, I would always get black screens after resuming from standby. I have no idea about the final release date.

 

This is excellent. I just received my new GX640 from Amazon. I got lucky and got DDR1333 ram. I guess if I'm going to break this thing, I may as well do it now before I have it all set up the way I want. After flashing, I'm formatting and doing a clean install.

 

New VBIOS is awesome !

Now Catalyst 10.4 works like a charm, no trouble to sleep at all.

Also, I found that the PCI-E link is always at x16, even on battery.

One last thing really cool : ATI PowerPlay is at last able to downclock the video card to gain battery life !
It's 300 MHz/400 MHz when doing office tasks, in "Maximize Battery Life" mode.

 

So it downclocks the VRAM as well, and to reasonable speeds now? That's great!
I'm waiting on someone to try Vantage before I flash this VBIOS, though.

 

Confirms it fixes the issues with 10.4 and does the nice downclocking too. So far so good.

 

how bout undervolting? or it is too much to ask? maybe card automatically reduces PCI-E to x1 when on saving?

 

Can someone try thing:
Put on power saver mode, turbo battery eco, have CCC set to maximize battery life and be on battery. Turn it off and back on. It everything start up right then we're good.

 

Just did that...all good!

 

Turn what off? Do you mean shutting down the computer, and turning it back on again?

Can you guys test doing all those things that NEM requested, and instead, putting the comp into sleep/hibernate and closing the screen, and then opening it back up again, and waking it up?

 

Looks good then.

Okay kosti, looks like you're our point man on this. Heres a few tests to run:
All power saving settings on, sleep, hibernate, shut down then start up, close/open lid.
I was having trouble before with having to use system restores after getting black screens when trying to startup. With the CCC set to maximize battery life and actually on battery what clock speeds are you getting?

Would you also mind putting up a little step-by-step process up updating the VBIOS? A lot of people haven't ever needed to do this.

Can the files you have be put into a ROM for flashing?

 

Can you post a screenshot from GPU-Z with the updated vbios?

(Note version GPU-Z 0.4.3 was released yesterday btw.)

Here are two screenshots showing the changes. I have not updated vbios yet:



The sensors are showing up in 0.4.3 too

 

Quick (but important) question:

What's a "Vbios" exactly? Is this the bios like the kind for your mobo, when you start up your computer and then you hit Delete, or f1 or something to go and set the clock/date, bootup options/device order, etc? Cuz I dont get the connection between that and CCC or the ATI drivers ?

ORRRRR is a "Vbios" related to the GPU? Please 'splain. And oh ya, provide a tutorial on how to install the vbios update, in case you didnt read NEM's post.

Thanks mang

 

Will you ever buy this notebook ? If yes then we might actually waste our time in answering you troll ..

Search engines , heard about those ?

By the way , you kinda answered your own question

 

Guys, I ran Vantage with my GPU OC'd to 750/1100. Got 8020 Points!!! That's a couple of hundred more than my previous score with the same OC. Funny thing is with 3DMark06 I got about 300-400 points lower with the same OC. 06 is older anyway so not a good indicator for newer cards. I'm loving the new VBIOS.

ORB - Compare

 

I tried all these steps you are talking about. Hibernate, sleep, and regular startup all work fine with new VBIOS, even with Powerplay on max battery and with the system running on the battery. I tried everything with ECO off, turbo battey, and gaming mode.

As far as a step by step. Just use Nero or ImgBrn to burn the iso to a CD and then boot to it. The batch file will run automatically, and all you need to do is press a button to confirm the update procedure, and then restart when it's done. I'm not sure what you mean by putting the files into a ROM. CDs are ROM devices. Perhaps you mean USB flash drives? Then yes, the iso can be put on a bootable flash.

Just do it guys, the new VBIOS is a huge improvement.

 

.BIN file etc needs to be rename to .ROM when using Atiflash or Winflash , that's why he's asking that.

With ISO you just have to use a bootable USB stick or Disk (like Kosti said above).

 

Ok, I see. But you don't need to worry about this because the ISO is setup to be fully automated. If you want, I guess you can extract the files from the ISO and run the flash utility manually but I don't see the point.

 

Guys, looks like Warner updated the original post on the MSI forums. He posted the VBIOS beta but it looks like the links aren't working.

GX640 (1656) & GX740 (1727) New VBIOS Pending Release

 

okay I did the VBIOS update. Anyway to double check that is worked correctly? I'm getting the same BIOS version in GPU-Z

 

Are you using GPU-Z to check the BIOS version. You should be getting an 035701 at the end. Maybe you need to reflash.

 

i flashed using the iso that kosti put up on mediafire, i don't think it could get any easier than that. verified 035701 with cpu-z

 

When I boot from DVD I'm getting a message about my C: Drive not being formatted...?

 

That is weird. What are you using to burn the image? Try a CD-R.

 

It is, I used Nero.

Do you have a program to turn it into a rom for me and i'll try winflash?

Btw, just ran out of dvds, fack

 

Can you extract the files from the ISO? Maybe winrar does that.

 

When I unpack the iso I see in the bat file "
For GT740-079US (9S7-17273E-079) Retail version with ATI 5870 only.
Contains BIOS v1.07, EC v4.04, VGA BIOS BR35757.020
"
Did it show you the same before flashing? Its just beta so they used old bat for flashing, but it doesnt get me much confidence in their work - especially when it can kill the notebook and void warranty in one step.
The flashing file is named BR35701 so i guess i have the right file.
But no changelog inside... Did anyone managed to pull changelog out of some MSI employee?
Also there are old MB and camera bioses inside... Did anyone tried the second package with VBIOS only?

 

where did you download from? The one on the MSI site I believe is wrong. The one from mediafire that I posted on my 1st post in this thread is the one I used.

 

Not quite sure how to go at it after extracting.

 

No winRAR is kinda stupid, but you can extract the bootsector with 7-zip.

 

In these times, it's best to wait for Dead or Cata to come around. Help!!!!

 

downloaded from the en msi forum. OK I take a peek inside your version... EDIT it is the same file as on msi forum.

 

It may be the same file name, but I'm sure the contents are different. I'm not sure what's in the files on the MSI site, but the one on mediafire worked for me and others.

 

They have the same MD5 checksums... so 99% probability it is binarily the same file.

 

Why wouldn't it be the same anyway? You have downloaded it from the same place and then uploaded, haven't you?

 

Krooze, if you are asking me, then no. I was sent the file by an MSI tech and decided to share it with you guys. I'm starting to regret this though because it's turning out to be more trouble than it's worth for me. I'm not going to reply to any more silly posts here. If you want the VBIOS, it's linked on my first post, but if you guys are having this much trouble with this, then you shouldn't be trying to flash your VBIOS anyway. Laterz.

 

kosti: Yeah, I can't expect you to know more than "i tried it and it works" so my are silly questions indeed. But you are on a DISCUSION forum, so what did you expect?
I WILL probably flash it anyway because I am too tempted and glad to hear that it fixes black screen issue. But I shall wait for final version for 1-2 weeks - certainly I don't need risk of dead notebook now before school end.
to others: to sum it up, the file kosti provided is exact copy of the file on msi forum that Warner posted - so no need to choose one or another.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but you posting that file made things really simple for me. I burned the iso, rebooted, hit f11 and all is good!

 

lost my cool there boys, anyway, the file came from Warner via e-mail and the one that I have used and can confirm works is the one on my 1st post. Cheers!

 

wow do these guys at MSI work on weekend and at night?
Warner posted new file on msi forum at 21:40(GMT+1) with fixed string in autoexec.bat I was complaining here like hour before.
Just FYI it is the only change in the package thou, so no harm using the old ones.

 

It looks like Warner follows this post too. Hey buddy. He's a really cool guy and we should all thank him for the VBIOS. He didn't have to send it to me but he seems like a good guy and an enthusiast like the rest of us.

 

Same here. Couldn't have been simpler. Thanks for the file. It works great. One thing that threw me at first, after unhooking all power sources, and rebooting, was that I had to go back into the new BIOS, and reset all the settings. After that hiccup, all is good.

 

How is that a hiccup? Settings should go to the defaults, due to the checksum error after BIOS flash and forcing you to re-set them.
EDIT Yup Warner you are a star. And thanks to all VBIOS developers too.

 

dang. i need dvd's...

 

ok, installed new bios and now my machine is running bloody hot. stock clocks- gpu is at 63-66 (fluctuates often) cpu is at 54-69 (again fluctuates). using HWMonitor

also i tried to downclock to 300/300 with the amd clock tool and got artifacts. never done that before.

 

That is a bit hot if those are idling temps. What were your temps like before? I didn't notice any changes in my temps after the VBIOS update, although mine has always run hot due to poor contact between the GPU and Heatsink. I solved the problem with new pads, and a thin copper shim which I outlined in this post.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/482836-thermal-past-upgrade-worth.html

Also, I don't see why the CPU temps would change from a VBIOS update unless it has affected the functioning of the fan on the HS. I will flash the old VBIOS back on mine and log temps and report back.

 

Ok, mine seems fine with temps. In fact, my GPU and CPU are cooler at idle. I guess the VBIOS can affect the CPU temp which makes sense now that I think of it. Anyway, here are my results.

Original VBIOS with GPU Overclocked at 750/1100:
CPU Idle: 52/46C
GPU Idle: 58C
15 Minute Furmark Stability Test Xtreme Burning Mode Max Temp: 92C

NEW VBIOS with GPU Overclocked at 750/1100:
CPU Idle: 50/43C
GPU Idle: 53C
15 Minute Furmark Stability Test Xtreme Burning Mode Max Temp: 91C

Reflash the old BIOS and run a couple of tests to compare on yours. I'm thinking it has more to do with the poor heatsink design on these models than the VBIOS.

 

EDIT: nvm no more flashing for me, almost bricked this laptop. The beta vbios would freeze my laptop approx 1 min after every bootup. Spend almost all night trying different things to fix.

Solution for anyone who runs into this problem: Write iso to a bootable usb just like you would normallly. Then get a copy of the old vbios and place it within the pkg.zip. Then delete the new vbios file in there and rename it to be identical to ...BR35701.028. That way you can flash it to the old vbios with the same iso