MSI GT73VR BIOS: unlock, mod, factory restore, clear CMOS and prevent common issues

Hi, I have an msi gt73evr with hm175 and 1070/7700hq.
I have unlocked my Bios with help from Svet on msi forums!
I try some OC but there is too many ways to be blocked
What settings do you want to test? For?

 

Hello.
In your bios, change the following settings:
C states: DISABLED
Power and performance ->CPU power management control->CPU VR Settings->Core I/A Domain:

Make the following changes:
IA AC Loadline ---> 1
IA DC Loadline----> 1

CPU VR Current Limit --> 600
IMON SLOPE--> 50
IMON OFFSET --> - 31999 (negative, NOT positive)
Change the + sign to - (change the positive to negative) above imon offset.

Make sure TDC is set to disabled and "0" below that.

Save and exit.

When you are back in windows, download prime95 from
https://www.mersenne.org/download/

Also download Throttlestop 8.60 from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/
Run it and have "LIMIT REASONS" or "LIMIT" button opened.

unzip it, run it and chose "Torture Test-->SMALL FFT".
*MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING COOLER BOOST 100% button (press the button on your laptop below your "GPU" button for max fan speed.

While running, look for Power Limit 1/ Power Limit 2 throttling flashing in red. Or PL1 or PL2 (same thing).

Please report back.
Your CPU should be at 3400 mhz at all times without dropping down lower, during this test.

 

What do you want to know with this??

 

I already told you.
But if it was confusing to you, to see if you get Power Limit Throttling at heavy CPU load. The 7700HQ CPU is supposed to power throttle at 45 watts of TDP (power draw rating).

I said this clearly in the last message.

The settings I changed will make the CPU report it is using "less" power than it actually is using (the IMON Slope=50 and Imon offset= negative 31999 will make that happen).

 

I don't know if it can help, but few days ago I try to "OC" my CPU, and when adjust a voltage ( not core but something else ) I can "use" more than 45W. I reach 60 and more reported by CPUIDHWmonitor.

I will try your settings and see what happen

Few days ago too I used throttlestop to make my CPU works at 3.8Mz ( turbo mode ) on all cores
My temps are getting higher, Watts consumption too, but on benchmarks, there seems to be no difference... Do you know why?

 

My 7700HQ power throttles even if its set to report less than the actual W usage.
Do you think modding the ME Firmware could fix it?

Spoiler: link

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...e-overclocking-on-all-6-and-7-series-laptops/

 

Did you use throttlestop or not?

 

Yes

 

Excuse me, when I understood everything right, there's no way to unlock the CPU-Multiplers? Until someone could modify the microcode in EC-Firmware without trouble about the hash?
That causes theres now way to overclock on the Multipler-Way?

&

That's good to know! But someone have a link for MSI Silent Option for Kaby Lake?
Also a link for latest version of MSI SCM Hotkey would be greate.

Thanks in advance

 

Skylake version of Silent Option works on Kaby and Coffee. Google it.
Overriding CPU multipliers on HQ processors cannot be done. It's hardwired into the CPU itself.

 

I'd like to OC CPU (nothing too fancy - just the multipliers) and Mem - and I'd like to do that with different settings for running with and without AC.
Is that possible ? The GT72 seems to be a lot slower when running without AC - and I'm not talking about GPU but CPU and probably RAM - I'd like to have a little more power.
My laptop is a MSI GT73VR 6RE with 6820HK CPU so the CPU is unlocked anyway (GPU is a GTX1070).

PS: As far as I've followed this thread there is still no way to get rid of that unfeature called hybrid power ?
Customer Support from MSI told me that if I use "comfort mode" and below with speed shift hybrid power would be turned off...but I do not trust them 100%...

 

Is it possible to unlock a 8th gen MSI laptop? The alt+f2+control+shift doesnt work anymore in the MSI GE63 8RF

 

Works on the GS65. Why wouldn't it work on the GS63? That's silly.
Looks like you're pressing F2 before the other keys. F2 is to be pressed LAST.

The Bios Lock disable (RU via EFI boot) + AMIBCP 5.02 + FPTW64 (assuming you get the right version from win-raid.com) method still works. AMIBCP 5.02 is stable as long as it doesn't randomly crash on some bios options. The previous AMIBCP (5.01 i think) worked fine on the GT73VR and GT75VR but crashed on the 6 core laptops. So if worse comes to worst, you can either do it manually or talk to SVET on official MSI forums and have him do it safely for you.

 

I actually used to press them all at the same time. I didnt have a problem with my GE62 after some tries, but this time I couldnt get it once on the GE63, but pressing F2 last worked. Thanks.

 

So, I have a msi gt73vr 6re (6820hk and 1070) and I recently got it from an rma to get the 1.2v gpu. So, I tried to unlock the bios but I wasn't able to do it. I think it is because I had the latest bios:
E17A1IMS.10E
Release Date
2018-02-27

Besides being able to unlock it following thus guide I was getting pl1 throttling as soon as I was farther than 45w! I didn't know what was going on, but luckily, I had my old bios saved and after flashing it, everything back to normal.
Now, my question is, can I flash the svet bios that he made for me having a new gpu (v1.2)?
Or should I unlock it using this guide? Thank you!

 

Maybe the new BIOS disabled the unlock shortcut or changed it?

 

I don't know because I am not an expert. I just know that having the same parameters, after 45w, it throttles back to 45w, which is stupid... It gave me a big headache until i did discovered it. I just wanted to warn people here about that.

 

@Falkentyne, with an unlocked bios with said values, what should happen if we undervolt CPU with throttlestop ?

Someone followed your steps (without steps 5 of IMON values though), got his bios unlocked, but still had throttle.

He undervolted his CPU and reached 1264cb while he was previously at 1040cb before. No more throttling.

Does these results seem normal ?


On a side note, MSI Silent Option doesn't seem to work with GP73 Leopard and GE73 Raider series with 8750H CPU. Do you know any kind of software which could replace Dragon Center to control the CPU and GPU fans ?

- MSI Silent Option doesn't work
- SpeedFan doesn't work

manually fine-tune fans directly in the bios is excluded.

 

With IA AC DC loadline at 1, there is no headroom to undervolt at all.
Throttling can be removed by setting IMON SLOPE=50 and IMON OFFSET to negative 31999.

The other person (temp something) had an issue with windows updates causing throttling.

You need "Skylake" version of MSI silent option. There are two.

 

Thanks for your reply.

Then that's really weird, because he did the bios mods you said (without IMON params). He reached 1251cb but still had some throttling, then he undervolted the cpu to -170mv with ThrottleStop and reached 1264cb (which is the score of an unlocked 8750h) and without throttling this time.

Since you said we MUST NOT undervolt, I'm wondering what's wrong...


--

I'll grab the skylake then, thanks, the 1st one wasn't working at all.

 

I don't own these laptops so my ability to answer these questions is VERY limited without hardware in my hands.
I'm reliant on other people testing them for themselves and posting feedback. I have a GT73VR, not a 6 core laptop.

 

Because Cinebench is a short test, which was able to be handled by the default 28 seconds, FireStrike's Physic test is the same thing, IMON tweak only makes a different when the test is long. Like a CPU intensive game or video rendering. But I tell you, the difference is huge when it comes to a long test.

Undervolt still can be done at AC DC loadline = 1, but only very minor, less than 45mV on cache. You can go for more, but you will notice some errors in a long run, you can use TS bench to see if you get any errors.

 

hows it going all, I know this post is old but I have a msi gt73vr 6rf titan pro the 202us variant and Ive unlocked my bios (excellent Original post btw) however I cant figure out how to stop my laptop from throttling. the only thing ive found to help is by going into device manager and disabling the battery its self but when my laptop reports with that device disabled then the gpu will fail and im forced to enable the battery reboot then disable again. even with the battery disabled in gpu-z it still says my gpu is throlling due to pwr as well as thermal and its not running that hot. Is it possible to fix these issue via the unlocked bios and if so how (if it is explain it like ur talking to a small child cuz im not the most skilled when it comes to this kinda modifications). Thanks Again

Wait I just saw falkentynes post on page 8 however I could not get the settings to appear in my bios in order to alter them so im attempting to just set the changes in the optimal section. one issue I came across is when trying to set IMON offset to 31999 when I press enter it asks me to choose a number between 0-255. there is no imon offset prefix to alter as well

I just attempted to flash a modded bios (this would be like the 5th time ive flashed a modded file) and I get a error that says Failed to disable write protection for the bios space why is that

 

Skylake GT73VR?
if so, IMON OFFSET isn't set to more modern values with + and - values. I mean even my Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master has this properly (as does the Kaby lake GT73VR).
Try setting IMON SLOPE (the other setting right above it) to 10 instead.

And why and how is your laptop throttling to begin with?
GPU throttling cannot be avoided. Only flashing TDP modded bioses with a HW programmer can avoid that.
Only CPU throttling can be dealt with (depending on WHAT is throttling and why it's throttling).

 

so its throttling partly because my charger isn't working correctly however I fixed that by disabling the battery in device manager. the other part is it says thermal however I have the fans running on high and theres no way its at max temp (because it does it the second it bootss up as well) it seems like my system is throttling just because and also I recently ran the userbenchmark and these were the results I received
UserBenchmarks: Game 20%, Desk 34%, Work 33%
CPU: Intel Core i7-6820HK - 20.8%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 (Mobile) - 24.7%
SSD: Samsung SM951 NVMe PCIe M.2 512GB - 179.6%
HDD: HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5" 1TB - 749.4%
RAM: Kingston MSI24D4S7D8MB-16 2x16GB - 65.9%
MBD: MSI MS-17A1

 

What was the temperature looks like on your system?

 

well ive been gaming at 4.05 ghz and my gpu oced at 607mhz gpu core clock 405mhz (this is the throttling I spoke off) memory clock at 28c gpu and36 c cpu for the past few hrs now

 

I desperately just want this laptop to handle like it should be. I have no idea why my gpu core clock and memory will constantly jump around. Check out these images of my laptop running gpu-z immediately after reboot these were taken seconds apart from one another. why would my gpu vary like that. heres a link for the library these images are in so u can see better my b https://postimg.cc/gallery/2nphpg0hc/

 

I see that you posted two images where one is showing the GPU speed at idle and the other at load. Can you provide details on the symptoms you are having?

 

I was getting rlly rlly bad fps while playing lol however when I first got this laptop I was getting 200+ fps. now It seems to be working much better but there are still times when my fps wil drop to 40-80 for no reason I can tell. also in dragon center the MHz shown for my gpu will vary drastically without chaning/doing anything. also ive gotten 2 different chargers for this laptop and neither one will "steadily charge" my laptop which makes my laptop constantly switch between battery and charging mode which then prevents me from using dragon center to oc. I alrdy figured out the work around for this I just disable the battery in device manager and then everything runs fine and my laptop has yet to die on me yet which is weird when u consider the fact that it would nvr charge steadily and last time I saw the battery% it said 30 and should last 30 mins. I dont understand just know that it runs better without the battery enabled. im also going to add a couple screeenshots of what I was talking about in regards to dragon center and my gpu

https://postimg.cc/gallery/z9ob7r1s/

 

Can you observe the battery percentage before and after the issue? Sounds like MSI Hybrid Power has failed you. How long did you play the game? Perhaps the battery juice ran out thus causing the performance to drop.
https://www.msi.com/faq/nb-684.html

 

If your battery is very low, a % of your power is dedicated for charging, which in turns drops performance if your machine. this would explain why disabling the battery gave you back consistent better performance.

What I don't remember correctly is if disabling the battery actually caps your total max performance somewhat. It sounds like your battery has failed?

 

the battery is removed from the equation 100%. my laptop currently runs like a desktop, the battery is disabled and thanks to me doing that im able to overclock my laptop via dragon center. and idk what is wrong with my battery, it does that thing where u have to hold the cable at a certain angle in order for it to charge, but how can I fix this. and with the battery disabled I still get random severe low fps spikes and if u look at the images in my last post u can see how unstable my cpu and gpu behave immediately after boot without any programs running. a also made a post where I included the stats from the userbenchmark benchmark I ran on my laptop (which was done with my battery disabled) and I got terrible results
"UserBenchmarks: Game 20%, Desk 34%, Work 33%
CPU: Intel Core i7-6820HK - 20.8%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 (Mobile) - 24.7%
SSD: Samsung SM951 NVMe PCIe M.2 512GB - 179.6%
HDD: HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5" 1TB - 749.4%
RAM: Kingston MSI24D4S7D8MB-16 2x16GB - 65.9%
MBD: MSI MS-17A1"

 

1. DC jack replacement.
2. Check for software processes in the system that may prevent the system to run smoothly.

 

Physically removing the battery causes NOS to be disabled and Embedded controller RAM register C6 to be set to 40/41. This caps total system power draw at some much lower value, and if this power draw is exceeded, the CPU will be power limit 1/power limit 2 throttled to the CPU's base TDP, by the Embedded controller (PECI), overruling any bios settings. If for some reason that isnt enough, the cpu can be throttled to 25W or even down to 800 mhz by force. The video card isn't touched.
EC register C6 can be 'tricked' back to full power (value C0/C1) by programming a few other registers to make the EC think the missing battery is installed and at 100% charge.
The same toggle happens if the battery falls below 30% power (up until it reaches >80%). If register C6 is throttled when battery drops below 30% then climbs back up but hasn't reached 80%, you can program another register to make the EC think it's at 100%, which will reset the flag again. But if your battery is below 30%, there's nothing you can do to remove the throttle except remove the battery connector and change the 2 or 3 required EC registers (depending on if you want to also change the master power ID in EC register E3 or not as well).

I know nothing about disabling the battery in windows device manager. You guys are on your own there.

Settiing IMON SLOPE to between 1 to 10 can make the CPU report it's using far less power than the EC throttle point, which could prevent the EC from locking the CPU if the battery drops too low.

 

like what? the wording in your post made me remember that my laptop is also having some issues with powering down completely sometimes it will hang. dont know if that ties to my other issues

 

I understand only the entry level of the more advanced/technical computer field. by that I mean what u said I comprehended however I did not completely understand nor do I know exactly how to execute all that. rather then ask you to explain all the terms etc is there anywhere I could find online to educate me on this subject/terminology. Also what does changing the master power id in ec register e3 do? in addition to that ive been having issues with modding my bios I cannot unlock my bios again and im not sure how it initially got locked after I unlocked it and modded my bios however once it became locked again I attempted to flash the og bios via the bios and repeat the process however once in RU I couldn't locate 0x5ae (I believe it was there that the bios lock was locked) in either setup. not sure why this is happening but I imagine I need to unlock my bios again to perform anything that mentioned above. On a side note, like I said ive been disabling my battery via device manager one issue I experience is if my laptop is powered down while the battery is disabled and im running off the dGPU upon reboot my dGPU will malfunction (also shows a error in device manager) and this malfunction is severe ill have about 2 fps if I dont resolve the error which the fastest way is, while in device manager, to disable the dgpu then reenable the battery then reenable the gpu then disable the battery. I mention that because I fear that if I removed the battery itself then resolving the issue would become much more complex/time consuming. and for one reason or another preventing my laptop from rebooting is not all that simple for me, it seems I constantly need to. any idea why that error might be occurring/how to prevent it?

 

@Papusan knows.
So does @Prema
MSI sets the power ID based on what video card is detected.
This determines the maximum AC power allowed before the CPU is forcibly throttled by force via PECI, if the maximum AC Power draw is exceeded. This is set at power on time but thankfully can be changed by the user in windows.

The power ID's also have a CPU identification linked to them also (as far as I know, I don't know the code, SVET probably does), but if you use a CPU that is not recognized by the EC, it will be limited to base TDP, regardless of the power ID. ( @Mr. Fox has already seen this on the MSI 16L13).
There's also some maximum current draw rating for the CPU by itself (run FMA3 small FFT prime95 with a too high overclock and vcore and watch the VRM's shut off instantly), and something similar for combined power (Prema found this out when the 16L13 was unlocked to allow GPU and CPU to draw unlimited power, if the GPU drew too much, the VRMs would trip if the CPU was loaded).
The SLI SKU's probably allow more total system power as there has to be an SLI allowance from the power FETs that supply the MXM slot.

 

That is awesome to hear however again my retarded ass did not entirely comprehend. Whats do these mean: "fma3 small FFT prime95", "VRM's". Also im using the cpu that came with my laptop. Could anyone help me sort thru this. Here is the specifications for my laptop if they help at all. https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT73VR-6RF-Titan-Pro/Specification

 

Google is your friend.
Not going to explain what a VRM is =.=
Prime95 small FFT FMA3 (AVX2) is a stress test you can run in prime95 29.6 build 6.

https://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=24094

 

Thank you. I followed this part of the guide to remove the power limit and avoid the use of programs such as Throttlestop for undervolting and I can confirm that it works very well in a GS75.

 

Hello, a little bit of an offtopic because it is not exactly the same model but exactly the same topic: I have followed the guide from @Paloseco and @sirgeorge for an MSI GT72VR 7RE Dominator Pro, I found, as @Pedro69 that the BIOS is unlocked by default, I then dumped it and enabled the supervisor mode on the Setup, flashed the modded bios and found out that it shows exactly the same menus as before, did I do something wrong? Thank you very much

Can you PM me? Thank you.

Can you PM the combination? Thank you.

Thank you

 

Hello to all...
First, congratulations on this post...
I have a MSI WT72-6QL, and I'm doing the procedure to unlock the Bios from this post.
I still haven't finished all operations, but until now everything is going OK.
I just need to restart with the USB and change the "Lock" so that I can Flash with the Unlocked Bios Features...

Now, I have some questions I would like to do, hoping someone could help me out to see if I can do some upgrades to my System.
This is a Mobile Workstation, and it has a Xeon E3-1505M V5 processor, and a Nvidia Quadro M4000M.
First Question:
Doing the Bios Unlock, can anyone help me out with the Settings to Overclock my CPU? (I know that these CPUs are Hardware Locked by Intel). I saw someone saying it can be possible to overclock by changing the BSCLK, but I think I might need to change also the Memory voltages to compensate...
Second Question:
My GPU is a Quadro M4000M (that I already have an overclock made to the vBios - Svet Work (Great Job) from MSI forum), but because of my work I would like to upgrade to the Quadro P5000M.
I saw that Eurocom sells the P5000M upgrade to the GT72VR (to expensive in my opinion), but they are unable to confirm me if it would work on my laptop.
Doing some searches it seems that my WT72 and the GT73VR share the same motherboard and/or Chipset.
So my question is: Can anyone confirm me if it would be just "plug & play" this P5000 MXM GPU, or do I need to change also Bios Settings for this to Work?

If anyone could help me out with these doubts I would really appreciate…
Thanks

 

Hello guys...

So, I just unlocked my Laptop Bios with this tutorial.
Everything work Great, so I want to thank you all for posting this tutorial and all the tools needed...
After a few hours of changing / activating All Menus and Sub-Menus in AMIBCP I finally made the "Bios Flash", and everything worked 100%....
I can confirm that this tutorial also works for MSI Model: WT72-6QL-400US

I just have a question I want to ask to see if its normal....
I still haven't changed things in BIOS, but I notice something:
I only enabled the "Overclock" option in my Bios, and when I go to the "Save and Exit" tab, I have several options.
When I try to hit "Save Changes", nothing happens.
I need to hit "Save & Reset" option, but I'm a bit confused... If I hit "save and Reset", does the Bios settings change to "default" when it restarts?

Hope someone can still help me out...
Thanks

 

Some of the options do nothing as they aren't wired to anything.
Exit and discard changes boots to windows without changing anything (I think).

"Reset" means the laptop powers off and on Save and reset is what you want to use. You're overthinking.

 

Thanks for the tip and clarification

Anyone that can help me out on my post #143? ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...nt-common-issues.812372/page-15#post-10933522)
I would really appreciate all the help I can get....
Thanks guys...

 

I am thankful I can finally post here, I hope someone can advise me:

In my desire to update my, via UBU modified, MSI laptop's BIOS, I followed this post in order to unlock and flash it. To my carelessness, after all was complete and I was at the point where all that remained was to flash it, I missed this warning:

"
**WARNING**: DON'T FLASH THE DOWNLOADED BIOS E17A1IMS.10C, OR ANY OTHER OFFICIAL, WITH FPTW64, OR WILL BREAK THE COMPUTER. DO IT FROM THE BIOS MENU DIRECTLY AS EXPLAINED IN SECTION 1.3. FPTW64 CAN ONLY FLASH ITS OWN DUMPS NOT THE ONES DOWNLOADED FROM MSI.
"

I did unlock the BIOS, I did mod the BIOS successfully with UBU (a fresh one downloaded from MSI's website), but then I just flashed, successfully, it as is via the Intel Flash Programming Tool skipping the part where I should use the dumped file instead.

Acquiring the dump file after already flashing it of course resulted on the one I flashed moments ago.

I am currently writing from this laptop, as I have not restarted it in fear that I may have broken it and in hope that it may be fixable.

Did I mess up?

 

At this point, the ONLY thing you can do is to just boot it.
You can "try" to dump the bios region with FPTw64 -d bios.bin -bios and then reflash it but that depends on if the other regions got corrupted or not.
I would contact SVET on MSI forums and ask him. I doubt anyone here would be able to help you.
Of course you can always recover by buying a SPI programmer (Skypro) and a Pomona 5250 clip and some male to female jumper cables and then force flash the bios chip with another computer (1 mbit (8 MB) size), using the original Bios from MSI. This always will recover but you will lose the DMI information (model, etc) which will stop Dragon Center from working properly.
Anyone who makes a full original dump of the bios with a hardware programmer (not FPTW64) can then force flash back and keep the DMI information since it will be with the original dump..

 

Thank you for the advice, the laptop did in fact break and is on repair. I suppose I should dump the BIOS with Intel's Flash Programming Tool, modify that specific BIOS file and then flash it?

 

If you mean the replacement laptop, personally I would just buy the hardware flasher so you never have to worry about this ever again.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EV70C78
https://www.amazon.com/CPT-063-Test-Clip-SOIC8-Pomona/dp/B00HHH65T4/
(required)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DZC36GY

(maybe you can find it on Aliexpress or ebay or some place cheaper).

Then you can simply backup the original entire bios and easily restore it in case of any bad flash (the bios chip is under the video card MXM). Just need to wire pin 1-8 correctly and match pin1 on the clip to pin 1 on the bios. And yes, standard is to dump with fptw64 -bios to dump the bios region, edit that with amibcp 5.02.0031, then reflash with -bios option again.