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

It can be removed with an hair dryer/heat gun too. Just make sure not to heat the card too much. Or with a small screwdriver as per Meaker's suggestion.

@Talon
Nice! That's great to hear.
I'll update the vBIOS links once I get to my notebook!! I'm on my phone right now

@Kevin
Yup all Clevo kits come with the X-Bracket. MSI doesn't use it.
BTW thnx for your favor

 

I may have spoken too soon, the program opens, but it seems I can't really get it to work. Maybe I'm missing something, but even try to select differet layers using the Fn + 1-4 keys won't work. I'm able to just hit default and it changes the colors back. The program itself is working, which is a start as before it wouldn't even open. I am using a rather old EC firmware, so I'm wondering if an update to a newer firmware would make it fully functional.

I doubt its some sort of hardware limitation as the keyboards are physically the same with the same connector yes? It's most likely just as I say and simply needs an EC update.

 

AHA! That was it. I figured it was something simple but obscure that I was missing (particularly with it being so late, and perhaps maybe inhaling too much aluminum dust... ) Will I need to do that for every driver update? Guessing so...

So yeah, my old GT780 (MSI-1761) is now up and running with a GTX 970m. I repasted the CPU since I was in there anyway, and both the CPU and the new GPU are running significantly cooler now. Both were hitting 90C after an hour of Dragon Age Inquisition, but now both are hitting a max of about 74C.. I always welcome the cooler running temperatures... Maybe I'll try a different paste at some point too. I had Arctic Silver 5 on hand, so I went with that.

Here is my first run of Fire Strike.


Comparing to other upgrader's scores, I think my CPU is now the bottleneck at least when it comes to a high physics score. Still, that's a fairly significant increase from the stock 560m's average score of about 1450-1500 on Fire Strike. If it gives this laptop another 2-3 years of highly playable life, I'll take it.

Looking at HWMonitor, it also shows that the 970m's voltage under load is a lower than the 560m (assuming that can be believed). I might try hooking the rig up to the stock 150W adapter to see how far it will run. I wouldn't mind having a spare brick at my parents' so I don't need to lug one back and forth when I am visiting.

I'll keep an eye on things over the next couple of weeks, but so far so good.

 

Hi Guys, I have a MSI GT70-0ND-646NL (a dutch GT70) with a 3630 i7 and a 675M videocard. MSI changed my 675m into a 870 when he died 2 weeks beforce the end of my warrenty. It is a great extra boost, but now i want more ofcourse and want to by a clevo 970m. Is my motherboard suitable for this card (bios wise) if i change the vBios to MSI?

thanks guys!!

 

Nice! Good news everythingsablur. Good to see more compatibility with older systems. I believe it is your CPU holding your score back. But still like you said a huge upgrade over your old 1500 score. You should easily get 2-3 more years of good to decent gameplay out of that system.

 

You should be fine for the upgrade.

 

Thanks Talon...(you rock!) Fine with the standard drivers (after Vbios update) or with the altered drivers?

 

I think you must check it by yourself, first make update of your BIOS and EC firmware, then try to install latest drivers from NVIDIA website, it's highly likely you don't have to modify your vbios nor drivers to get your new GPU working

 

Most like will have to use modded drivers if you use the Clevo vBios. If you flash MSI vBios you will probably be fine with standard drivers.

This. It's trial and error with different systems and configs.

 

Thanks Guys, Í'll order myself a nice Christmas present and keep you posted how it goes!

 

Keyborads are practically the same. The only thing that changes is the higher voltage supplied to it by the EC (responsible for the incresed brightness) and the font painted on the keys themselves. I think it's got something to do with the EC too. Maybe a different keyboard revision code is written on it and reported on Windows. So once the SteelSeries Engine starts it checks for it, and if not found it closes with an error message. You can try updating the EC and see if it fully works (if it does than our machines will get a nice new little toy to go along ).
And here's the updated MSI vBIOS links with the encryption key

MSI 970m 6GB

MSI 980m 8GB

Those are some good temps buddy! Your CPU is limiting it a bit but don't worry as you won't feel it so much in GPU heavy games, only CPU intensive games may not perform at par with newer CPUs (small difference though).

Yup. That's some nice present for you :thumbsup:

 

Hi guys! I've had some issues with my 880M and the technnical support have changed me (paying of course) my 880M with a 980M. When I get my laptop back I can send you some benchs and see if all is going fine!

And I've a question. Would be good to have a more powerful AC adapter than the 180W stock one? Or would be useless?

 

That's nice! How much did they charge for? What model do you have? There is a Dell 240W adapter which might work with some small mods. However, depending on model, it might not use more than 180W (EC limitation).

 

Just have found something interesting <3 <3 <3 Amazon.com: Dell Alienware M18x 330W AC Adapter XM3C3 ADP-330AB B DA330PM111: Computers & Accessories i think gonna get 1 to try it

I wanna Tanks Kevin@GenTechPC he helped me a lot with this whitebook proyect, definitely ill get my next pc from them amazing support!

 

Here's my firestrike benchmark.. I hope this one's good though



@ Talon

The 2nd option I told you is the fastest and easiest way to Install the driver and I think is much better performing than the first option you put in your guide. Will pm you the details of my nb just wait.

 

Thana... I think you better ask first Talon before buy that adapter... The model you got like Talon can't benefit from a 240watts and up ac adapter. Ask him first

 

Yes, EC update will be needed to unlock the features.
If you don't like the new version you can always reverse it.

 

You can use Power Angel meter to measure wattage usage on stock EC firmware as well as unlocked EC firmware to compare, then you will know whether it helps or not, see below for an example.
Welcome to Seasonic USA

 

Ok, EC firmware updated to MSI latest version listed on website. SteelSeriesEngine is now more fully functional. Everything seems to be working fine, the one exception is the color selections. I can now assign macros and keys to open apps, I can cycle the layers, but the only layer that appears to have colors that work is layer one? The other layers work, and allow keys to be assigned but for some reason I cannot get them to display colors.

Edit:

Ok, now color selections do work as long as I choose the normal profile, audio, and gaming. Still can't seem to figure out why dual color, breathing or wave won't work. I did try reinstalling the software as well.

So SSE is now 95% (fair right?) functional. Its actually pretty cool being able to select different color schemes on the fly.

 

Actually, did your model come with the steelseries keyboard? It may not be fully functioning colorwise if that's the case because the motherboard is missing the controller for the colors.

 

Yes I have a SteelSeries keyboard, and no its not missing any controller. Before SteelSeries Engine worked, I used KLM to adjust colors and whatnot. Actually now that I think of it, I think I was having issues with those other color/lighting profiles before using KLM. Reading over at the MSI HQ forums SSE section, other users are also having issues after Win 8.1 updates/patches. Seems its just a driver issue and hopefully will be sorted out eventually.

So for now, I can safely assume SSE is functioning as intended as all other features work perfectly. Its a pretty neat app.

 

That adapter does work but only 180W are drawn from it as per NOS specifications
It would have been nice if those 240W were used completely (so OCing and peak power cnsumption would not have to drain the battery).
Using NOS my battery altready shows 20% wear..

The colors are controlled by EC registers (different voltage applied to the different keyboard sections). That function is already embedded on Talon's model (GT60-2OD). There was an app written in java that also did control the light colors under Linux (limited to only the normal and wave mode for now), but I can't seem to recall its name...

I too am having issues with KLM with the latest Win 8.1 patches. Sometimes the light would revert to all white. Sometimes KLM would start but the backlight would lit. I have to manually stop and restart KLM for to return to normal.
I think we can pretty much say that it's functioning correctly (good news indeed )

 

So I have the first GT60 2OD running SteelSeries Engine Is my laptop even a 2OD anymore? Sometimes even I'm confused. HEHE.

Now here is my new question. If SLV7 can edit system BIOS, can he edit the bios to change the chassis type to a 2QE even for non upgraded GPU systems? Is that an easy change? Even after I had installed my 970m, SSE wasn't working on the old system BIOS (I tested this before). So it wasn't the 970m that tricked SSE into working. It was simply the system reporting as a 2QE to SSE upon launch. Hmmm.

 

Yeah you can say that
Both Prema and slv7 can do that. Changing the BIOS string to report a 2QE might work. My only concern would be the BIOS SKU detection code. If you rename it to a 2QE, what would a "real" 2QE config be called (like in you case)? Naming conflicts might arise.
We'd have to ask slv7 for more info.

SteelSeries Engine actually has an hardcoded list of SKUs in which it works. We need to reverse engineer the main exe to get the correct binary address for the list and, if possible, add the 2OD model. Not an easy task

 

According to MSI, there's a special firmware for the keyboard to work with SSE, obviously yours doesn't have that version of firmware, however if it works then it's all good.

 

Where do they store the special firmware? Is it somehow stored on the keyboard itself? Mine works perfectly other than breathing and wave lighting profiles. All other parts of the program work and are functional. I'll download Keyboard Light Manager to isolate down whether it's an issue with the program or of both SSE and KLM are affected. I do remember having issues before though with KLM as I said before. I am leaning towards its not some sort of issue specifically with SSE.

 

According to MSI, it is used by the factory only so no one could get it.
It is a keyboard firmware nevertheless.

 

SteelSeries Engine now working 100% on my GT60 2OD! I reinstalled KLM to see if there was any issue with that. Everything worked flawlessly in KLM, but I noticed that the keyboard is significantly dimmer than when I am running SSE. I set KLM to normal profile and exited out. Then reopened up SSE and choose both breathing and wave, both work perfectly now! And the keyboard is much brighter.

I am calling BS on MSIs claim there is some sort of magical firmware in the keyboard. I've had this GT60 since before they officially launched and unless they came into my house when I was gone and installed it, its a bone stock keyboard.

:thumbsup:

 

and what you have changed ? Maybe i can use also SSE on my old GT70 0ND (with MS-16F3 Motherboard).

 

I noticed that when my laptop is working on AC without battery, my benchmark score and game FPS are fairly lower than AC + battery, does it mean my AC is not powerful enough so it charges additional energy from the battery? Should I get new AC?

 

What series of GT60/70 do you have? The Haswell versions use NOS feature, which pulls power from the battery to aid the 180watt ac adapter when needed. If you are using the 980m, then it probably needs additional juice that isn't there since you removed the battery and its probably throttling.

Why are you removing the battery? Just leave it in all the time. It doesn't hurt the battery at all, and is clearly hurting your performance.

I didn't change anything at all other than my system BIOS/EC. I updated the latest official MSI GT60 2OD BIOS and EC firmware. Because I'm using a 970m, the system thinks I have a GT60 2QE now, and therefore is allowing me to use SSE. I doubt it would work for your laptop, but may as well give it a try and report back.

 

Well done, if it works then it works.
But it should not take you to do all these steps to reinstall the KLM & SSE this way to get the keyboard to function fully.

 

KLM has always been sorta picky itself, I've had times where it just stopped working or partially worked and had to reinstall it. I'm not sure what exactly the issue was, but its all fixed now.

 

Talon can you try removing KLM and check if it still works? KLM creates a windows service when installed. If it doesn't work 100% completely (as previously) it means that SSE is using KLM's service instead of its own.

Yup! Special EC firmware with the new keyboard S/N pattern and NOS 180W limit unlocked
If only we could get our hands on it...

Aparently MSI uses the same EC firmware for GT60 2OD/2OC/2PE/2PC/2QD models with the same BIOS code and SKU detection routine. And I think the same BIOS too
In the end all those SKUs use the same 16F4 motherboard revision.

From what I found out SSE does this to check compatibility:
• read SKU model (for MSI notebooks).
• read EC for SteelSeries keyboard S/N or keyboard firmware (own line-up of SS keyboards).
• compare it with its internal device list db and than set the correct backlight/macro/key remap values.

In Talon's case it started working correctly after he updated to the latest EC (which leads me to the assumption above).

 

At first it seemed like I was out of luck.

Just got the card. Inserted it and did a quick boot just to check if my machine is booting.
Then did the mod to the heatsink. Applied the pads and put eveything together.

But taking a closer look: My machine didn't seem to recognize the card at all.
In Windows I juat had microsoft basic display adapter thing.

So I tried to flash to MSI but even nvflash was telling me that there is no nvidia card in my system.

But then I remembered reading something here about the latest nvflash so I tried that.
Heureka. Card is working... NVDriver installed without modded inf... I'm SOO happy... Off to benchmarking...
Yay...

Any modded bios out there ?

 

i don't know why after playing with the vBIOSes i cant get into my machine BIOS anymore, the funny think is the machine work fine can boot into windows play games etc, how i suppose flash bios if i cant get in it to disable secure boot, some one have the latest bios and EC for the ms-1763 win8 raid sku? ec upgrades from windows so wanna try it 1st

 

The BIOS uses GPU to change model # since 16F4 has always been the same hardware, except the GPU itself.
This is why Talon's system model changed. The BIOS itself contains the name string so with a newer BIOS (not EC) the new name came up.

 

Have you tried holding DEL key upon booting?
How about disconnecting your HDD?

 

For BIOS mod, you can contact Svet directly for assistance since newer version comes out frequently.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=148273.0

 

I've actually noticed this problem as well after using the system for a couple of days now post-upgrade. The computer works generally fine otherwise; Windows boots, games run great, system is stable, but I can't get into the BIOS. Thankfully I don't need to change anything in there, but it is still a curiousity.

The other issue I've noticed is that I can no longer control screen brightness through SCM or the hotkeys (Fn-Up/Down). I'm guessing it's now at 100% brightness all the time, and I'd like to turn it down a bit if possible. Not the end of the world, but would make my retinas a little happier.

 

Hope can get the bios and ec updates to try to play with them and see if i can fix it

 

Tested, uninstalled KLM, rebooted, SSE still working 100%.

Have you tried a different driver version? What about reinstalling SCM?

 

got a new NVidia driver 347.09 - BETA

Drivers | GeForce

 

Hey there guys been busy for last few days so was just checking what´s new.

Talon you can add my system to tested too it´s a GT70-2OD which works flawlessly with GTX980M. I have digital signin disabled anyway but if somenone wanna to disable it permanently I use this tool : Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider 1.3b
I did not needed to change nvdispi file with new 347.09 beta drivers which installed without any problems and modifications. I´m now running on BIOS ver. E1763IMS.711 and EC ver. 1763EMS1 ver. 5.16. Now the BIOS identifies my laptop as GT70-2QE. So think I should be able to run SSE too.. will test it out :-D

 

Are you running a Clevo 980m GPU on your MSI laptop?

I haven't read all the latest comments yet, but I think someone managed to install and run the 980m without needing to mod drivers and all?

 

Yes Ryzeki.. It´s a clevo (blue PCB) card running without any problems for like two weeks now.. so think won´t be even flashing MSI vBios cause it´s not necessary at least for now and for me :-D

 

Troy-C, do you use the new Dragon Gaming Center that supports new Shift Technology available only on the newest MSI laptops with GTX 980M and GTX 970M?
There are 3 modes:Sport,Comfort and Green mode. Sport runs CPU and GPU at the highest frequency for maximum performance. Comfort limits GPU frequency to level 1. Maintain GPU temperature at a maximum of 89°C. Green disables Intel Turbo boost and limits GPU frequency to level 2. Control CPU and GPU temperatures at a maximum of 85°C. I think that Green Mode is the best for performance and keeping temperatures under control.

 

Do you have a link to this Dragon Gaming Center, or a video showing those features? I downloaded it and it installs fine, but I can't seem to find any mode selections. Are you sure those aren't a feature that is built into a button on the laptop itself?

 

This is the link from MSI GT70 2QD DOMINATOR:
MSI Global - Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Motherboard, Graphics and more 64
It is not built on the laptop itself it is just other version, but on MSI GT72 2QD it can be enabled with Fn+F7. Look under Device Setting on the left of Dragon Gaming Center.

 

Haven´t tried that one yet Zar but will have a look at it ;-) But I think Talon was faster.. Maybe it´s really built for GT72 models only and it has to cooperate with different sensors and BIOS version so might not work on our GT70/60 systems..