Dell Inspiron 9400/e1705

[2Cheap4WoW]

Hi!

I'm new to these forums but I'm already impressed with the collection of drivers here!

I've had a Dell 9400 with the Nvidia 7900 GS GO for 2 years now I think and all I've been doing is updating drivers to increase performance. I've never overclocked anything in case things get too hot or fried!

I'm curious about this idea of flashing the BIOS in my notebook.

Can someone point me to a link which explains this idea? I want to become more educated on this before I do anything. I really don't want to do this if this is just going to lead to overclocking :)

Also, is it worth me flashing my BIOS? I heard it can have BIOS of a 7900GTX. Does that automatically increase the performance of my notebook? I'm currently using the Dox's 185.68 driver which has been good to me so far.

Any help would be great

Cheers

[FrozenLord]

Hi,

I've got an i9400 too and have overclocked my card.

I'm currently using the 7900 GTX bios, which makes the card a "7900 GSX" as some like to call it :-)

The rason for flashing a 7900 GTX bios is that this bios allows clockrates that normally wouldn't be achievable.

For example if your 7900 GS managed an overclock of 500 MHZ Core clock and maxed out at 510 MHZ, the 7900 GTX bios might well enable you 600 MHZ.

Almost all 7900 GSXs manage a clock of 600 | 800 (Core | Memory) and therefore show a significant increase in performance!

My card is producing small artifacts (triangles that are strecthed throughout the screen) but nothing major and only in some games. I've yet to come to know why this happens only in some games (X-Mens Origins - Wolverine is one game and The Last Remnant is another while games like Defense Grid, Crysis, Unreal Tournamend 3, Left 4 Dead and many more don't produce any errors...)

The original thread (at least I found out about the 7900 GSX in that thread) is http://www.notebookforums.com/thread180011.html

Contect me if you've got questions

[zzpulp]

There really aren't too many guides I know of online. This is because most settings in the ROM are for power users and I guess most power users know what they are doing. The thing most people do is simply edit the 2D or 3D clockspeeds.

Terminology: Every card has an EEPROM that stores the data of the GPU BIOS. We dump this data into files called roms (or bins). You can change this data and flash it back to the card to change the way it operates. If you stick to changing simply the clockspeeds of the card, your chances of a screwup are minimal. If you use the sticked threads here, the settings in those roms are guaranteed to work, and the only risk is your computer shutting off in the middle of the flash (I've never seen this happen).

If you choose to flash the 7900 GTX BIOS to your card then yes, you will get more performance than simply overclocking the 7900GS the normal way. The thing you need to be careful about is identifying whether you have a 7900GS rev0 or rev1. The 7900GS rev0 can be flashed with the 7900GTX rev0 rom and the 7900GS rev1 can be flashed with the 7900GTX rev1 rom. However, the rev1 GS is not as good of a card and may not be able to handle the clockspeeds of the GTX BIOS.

There are two threads here stickied about this subject though. One is called "unlocked Video BIOS for DELL Go 7900 GS, Go 7900 GTX & Go 7950 GTX" and the other is called "Dell Mobile GPU ROMs"

[aliveanddead86]

I have also flashed my 7900GS to a 7900GTX, like zzplulp said, there are 2 revision of the card. Ensure you flash the RIGHT REVISION, else you will need to blind flash it back. It is either a Rev0 or Rev1, it says on the top of the graphics card which one it is if you are unsure. When I flashed mine I didn't realise there were 2 revisions, but I still had my old ATI card, so used that to do further research

But like FrozenLord said, you can achieve a lot higher clock rates, this is mainly due to the fact that there is a voltage increase from the GS to a GTX.

[2Cheap4WoW]

Wow thanks guys.

Very useful comments!

By the sounds of things I could see some improvements by flashing and not even bother with any overclocking! The reason why I am paranoid about overclocking is that I've already had Dell replace my 7900 GS earlier this year because the fan stopped and it seems to have damaged my card :)

Then again, this shouldn't be a problem considering I now use I8kfanGUI to make sure fans are working. Currently, my GPU temp gets to about 70c when gaming.

Do you guys know of any consequences for flashing my BIOS? For example, I've heard of odd glitches in games :P

At the moment I'm playing Oblivion on my notebook at a 1920x1200 res and I could really use some performance boosts for my card :)

Thanks

[aliveanddead86]

What graphics settings for oblivion?

The best thing you can do is to find a bios, flash your card to a 7900GTX, then software overclock the card to 600,600 odd.... should be fine there. If the clock rate doesnt stick (like on mine) then use Nibitor to edit the 7900GTX bios with higher clock rates. As mine never stuck, I had to keep making bios's until I got to the level where there were some artifcats, but not a major problem. Took me a few hours of flashing editing and reflashing, but got there and haven't needed to change it since.

[2Cheap4WoW]

In terms of Oblivion: All settings Max except for: No blood, no filtering/AA of any kind, and most of all no grass :)

I noticed the grass lags the game so much so I turned it off and it helped see further considering I have maxed out the view distances. I usually get a FPS of about 20 to 30 walking around. I get the odd stutter when loading new cells and I get a bit of lag in battles. I don't use too many mods either, only OOO and MMM I think.

I'm thinking of flashing it anyway just to get a performance boost from the extra voltage. Once I see how things look, then maybe I might learn the art of overclocking. What do you think?

I just checked my BIOS and it looks like I have a Rev 0 version card which is good I think considering what people say here.

[aliveanddead86]

The rev0 is meant to be better and go further than the rev1, whch i find is very true. I got a rev 1, and no way can i get to 800 on memory, 600,600 is the max i can get it to, but when I got the card from ebay, I didn't really know this!

Ah the grass! Never thought about turning that off, I always have shadows off on it, as that kills FPS. I have it 1400x900 with grass on, which is about 25 to 35 fps. mainly as I changed the screen to the gloss one, and kept the settings as I know they work well. Maybe I will go up and knock off the grass.

Go for overclocking, the only problem I know of is dell cards have a habit of dying. Ive killed off a 7900 GTX, whilst playing solitare! Go figure that one! But my 7900 GS is still going, even though it artifcats every so often. Just keep an eye on the temps, mine reaches high 70's, now 80's, keep the fans clean, and it should be ace!

[2Cheap4WoW]

Oh wow,

I just checked the ROM download by Juan...

There's 5 files for the rev 0 edition, how do people find out what flash to use?

[aliveanddead86]

Indeed there is, I haven't look at it for a while... But use the memory enhanced one I think, with a 1.24 voltage. And make sure the clock rates aren't too high. I will have a check and come back to you in a bit...

You dont need the 7900GS ones, you want a 7900GTX, but I'm not sure which BIOS is rev 0 or 1 for that, as it doesnt say, i would give you mine, but it is a rev 1... Have a look on the next for a rev 0

Edited May 28, 2009 by aliveanddead86

[2Cheap4WoW]

Thanks heaps.

I feel like such a chump playing games for the past two years like a cave man...

If this works, I'm defenitely taking the day off work tomorrow and play games all day.

If it doesn't work, looks like I'll take the day off to fix things anyway :)

Cheers

[aliveanddead86]

No probs, I think that Juans are all rev0.. which is why I had a huge problem when I flashed! Took me days to blind flash it back...

EDIT:

Just checked Juans 7900GTX bios numbers, they are all the same, and dont match my bios number, so you should be ok. Mine is .01 different to a 7900GS rev1, so it is a 5.71.22.28.02, whereas a 7900GS rev1 is 5.71.22.28.01... So i am 99% sure that Juans 7900GTx bios is rev 0

Edited May 28, 2009 by aliveanddead86

[2Cheap4WoW]

I have a feeling I have to use the 790GSUOV.ROM flash (Not the 7900GTX one). Have I got it wrong?

According to Juan's table: http://web.archive.org/web/20070706075557/.../jlgm/peng.html

It looks like this particular BIOS has frequencies unlocked, memory optimised and uses a higher voltage for the Rev 0 card. I'm guessing this is right because it seems to make sense considering that it is for the Rev 0 card specifically.

Did you upgrade your power supply? I'm using 90w at the moment.

[aliveanddead86]

Well if you use the 7900GS bios, then it wont read as a 7900GTX card... But that is up to you really! Personally I would change it to a 7900GTX. but remember to use GPU-z to keep a backup of your original bios, NEVER delete it!

I changed my whole i9400 to a m1710, and along the way change the power supply, but when I flashed the card I'm sure I kept the 90watt. Using 150 watt now, PA-15.

[FrozenLord]

Hi,

I'm not 100% sure but if I remember correctly, the difference between rev. 0 und rev. 1 was only important for the GS cards. As soon as you flashed a GTX bios, there was no different rev. # to look out for.

I've got a rev. 0 GS card, so if you want, I can send you my BIOS.

I've been using it for more than a year and the card was very stable (never crashed) but produced some stretched vectors now and then and only in some games. Additionally, some games had minimal artefacts (like the Last remnant had some flashing areas in the sky, which you don't notice that much).

The settings for this BIOS would be:

Core | Memory (Mode) - geometric delta #Voltage

600 | 800 (3D) - +15 #1,24V

300 | 400 (Throttle) - 00 #1,00V

100 | 120 (2D) - 00 #1,00V

The 120 on Memory are needed so the screen doesn't get corrupted in 2D view in 1920x1200. I've tried using 100 | 100 but the screen went totally nuts after some mins. Only reducing the resolution helped. After setting the memory Clock to 120, the screen doesn't get corrupted in 2D view anymore!

I've flashed this BIOS yesterday andthe stretching went away completely.

Core | Memory (Mode) - geometric delta #Voltage

605 | 800 (3D) - 00 #1,24V

300 | 400 (Throttle) - 00 #1,00V

100 | 120 (2D) - 00 #1,00V

The artefacts stayed, but this might very well be due to a driver problem.

If you want the BIOSes contact me.

You can edit the clocks for yourself with NiBiTor or give me a quick reply and I'll edit them for you.

Just to warn you, you do all this at your own risk! There is no one to blame if anything should go wrong!

//EDIT:

I changed my whole i9400 to a m1710, and along the way change the power supply, but when I flashed the card I'm sure I kept the 90watt. Using 150 watt now, PA-15.

May I ask what can be changed? So what does that full mod from an i9400 to a m1710 include?

I'm using a 150 Watt PSU at home and have got a 130 Watt supply whenever I'm not at home.

Edited May 28, 2009 by FrozenLord

[aliveanddead86]

There is a rev 1 and 0 7900GTX... I found that out the hard way! Plus my old 7900GTX which fried on solitare had rev1 written on the top of it.

Edited May 28, 2009 by aliveanddead86

[2Cheap4WoW]

It looks like Juan has a stock 7900 GS BIOS in the archive called "790GSNNN.ROM" Is there another way to keep the original BIOS?

I'm gonna have a look at zzpulp list of roms too before I do anything, although I don't know what to do with them.

I'm gonna try the "optimised" 7900 GS BIOS in the Juan list (790GSUOV.ROM) first because I wanna be sure this works first up. I'm still worried about doing all this on a 90w power supply...

So Frozenlord, you went straight to 7900 GTX huh :) I'll give my BIOS a shot before I start panicking and asking other people to lend me theirs :)

[aliveanddead86]

Use GPU-Z, you can get your original from there. It tells you the bios number, and an icon next to it, click the little icon, and you can save it! When you do a disc, ensure you put the original ON THE DISC so then you can get it back if you need to blind flash... Also setting the cd drive as first boot device in bios makes it easier!

[2Cheap4WoW]

Oh I get it now.

So the 790GTXUO.ROM has the higher frequencies that gives better performance. I dont' have any overclocking software.

So the whole unlocked frequncy, optimised memory and higher voltage 7900 GS BIOS (790GSUOV.ROM) is a waste because it still runs at the original frequencies to begin with? Correct me if I'm wrong here :)

[aliveanddead86]

Along those lines, atitool 0.27b4 is useful for OC'ing, or jsut keep doing what I had to do and use Nibitor and keep changing the levels slowly... Takes a while, but you don't need to change them ever again, once is flashed, its permenant..

[FrozenLord]

Hi,

If you want, you can contact me via ICQ.

I can help you out with questions like how to backup your BIOs and things like that ^^

It would be faster than writing here and refreshing the page every few mins to look if there are any responses.

@ aliveanddead:

I've read that you did a full mod from i9400 to m1710.

May I ask what you have modded? (additional to the GPU bios and the SPU)

[2Cheap4WoW]

Ahh thanks!

I was thinking of using the "790GSNNN.ROM" stock 7900 GS file from Juan's list as a backup plan in case things go wrong, I also used gpu-z to export my current BIOS.

Can nvflash read *.bin files?

Hey Frozenlord, did you flash straight to 7900GTX regardless of rev 0 or rev 1?

Do you recommend I try the optimised 7900 GS flash?

[FrozenLord]

You could try teh optimised BIOS, but if you plan to go to the maximum then why bother with it ;-)

It's optimized to allow you get higher memory clocks. If you want to get even higher memory clocks (and higher core clocks as well) you can flash the 7900 GTX bios.

I checked whether I had a 7900 GS rev. 0 in order to flash the optimized BIOS. I didn't know then that you can go to a 7900 GTX BIOS to overclock even further, else I wouldn't have used the optimized BIOS.

I didn't know there were rev. 0 and rev. 1 with the GTX bioses too.

So nope, I didn't check before flashing the 7900 GTX bios whether it's the right rev. for me.

[aliveanddead86]

@ aliveanddead:

I've read that you did a full mod from i9400 to m1710.

May I ask what you have modded? (additional to the GPU bios and the SPU)

Everything, my 9400 originally had a x1400 graphics, and the mat screen, along with a 1.86 cpu (cant remmeber the number)... I originally did it as the space key on keyboard broke, and i like the silver of the xps!

I now have blu-ray drive, 4gb ram, gloss screen, 7900GS (had 2 gtx's, but both broke..) T7600 cpu, motherboard, the only thing not changed is the screen bezel, that bit of plastic around the front.. Had to change the base as well for the expansion slot to have a hole. Every single bit came from ebay, I have most of the old bits still, except the ram and cpu. The motherboard came with a bios password, but I found a dell technicians disc online which erases it, it was VERY useful! Means I got a cheap motherboard which is now fully unlocked. Im trying to find a T7600G the unlocked cpu, but they are VERY expensive.

The Juans mods are all rev 0 gtx's, I cant remember where I got my bios from in the end, but none of the bios numbers I have match with his. I used his one first and shat a brick when my screen was black! Had to go back to that god aweful X1400 for a bit!

Edited May 28, 2009 by aliveanddead86

[2Cheap4WoW]

Thanks again

I've been reading so much for the last few hours that I forgot to eat dinner (I'm in Aus).

I hope nvflash can read *bin files because thats the only backup I got so far :)