Acer MXM BIOS Mods and discussion (was: x920G vs. 9600M GT)

[Genna]

Is the BIOS chip soldered on the mainboard? I was wondering if it is not just to swap it with new one (flashed with .NETRoller 3D's one), just to test with 9600M GT I have ...
Of course this can happen if any of you is willing to flash one for me?!?
Do you guys know what other cards are supported with original BIOS?

[raserdk]

@raserdk: "Do not use a different type of BIOS chip in your board as you may damage the board, they need to be the same."
Are you sure that the new BIOS Chip and the old BIOS Chip are the same?

yes im sure i orderd a bios for an acer aspire 5920g, and they look the same, and all that,

i removed it again, im going to buy another laptop the same kind because i have upgraded it, i allso recived my new gfx for it today so, :P
a gt240m, mxm2 with 1gb ddr3 ram, but cant test it yet because u know, i dont have a working laptop :P

[.NetRolller 3D]

@raserdk: Have you tried using the recovery disk with the new BIOS chip? Possibly it came with an old BIOS that does not support 45nm CPUs.

[raserdk]

@raserdk: Have you tried using the recovery disk with the new BIOS chip? Possibly it came with an old BIOS that does not support 45nm CPUs.

it stated on their site that it would be with the newest version from acers website,

it does not matter now i bought FragZero´s 5920g motherboard
just waiting to recive it,

[Genna]

Hey gyus is here anybody who is willing to give his nVidia 8600M GS card for a day just to reflash the BIOS? We can arrange this with some money garantee through PayPal.
It's not worth it to buy again 8600M GS from anywhere when I can have a better card in it.

[iJo09]

Hey guys! I just did it!! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!! My 5920G is working...AGAIN!! I'm writing from it
The BIOS Chip is veeery small... and I think that when I was desoldering the old chip I took out a small piece of the circuit board! (I'm not sure, because it works now!)
I'm very very very very happy... OMG I can't describe it!!!
The only bad news is that I don't know how, but I had ERASED my HDD while I was running CRISIS BIOS Recovery!
Well f**k...Now I'll do a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate and Ubuntu!
Then I must remove the heatsink, because my 5920G is running without thermal paste! Obviosly I'll put Tuniq TX-3

And now no more modded BIOS!

EDIT: Just for saying... the BIOS Chips weren't the same!

[colombodk]

.NetRolller 3D:

I have a problem you might be able to help me with.

I have a 8935G and I experience a problem similar to the one you describe here. When upgrading the 8935G with a HD6770M, there is nothing displayed on the LCD of the laptop when booting discrete graphics card, but POST messages etc do come up on the VGA and HDMI.

Could this also be a similar case of a BIOS with the MXM-part incorrectly configured?

Perhaps you could take a look at the BIOS version 3207 (the one I am using) or the later 3210 and 3211 (the later two fix something regarding the fingerprint scanner)
http://global-download.acer.com/GDFi...cer&SC=EMEA_27

Also take a look at this thread where I describe the problem in greater detail; I do however, belive the problem I am experiencing is similar to the one discussed in this thread.
Acer MXM Models and Cards

Any help would much appreciated!

raserdk: hej med dig! Ikke mange fra DK man møder her :-)

[.NetRolller 3D]

I can't see any obvious errors in the MXM structure that could prevent internal boot display - but also, I can't completely parse it, as it is a V3.0 MXM structure, while I only have specs for V1.0 and V2.1 (though I do know the new field lengths used in the new MXM structure from reverse-engineering VGA BIOSes, I can't interpret the "new" features without a spec - and also, old fields may have also changed meanings). There are several apparent errors in the MXM structure (e.g. the internal LVDS panel using a DDC line that, at least on previous MXM versions, is reserved for external displays) which could easily be simply v2.1 -> v3.0 changes.
Until someone manages to convince the MXM-SIG that he or she is a corporation, I will be unable to decode (and fix) v3.0 structures.

(Hmm, now that I think of it, we should get the Open Graphics Project to design an MXM development platform... it would be hypocrisy then for MXM-SIG not to grant access to OGP, given that the access restrictions are supposedly there to protect the MXM standard from submarine patents.)

Also, the schematic for the 8935G is not publicly available on the Internet - only paysites have it. Obviously, I'm not gonna pay for volunteering to fix someone else's laptop.

[u6b36ef]

@ raserdk,
Commiserations.

@ .NetRolller 3D,
I found a link for people using the 9600M GT on laptops that suffer the same refusal to clock up to high performance levels. They were linux systems though. It turned out for them that Nvidia wrote new drivers for the Linux OS and it fixed the problem. (Last few posts on this page are folk saying it was fixed.)
9600M GT won't throttle up under load [Archive] - nV News Forums
Shame the 5920 MXM2.1 structure SBIOS didn't work. It would have been good to have seen what happened.

Also, am likely to try the 8920 V2 SBIOS soon, but I want to get another floppy disc and create the recovery first. (Id' rather keep the 5920 recovery disc in tact; I only have one disc, so I'll need to get another floppy for 8920.) I imagine it will concur with mookill that the V2 works.

@ gazzacbr,
Please can you tell me how many performance levels there are on the 9600M GS. I have searched lots for vBIOS info on it. There is nothing anywhere. Even TechPowerUp have no Acer, MSI or HP vBIOS. (You might want to make a back-up of your vBIOS then, since there is no source for it.)

-------
The temps in the 8920 with 9600M GT are good. I wrote before they were high, but it was resolved.

[gazzacbr]

....
@ gazzacbr,
Please can you tell me how many performance levels there are on the 9600M GS. I have searched lots for vBIOS info on it. There is nothing anywhere. Even TechPowerUp have no Acer, MSI or HP vBIOS. (You might want to make a back-up of your vBIOS then, since there is no source for it.)

ahh, if only i could. cant backup/dump the bios or overclock it
tried many tools over the months but nothing works.
it is an engineering sample so i assume that is why. suppose i cant complain too much. i always get the nvidia "not enough power" message also. but, it has been working fine for about the last 2 years and is reasonably faster than the 9500.
anyway, back on track, not sure what you mean by performance levels how can i tell? from Everest or RM clock?
i am not at home now but will have a look later.