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

[Meaker]

Move into the light young one

[weinter]

Stuff like this always made me wonder why should we trust the hardware guy on getting things right...
I just need half of your 1337 RE skills.

[TehSuigi]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: when the manufacturer fails, the community will succeed.

[lizzarddos]

Here are the screenshots.





Whose planning to upgrade now to the fully working 9600M GT on Acer 6920G?

Do note that there are 2 revisions of the 9600MGT, A1 and C1. I bought the A1 revision second time round thinking that there was no difference. How wrong was I. I could only manage a stable OC of 650/850/1625. The C1 revision could go much higher at 780/1000/1800. Though the C1 does cost more than the A1 revision. 7.1K vs 8K 3D Mark 06. Being cheapskate not good huh

[marlanu]

could you be a little specific on how to update the bios ? do i update the 9600m bios or the 6920g bios ? i mean do i update the video bios or the motherboard's bios or both ? and what program should i use ; nvflash for the 9600m and the crisis disk for 6920g ? i know the question seems kind of stupid; i only update "normal" graphic card bioses and motherboard bioses

[niffcreature]

Can you try this with the BIOS of an MSI gx620?

I am trying to get an ATI 4850 to work on internal display.

Ironically the 4850 card was made for the gx720, and of course works on its internal display. Maybe you could do a comparison?

[TehSuigi]

@marlanu: Just the 6920G motherboard BIOS; the MXM card has nothing wrong with it, it's the way MXM is implemented in the 6920G's BIOS that needs fixing. Use the WinPhlash utility packaged with Acer's own BIOS updates from their website.

[u6b36ef]

@ .NetRolller 3D,

That "MXM Graphics Module Specification" document was a good read.

I did recently open up a BIOS (video or system - I can't remember), file to see if I could alter the fan switch on temps, for another laptop. The file was a .BIN file and was a page of machine code, so I shut it down again.

Anyway, I read through your first posting on this thread quite a few times. It's a challenging read.

It's a scary idea flashing a modded SYSTEM BIOS file, but it's been done now for a 6920 - congratulations.
- Is the 6920/8920 fix sure to work on the 8920?
- I am nervous is the 5920 solution going to work. You were clear in making the point the 5920 structure was worse. I may try it though, it seems a good idea. It looks like your fix will cure the 9500M GS problem with the 5920. (Based on refusing to POST behaviour of both the 9500M GS, and the 9600M GT.) Confusingly though as I said on MXM Cards and Models, some have 9500M GS working in the 5920. (These were 9500M GS fitted by Acer under warranty when their 8600M GT's failed). That is with the same SBIOS we are all using - V1.381.
- What does (based on a SLIC2.1-modded BIOS): for the 5920 modded BIOS mean.

Also, what did you mean please, when you said you,
"-The TV out is identified as an HDTV YPbPr component output, but the TV format is "legacy 525-line NTSC-M" (should be "480i" for an HD connector). "
The 5920 is HD to 720 vertical resolution, at 1200x800. (Sorry if I have my units and understanding wrong.)

Thanks..

[.NetRolller 3D]

@niffcreature: I've checked the MXM structure in this BIOS, and it appears to be completely valid (apart from a minor nit in the VGA output's descriptor, which may cause some very-strict VBIOSes to reject the MXM structure - but that would result in no POST at all, not just the internal display not working; and on top of that, the display preference in the MXM structure is internal->VGA->HDMI, so an error in VGA shall not break the internal display).
What is still possible is that it doesn't match the actual hardware of the GX620; I've tried to get a schematic to verify this, but it's apparently only available on paysites, and I'm not going to pay for it - if you will, you can Google for "MSI GX620 schematic" and purchase it, but As far as I know even discussing schematics is forbidden on this forum.

Note that the BIOS I tested was version 1.14 - if you are running a different version, I can't vouch for that.

Also, it is possible that the 4850's VBIOS hardcodes certain parameters for the GX720, instead of getting them from the MXM structure - try getting a different VBIOS, preferably an ATI reference one.

@ub6b36ef:
-The 8920G is just a 6920G in a different (bigger) case, AFAIK. (Like the 7720G is really just a bigger 5720G.)
-IIRC there are 2 revisions of the 9500M GS, with different VBIOSes. One of them may either use hardcoded MXM parameters (entirely independent of the MXM structure), or contain fallbacks in case the MXM structure is corrupt. The modded SBIOS should get both revisions to work.
-The SLIC-modded comment refers to the fact that the BIOS I used for modding already contained an SLIC mod, so it should probably still be present in the modded BIOS.
-The TV comment refers to the TV-out connector, not the internal display. It is incorrectly marked as defaulting to legacy NTSC - however, the closest thing to legacy NTSC that exists in the HD world is 480i. This is unrelated to the fact that the internal display is good up to 720p.


As a bonus, here is an official 6920/8920 BIOS image (not modded) that contains a 64-bit WinPhlash (usable for flashing the modded BIOS):
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/noteboo...Bios/v1.14.zip

EDIT: Acronym auto-expansion sucks!

[locoelbario]

so this will also work on my
Acer Aspire 6920G
Core 2 Duo T8300 -with a GeForce 9500M GS full hd

did you try this bios @Tehsuigi