[GUIDE] How to flash a GTX 280M --> GTX 285M

[tyranus7]

No sir. Any idea why?

Were you able to flash any of your video cards?????

[AiYoriAoshi]

Hello people,

I will try to cut it short but prepare for big facepalm.
Yesterday I decided to undervolt and underclock my GTX280M being summer and all. I fumbled with the BIOS settings and noticed the lack of possibility to do anything with fan speeds. Reading a bit this was named a result of maybe to old BIOS or unsupported by hardware. I remebered having seen on this forum a thread before about being able to flash a 280M to 285M so I thought to do that as this BIOS might be newer. I found this thread, took the BIOS, modified it and noticed that fan stuff is still unchangeable. I decided to flash it anyway.

Now I'm sitting here with a blank screen since yesterday, trying to resolve this.
I tried blind flashing my original BIOS back (autoexec.bat with "nvflash -r -4 -5 -6 t.rom") without success.
I just noticed that this thread was not the one I actually had in mind but instead is for Alienware, so of course it was my mistake taking this BIOS for my Clevo W870CU Nvidia.
Anyway, the card is not dead. I think BIOS post tries to tell me no GFX card found as I get two beeps. When I press F1 (usually like press F1 to continue) it proceeds with booting.
Unfortunately Windows does not boot, but I can boot from CD and USB Flash for sure. I am able to get a picture out of the card using GRML 2012.05 Linux LiveCD which uses nouveau drivers for nvidia cards.
Unfortunately this doesn't help me much as I was unable to find nvflash for Linux nor run it using Wine.

My Clevo laptop does not have the possibility to install a second GPU nor do I have 2nd Gen iX Proc with integrated graphics.

Any suggestions what I can do? I don't necessarly want to keep this as a Linux box.

I will try if I can get GPU-Z to work using Wine to see what it actually says for BIOS and GPU Type and keep this updated.

Actual specs of my Laptop:
Clevo W870CU
i7-720QM
GTX280M 1GB
8GB G-Skill RAM
OCZ Vertex2 SSD + Original 320GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4

[Tsunade_Hime]

Is this only for Alienware 280M's as my Clevo has a Clevo 280M..

[tyranus7]

Hello people,

I will try to cut it short but prepare for big facepalm.
Yesterday I decided to undervolt and underclock my GTX280M being summer and all. I fumbled with the BIOS settings and noticed the lack of possibility to do anything with fan speeds. Reading a bit this was named a result of maybe to old BIOS or unsupported by hardware. I remebered having seen on this forum a thread before about being able to flash a 280M to 285M so I thought to do that as this BIOS might be newer. I found this thread, took the BIOS, modified it and noticed that fan stuff is still unchangeable. I decided to flash it anyway.

Now I'm sitting here with a blank screen since yesterday, trying to resolve this.
I tried blind flashing my original BIOS back (autoexec.bat with "nvflash -r -4 -5 -6 t.rom") without success.
I just noticed that this thread was not the one I actually had in mind but instead is for Alienware, so of course it was my mistake taking this BIOS for my Clevo W870CU Nvidia.
Anyway, the card is not dead. I think BIOS post tries to tell me no GFX card found as I get two beeps. When I press F1 (usually like press F1 to continue) it proceeds with booting.
Unfortunately Windows does not boot, but I can boot from CD and USB Flash for sure. I am able to get a picture out of the card using GRML 2012.05 Linux LiveCD which uses nouveau drivers for nvidia cards.
Unfortunately this doesn't help me much as I was unable to find nvflash for Linux nor run it using Wine.

My Clevo laptop does not have the possibility to install a second GPU nor do I have 2nd Gen iX Proc with integrated graphics.

Any suggestions what I can do? I don't necessarly want to keep this as a Linux box.

I will try if I can get GPU-Z to work using Wine to see what it actually says for BIOS and GPU Type and keep this updated.

Actual specs of my Laptop:
Clevo W870CU
i7-720QM
GTX280M 1GB
8GB G-Skill RAM
OCZ Vertex2 SSD + Original 320GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4

Sorry to hear about your problem, the thing is when I was trying to make this guide and get process well done I noticed that vbios's are much more than the options you can actually edit with Nibitor, I mean you can have two "identical" vbios on Nibitor and still one may not work properly once flashed to the video card. What I'm trying to say is you just need to find the right GTX 285M vbios for your video card, then you can do the "upgrade" flash.

About your problem, a blind flash is your only option, you can do it from a USB pendrive. Check the step 4, on this guide and see if it works (I never tryed, because the M17x comes with an IGP):

Guru3D.com Forums - View Single Post - GUIDE for Flashing BIOS of NVIDIA GPU

Is this only for Alienware 280M's as my Clevo has a Clevo 280M..

It seems it works only on the M17x, but it should work on any GTX 280M replacing the vbios I provided with the right vbios for your video card.

[katalin_2003]

Guys, don't flash a Clevo 280M with a Dell/AW vBIOS in a Clevo system and vice versa.

AiYoriAoshi, sorry to hear about your problem but as pointed out by Tyranus, a blind flash or putting the card in a system that supports dual cards or iGP are your only options.

Additionally you can try plugging an external monitor thru the VGA port and see if you get it to post.

[AiYoriAoshi]

Well, I know that its totally my fault for not paying attention.

What I found out so far is that the card is now being identified as GTX 285M and it is also found by nvflash when I do a "nvflash --list -L log.txt" to log the result.
Problem is, that when I try "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -L log.txt t.rom" it doesn't log anything but it seems like it is also not doing anything.
I also tried other commands like:
nvflash -r (which produces a one time beep and when I log it, I get the same output as --list)
nvflash -r -4 -5 -6
nvflash -5 -6
nvflash -5 -6 -A -y

Here's what I am able to log:
*** NVFLASH LOG FILE ***
Version 5.117


Command: list
FindDevices:

...
Device:00:1F:00=8086:3B03:1558:8687
Device:00:1F:02=8086:3B2F:1558:8687
Device:02:00:00=10DE:060F:1558:8687 GPU
Device:03:00:00=8086:4235:8086:1101
....
Device:FF:05:03=8086:2CAB:8086:8086
GeForce GTX 285M (10DE,060F,1558,8687) H:--:NRM B:02,PCI,D:00,F:00

The original BIOS had (?,060A,10DE,065C)

The Laptop comes only with HDMI and DVI Outputs but I'm also not getting picture from there.

Edit:
THis is what I get if I compare original with current

Action: Compare ROM image.
Action: Identify EEPROM.
Atmel Serial EEPROM Identify.
Reported Manufacturer Code (JEDEC): FF
Reported Device Code (JEDEC): FFFF
Reported Manufacturer Code (SST): BF
Reported Device Code (SST): 48
EEPROM ID (BF,0048) : SST SST25VF512 2.7-3.6V 512Kx1S, page
Action: Read EEPROM image.
Reading EEPROM bytes.
Start: 0x00000000
Count: 65536
Read complete.
Current - Version:62.92.AE.00.0C ID:10DE:060A:1558:8687
G92 Board - 08170003 (Normal Board)
Compare with - Version:62.92.91.00.01 ID:10DE:060A:0000:065C
G92 Board - 08170003 (Normal Board)

ERROR: Mismatch at offset 0x00000002
Exit Code: 2

[tunedcoupe99]

Okay new to this so please help me out here: Been racking my brain this seems to be the best place to start bought an M17x r1 Q9100 cpu 8 gigs ddr3 ram 160ssd intel single GTX 280m windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. now for the problem when i got it it was working fine with a 320 hhd then it quit so bought the ssd thinking hey better performance gaming rig cool load windows and theres where the problems start. The guy befor me flashed the GTX to a 285m cool okay but how do i load it and the 9400 now seeing as how all the drivers i have tried arent working i thought about flashing it back but with no driver in right now my laptop shows 2 standard vga adpaters one with the yellow icon device failed to start. Try windows update no go try alienware drivers no go try resource dvd no go and no i didnt get a crisis disc was kinda remote at the time of the crash . so any help would be appreciated.