[Tutorial] VBIOS Mod for Plug and Play Drivers (GT60/70 Ivy Bridges)

DISCLAIMER: This MOD is not officially supported by MSI, and YOU assume all the risk and liability by attempting this on your laptop. This thread was created to merely show how I completed the MOD to my own laptop. This mod works with both the GTX 970M and 980M.

WARNING: IF YOU DO SOMETHING WRONG IN THE vBIOS HEADER (WHICH IS THE PART WE HAVE TO MOD) YOU CAN BRICK THE MXM BOARD, PROBABLY WITHOUT RETURN.
THIS PROCEDURE WAS ONLY TESTED IN GT60/70 Ivy Bridges. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Hello Guys!
This is my first tutorial here in the forum, I hope it can be helpful.

Since I replaced my old GTX 670M by a new GTX 980M, it was necessary to use modded drivers.
There's an incompatibility with GT60 Ivy Bridge and the MSI vBIOS.

After some research in the internet and also with the guru Svet, who is well know, there was no way to change the subvendor and subdevice ID.

This is exactly our problem, the driver installer check this values to proceed with the installation.
As our system shows a value that isn't in the INF it won't proceed.

When you got a modded INF file, this trick the installer to install a device that wasn't in the standard file.
But everytime that comes out a new driver version we need another modded INF.
This was the problem, but it isn't anymore.

I'll show you step by step what and how do it to get it working.​

When who has a GT60/70 Ivy Bridge flash a MSI vBIOS, the installer recognize the card and install the drivers, but when we do a restart usually we got stuck in a black screen when the Laptop will load login screen.
The BIOS 51X/71X allow us to install newer GPUs, but not with MSI vBIOS.

As the MSI vBIOS cannot be used we need a way to change the hardware ID, so this will trick the driver installer.
For those people that has a Haswell or newer CPUs this is not necessary unless you want to use a Prema's vBIOS and use standard drivers, but I can't confirm that the same values I found that will work to your system.

It took me sometime to find a match in the MSI INF file that worked for this mod, fortunately one Subsystem ID worked perfectly in Ivy Bridges.

The Subsystem ID it's the value that driver installer reads.

The value marked in yellow is the value that we are going to change.
In this example I've already done the mod.​

For GTX 970M Clevo with stock vBIOS has the value 110C
For GTX 980M Clevo with stock vBIOS has the value 110B

For GTX 970M MSI with stock vBIOS has the value 1128
For GTX 980M MSI with stock vBIOS has the value 1129

The tested ID that will work on Clevo and Prema's vBIOS to be recognized and installed by the standard drivers are:

For GTX 970M the value must be 112D
For GTX 980M the value must be 1131

First, If you want to check if this mod will work to you, you have to mod the MSI INF file to the values that we are using in this mod.
The file is the "nvmii.inf" located inside the folder "Display.Driver".
For GTX 970M search for the value 112D, replace it by your SUBSYSTEM ID (Clevo it's 110C).
For GTX 980M search for the value 1131, replace it by your SUBSYSTEM ID (Clevo it's 110B).
Install the card with the modded driver, if everything worked fine, you can proceed with the vBIOS mod.

So lets get started!

You can download a vBIOS file or dump yours, both will work.
To dump your vBIOS, you should use the NVFlash 5.227 Modified by Joe Dirt, I've attached it here.
The command to dump your vBIOS is:
nvflash -b <FileNameYouWant.rom>

If you have problems with detection of your card, probably the Optimus is active, try to open an app to activate the dGPU, I usually use the nVidiaInspector, it holds the dGPU activated.

To perform the modification we are going to need a HEX editor, I like a freeware called HxD, you can download it here:
https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD

There are eight places to be modded.
The offsets are:
000x0C = 62 // 000x0D = 14 // 450x04 = 62 // 450x05 = 14
These values will indicate the SUBVENDOR as 1462 (MSI), commom for both cards
000x0E = 2D // 000x0F = 11 // 450x06 = 2D // 450x07 = 11
These values will indicate the SUBSYSTEM ID as 112D for GTX 970M
000x0E = 31 // 000x0F = 11 // 450x06 = 31 // 450x07 = 11
These values will indicate the SUBSYSTEM ID as 1131 for GTX 980M

DON'T MESS AROUND ANYTHING ELSE, JUST THE PLACES I'VE INDICATED ABOVE.

I highlighted the places in the pictures below:
GTX 970M


GTX 980M
​

The values will be like this in the highlighted areas:
For GTX 970M - 62 14 2D 11
For GTX 980M - 62 14 31 11

After changing the values we need to recalculate the checksum from the modded vBIOS.
For this we will use the software Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker v1.36 BETA by Naennon. I've also attached it here.

Just open the file you modded and save it.
For Prema's vBIOS it will occur an error when you load the file, click to continue and save it.
After the checksum recalculated you just need to flash the vBIOS.

For this procedure you should use the NVFlash 5.227 Modified by Joe Dirt again.
The commands are:
nvflash --protectoff
nvflash -6 YourModdedBIOS.rom

Well done!
The new vBIOS was loaded and now it request you to reboot.
Before proceeding I strongly recomend you to use DDU to uninstall the old drivers.
Reboot the computer, install the standard drivers and enjoy it!

I'd like to thank @omega939 by testing this mod into his system, without him I would not be able to confirm that it work for GTX 970M and 980M.

Note: I take no credit by all programs and files attached.
I just want to share the mod I made in my system and I know that this can fix a problem to a lot of users.
All files were taken on the internet, I just attached they here to make the procedure easier.

Systems that were successfully modded:

My system:
MSI GT60-0NC-004US (16F3)
BIOS Version: E16F3IMS.51X (Unlocked by Svet)
EC Version: 16F3EMS1.T19 (Modded by Svet, based in T18)
Clevo GTX 980M 8GB

@omega939
MSI GT60-16F3
BIOS Version: E16F3IMS.51X (Unlock)
EC Version: E16F3EMS1 VerT.19
Clevo GTX 970M 6GB

@samXLR
Barebone GT70 937-176262-033
BIOS Version: E1762IMS.71X (Crossflash)
EC Version: 1762EG62.401
Clevo GTX 980M 8GB

@ryzeki helped his friend to do it
Barebone GT70 937-176262-033
BIOS Version: E1762IMS.71X (Crossflash)
EC version: Not Available
Clevo GTX 970M 6GB

 

The Clevo original vBIOS taken from Techpowerup GPU BIOS Database are already modified and attached here, Thanks to @Mr. Fox.
Just follow the steps I described above and everything will work perfectly.

For those that want to use a @Prema vBIOS he has made a special version to our system!
You can find it Here.

 

This one really works!!! I've got an MSI GT60 ivy bridge and got it working. Auto detect and can install Nvidia drivers without modding the inf drivers.

It is also detected in NVidia website too when you click auto detect to look for the latest drivers.

great work to you bud!!!!

 

Excellent work. I have a friend with an ivy bridge machine that might find this helpful.

 

@reyzki

It works great!!! Plug and play for NVidia drivers (with no modified inf) plus my Maxwell got optimus again!! hehe

 

@DMTwo DUDE! Good Job!!!
This works FLAWLESSLY !
I was able to go to nvidia's website just download the latest driver (362.00 as of 27Mar 2016) install it without any issues and it works, tested FireStrike, scored ~9,300 graphic score, not too shabby at all.

Workflow was:
1. download the nvflash attached to your post
2. download the clevo already fixed vbios attached to your post
3. turn of AV because ...
4. flash the new vbios
5. restart
6. install latest nv drivers
7. restart
8. everything works

Finally no more need for "test mode" \ "disable driver signature" no more operating in a bad security state, no more second class citizen treatment, oh this is glorious

@Talon This Thread needs to be mentioned in the first page of
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-official-msi-gt60-70-970m-980m-upgrade-thread.765058/

It is a life saver

I was so fed up with the need to INF mode that I almost considering reinstalling my GTX 680M back and ebaying this Clevo GTX 980M and then both selling my laptop and buying something else ... it just sucked paying ~2k usd to just remove INF modding needs...


Edit:
I added a link to this post to my signature, this post needs to be sticky
.

 

I pulled those files as request by @Prema . Please start with a clean MSI vBIOS and mod that instead of plagiarizing Prema mods.

Please make note of the caution added. It is strongly advised that no MSI users with newer machines attempt to use them, as the risk of a brick is great without the header information that was removed.

 

Dear Mr. Fox.
These files are original Clevo vBIOS, I got them in the database of Techpowerup, which I believe it's free.
The Prema's were removed by myself, All files I got from internet, from his web site.

I was banned from T|I forum and I even didn't have permission to donwload any file, I didn't have the minimum reputation points, all times that I wanted to download a file as was requested to buy a premium account.
It seems that forum don't have skilled people in moderator positions, I believe we have because I wasn't banned here, first you talked to me and I respect this.

Everything that I attached here was taken on the internet, I don't want credit for anything.
I just learned a way to do the mod the vBIOS files to work in the MSI Ivy Bridges.
I cannot mod a MSI file, I just modded a Clevo file, with MSI vBIOS the Ivy Bridges just got stuck in a black screen, with this mod everything works perfectly.

Thanks for your time.
Please, forgive me if I did anything wrong in this Forum, which I really respect.

 

UEFI has sooo much better security and performance over old "obsolete" BIOS that it can become bricked even if you put "unsupported" hardware?

Spoiler

It's like all condoms get UEFI lubricate to become "more secure" so that if you try to wear the wrong size they will make you impotent for 12 hours so you could "save yourself" and go buy proper sized one. Manufacturers are "thinking about your security"... more like overthinking.

 

Now worries. I did not know you changed them. I apologize for removing the wrong files. There was a delay before I saw his request. I appreciate your candor about this. That is admirable. Please feel free to re-post stock vBIOS files that you have tweaked. Thank you, and have a good week.