GUIDE for Flashing BIOS of NVIDIA GPU

[civato]

Download the package , it contains:http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/22157865/file.html

-NiBiToR.v5.9 (use the latest)

-nvflash.v5.100.0.1 (use the latest)

-USBimage w7 ( for making a bootable USB, tested with windows7 64bit)

-HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool ( need it to make the bootable USB)

-GUIDE with images like in this post, how to use NiBiTor and how to save bios with GPU-Z or with the flash tool in DOS. The command prom. that you need in DOS.


You just need to download GPU-Z http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Latest versions of NiBiTor and nvflash can you find here http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,143/

Flashing you bios is not without danger , make sure you always got a backup , and if you are not sure n DON'T DO IT, before you flash your self made BIOS, test the settings first with RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner and test these settings on running 3D Applications

If there are some of you have more info on this topic please post it.
This guide is made with my findings and experience on my system.
So other experiences are more than welcome.

The guide , it is also included in the download package.

This is for the advanced user , know that overclocking and Flashing is not without risk.!!!!!!!!!!
The overclocking of the GPU is not treated in this guide , this guide is for how you flash the bios of the GPU.
MAKE SURE BEFORE YOU FLASH YOUR BIOS THAT THE NEW BIOS IS STABLE (test it with RivaTuner , Afterburner or EVGA precision and during running a 3D Application) ,AND ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR ORIGINAL BIOS!!!!!!!!!!

Things that you need:

-NVIDIA GPU.

-GPU-Z http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1709/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.3.8.html

-NiBiTor http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,select/id,135/orderby,2/page,6/

-nvflash http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,select/id,127/orderby,2/page,3/

-Bootable floppy disk or Bootable USB ( this will be explained)

Step 1: Looking at the GPU info and saving your GPU BIOS , this is done with GPU-Z.

Here you see the BIOS version and the possibility to save this BIOS.

GPU-Z saves the BIOS as a (.bin) file.
We need to remember this when we want to open the saved BIOS with NiBiTor.

Save the BIOS in a folder that you want, but give it a clear and easy name.
For example: GTX280 ORIGINAL

You see Default Clock, well that is the clock of the bios.
The GPU clock is the clock we get after overclocking or the actual clock at the moment.



Step 2 : Loading the BIOS, this is done with NiBiTor.


Open NiBiTor, with this tool we can edit the BIOS.

Steps:
Open NiBiTor ->
File ->
Open BIOS... ->
Files type ( Nvidia BIOS Files(.bin)) ->
Load the BIOS that you saved with GPU-Z.



Step 3: Changing the clock speeds and saving the overclocked BIOS.(Integrity must be green).
First Save the original BIOS as (.rom) so you can flash it in DOS , (.bin) files cannot be used to flash in DOS.= File-> Save BIOS...-> Save as Nvidia (.rom)-> Give it a easy name and type the .ROM behind the name. (Example= GTX ORIGINAL .ROM) -> Save. (ALWAYS KEEP BACKUP OF ORIGINAL BIOS)


Now the original save BIOS is open we can change the Clock speeds, Boot clocks, Voltage, Fan .....

I just changed the clock speeds from Core: 700 to 710 , Shader: 1400 to 1460 , Memory: 1150 to1250.

We want to save the OC BIOS: File-> Save BIOS...-> Save as Nvidia (.rom)-> Give it a easy name and type the .ROM behind the name. (Example= GTX OC.ROM) -> Save.



Step 4: Preparing the flash, we need nvflash for this.

You need a bootable floppy disk or a bootable USB,.
The tool to flash nvidia video cards is called nvflash utility and it will need to be run in DOS, from a bootable floppy, CD or USB stick.

You may need to download a particular version for your video card depending on its age, the current latest version is v5.88 (included in the download package)

NOTE - you should always have a backup of your original BIOS on a floppy disk or USB so you can do an emergency "Blind Flash" if your BIOS mod fails and bricks your video card.

What is a "BLIND FLASH" it basically means an automated flash of your original BIOS by use of an autoexecuting batch file on a bootable floppy disk.

You may need it for when you've had a bad flash and can't get any video output from your card at all.

Preparing for a "BLIND FLASH".

1) Making a bootable floppy disk;

* Insert floppy into the drive
* Right click on the A:\ in "Computer" (or "My Computer" in XP)
* Select "Format" from the menu
* When the window pops up put a tick in the box "Create an MS-DOS startup disk"
* Click "Start"
* When the warning pops up saying all data will be erased just click 'Ok'
* When it finishes you will have successfully made a boot disk, click 'Ok' then 'close'

1b) Making a bootable USB

First install "HP USB Storage Format Tool"

It's included in the download package.
(USB Flash ready for NVIDIA).

-Connect your USB to your PC.
-Start "HP USB Storage Format Tool"
-Select the USB
-Select FAT32
-Mark "Create a DOS startup disk"
-using DOS system files located at
(pick the "USB image w7" file for this, also included in the download package)
-Start.

And now it's ready. Keep in mind I tested this on my system, Windows7 64bit, so it's possible that you need to get your own DOS system files to put on the USB.

2) You'll need to edit the autoexec.bat file on the floppy to make nvflash run on it's own.

Rightclick on the file autoexec.bat on the floppy boot disk or USB and select EDIT (if you can't see the file you may need to enable viewing of system files).

The file should open in notepad by default.
We need to add 1 line after any existing text on a new line; nvflash -4 -5 -6 BIOS.ROM

Note again that 'BIOS.ROM' is just an example, you'll need to change it to whatever your original BIOS is called.
Then click on the 'File' menu and select 'Save', and close notepad

3) Copy nvflash.exe, cwsdpmi.exe and your original BIOS onto the floppy disk or USB and your backup is ready.
Due to the fail nature of floppy disks I highly suggest making 2 emergency floppies because if you brick your card from a bad flash and your boot floppy disk is corrupt then you're up the creek without a paddle.

There are some other commands that you can use with nvflash but I have covered the basics to do a BIOS flash and get yourself out of the **** if the flash goes wrong.


Preparing the bootable USB or Floppy for flashing the new BIOS.

Now open the "nvFlash" folder and copy the "cwsdpmi" and "nvFlash" files to the bootable USB or Floppy. Next you copy the BIOS that you created (in my case GTXOC.rom) also to the bootable.

It has got to be a (.rom) ROM-file!!!!!!!! or it will not flash , this is why we saved the original bios also as a (.rom) ROM-file, you never know you'll need it. You can also take a backup of you original BIOS in DOS with nvFlash , the command is nvflash --save(File name that you give .rom).



Step 5: Flashing the new BIOS.
Reboot you pc, make sure that it will reboot from the bootable floppy or USB. (maybe you need to change the boot priority in the motherboard BIOS)

So there are no mistakes the commands are in red.
In DOS you can type = nvflash (enter) , now you see all the possible commands.


Be sure that you use the space bare where needed.

STANDARD BIOS FLASH COMMAND
nvflash --index=1 -5 -6 BIOS.ROM (enter)
I used 'BIOS.ROM' as an example, you'll need to change it to whatever name you gave your modded BIOS.
This command will flash your GPU with the new BIOS that you selected by typing the name of the BIOS.
NO WAY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not interrupt!!!!!!!! and wait for the succesfull message.

OVERRIDE SWITCH -4
nvflash --index=1 -4 -5 -6 BIOS.ROM (enter) (BIOS.ROM is example name)
There is an override switch for force flashing mismatched sub-vendor or hardware ID's (often required for flashing a BIOS from a different vendor);
This command will flash your GPU with the new BIOS that you selected by typing the name of the BIOS.
NO WAY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not interrupt!!!!!!!! and wait for the succesfull message.

OR THESE 3 BASIC COMMANDS
nvflash --protectoff (enter) = this command let you see the installed GPU(s) and removes the write protect so you can flash.

nvflash --save(File name that you give .rom) (enter) = this command makes a save of the selected GPU BIOS. ( do this before you flash your new BIOS, so you got a backup of the original).

nvflash(Name of the OC BIOS made with NiBiTor and copied to the bootable).rom (enter)
this command will flash your GPU with the new BIOS that you selected by typing the name of the BIOS.
NO WAY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not interrupt!!!!!!!! and wait for the succesfull message.

Step 6: Controlling the flashed BIOS.

If you rebooted you pc and Windows starts and you got picture , well that is a good sign.

Now we can check the clocks with GPU-Z.

Now you see that the default clock is the same as the GPU clock.
Succes!!




I would like to thank "88Gamer88" for the assistance and the help.
He made a full tutorial in dutch http://www.hardware.info/forum/showthread.php?t=179844

I would like to thank "chinobino" for the added info (BLIND FLASH ,the standard BIOS Flash command/Override switch -4 and making a bootable floppy).

FAN IC SETTINGS GUIDE CAN BE DOWNLOADED HEREhttp://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=314493 or here http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=119954

 

[PLAzmA]

Dont do it the hard way

Skip Ahead to Windows Flash Guide if you get board of the back story lol.

I stumbled across this post (from 2010) after realising my two and now rather ancient 7600gt cards were running different bios versions. One had for some time show video corruption when playing video (its driving my secondary screen so it had been just a little niggle) it came and went and appeared pretty temperature related. Cutting a long story short I realised with GPUz that one had an earlier bios on, the other had the latest bios on it.

Something worth pointing out here: GPU Z didnt read/save my bios correctly on my 7600 GT's properly and after attempting to import to nibitor, as advised here and by other threads was the way to go about it, I decided it wasnt probably safe to flash as nibitor threw out a "data position/length out of bounds." when i opened the file.

Then i stumbled over this post advising the same and info on the nvflash tool, however i was rather reluctant to go through the ball ache of building a usb boot stick when i remembered i had flashed a card under windows 7 64bit before for a mate to sort out a PAL / NTSC boot issue under 64 bit before so i kept searching.

Then i found this post (from 2009) : http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=141631

Which is a guide for the Windows version of NV Flash

Latest Version at time of me writing this is here: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2005/NVFlash 5.100.0.1 for Windows.html

Which under windows 7 worked perfectly i backed up the bios from my later card and then checked it opened ok with nibitor (means i can have a play later on). Finally I flashed the later bios onto the other card. 1 Reboot and a gpuz later to confirm it took, im all done.

So anyone who stumbles over this post, i would suggest that you consider using the winflash instead.

Its a load less ball ache and works perfectly windows windows 7 64bit sp1 instead of using a dos flashing method that appears to have already been out of date by a year when civato posted his guide.

Plus use the flash tool for creating the rom backup instead of gpuz (doesnt look like its compatible with all cards and is able to take a backup properly).

Windows 7 64 Bit Quick Guide (short and easy method):

Save nvflash and sys files to a folder, open a command prompt (shell) and navigate to said folder.

nvflash.exe --list
#- Will give you the list of cards in your system

nvflash.exe --save oldbios.rom
#- Will allow you to backup the existing bios, gui ask you to select which card you want to save from. As it tells you what bios version you have just saved after the write i suggest you then run a :

move oldbios.rom card-model-here-correct-bios-number-here-original.rom
#- as it will allow you to identify the file more clearly in the future, you get the idea.

At this stage either go and grab yourself a new bios from:
http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,select/id,58/
or use nibitor to mod the values you want and save the bios back to a new file (keep your old bios in case)

nvflash.exe newbios.rom
#- Will attempt to flash to all cards in the system, you can pass the id on command line, however as it asks if you want to skip or flash a device and you know which one your flashing, just skip the one(s) your not flashing and then flash the one(s) you do want to write to and there is no need to pass the card id at command line level.

Easy as Pi

Peace and love guys.

PLAzmA

 

[kzinti1]

The link is wrong in the following paragraph:

At this stage either go and grab yourself a new bios from:
http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,select/id,58/
or use nibitor to mod the values you want and save the bios back to a new file (keep your old bios in case)

If anyone knows where this site actually is, please post it and/or contact TPU Admin so the address may be redacted in the 2nd post.

 

[kzinti1]

Is there NOBODY who know the answer to my post above?

 

[erocker]

This guide is old and not worth bothering with.

Download and use this utility: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/BIOS_Flashing/NVIDIA/

 

[kzinti1]

Thanks.

 

[chris189]

I'm having a hell of a time I flash all the time no issues until I get to the 7900 series. It's a 7900 GT flashed it to a newer version which fixed all the issues except the major one (3D). So I type nvflash -5 -6 7900bios2.rom .... y .... successful done... and it doesn't change because i turned off boot message in the .rom and changed 3d fan from 30% to 100% and had a increase in clocks. I checked it in Nibitor and it shows the changes and the .rom is in good shape.

I'm getting confused now that I've been doing it the same way for so long on so many different cards I think I have been doing nvflash myrom.rom -5 -6 [enter] but now it says i should be doing nvflash -5 -6 myrom.rom [enter]

Why is it that I flash and it doesn't change a single thing? Can someone please help?


Thanks

What's on the card now

http://www.mediafire.com/download/c9toaa4jkol4a6a/7900bios.rar

What I'm trying to flash yet it says successful with zero changes like it said it flashed yet it didn't change a thing

http://www.mediafire.com/download/p49izwc5bfy9rey/7900bios2.rar

 

[Schmuckley]

Ooo..bookmarked ..just in case..

 

[amin_eshgh]

Hi Guys i did a Flash on my gtx 770 . I take a backup of orginal bios and edited boot menu with nibitor 60.06 and saved the new bios (but nibitor crashed during the save operation)
I ran nvflash in to windows and flashed bios ....i saw "successful update" message
and All setting was ok
I rest my pc and now I see a Black screen (monitor is standing by)
at the background windows works but screen is blank and monitor is in standby mode
What should i do now ?
Please heeeeeeeeelp me
Thank you very much