jason4207
04-15-08, 10:28 AM
I have a volt-modded 8800GT w/ a stock 8800GTS cooler on it. The problem is that the card boots up at 29% fan and idles pretty hot. While it's possible to use RT to adjust the fan speed at startup I am putting this card in a rig for my brother-in-law, and don't want him to have to mess w/ anything or have to worry about having RT running.
If you're interested in seeing how I flashed my card so that the fan works how I want it to read on!
:beer:
*Warning: There is always an inherent danger anytime you want to flash anything. In following this guide you do so at your own risk. Please familiarize yourself w/ the risks, and take appropriate precautions in case of a bad flash. It is possible to create floppy disks that will automatically restore your original gfx card BIOS. It is possible to flash your card manually blind. Having a cheap PCI gfx card laying around as a way to see the screen while you re-flash a bad flash isn't a bad idea at all either. I have memorized the flashing steps, and can do it blind (haven't had to yet...knock on wood), but I haven't taken either of the other precautionary steps. All that being said, flashing these cards is not nearly as daunting as one would think.
I did this on an 8800GT, but the process is probably the same or similar for other cards.
You are going to need 2 programs. Go to mvktech (http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,selectfolder/cat,6/), and get the latest versions of Nibitor & nvFlash. v4.0 & v5.63, respectively, is what i used.
Open Nibitor, and go to Tools-> Read BIOS-> Select Device. Then click on your card, and press OK. Then go to Tools-> Read BIOS-> Read into Nibitor.
Now all your card's BIOS info should have populated the Nibitor interface...time to make some changes!
Actually, before we make any changes let's save a copy of the original BIOS just in case. File-> Save BIOS...name it whatever you want, but try to keep it at or below 8 characters for DOS purposes.
OK...now let's make some changes! :beer:
Click on the Temperatures tab, and click OK to the warning...silly warnings!
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3011/nibitortempsb5.jpg
Now click on the button in the bottom right labeled 'Fanspeed IC'.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1032/nibitoric1fo9.jpg
I wasn't real clear on the dynamic mode (Tlow, Toperating, Thigh???:shrug:), so I went w/ Automatic. I also checked the Acoustic Enhancement option.
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6228/nibitoric2xv7.jpg
You can read the paragraph in the box at the bottom, and as you make changes you can see them reflected in the paragraph. There seems to be an offset on some of the settings. Ex: TCrit says 100C up top, but shows as 108C in the paragraph.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9883/nibitoric3xz3.jpg
I set 'min Duty Cycle' to 50%, so that the card will boot up and run at 50% fan most of the time. In a closed case this is no louder than 29% IMO.
I set Tmin to 37 which corresponds to 45 in the paragraph. Once the temp reaches 45*C the fan should start increasing slowly as the temperature rises.
I set TRange slope to 32*. As the temperature climbs over 45 the fan will continue to increase in speed until at 69*C the fan will be running at 100%. A slope of 20* results in the fan running at 100% at a lower temp of 60*C. 26.67* slope results in an error message.
I checked the Acoustic Enhancement option, and selected 7 second ramp up. I thought the 35 second default was rather high.
I also adjusted the Tcrit temp to 82 which results in 90 showing up as the critical temp in the paragraph. I'll be honest...I don't know why you'd need the fan at 100% beyond 90*C when it will already be at 100% at 69*C+. My guess is that there is also another flag set that throttles the core if temps get above that temp. I'm really not sure, but it seems that lowering it will only prolong the life of the card if it does get that hot for some reason. If you notice performance lagging b/c temps get over 82*C you might want to raise this up another 10*C or so. See comments in edit below.
After you're happy w/ how the paragraph reads then save the BIOS again as a different file name.
Now it's time to flash the card. I use floppy disks...they are the easiest, but many don't have floppy drives or disks anymore. If you don't have a floppy disk you're SOL...
just kidding...sort of! :beer:
There are ways to make a USB flash drive bootable. I have done it before, but I can't get it to work anymore, but I haven't tried very hard. It hasn't worked since I went to 4GB RAM. At any rate your on your own trying to figure that one out.
For floppy's just go to 'My Computer' and right click on the A: and select format. Then check the 'Create MS-DOS Boot disk' option, and then let it do it's thing. Once it completes copy the extracted nvFlash files (cwsdpmi.exe & nvflash.exe) to the root folder of the floppy. Then copy the ROM files you created in Nibitor (original and modified BIOS files) to the floppy.
Reboot, and select the floppy as the 1st boot drive. Once everything loads type 'dir' to confirm all your files are there. Then type 'nvflash YourModifiedRomFileName.rom'. After a few seconds you'll be prompted to press 'y' to confirm.
Wait till it's done, and then reboot. If everything went smoothly you'll be able to see a POST screen! Set your HDD back as the 1st boot device, and get back into windows.
Try stressing your card while monitoring temps (Riva Tuner) to confirm everything is working correctly.
:beer:
************************************
Edit:
Just leave Tcrit alone. Don't lower it. Also, if you open RT make sure you have fan set to auto or it won't change...well...automatically like you just set it up to do.
If you're interested in seeing how I flashed my card so that the fan works how I want it to read on!
:beer:
*Warning: There is always an inherent danger anytime you want to flash anything. In following this guide you do so at your own risk. Please familiarize yourself w/ the risks, and take appropriate precautions in case of a bad flash. It is possible to create floppy disks that will automatically restore your original gfx card BIOS. It is possible to flash your card manually blind. Having a cheap PCI gfx card laying around as a way to see the screen while you re-flash a bad flash isn't a bad idea at all either. I have memorized the flashing steps, and can do it blind (haven't had to yet...knock on wood), but I haven't taken either of the other precautionary steps. All that being said, flashing these cards is not nearly as daunting as one would think.
I did this on an 8800GT, but the process is probably the same or similar for other cards.
You are going to need 2 programs. Go to mvktech (http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,selectfolder/cat,6/), and get the latest versions of Nibitor & nvFlash. v4.0 & v5.63, respectively, is what i used.
Open Nibitor, and go to Tools-> Read BIOS-> Select Device. Then click on your card, and press OK. Then go to Tools-> Read BIOS-> Read into Nibitor.
Now all your card's BIOS info should have populated the Nibitor interface...time to make some changes!
Actually, before we make any changes let's save a copy of the original BIOS just in case. File-> Save BIOS...name it whatever you want, but try to keep it at or below 8 characters for DOS purposes.
OK...now let's make some changes! :beer:
Click on the Temperatures tab, and click OK to the warning...silly warnings!
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3011/nibitortempsb5.jpg
Now click on the button in the bottom right labeled 'Fanspeed IC'.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1032/nibitoric1fo9.jpg
I wasn't real clear on the dynamic mode (Tlow, Toperating, Thigh???:shrug:), so I went w/ Automatic. I also checked the Acoustic Enhancement option.
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6228/nibitoric2xv7.jpg
You can read the paragraph in the box at the bottom, and as you make changes you can see them reflected in the paragraph. There seems to be an offset on some of the settings. Ex: TCrit says 100C up top, but shows as 108C in the paragraph.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9883/nibitoric3xz3.jpg
I set 'min Duty Cycle' to 50%, so that the card will boot up and run at 50% fan most of the time. In a closed case this is no louder than 29% IMO.
I set Tmin to 37 which corresponds to 45 in the paragraph. Once the temp reaches 45*C the fan should start increasing slowly as the temperature rises.
I set TRange slope to 32*. As the temperature climbs over 45 the fan will continue to increase in speed until at 69*C the fan will be running at 100%. A slope of 20* results in the fan running at 100% at a lower temp of 60*C. 26.67* slope results in an error message.
I checked the Acoustic Enhancement option, and selected 7 second ramp up. I thought the 35 second default was rather high.
I also adjusted the Tcrit temp to 82 which results in 90 showing up as the critical temp in the paragraph. I'll be honest...I don't know why you'd need the fan at 100% beyond 90*C when it will already be at 100% at 69*C+. My guess is that there is also another flag set that throttles the core if temps get above that temp. I'm really not sure, but it seems that lowering it will only prolong the life of the card if it does get that hot for some reason. If you notice performance lagging b/c temps get over 82*C you might want to raise this up another 10*C or so. See comments in edit below.
After you're happy w/ how the paragraph reads then save the BIOS again as a different file name.
Now it's time to flash the card. I use floppy disks...they are the easiest, but many don't have floppy drives or disks anymore. If you don't have a floppy disk you're SOL...
just kidding...sort of! :beer:
There are ways to make a USB flash drive bootable. I have done it before, but I can't get it to work anymore, but I haven't tried very hard. It hasn't worked since I went to 4GB RAM. At any rate your on your own trying to figure that one out.
For floppy's just go to 'My Computer' and right click on the A: and select format. Then check the 'Create MS-DOS Boot disk' option, and then let it do it's thing. Once it completes copy the extracted nvFlash files (cwsdpmi.exe & nvflash.exe) to the root folder of the floppy. Then copy the ROM files you created in Nibitor (original and modified BIOS files) to the floppy.
Reboot, and select the floppy as the 1st boot drive. Once everything loads type 'dir' to confirm all your files are there. Then type 'nvflash YourModifiedRomFileName.rom'. After a few seconds you'll be prompted to press 'y' to confirm.
Wait till it's done, and then reboot. If everything went smoothly you'll be able to see a POST screen! Set your HDD back as the 1st boot device, and get back into windows.
Try stressing your card while monitoring temps (Riva Tuner) to confirm everything is working correctly.
:beer:
************************************
Edit:
Just leave Tcrit alone. Don't lower it. Also, if you open RT make sure you have fan set to auto or it won't change...well...automatically like you just set it up to do.