Clevo N960Kx (N960KR) Thread - BIOS Unlock, cooling mods, etc.

[kaz26]

I am posting a link In response to a message I saw above. The link will take you to the vBIOS I have been using. I will also add it to the original post. 

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/232296/232296

 

EDIT:
 

elnathbudi gets better benchmark scores from his GPU and is using an MSI vBIOS seen in the image from this post. I'll provide a link to it below. I'm going to try it soon and run some benchmarks. From the notes I noticed that it runs a higher GPU and Boost clock speed than the vBIOS I'm currently running. 


From the site:
GPU Device Id: 0x10DE 0x249D E4735 SKU 10

GPU Board Board power limit Target: 115.0 W Limit: 140.0

W Adj. Range: -99%, +22%

Memory Support: GDDR6, Hynix GDDR6, Micron GDDR6, Samsung GDDR6, Unknown

[kaz26]

With the MSI vBIOS, it ran a little better. I don't have time to play with the overclock right now and only ran it once, but looks like an improvement. With that said, I will be running this vBIOS moving forward. This is the same vBIOS that elnathbudi is running and has achieved a 7,031 using a laptop cooler. My score was with max fans on, but no laptop cooler. 

[DavIT]

On 10/16/2023 at 3:13 AM, kaz26 said:

With the MSI vBIOS, it ran a little better. I don't have time to play with the overclock right now and only ran it once, but looks like an improvement. With that said, I will be running this vBIOS moving forward. This is the same vBIOS that elnathbudi is running and has achieved a 7,031 using a laptop cooler. My score was with max fans on, but no laptop cooler. 

@kaz26 here is my benchmark result

mine can't get higher FPS than 63.16, which I think limited to the CPU - I3 10100, but the minimum fps is higher because I managed to keep the temp lower

this is the modified cooling system:

 

I use ceramic heatsink, which I think better for passive cooling

[kaz26]

That is a very nice result @DavIT. Superposition must really focus on the GPU and not make use of more than 4 CPU cores. I also notice your GPU temp is low at 69C, mine was running at 84C. I'm curious as to what is going on here. The i3 is a very efficient and rather capable CPU with up to 4.30 GHz and 65w TDP. It definitely runs much cooler than the 11700k. Perhaps I should swap mine for the 11700H...

Pairing the 10100 was an interesting choice and I'm curious what you use this machine for. It seems to me that the cooler running CPU is allowing the GPU to be cooled more effectively. Since the heat from the CPU is partially distributed to the GPU portion of the heatsink on this model, a hot running CPU will reduce the cooling ability for the GPU.   I have never experimented with ceramic heatsinks before, but I will look into it now.
Thank you for sharing!

 

Image below: Benchmark score posted in this thread by @elnathbudi on April 22. Notice the temps and the CPU used. 

[DavIT]

@kaz26I use this laptop just to play games and browsing, I use other laptop for work

 

 @elnathbudi 's score is really good, thanks to GPU temp

 

about the 10100 effect I am agree with you, it help much in temperature..

 

before I do the vents on GPU grill, the gpu temp tend to reach 80 C ++, sometimes reach 87 C. I had try like undervolt the GPU, maximize the fan speed but that useless

 

this is the latest superposition score, get better with overclocked gpu core clock + 250 and gpu ram + 300 with increase in GPU temp:

 

[elbartek]

Hi guys,

I have a n960kr with what I think is a bricked BIOS, 

I reflashed the bios with another version and the laptop went from led changing from orange to green and flipping back in 7 seconds to now fans spin, led turns green, power consumption goes high, keyboard colors lights up, etc...

so the ITE chip is fine and controlling the ACPI and boot sequence, the keyboard, fans, etc... now nothing goes on further, the PCH becomes hot at least, but no screen, still in the dark... So ok, now the BIOS is read ok by the ITE, the PCH is brought out of reset... but thats it... the bios isn't yet ingested by the CPU, the RAM isn't initialized is it? Or maybe it is, but the BIOS is not right, timings are screwed up or something and the CPU/RAM can't handle it and the GPU is not woken up... I am still learning and don't understand the whole process...

 

However, would the person who reflashed his bios come into contact with me? Would you kindly share the 32768kb bios bin file with me? I didn't figure out if I can go from a downloaded bios update to a .bin to flash??

 

I am using ch341a to flash and it succeeed at least thats the report... maybe I should try tl866ii...

 

Any ideas on how to proceed now? What test?

Is GPU/CPU potentially fried? Should I test other ram/CPU or continue trying other BIOSES?

 

I do not have the original BIOS that initially came with the system.

The system has a 10900 es (eng. sampl.) installed and I hear it is compatible and microcode should be there...but Im wondering if I shouldnt buy a cheap celeron comet lake to test ... ?

 

 

[ThaLumpi]

Bringing this awesome thread back to life - BIOS Unlock Request for Clevo N960KS (Memory XMP & Power Menus)

 

Hello community,

I know this thread has been quiet for a while, but I am bringing it back to life because I built something very special with my Clevo N960Kx and desperately need the power of an unlocked BIOS to finish it!

Inspired by the cooling discussion here, I completely modded my system: I hard-soldered custom copper pipes onto the original heatsinks and hooked the laptop up to an external watercooling loop (360mm Alphacool radiator).

The results are absolutely insane: My Desktop Core i9-10900 is drawing a brutal 145 Watts under full load, but the liquid cooling keeps it sitting at a phenomenal 65°C max!

Why I need your help:
Even though the cooling has infinite headroom, the stock firmware limits me severely:

1. Memory Lock: I have a 3200MHz RAM kit installed, but the stock BIOS/chipset locks the memory speed to 2667MHz. I need the hidden Advanced -> Memory Configuration menu unhidden to select 3200MHz / XMP.
2. CPU Power Menu: I want the hidden Overclocking Performance Menu made visible. I want to lock the 125W/150W PL1/PL2 limits and Ampere constraints directly into the BIOS so I can ditch ThrottleStop in Windows.

Flash Status:
I successfully dumped my current clean BIOS using Intel FPTv15 (FPTW64.exe -d backup_clean.bin). I verified that the flash descriptor lock is disabled, as writing back the unmodified backup with FPT works flawlessly without any errors!

 

I have attached my compressed backup_clean.bin here (or linked below).

https://mega.nz/file/XmBE2QbL#wkKS0z4o1o1yfiT9iALRMDGtDc2YxLKW9LuJX2vc8Os

 

I would be incredibly grateful if one of the experts here could unlock this for me. I'll gladly share pictures of the watercooling mod if anyone is interested!

 

Thank you so much!

 

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