Maxwell and Pascal GPUs Need Firmware Update To Support New DisplayPort Displays

[erocker]

@qubit Click the update button. Click it! DO IT!

 

[RealNeil]

I ran the tool on my i9-7900X box and it said that my two Gigabyte 1070Ti cards were already at the latest firmware.

 

[bug]

Let's put it this way: if you don't need to flash today, just wait. The only thing that can happen between now and then is a few more bugs fleshed out.

 

[newtekie1]

Let's put it this way: if you don't need to flash today, just wait. The only thing that can happen between now and then is a few more bugs fleshed out.

Yeah, I thought about taking that approach, but then I though a little while down the road when I decide to buy a DP1.4 monitor and it doesn't work right, I'll likely have long forgot about this post and spend hours pulling my hair out. So I just updated my cards now. Seeing as how this definitely doesn't appear to be a full bios flash, I don't know if there is as much risk.

 

[RealNeil]

Ok, so I ran it on two other PCs and it updated the firmware on my two 1080FE cards and also my 1080Ti card. Nothing happened to any of my GPU settings either.
I guess I'm going to install my two 1070 cards and get them updated too.

 

[Robert Bourgoin]

Yup, did the update on My Nvidia 1080Ti, stated I needed the update. No problems afterward.

 

[qubit]

I wouldn't update till you really need it, otherwise I'd contact both nvidia and zotac about questions relating to those updates.

Unless if @erocker card is custom, there was someone who had to do a bios mod due to this "update" (see previous posts)

@qubit i'd leave it alone and upgrade the gpu when 4k is mainstream, unless otherwise told by zotac and nvidia.

Id seriously back up your bios though

This is the post that has me concerned.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...new-displayport-displays.244919/#post-3852299

Sounds like a pretty serious problem that the user was lucky to fix. It would have made me even more wary of updating, but then NT posted that it worked fine for him and it seems to only update part of the BIOS (see below) (and erocker just wants me to brick my card ) so I'm tempted to do it now.

I had noticed that the BIOS boot-up screens don't appear and that there's only a picture when the OS has loaded, too. My second monitor connected to HDMI or DVI shows those boot-up screens though, so it would be nice to fix this.

Am I right in saying that GPU-Z will be able to save my BIOS properly? I will do that first. Tagging @W1zzard for the definitive answer.

I updated my 1080Ti Strix and all was fine. I don't believe this is updating the entire BIOS but actually updating somewhere else in the firmware on the card, the custom manufacturer BIOS doesn't seem to be changed. The BIOS number doesn't even change as read by GPU-Z, and all the custom clock speeds and fan profiles were left alone.

The update also went a lot faster than a normal full BIOS update. I'd really be interested in what exactly this is updating.

@qubit Click the update button. Click it! DO IT!

 

[W1zzard]

Yeah use gpuz to save your bios, then update, then save again. Should be interesting to look at differences

 

[Regeneration]

I ran the firmware updater on my GTX 970... it failed because the BIOS was modded and had invalid certificate.

I flashed the original rom and it worked.

The BIOS version is unchanged, but there were changes to the rom (0FC48 to 222C0).

 

[RealNeil]

Ok, so I've done one MSI Gaming-X Trio GTX-1080Ti, two Gigabyte AORUS Gaming G1 GTX-1070Ti cards, two Gigabyte Gaming G1 GTX-1070s, two GTX-1080FE cards, and three 980Ti cards. (EVGA, Gigabyte, and ASUS)
None of them were harmed by running the file.
Only my two newest cards didn't need the firmware update. (1070Ti)

All of my cards have a mild OC on them, (very mild) and none of those clocks were altered. None of the fan profiles changed.
I only have one 4K screen here at this time and there were no issues with it. It's probably the older spec display port since it is two and a half years old. (ACER B286HK) Everything else runs on 1080P.

So I didn't need to do the update on any of these GPUs but having upgraded everything else on my PCs in the last year and a half, I'm ready to start upgrading all of my monitors now.
I know that I'll need this capability fairly soon, so upgrading this DP firmware made sense to me.
I'm glad that it could be addressed with an update and not by having to replace all of my GPUs.

Yeah use gpuz to save your bios, then update, then save again. Should be interesting to look at differences

W1zzard,
Interesting post that made me wonder if all of the saved NVIDIA based BIOS recovery files saved in the TPU database will have to be updated now.

 

[qubit]

Yeah use gpuz to save your bios, then update, then save again. Should be interesting to look at differences

Ok, I'll update it and post the results here, no problem.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ok, I'll update it and post the results here, no problem.

Yes please back up 2 copies.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah use gpuz to save your bios, then update, then save again. Should be interesting to look at differences

I ran the firmware updater on my GTX 970... it failed because the BIOS was modded and had invalid certificate.

I flashed the original rom and it worked.

The BIOS version is unchanged, but there were changes to the rom (0FC48 to 222C0).

Do you have the old rom image to compare? I strongly want to diff these to see if I can hack this thing to make a nvidia bios signer.

 

[Regeneration]

The changes in hex #090B0 and #223F8 are mine (TDP limit boost). The rest (#0FC48 to #222C0) made by the DisplayPort firmware update.

 

[R-T-B]

It does appear to be modding & signing it then. Hmmm. So if you hardware flashed a pascal, somehow disabled the "modded firmware check" with a hex editor or similar... then had it do it's update magic...

It would sign it?

If so, this may be a way to theoretically produce nvflashable pascal mod bioses.

I'm on it.

PS: Is the private key from nvidia in this app somewhere? That would be insanely dumb but I'm still going to look...

EDIT:

Is this what I think it is? Can anyone tell me what I'm looking at?

@W1zzard @Regeneration

This was in a 16kb file named "CERTIFICATE"

 

[bug]

Certificate=public key
Unfortunately

 

[R-T-B]

Certificate=public key
Unfortunately

Yeah, came to that conclusion too. Damn. I was really hoping team green was that dumb...

Still, it's signing it's own bios updates somehow. I wonder how? What are the checks and can we override them? I want to believe we can.

 

[qubit]

Yeah use gpuz to save your bios, then update, then save again. Should be interesting to look at differences

Ok, I've done it now, my card still works fine and hasn't downclocked or anything stupid like that. @newtekie1 @erocker Note that the updater did actually lock up the PC solid the first time while it was scanning, forcing the reset button to be pressed. Ok the second time. Didn't do this previous times when it scanned.

First off W1z, apologies. While I remembered to get a GPU-Z screenshot before updating, I forgot to save the BIOS <smh>. Anyway, I found one with the same version number in the TPU GPU database, so have included it in the attached zip file for your convenience. Hopefully it's identical to what used to be in my card. Note that the TPU BIOS and my updated one do have different MD5 checksums, as you would expect. The GPU-Z screens look the same before and after.

For reference, this is my card: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3621/zotac-gtx-1080-amp-exteme

@eidairaman1 feel free to wag that finger for forgetting to save the BIOS first.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ok, I've done it now, my card still works fine and hasn't downclocked or anything stupid like that. @newtekie1 @erocker Note that the updater did actually lock up the PC solid the first time while it was scanning, forcing the reset button to be pressed. Ok the second time. Didn't do this previous times when it scanned.

First off W1z, apologies. While I remembered to get a GPU-Z screenshot before updating, I forgot to save the BIOS <smh>. Anyway, I found one with the same version number in the TPU GPU database, so have included it in the attached zip file for your convenience. Hopefully it's identical to what used to be in my card. Note that the TPU BIOS and my updated one do have different MD5 checksums, as you would expect. The GPU-Z screens look the same before and after.

For reference, this is my card: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3621/zotac-gtx-1080-amp-exteme

@eidairaman1 feel free to wag that finger for forgetting to save the BIOS first.

Eh bro, you did the work to find the original in the database, we all make some goofs at times, you are Forgiven lol

 

[R-T-B]

This section of the updater is damn interesting...

Note the text in the right pane:

 

[Regeneration]

It does appear to be modding & signing it then. Hmmm. So if you hardware flashed a pascal, somehow disabled the "modded firmware check" with a hex editor or similar... then had it do it's update magic...

It would sign it?

If so, this may be a way to theoretically produce nvflashable pascal mod bioses.

I'm on it.

PS: Is the private key from nvidia in this app somewhere? That would be insanely dumb but I'm still going to look...

EDIT:

Is this what I think it is? Can anyone tell me what I'm looking at?

@W1zzard @Regeneration

This was in a 16kb file named "CERTIFICATE"

This is just a code signing certificate.

There is a checksum hash hidden in the BIOS rom. Nvflash just verify the hash vs. the file.

If you insist on cracking it, on Maxwell, its at the bottom of the file (2BC98 to 2BD30) at encrypted form.

 

[R-T-B]

This is just a code signing certificate.

There is a checksum hash hidden in the BIOS rom. Nvflash just verify the hash vs. the file.

If you insist on cracking it, on Maxwell, its at the bottom of the file (2BC98 to 2BD30) at encrypted form.

Yep, already way ahead of you. It appears to be the code signing public cert for a integrated nvflash (bog standard version 5.449 unfortunately).

If you insist on cracking it

Oh come on, TPU was built on bios modding. You sound so... hesitant. Where's your spirit man?

Truth be told, this just tickles the reverse engineer in me... plus I love a challenge.

 

[er557]

I don't even wanna ask how many bricks you have laying around in your closet

 

[bug]

Yeah, came to that conclusion too. Damn. I was really hoping team green was that dumb...

Still, it's signing it's own bios updates somehow. I wonder how? What are the checks and can we override them? I want to believe we can.

Standard PK cryptography: they sign with the private key (that never sees the light of day) and verify with the public key that's onto each and every card.
There are no checks: you can either decrypt the content (if it's signed by Nvidia) or you can't (if it's been tempered with).

 

[pigulici]

I just did to my msi GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G, and look ok so far, played few hours of Witcher 3. I tried to update the 980m too, it give me error, it say something about only to discrete cards.