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Updating GPU VBIOS (GTX970)
vgnmnky Dec 10, 2015
Hi

I have a Zotac GTX 970. Works great. Apart from one issue, which seems to be common to this family of cards (it's not a monitor issue). If I power off the monitor (or my power settings switch it off, which I've now disabled) and then switch it back on, it doesn't regain the DP signal. This means I have to reboot the PC.

I can suspend the PC with the monitor still on (it goes into stand-by I think, which is fine), and bring it all back to life, display included. But if I accidentally knock the power switch, then I know I'm stuck, and there's no way out other than a reboot.

I've heard that this has been fixed in later versions of the vbios. I can find and download these. But I can't find a way to then flash the card in Linux. I don't have a Windows partition, though it may be worth me setting one up just for this. But I don't want to! So to save me from that, has anyone had any joy updating the bios on their Nvidia cards?

Of course, I could just go with HDMI, but I really want to beat this, and that socket on the monitor currently has a Pi connected to it (and there's no issue with getting my Pi desktop back up).

Thanks

Rob
Avehicle7887 Dec 11, 2015
If the 970 Bios is updated via a Dos program, then maybe you can use the Win98SE Boot Disk. I've recently updated a laptop motherboard bios with it, Link: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html (I use the 'Win98SE_bootdisk.iso' )

Hope it helps.
tuubi Dec 11, 2015
Quoting: Avehicle7887If the 970 Bios is updated via a Dos program, then maybe you can use the Win98SE Boot Disk. I've recently updated a laptop motherboard bios with it, Link: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html (I use the 'Win98SE_bootdisk.iso' )

Hope it helps.
There's also Freedos. Use something like unetbootin (should be available in your distro's repositories) to install a bootable freedos image on a fat32-formatted flash drive and use it to flash your card. No proprietary software required.
Avehicle7887 Dec 11, 2015
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: Avehicle7887If the 970 Bios is updated via a Dos program, then maybe you can use the Win98SE Boot Disk. I've recently updated a laptop motherboard bios with it, Link: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html (I use the 'Win98SE_bootdisk.iso' )

Hope it helps.
There's also Freedos. Use something like unetbootin (should be available in your distro's repositories) to install a bootable freedos image on a fat32-formatted flash drive and use it to flash your card. No proprietary software required.

That would have been my first suggestion but I couldn't find a link to a live cd version.
tuubi Dec 11, 2015
Quoting: Avehicle7887That would have been my first suggestion but I couldn't find a link to a live cd version.
I think unetbootin can download an image for you. Just select freedos as the distribution and let it do the rest.
vgnmnky Dec 11, 2015
Thanks @tuubi and @Avehicle7887. I'll have a play with Freedos on Sunday. I know in Windows there's a program called Firestorm that can flash Zotac cards, but I'm sure there must be a more basic direct way too.

Out of interest, has anyone else had the DP - No Signal issue with their GTX970/980 cards?
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