nVFlash is a utility for device manufacturers and developers that allows you to work with the BIOS firmware of a computer video card. The program is released by NVIDIA and is designed primarily for their graphics adapters
NVIDIA NVFlash is used to flash the BIOS of the video card on Turing, Pascal and all older NVIDIA cards.
NVFlash supports BIOS flashing on NVIDIA graphics cards:
- GeForce 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070, RTX 2060, GTX 1660 with GTX 1650
- GeForce for GTX 1080 Ti, and with GTX 1080, GTX 1070, GTX 1060, GTX 1050
- And much more, including BIOS updates on older NVIDIA GPUs.
Before flashing, make a backup copy of the current BIOS of the video card using: nvflash —save backup.rom
To update the graphics processor of the BIOS video card use: BIOS setup utility.
Functions and features of the nVFlash 5.370.0 utility:
- Re-flashing the BIOS of the video card;
- Compatible with NVIDIA graphics adapters;
- Free distribution;
- Command line control;
- Low-level work with iron.
- You need to find the appropriate BIOS version for flashing yourself.
What do you need for the firmware?
Before flashing an NVIDIA video card, check its specifications and the installed BIOS version. This can be done using the GPU-Z program. You need information from the “Graphics Card” section.
- Device model (“Name”);
- Its identifier (“Device ID”);
- Type, size and frequency of video memory (“Memory Type”. “Memory Size” and “Memory Clock”);
- The width of the bus (“Bus Width”);
- The frequency of the video adapter core (“CPU Clock”);
- The current BIOS version (“Version BIOS”);
- Manufacturer (“Subvendor”). NVIDIA is not always listed there. She has many partners who create models of this brand – ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit.
The update is only available for a single GPU display adapter. If there are two of them, the software installation may end badly. Usually the quantity is indicated in the model name.
Before installation:
- Update NVIDIA drivers;
- Prepare a flash drive or memory card (needed to boot via DOS);
- Back up your old Firmware. To do this, in the GPU-Z program, click on the arrow-shaped button (it is located next to the BIOS version), select “Save to file” and specify the path to the folder. This way you can always revert to the previous version of the software.
Why do you need NVFLASH?
As mentioned above, NVFlash is used to reprogram the BIOS chips of supported video cards. A similar need may arise in one of the following cases:
- Freezes, spontaneous shutdown / restart of the computer due to malfunctions of the video card.
- The presence of all kinds of graphic “artifacts” (color stripes, dead pixels, etc.) on the monitor screen connected to the problem video card.
- Complete inoperability of the graphics adapter and others.
The NVFlash utility is also used to update the BIOS video chip firmware in order to fix various errors from previous versions. The need for flashing is usually reported by the manufacturer of the video card based on NVIDIA chips.
Firmware via Windows
To flash the BIOS of an NVIDIA video card in the Windows environment, you need the “NVFlash Win” program. Different versions of the utility are designed for different chips. For example, NV4 is suitable for TNT video adapters, NV5 for TNT2, and GeForce 4 must be updated using NVFlash. Please read the description and instructions for the application carefully before using it. It should indicate which model it fits to.
You can flash an NVIDIA video card like this:
- Unpack the archive with NVFlash and move its files to the root of the system drive (usually C: ).
- Copy the firmware rom file there. Remember its name. Or rename it. Use only Latin letters and numbers. Do not change the extension.
- Go to Start.
- Write “cmd” at the bottom of the input field without quotes.
- Click on the appeared program with the right mouse button and select “As administrator“. A command prompt will open. Through it, you need to update the BIOS of the NVIDIA video card.
- It should contain the path to the system disk. If there is another directory specified, enter the command “CD C: \” (remove the quotes) and press Enter.
- To find out the number of processors on your video adapter, write “nvflash –list”.
- Type “nvflash –protectoff” (with two dashes and no quotes). And again Enter.
- To create a copy of the software installed on the graphics card (if you have not done so before), enter “nvflash -b bios.rom” (and also Enter). A new file will appear on the disk. This is the old BIOS firmware. You can come back to it if you don’t like another program.
- Write “nvflash newfirmware.rom” (with a dash and without quotes). Replace the word “Newfirmware” with the name of the firmware file. And press Enter again.
- The message “Update video adapter firmware? Press Y to confirm (any other key to cancel) “. Translated as “Update the video card? Press Y to continue. ” If you want to download software, use the Y key on your keyboard in the English layout.
- Installation will take a few seconds. When it is over, a beep will sound and a notification will appear “Update was successful” (“Update was successful”).
- Reboot your computer.
- Check the GPU-Z result. There should be a new version of BIOS.
BIOS flashing of the NVIDIA video card is also possible via DOS. It is an operating system that you interact with using commands. To switch to it from Windows, you need a bootable disk or flash drive. You can create it using the Rufus program.
- Find it on the Internet, download and run it.
- Insert a flash drive into the USB port. There should be no data on it.
- Select it from the Device drop-down list.
- Put “FAT32” in the “File System“.
- Check the box “Create bootable disk using“. Select “MS-DOS” from the list next to it.
- Click Start. The program will format the media and create a boot sector on it.
Then copy the same NVFlash files, old and new firmware. The old one is needed so that you can restore it from the same media.
NVIDIA graphics card firmware via DOS is suitable for advanced PC users. If you have not started your computer from bootable disks or drives before, it is better to use the previous method.
First, change the order so that the OS starts from external media.