[3.11-rc4] [HD2400] - radeon.dpm

[daniel at motaleite.net]

Hi

> As I suspected, on your system all the performance levels are the same:
(...)
> [    8.961704] 		power level 0    sclk: 45000 mclk: 50000 vddc: 950
> [    8.961706] 		power level 1    sclk: 45000 mclk: 50000 vddc: 950
> [    8.961708] 		power level 2    sclk: 45000 mclk: 50000 vddc: 950
(...)
> So there is no dynamic switching supported on your system.

	I also had this problem and manage to "fix" it (on a HD2600) :)



	Please be warnned that this is dangerous, requires editing the bios and
may brick your card. Also, will not work on recent cards (but a HD2400 should be ok).
Also, this is a hack and no one will support you if things go wrong!


	You need a windows machine, for some steps, but other can use a linux 
equivalent... but editing the GPU bios i know no alternative to using the
windows program. I also don't know is there is any way in linux to load a GPU
bios (and avoid the flashing)... we have the firmware, but i think that the
firmware is just a subset of the bios.


	So here is the "HOWTO":

	Make a usb pendrive bootable to DOS:

	Get this files:
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=196
http://pt.kioskea.net/download/baixaki-433-hp-usb-disk-storage-format-tool


	Unzip the windows98 DOS support to a directory and run the HP usb storage
app and format the pendrive. Chek the flag "Create a DOS startup disk" and choose
the extracted windows98 files.

	After formating, download and extract the ATI flash to the pen:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1731/ATIFlash_3.79.html

	Now lets edit the bios. Ddownload this two apps:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/ -> Dump the GPU Bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/  -> ATI/AMD Bios editor

	use the gpu-z to dump the current bios, backup it up on a pendrive, to
revert to the original bios if needed.

	use the rbe to edit the power levels. be conservative, DO NOT TOUCH the
boot power profiles (this way you can always boot the machine), avoid changing
the voltage, as it's more dangerous (but it can also save more power).

	Edit the lower leves to reduce the GPU frequencies and keep the level
2 high. please note that too low or too high frequencies may cause the card
to be unstable. DRAM frequencies usually save little power, but may help reducing
the heat. For evey change, test it and check if the card is stable, the picture
is not corrupted in different resolutions and loads. Again, if something goes
wrong, power off the machine and startup again, the boot profile should be the
one that always work (don't forget to have a boot entry in grub that disables
the dynamic powermanagement, to avoid jumping to a unstable profile). 

	After doing the changes, save the bios and save it to the pendrive.

	Now shutdown the machine, make sure you have the full charge and have
the power connected. If power faills during the flashing of the bios, you may
brick the card/laptop.

	Startup the computer with the pendriver, enter the DOS and run the
flash command:

atiflash -p 0 xxxx.rom

	where the xxxx.rom is the new "tuned" bios. After some seconds and
the command line returned, you can reboot and test it. If something fails,
flash back the original bios.

	Test the card, increase the load, let screen/card enter the sleep
mode (screensaver/suspend), change resolutions and look at the temperature. 
If all OK, you can try to tune even more.

	So this is a possible (and dangerous) solution for this problem, but
may help some people.

Good luck
higuita