Hacking Nvidia's Drivers!

[Emily Young]

We didn’t recommend using the Chinese driver in our mining GPU video, but now, we’ll show you how to make Nvidia’s drivers work for yourself – And how to go deeper.

Buy a P106 (mining "GTX 1060") on Taobao: https://lmg.gg/8KV9W

 

Buy a real GTX 1060:
On Amazon: http://geni.us/rveAUH
On Newegg: https://lmg.gg/8KV6B

 

Download link for GeForce driver 416.34: https://lmg.gg/8KV93

Download link for HxD: https://lmg.gg/8KV9m

Download link for DifferentSLIAuto: https://lmg.gg/8KV9P

Download link for 7-Zip: https://lmg.gg/8KV9p

TechPowerUp Forum Thread: https://lmg.gg/8KV91

 

How to mod the P106 driver

• Make sure Secure Boot is disabled and Windows is in testsigning mode
  • Check your motherboard manual for information on how to disable Secure Boot
  • Testsigning can be enabled by opening up a Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator, then typing:
  • bcdedit /set {current} testsigning on
  • bcdedit /set {current} nointegritychecks on
  • This can be done for a single boot by going to Start -> Power -> Restart and holding shift while clicking Restart, then choosing Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then Startup Settings - Once you get to the menu, choose to disable driver signature enforcement.
  • After restarting, you’ll know it worked if some text is displayed in the lower right corner of your desktop
• Download and extract the GeForce driver using 7-Zip
• In the extracted folder, go to the Display.Driver folder and open nv_dispi.infusing Notepad++
• Search for lines containing 1B87 (P104-100), 1BC7, (P104-101) 1C07(P106-100), and 1C09 (P106-090)
  • Change each line's Section number to match the 1C06 (GTX 1060) line - On 416.34, that means from Section110 to Section108
  • On the third set of lines, the Section numbers will be different; Again change it to match the 1C06 (GTX 1060) line - On 416.34, that's Section109 to Section107
• Save the file
• Install the driver as normal – Windows will complain that it’s unsigned; Click allow.
• Right-click the desktop, go to Display Settings, then Graphics Settings
  • From here, you can force any game to use the P106 to render while your integrated GPU is used for display output.

How to perform the SLI mod

• Make sure Secure Boot is disabled and Windows is in testsigning mode
  • Check your motherboard manual for information on how to disable Secure Boot
  • Testsigning can be enabled by opening up a Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator, then typing:
  • bcdedit /set {current} testsigning on
  • bcdedit /set {current} nointegritychecks on
  • This can be done for a single boot by going to Start -> Power -> Restart and holding shift while clicking Restart
  • After restarting, you’ll know it worked if some text is displayed in the lower right corner of your desktop
• Install both graphics cards you wish to attempt SLI with
  • The first three characters of the PCI device ID MUST match to enable SLI
  • To find out what the device ID is, right-click the start button and click Device Manager
  • In the Display adaptors list double-click the card you want to check.
  • Under the Details tab, click the drop-down and then click Hardware IDs.
  • It will look like this: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1F07&SUBSYS_86701043&REV_A1
  • VEN_10DE means Nvidia, while DEV_1F07 is the device ID – In this example, an RTX 2070. So in order to run SLI, the other card’s device ID will have to also start with DEV_1F0
• Download and install the GeForce driver as usual
• Download and extract the DifferentSLIAuto package
• Go to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository and sort by date
• Go into the newest folder beginning with nv_dispi.inf
• Copy the nvlddmkm.sys file to the DifferentSLIAuto folder
• Open the install.cmd file in the DifferentSLIAuto folder in Notepad++
• Replace the three mentions of nv_dispi.inf in install.cmd with the folder name we got the nvlddmkm.sys file
• Open the nvlddmkm.sys we copied in a hex editor (HxD)
• In HxD, go to Search, then Find, then click the Hex Values tab
  • Search for 79050fba6b240e
  • Position the cursor at the start of these values
  • Replace with C7432400000000 (no need to delete first, just type over it)
  • Save the file
• Reboot into Safe Mode with Networking
  • Click Start, then Power, then hold shift while clicking Reboot
  • In the menu that comes up, click Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then Startup Settings (on some PCs, this may be behind a “show more options” arrow) - Once the PC reboots, press 5 on the screen that appears.
• Run install.cmd in the DifferentSLIAuto folder as administrator
• Reboot into normal mode
• Enable SLI (hopefully)

[WereCatf]

I just wanna know how to make use of the P106 under Linux.

[RedEyedGrassMan]

So is there any reason not to do this then?

[Noim]

12 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I just wanna know how to make use of the P106 under Linux.

Yeah, this is the same thing I wondered. 

I mean, it could be a possible use case where no display output is needed. 

Something like a VM (Unraid) or Plex GPU acceleration.

I mean for 66 Euro. Especially as gpu for my plex media server this would be awesome. So if anybody has more details about this. 

[Khaztaroth315]

Could I do this without integrated graphics? I could try using my current card to make the modifications, but since it's a Radeon card (well technically AMD at the time it got released) I don't know if there's some sort of driver conflict while fiddling around.

[WereCatf]

Just now, Noim said:

Something like a VM (Unraid) or Plex GPU acceleration.

I thought about using these for Plex as well when I first heard of these. I read somewhere someone claiming that there's no NVENC-support on these, but I don't know if that's also just a thing the driver disables, or if it's an actual physical limitation.

[Noim]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

I thought about using these for Plex as well when I first heard of these. I read somewhere someone claiming that there's no NVENC-support on these, but I don't know if that's also just a thing the driver disables, or if it's an actual physical limitation.

Everything I can find about the P106 + Plex is about windows. I don't care if it maybe works on windows, I use linux primary on my server. Somewhere I read there are also linux modified drivers, but was not able to find them.

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, Noim said:

Everything I can find about the P106 + Plex is about windows. I don't care if it maybe works on windows, I use linux primary on my server. Somewhere I read there are also linux modified drivers, but was not able to find them.

@GabenJr to the rescue?

[hojnikb]

anyone figured out perhaps a bios mod, that would make it a 1060 ?

[Computernaut]

Linus, there is no such thing as a "GTX 1030", it a "GT 1030". This is not the first time. ;)

[Bitter]

I don't fangirl...ever...but videos with Gaben are my favorite because there's someone that's really technically expertised digging deeper and looking further than 'wow it's got rgb'. No offense to Linus or anyone else there, but Gaben is extremely talented and I'd like to see more technical content, maybe his own occasional video series on a channel or something where he deep dives into things like driver editing and bios modding. He takes heady concepts and turns them down to something that even I can understand and follow along with.

[Devan Shannon]

Is there any way for this to work with an R5 2600? I know it doesn't have integrated graphics but this card would be perfect on my budget.

[Chronophylos]

The question is if we can make the driver also think that there is a display connected. Then we can use on of these on Linux for PCI-Passthrough to Windows.
Anyone know how to do this?

[Noim]

4 minutes ago, Devan Shannon said:

Is there any way for this to work with an R5 2600? I know it doesn't have integrated graphics but this card would be perfect on my budget.

This is just a guess, however I think at least one functional gpu is required. 

[kristiansja]

i would like  to mention that modern anti-cheats like battleeye (Rainbow six ect) block you from playing if you are in test mode because cheaters use kernel acess to hide from anti-cheats

[WereCatf]

4 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I don't fangirl...ever...but videos with Gaben are my favorite because there's someone that's really technically expertised digging deeper and looking further than 'wow it's got rgb'. No offense to Linus or anyone else there, but Gaben is extremely talented and I'd like to see more technical content, maybe his own occasional video series on a channel or something where he deep dives into things like driver editing and bios modding. He takes heady concepts and turns them down to something that even I can understand and follow along with.

He is technically-knowledgeable, but, personally, I don't find him an interesting video-personality. I don't intend to insult him, I'm just saying that he doesn't have the kind of visual charisma as e.g. Luke has; he should work on his presentation and voice-control, if he was to produce more videos of his own, IMHO. I have no idea if he has interest on such things, though; personally, I would find trying to hone my own presentation-skills (which, by the way, are horribly poor) utterly boring.

[Bitter]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

He is technically-knowledgeable, but, personally, I don't find him an interesting video-personality. I don't intend to insult him, I'm just saying that he doesn't have the kind of visual charisma as e.g. Luke has; he should work on his presentation and voice-control, if he was to produce more videos of his own, IMHO. I have no idea if he has interest on such things, though; personally, I would find trying to hone my own presentation-skills (which, by the way, are horribly poor) utterly boring.

I see what you're saying, however to me the information is more important this his presentation. I'm sure with some practice he could improve, I know for myself that talking to and explaining things to others can be difficult. Breaking things down isn't always very easy, and he seems to be doing it well and kind of on the fly with Linus pecking away questions as he's working. He does a fine job, I'd enjoy seeing more.

[JKostaschuk]

Anyone know how to get this to work for a GP-104 (GTX 1070) mining card? I imagine the process is near-identical, just that the references to the chip that need to be changed are a bit different in the driver mod stage.

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

23 minutes ago, kristiansja said:

i would like  to mention that modern anti-cheats like battleeye (Rainbow six ect) block you from playing if you are in test mode because cheaters use kernel acess to hide from anti-cheats

EXACTLY! I'd love them to test this on DOTA2, CSGO, Battlefield 5 etc.probably won't work.

[Bitter]

So what we need to figure out is how to 're sign' the driver after editing so that windows will allow the driver to be used outside of the 'test mode'? I'm sure someone on the internet knows how!

[JKostaschuk]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

So what we need to figure out is how to 're sign' the driver after editing so that windows will allow the driver to be used outside of the 'test mode'? I'm sure someone on the internet knows how!

It was said that it could be done in the video... No info on how  Maybe the next vid on this topic? Or really, just a forum post.

[Donkey Kong is back]

14 minutes ago, JKostaschuk said:

It was said that it could be done in the video... No info on how  Maybe the next vid on this topic? Or really, just a forum post.

 

17 minutes ago, Bitter said:

So what we need to figure out is how to 're sign' the driver after editing so that windows will allow the driver to be used outside of the 'test mode'? I'm sure someone on the internet knows how!

Almost 100% positive that after installing the drivers, you can jump back out of test mode. Test mode/disabling integrity checking only affects installation. Like how on Android you can turn on "Unknown sources", install an APK and turn it off again. Now whether the anti-cheats will pick up on this is another question.

[SkyHound0202]

Would like to point out the fine print stipulated in Nvidia Geforce Software End-user license agreement:

Quote

2.1.3 Limitations.

 

No Modification or Reverse Engineering. Customer may not modify (except as provided in Section 2.1.2), reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE, nor attempt in any other manner to obtain the source code.

Technically, doing so is a breach of EULA, but the chances of Nvidia going after a home user trying to get a mining card to work on PC is practically null.

[Giasko]

The real question is could you put 2 P106 in SLI? It would have better performance than the original 1060 for a really cheap price.

[Bitter]

I'm going to guess no BUT someone should try. What I want to know is the hardware on these mining cards crippled besides the terrible looking thermal solution. Mounting a better heat sink should be simple if they use the standard mounting pattern. Do they?