Acer Aspire 7720g graphics upgrade!

I recently purchased an an acer 7720g with a 8400m gs mxm gf card. I would like to install a acer 9600m gt ddr3 which is mxm-II. I have looked around the forum and have not really found a straight answer. Some say yes, some say no!

I have compared the two cards and the 9600m gt looks slightly bigger? I also realise I will have to update acer bios to v1.45, mod the heatsink and use a modified Nvidia .inf driver.

My question is, will the 9600m gt mxm-II (or even 8600m gt) work in a slot that has had an 8400m gs mxm?

Or is a 9300m gs the highest I can go?

Thanks.

Does'nt matter:

 

Hello Void2k, and welcome to the forums!

Not sure if you've seen the Acer MXM thread, but it's the place to start.

The 9600M GT is bigger because it is an MXM-II card, whereas the 8400M GS is an MXM-I card.
Since the Aspire 7720G has been sold with a GeForce 9500M GS MXM-II card, it's got an MXM-II slot. As you can imagine, smaller cards can fit into larger slots.

The first post of the MXM thread shows that two people have upgraded their 7720G's MXM card, one to a 9600M GT.

 

Thank you for the quick reply.

And thanks again for clearing that up for me.

 

Well, I received my acer 9600m gt (VG.9PG06.006) today, I swapped the cards over and it will not display anything at all just a black screen.

I'm using bios v1.45. I did notice when I took it out the packaging that two corners of the core were chipped. I've lost many o'card this way in past, and will be sending the card back. I'm just wondering if there is anything else I should consider as to the reason for the blank screen.

Thanks.

I've just noticed that my previous card (8400m gs) uses hynix memory and the 9600 uses Qimonda memory. Will I need to blind flash the vbios and could you recommend a file?

Although I have a funny feeling its just the chipped core.

 

No clue - for all my knowledge in MXM cards, I've never done an upgrade myself.
And it's inherently tricky anyway - you should try to get in touch with someone who's done the upgrade to an 9600M GT.

Other factors might be that you didn't completely depower your motherboard when doing the swap, that your BIOS is still looking for the 8400M GS, that the vBIOS isn't compatible, any number of things.

I don't think the VRAM the MXM card uses is one of them, though.

 

I can rule out power consumption as I'm using a higher amperage charger. I'm not receiving any error beeps. Windows is booting up fine in the background, just no display.

It's a toss up between, vbios, M/B bios. Though I'm apprehensive about delving too much into a fix as it may be the cards chipped core at fault.

I know a few people have managed it on here, that's why I posted.

 

Unfortunately, the one guy who upgraded to a 9600M GT, boruta, hasn't been on the forums in almost a year.
I'll private message him and see if I can get his attention.

 

I've managed to find an acer 9600m gt DDR3 bios (hynix). I have created a dos usb boot disk with nvflash which I can access during boot up with the old card but when I swap to the 9600 to blind flash the vbios the usb drive is ignored and windows boots as normal (though no display).

Very weird, I'm totally stumped.

Another thing I noticed was when I placed the 8400 back in and rebooted, I received a 'desktop settings too low' error message. So the card is working. Which would involve NiBiTor eventually.

 

I don't think the Hynix vBIOS would work on a card with Qimonda memory. Worth a shot, though!
And that may be because your BIOS settings reset with the card swap, disabling your boot order adjustment.

 

Apologies for resurrecting a slightly aging thread. Just wondering if you got anywhere with this? I'm in the same boat - have installed a 9600m gt 512mb DDR3 in my 7720g (replacing the 9300m g). I can get into windows but can't get a driver installed (just the standard VGA one).

Noticed the VGA bios was the one that works with the old card so thinking about flashing the new one next?

 

You need to get laptopvideo2go modded drivers.

 

Cheers for the reply Ice-Tea. I force installed those and now my lappy keeps switching itself off (it wouldn't recognise the Nvidia ones). They were quite old tho so I'll try the updated ones

Bios still says video memory is at zero

 

When exactly does it switch off? And how? Click-and-it's gone or BSOD or what?

 

Sorry - been away for the weekend. It's click and it's gone - usually within a minute of loading Windows

 

I don't know if you need it, but here is a 9600m GT BIOS:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...mobile-video-bios-database-2.html#post6625020

(Qimonda vram).

BTW, hows your power adapter?
Do you think it can supply enough power?

 

Looks like it was the driver. Removed the old one and put in a new one - no shutdowns (in four hours) and getting 3dmark06 scores in the low 4000s which is double the old card (when it was OC'd). I'm not going to alter the bios with it working, but thanks for the advice.

EDIT: Device manager is actually calling my card a Quadro FX 580 after installing the latest LTV2go drivers with the modded inf - but it still works. Just wondering if is is still worth altering the bios?

 

One last bump - turns out I have a ddrII 1024MB versoin (according to gpu-z) which has been confirmed by a bad flash using the ddr3 bios. Luckily was able to get the old one back. Just got two more queries

1. Bios still says 0MB video memory when I switch the lappy on
2. It's still using the FX 580 drivers - and i get 3Dmark06 in the low 4000s (is this about what I can expect?)

Much appreciated all the help so far. I'm learning a lot

 

The FX 580 is a desktop card right?

I think you have downloaded the desktop driver, you should download the mobile driver.

On the laptopvideotogo search page, you should fill this part in:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_ XXXX&SUBSYS_ XXXXXXXX


To find what to enter there, right click on my computer > properties > hardware >device manager > display adapters > right click on your adapter > properties > details.

 

I think I've discovered the root of the problem - device ID in gpu-z is showing as 10DE 0659 (the ID for the FX 580) rather than 0649 (9600M gt 1024). Googling seems to indicate I can't change this?

No bother as it's now working fine. Playing Bioshock on decent resolution at the mo and it is nice and smooth

 

If you can upload a copy of your vBIOS here, I can check what device ID is reported by the vBIOS.

GPUz showing the wrong device ID could just be a symptom of the problem, not the root of it.
Depends where GPUz finds the device ID.

It's possible that you have installed the wrong driver version (desktop version) and GPUz could be just checking the device ID by which driver is used.

I believe this to be the case because if I install no GPU driver then GPUz will fail to give me information about my GPU.

 

I'm using the 9600 gt vbios from Techpowerup (unfortunately lost the original one during the bad flash as my USB stick screwed up at the same time)

When I flash it the device ID shows 0959 as well and it said it wasn't compatible - however it's been the only VBIOS that worked.

 

The bios is the 9600 gt 1024 acer one on Techpowerup

techPowerUp! :: VGA Bios Collection: Acer 9600 GT 1024 MB

It's definitely the wrong ID on the card - been playing with nibitor and when I looked at flashing an overclocked bios, nvflash reported the ID of the card as 0959. I'll try to post a screenshot in a bit

 

So you flashed a BIOS from a desktop card onto a mobile card?

I didn't know that could even work.

EDIT: I've downloaded the vBIOS and opened it with nibitor, it shows that it's a 9600M GT vBIOS not a 9600 GT vBIOS.

When people upload files they should name them correctly.

When searching laptopvideotogo for drivers, type this:
061E and 061C10DE

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_061E &SUBSYS_061C10DE

That should get you the correct driver.

EDIT#2: actually it might not get you the correct driver, 259.47 isn't a mobile driver is it?

EDIT#3: Maybe 259.47 is a mobile driver, couldn't hurt to try it.

 

I did check beforehand and yes I know it was confusing

Thanks for your help

EDIT Getting 5140 ish on 3Dmark06 with a 20% overclock now. Seems very stable and consistent. See how it handles Bioshock later.

 

What CPU do you have?

I remember that I was getting 7k in 3dmark06 with my 9600m GT + SP9400 @ 3ghz.

It could be your CPU that's dragging your score down a bit, since 3dmark06 does like a fast CPU.
When in most games a fast CPU wont matter that much.

 

T5750 @ 2ghz. I do play Football Manager a lot so was thinking about an upgrade - just found a nicely priced 2nd hand T9300 which I might be tempted with (and it's got a 60 day warranty). Think it's about the second best I can fit.
(just don't tell the missus)

 

Remember, Miner's got a 1GB DDR2 model instead of the faster 512MB GDDR3 card.
That being said, 5K in 3DM06 is nothing to sniff at. Good work on the upgrade!

 

Hello everyone!
I have a similar issue as TheMiner! My apologies too for reviving this now already half dead thread again.

After my 8600m gt died just before christmas i decided to "upgrade" my Aspire 7720g with an 9600m gt 512 MB Gddr3 card (bought it used on ebay for €100). The sticker on it says VG.9PG0Y.005.
The good news is: It works - kind off.

I went over to laptopvideo2go and filled in the form - it pointed me only to Quadro FX 580 drivers.
Same as it was with TheMiners card (the hardware ID is PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0659&SUBSYS_056710DE&REV_A1) - so 659 should be 649 or so i think. I can't select any other model when installing the drivers.

I can't find a way to fix this even after 10h+ of research on the web.
I would be fine as the card works with the driver decently (~5600 3dmark06 with t7700), but it is getting quite hot very fast (55°C after startup and ~90°C after 10min of gaming). I put new thermal compound on it - made sure it has contact - paper thin and recycled the old heatsink part from the 8600m gt.
I am not even sure if it is a 9600m GT or something else. GPU Chip stamp says g96-630-a1 - what would hint at a 9600m gt (not sure though as there seems no reliable source to check the stamps with the sales names).

Here are my questions:
1. Is there a way to identify the card correctly (change hardware ID) given it is a 9600m GT? or
2. Is this card some completely strange thing (assembled in a back-alley garage)?

And most important 3. Should I sent it rather back to the ebay shop for a refund and buy a new card from the official acer parts store for double the price? (VG.9PG0Y.005 is sold there as card for Aspire 59xx 69xx and 89xx series)

thank you for help.

 

Well, the G96 core marking means it's at least using the same core as the GeForce 9600M GT.
The confusing bit is the model number - the Quadro equivalent of the 9600M GT is the FX 770M.
I would toss it in the realm of possibility that the misconfigured driver could be causing the heat problems, but I wouldn't say it's the most plausible cause.

I'd imagine that flashing a new BIOS would fix the hardware ID, but I've never done it, so I have no clue.

 

thank you for your response.

I couldn't solve the problem and idle temps in the mid 50°s seem to be too risky to keep this card, although i can't be sure temperatures are read/interpreted correctly due to the driver/card-id issue. Since i still can send the card back i won't try any vbios flashing on it. Instead i'm going to buy a new VG.9PG0Y.007 (according to your acer mxm list (thx a lot for it )for €175 - it's the the cheapest 9600m gt 1gb ddr2 i could find. No clue why the VG.9PG06.009 costs €40 more. Someone here said it runs cooler than gddr3 card types.

I did try a few tools more to identify the card.
Everest Ultimate tells me some strange thing i don't understand:


How did the 8600m gt sneak in there?

Hw32 tells me the gpu chip is an g96-875-GL not a g96-630-a1 as it is marked (this seems to stem from the 0659 device id).

If you search the web for such chip terms you will almost exclusively be pointed to some shenzen/hongkong producers or traders, a few have crippled lists of what it could mean in western sales terms.

Will report back on how the 9600gt 1gb ddr2 will work - hopefully it does at all .

 

Good call getting a different model; best to do so while you still can.
Please keep us posted!

 

Sorry. I sold it as defect. Cost would be a bit too high imho and compared for what you get with the new SandyBridge laptops ... . It's simply too intriguing for me to deny.
Take care.

 

My friend!!! Please help me with my aspire 7720g. I'd a 8400m gs..and i bought a 9300m...suposed to be compatible...and actually..with RGB cable...it works fine. Still...on the internal LCD screen...it comes with a random color pattern (only colors change)...so i believe is because video rom on the bios. they gave me the 9300m rom in a file...but dont know how to patch into the insyde bios. I used the e20 editor...but still....dont know how to do it (many GUID's). I know how to do it on a phoenix bios...but on this...i dont know. Can u help me to know what is the problem? It can be that i need a new inverter for this board? How to do it? Pleaaaaasseee help me ((

 

i have a 8600m gt can i upgrade to 4650m or 4670m? or should i use vidock? as i dont carry it much when i game?

 

any solution for that black screen problem? as i have fx770 that does the same on my aspire 5720g and have no idea why it doesnt work