Acer MXM Models and Cards

Right I should be getting my 7738g tomorrow, will have photos and descriptions as I dismantle things and swap stuff over.

 

7738g mxm-a confirmed (componants blocking mxm-b, completly impossible)

 

Can I ask for a 3DMark06 1280x768?
It looks really good- I'd like to see how good.

 

It's over 9000 ^-^ (9218)

ORB - Compare

New record score at 790/1024 (my new stable clocks)

My 1280x1024 score is not far behind (8406):

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=15047333

I am really tempted to see if a Q9200 would work.....

I guess the improved cooling and cleaner power delivery is helping my chip.

A note about the upgrade:

The heatsink had a black shim on the contact area, to ensure good contact remove this (the 4670 core is much bigger than the GT240m and is rotated 45 degrees), you will reveal a nice large copper contact area.

Also a note on CPU upgrades, the quad core cooler comes with one LARGE contact area (enough to cover an I7 quad die) so dual cores could be installed if you wanted.

 

That's what I call an upgrade. How much did it cost you in total- if I may be so inquisitive?

 

Well I got the base model for £590 (Q9000, 4GB of ram, 2x500GB HDD, GT240M) It was open box but new (I am guessing an RMA replacement).

Screen was £90.

I will be selling the HDDs, ram, old screen and GFX to make some of that back.

 

Update to above:

 

Envy envy envy envy.
First post updating shortly.

 

I am looking at the service guide and it is showing that the graphics card is on a MXM card - so I'm confused by the entry.

I'm happy to supply the page/pic showing the assenbly.

Any reason for the difference?

 

What is your laptop model?

 

Sorry - slaps head!!

8942G

 

As marked on first post in the first page, the card is embedded to the mother board so it can not be removed/replaced.

You can also see it for yourself on link below:

Acer 8942G Examimination

Cheers

 

I know - I looked at this review when it first came up.

However, when I look at the service Guide from
[REMOVED BY MOD- can't be shared]

Page 108 it clearly shows a MXM module. (although some of heatsinks look slightly different). Hence my query about the 2 pieces of information being inconsistent.

I have uploaded a picture where I have compared the 2 sources as to where the MXM might be located.

I will b opening up my machine again and take another look to see if I can identify the structures in the manual.
I will let you know what I find.

 

Well this could be a great news for all 8942G owners...
Just need to check it one more time to make sure...

Cheers

UPDATE:

It seems that there are different version of 8935G - some have MXM 3.0B slot and some have cards embedded to the motherboard just like one from link posted above...

The best thing for you would be to open your laptop following service manual guide and assure yourself if the card is embedded or not...

 

I've got the 8942G service guide myself - it's true that the disassembly guide shows an MXM card, but take a look at the parts list near the end. There are quite a few mainboards, and their listings include the codenames for ATI Radeon GPUs (Broadway and Madison). That's a dead giveaway that there's no MXM slot or card in the machine.

Even your picture shows that the MXM slot isn't there - by rotating the motherboard on the left 180 degrees to match the picture on the right, you'll note that the RAM and hard drive have been moved to where the MXM card should be.

@Arminator: Don't confuse the 8935G (MXM-A confirmed) with the 8942G that overtaxed has.

 

OK I fixed the mistake in writing ... I really meant 8942G

I checked 8942g Service manual once more and it seems that it is not embedded on the board...

The screenshot that was posted by overtaxed is the same as the one in the service manual I am looking.

 

I know - Acer kinda botched that up by using a photo of an 8935G in the 8942G service manual.

 

But there is definitely no MXM slot on 8942G?

 

Different mainboards in the FRU list + block diagram in service guide not showing MXM + MXM-Upgrade's investigation = Enough evidence to decree that there's no MXM slot in the 8942G.

 

I just got a Mobility HD 5650 (MXM Type-A) off ebay for my 5739G. Good news and bad news. The good news is that it will display on an external monitor. Bad news is that it won't display on the laptop display.

 

Did you mean 4650? I was not aware that the 5650 was ever made in MXM form.

If its a 4650 and its not got an acer bios I have a 1GB DDR2 4650 bios hanging around.

 

Please read this ,I would like to know if 8940g is 3.0b or 3.0a

 

Welcome to the forums, atpl!
Please note that posting service manuals is against the forum rules.

That being said, I've done some research, and the 8940G falls into the same grey area as the 8935G - it looks like there's room for an MXM-B card, but the heatsink is designed to only cover the memory chips of an MXM-A card.
If anything, the 8940G is more conclusively MXM-A because its parts list only mentions MXM-A cards.
So I'm designating it MXM-A for now.

 

It's a 5650 MXM-A card. I verified its BIOS when hooked up to the external monitor. The guy said it came out of a 5740G, so I thought I would take the chance. I was surprised when I saw it on ebay. If anybody wants to take a shot at it, I'd be willing to part with it.

 

That's just odd - the service guide for the 5740 Series only shows one mainboard, and it appears to have an embedded GPU. I'm happy to be proven wrong, though.
Screencaps if you've got 'em!

 

Ok. Here's what I received.









I will put it back in after a bit to take a GPU-Z screen.

 

That is quite possibly the first MXM card I've seen to come with its own branded heatsink and cooler...EPIC.
Also unlikely that thing came from an Aspire 5740G, but hey, if the darn thing works, roll with it!

 

BIOS from the card


GPU-Z Screen


I was even more surprised by the heatsink. I thought I had received the wrong item when I opened the package. Everything seems to be in order though.

I thought the Mobility 5650 was only suppose to have 8 ROPs. This one says 16 ROPs.

 

Well I would really like this to try in mine YGPM

 

to Tehsuigi :so there is no type b in Acer laptop??thank you

 

Atpl, not that I can tell. Both the 8935G and 8940G are stuck with MXM-A, and no MXM-B cards have ever been released for Acers.

@iain: Now that is a sight to see! I'll add it to the parts list. Strangely, according to Notebookcheck, none of the Acer HD 5650s are clocked at 600 MHz core - they're all 550. The only Radeon HD 5650 clocked at 600 MHz I could find is this thing. Any faster, and the card gets classified as a Radeon HD 5730.

 

TehSuigi, I notice that the GPU-Z screen on that DevilTech/Compal you listed doesn't have a shader or ROP count. Like I said before, I thought the Mobility 5650 only had 8 ROPs (as per AMD), but the one I received shows 16. Can anyone confirm the ROP count? Just curious is all. Thanks.

 

Oh if I manage to get this working I think TehSuigi will explode lol.

 

@ iain.lightbody
GPU-Z and Everest always show 16 for HD5650 so it's normal.

 

Some people soup up their cars. Others boast about their home renovations. We swap graphics cards.
Everyone's got their money hole.

 

Well the card is heading my way now. Will be fun to play with.

 

Well, I hope you have better luck with the HD5650 than I did. I hope it gives better performance than the HD4670.

 

Hi all!
I have some problems with upgrading my acer travelmate 5530g. I bought a GF 9600m Gt 512 ddr3, the same one that cadder used to upgrade his laptop (VG.9PG06.006). But the screen is black. Laptop have no problems with the POST test, it is loading to windows 7 (i can hear windows start sound and the hdd is working ). Any one have an idea to solve this problem? I tried to update the motherboard bios (with version 1.14 and 1.26).

I must mention that this card is from acer 5920 model. So it must have acer bios.

 

Welcome to the forums, Grzenio!

I doubt that the 9600M GT came from a 5920G - people have tried to upgrade their 5920Gs to a 9600M GT with no luck whatsoever.
Have you tried plugging in an external monitor through HDMI or VGA?

 

Thanks for welcome
Yes i tried plug in monitor and it is the same result. Monitor didn't respond but windows was starting. I also notice that cadder have Aspire series and i have TravelMate which is very similar. Maybe the bios will fit, what do you think? And the GF is from Aspire 5930, my mistake. Maybe blind flash will help?

 

That's an awesome looking thing right there!!! If I'm not mistaken that's the first mid-range GPU with it's own heatsink AND fan!

 

Well I think its actually a test module sent to an OEM for use with a MXM to desktop PCI express converter.

 

The guy on eBay just said "Acer 5740G." I did a quick search on Yahoo and it said the Aspire 5740G does have HD5650, but says nothing about MXM. Anyway, it's not mine anymore. Meaker gets to have a crack at it.

 

Could you upload the bios you got off of it iain?

 

Ok. Should be able to get it here.

 

Did you try changing the vendor to Acer?

 

Don't like messing with BIOS code, so I did not. It does say Acer as the subvender in the GPU-Z screen that I took.

 

Even so, that doesn't changes the fact that it looks awesome

 

Well I will see if I can put it to good use.

When I recieve this I should also be repairing my 5935g with a new motherboard so I should be able to test both systems.

 

7520g corrupted graphics.

As I promised I would report back.

3650 arrived from Hong Kong and I put it in.

Had to use a lot of arctic silver to fill in the spaces - have ordered some thermal pads locally for a permanent fix - but the card runs ok without any graphics corruption on Linux Puppy 4.3.1 and Mint 8 with acpi=off.

I can't get it to run windows so I will start a new thread.