Acer MXM Models and Cards

I have latest version of Bios. No the card hasn't a Acer vbios. I tried to flash the card but I had to do it blind and that didn't work.

Screen is as black as it can be! :S No image or what so ever.

 

You should upload the BIOS you flashed it to in a .ZIP file here.

Yep I have 1 of the bad cards and 3 of the good ones. What drivers are you using?

 

So did you get those GDDR5 cards working?

 

Hey, Meaker, what happened with your mod, I can see that you're waiting an ATi now?

 

Yeah the 260M worked for a very short time and then I got no image. :/

I don't know if it was a mounting issue, card issue or wierd bios quirk. The screen was not corrupted, just not there on any of the outputs. It would occasionally flicker a perfect display and it booted so I was left confused.

Anyway I am getting a card from mxm-upgrade to try out so you can expect a full report with pictures.

However a slight spanner in the works is that I actually dropped the machine. Just a short distance, it did however land on the AC plug and has caused some damage. In the wrong position the Adaptor tip gets very hot :/ So I am being careful with it for now.

The good news is I found a replacement part in the UK, so hopefully it wont take too long to arrive.

Also ordered some IC diamond for the 4870.

 

What were the temps, it's not temp related, right?

Ouch It happens from time to time, I can guess that your machine have seen quite a handful of disassembly-assembly procedures, so a little distraction and there you go...

Good luck with the ATi! Would I be wrong if I say that if it's successful, next would be 5870, or even 6970

 

Hahaha, 6970? Maybe if I liked starting fires and basically burning money.

Temps of the 260M were below 60C (it had the same problem of staying in the low power 3d state, I was going to grab the bios to edit it but then it stopped working) so I don't think that was a problem.

Good news is that the part has shipped today so it should come tomorrow or the day after.

 

Whoa, I'm back from elsewhere! Blasku, if you could please post pictures of the card, as well as it installed in your machine (or screenshots of things like GPU-Z for proof), I'd greatly appreciate it.
@Meaker: Thanks for holding down the fort while I was away.

 

Heh, I was running my own GFX card list before you joined

Got my new power plug, all working well

 

The 260m is working well now?

On another note, this is how you cool MXM cards if you are totally awesome:

Spoiler

Last night I watched an entire movie on this laptop just like that, t6600 & 9600m GT and the fan would actually turn off. I haven't tried drivers yet.
i should get another fan lol

This is the card 502337-001 Refurb HP 8530w ATI 256MB Graphics Card - eBay (item 190497177918 end time Mar-02-11 11:48:17 PST)
I have 4 of them, 3 with EEPROMs working in the msi gx620. Do you want me to test in the aspire 5720g?
I think they can be flashed to Acer vBIOS, don't know what zsoca929 did but I believe ayle may have done the same.
In my experience there are some performance issues with the HP vbios but it could be a driver thing.

If I can convince my roommate to upgrade his motherboard I could also install it on an extensa 5620g/travelmate 5720g

 

Ok here is my vBIOS from GF 9600m GT. It is on ddr3 with 512Mb but I don't know name of factory of this rams.

Download G96 M.zip, upload your files and earn money. M.zip

And laptop BIOS is latest version from Acer service site.

 

Thanks grzenio!

BTW Meaker, the gddr5 cards I have are not gts 250m unfortunately, they are quadro fx 1800m with only 72 shaders. Scores about the same as a gts 250m ddr3, thinking about doing an exchange for one, not sure.
Might get some 9800m GS 2.1. Or I might end up with one of each.

No comments on my homebuilt cooling? Its not finished.

 

Bit worried about the CPU...

 

Hey so I finally got a HP fx 770m card working as 9600m GT on the 5720g.

I tried an Acer vBIOS and I think I bricked a card, so I tried an MSI one which works!

 

Screenshots and pictures please, niff!

 

First, the BIOS shots:

Spoiler

The VBIOS you see working here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/acer/62038d1298844864-acer-mxm-models-cards-msi.zip

Note that the card remains a fx 770m even with 9600m GT vBIOS. Performance should be the same though.

Here is the real proof:
See if you can spot it.

Spoiler

Try finding an actual 9600m card with '975'. Yup, HP quadro card working on the Acer
Next is finishing the cooling a little and then the HP 3650 ddr3

Incase anyone was wondering, I have several of these cards ready to be flashed

 

You tried seeing if the GDDR5 quadros will overclock?

 

Gah, got the HD4870 today.

It installs but gives no display on the internal monitor.

External works fine though, it even runs eve just fine without overheating (though runs a little hot).

CCC detects the display is there and the correct resolution but there is no power going to the monitor.

BIOS issue?

 

Where did you get tge 4870 from? And what brand is it (MSI or alienware)?

 

I got it from mxm-upgrade.com

GPU-Z shows Acer (though all MXM gen 3 seem to show the lappy rather than any ident from the GPU).

 

My ES 3800m showed HP on my MSI.

Might want to try an Alienware vBIOS I guess? If not, perhaps you could use an ADD2 card to route LVDS or a hardware converter from your DVI or VGA port.

 

I've actually got a hold of an alienware HD5730 (its on its way *TM) so i'll see how that works.

 

I got a ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 3470 working in a Acer Aspire 7520G.

Foto shows Acer Aspire 7520G with GPUZ, Display Settings and Device Manager.

I only get a few "strange" characters when booting and in the BIOS, where the vBIOS versions are listed.

I also can't get temperature readings so far - this might be a driver issue, or the card has no sensors (anybody can comment on this?).

Apart from that, a short test worked good.

I think the heat sink would need slight modifications, as it does not make perfect contact. I tried to run Windows Vista Performance Test, and it shut down a bit into the test. I tried to reboot, it refused in POST, after trying a bit, it booted, but crashed hard in the process of starting Windows.

I let it cool of a bit and added another drop of thermal paste. After that, it worked.

I did not do any further test, nor will I do that later, as the card is not meant for this laptop. The 7520G will be taken apart and sold, its jsut a brittle piece of junk ... sad but true.

In case you need more information, I will maybe post a bit more on the card in the Compal forum - I think it will end up in the FL90. Of course you can PM me about it. You also may post here, but it might get lost/overlooked.

I got the card from german ebay, from this seller.

And no, I do not regard this as an upgrade, just as an replacement - although this card beats the 8400M G, but then, which card does not.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

P.S.: Yes, this post is a cheap copy of my ATI HD 2400XT posting a few days ago, but as you can see, the test is for real

 

Bit strange...

On your picture GPU-z doesn't show the shader clocks either.
Might be a driver issue. Do you have a 30sec waiting screen before OS starts loading?

Greets

 

ATI cards don't show shader clock because they don't have one- different architecture

 

Hello.
I have a Acer Asprire 7720G (MXM II) with a 8400m GS and i want to replace it with a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 1GB (also MXM II).
Is that possible or i will have any heating and/or power supply problems?
Thanks!

P.S : Great guide!Keep up the good work.

 

Welcome to the forums, AndreasBest!
It's certainly possible; heck, MXM-Upgrade.com has the Radeon HD 4670 back in stock.
It will be a bit hotter because of the increased size and power of the chip, but the use of a high-quality thermal compound will lower the impact on your machine.
Power-supply shouldn't be a problem, but anything can happen when you're doing an upgrade that isn't supported by your manufacturer.

 

mxm upgrade is very expensive,i will try to found it somewhere else. do i have to make any mod (on heatsink etc) or it will fit nice and easy?
thanks for support

 

No clue - no one else has tried it on your machine, so we can't even go to a previous example.
I will say that MXM cards don't tend to need heatsink mods, because their dimensions are largely the same within a form factor (all MXM-II cards are similar, e.g.).

 

I will ask for some pictures of the card before payin' for it to check if it's (physically) the same with 8400m GS.
One last question, do i need any software mods (bios etc) in order to make it work?

 

Probably not - MXM upgrades don't tend to require BIOS updates.
I would make sure to backup your whole system, grab the latest ATI Mobile driver from AMD, then uninstall Nvidia's driver before going the upgrade.

 

Sorry about not replying to your questions for so long, I completely forgot about my post here .
I've attached everything you guys asked, you can see on the GPU-Z screenshot that I'm using Catalyst 10.10 (not modded, straight from AMD website). One odd thing is that 10.11 and onwards (since the installer .exe file icon is an AMD logo instead of the red ATI one) I can't get CCC to work. That's probably because of the "Ati Catalyst Control Center 2" it installs. Seems like AMD successfully reinvented the wheel, only it doesn't work for sh*t this time . That version of CCC just doesn't start when I try to run it. It seems like Windows is loading something for a sec, then the program terminates.
Tried ATT, but IMHO it's useless for me without real PowerPlay (setting the clock frequency doesn't work with it, so I can't use 2D/3D mode switch).
I hope I could provide enough evidence for you .

 

More than enough evidence, Blaksu! Into the main post it goes.

 

Well, I had to update the Acer 7520G bios (from very very old (1.06?) to 1.33) to get both the 3470 and the 2400XT going.

But I would not mess around with BIOS before installing a new card, only if the upgrade fails with black screen issues, for example.

 

I’m a happy owner of Acer Aspire 5920G. (laptop has a latest bios)
After reading this thread I decided to buy Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 (M96) [VG.M9606.005].
I put in my Aspire, happy as a child, but then… what the hell ?
Blank screen!
System boots, hdd blinks, I can hear vista sounds but no picture.
I read on the internet that it could be graphic card bios issue.
What is the solution?
Could anybody send me acer bios to this card?

Please help.

[MOD EDIT: Discussion for this post should be continued here.]

 

I hope this HD5730 works!

The HD4650 DDR3 I got is ok, but not as good as my old 4670. It runs much hotter and the ram is only rated for 800mhz (stock clock was 700mhz) and only goes to around 810mhz.

I've found a reasonably priced supplier if it does guys so I will link it if it does.

 

Thanks blaksu! ayle gave me another bios, possibly the same and I posted it in the compal forums.

Hey, would you want to add these HP cards to the 2nd post?
Technically thats not even a 3650, its a firegl v5700. You can also tell the HP cards (including that one, quite clearly) by the larger "R56" power component.
And was my post not good enough to warrant adding HP quadro fx 770m to the 5720g supported cards (after bios flash)?

The 4870 didn't work for you? that sucks. Recently someone in the marketplace was offered several 5730, so I guess those cards are getting around

 

I was looking for new MXM cards today. I ran across this, but I cannot speak the language. I understand that it's a Radeon 6770M, just cannot make out the rest.

 

Chinese site, price is 1450 yuan (around £125) and I don't think they are shipping internationally.

They are saying the card should work with the 5935g and 5739g so i assume the other MXM-A acers too.

They link the memory spec specs. Its rated at 1.25ghz or 2.5ghz DDR.

 

i just found a

nVidia GT 240M 1GB DDR3 MXM II VGA Card

and the guy that has it claimes that it works in a acer aspire 5920g
apperently it is from asus and works without a vga bios update

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...t-240m-gddr3-asus-m60j-acer-aspire-6930g.html

Doesn't work :'(

I gave up on the whole MXM II => III thingy btw if anyone had any interrest in my possible project. My laptop would not be able to cool such a hot card. I'm at the thermal limit with this 9600M already.

I did order a 770m with 9600m bios, waiting for it to arrive. Should work and with the 900mhz ram i expect some nice overclocks!

 

well i know that the 9600m series does not work in the 5920 but the guy says this one does the 240m

allso i dont think that this card would be any hotter than the ati 5650 serie
i read that somewhere on the net

 

Looking at that 240M from that thread, its missing a bios chip.

 

yes i saw that later,
i contacted the seller to confirm that it would work,
and he said that their 5920g has failed so they could not test it now, but it worked in their 5520 machine, and that machine is close to the 5920, if i wanted to i could buy the card, and if it did not work in my machine i can get e full refund

so time to save some cash, and try it out

 

You may want to check this:

Asus C90S C90P nVidia GT 240M 1GB DDR3 MXM II VGA Card - eBay (item 250787456758 end time Mar-22-11 11:01:48 PDT)

Cheers

 

yes it was there i found it and it was him i asked

 

Hi all,
I have googled & googled for an answer & found nought so thought i would ask all you experts.
I have an aspire 6530 & aquired a 9650M GT card which I thought would go into my machine easily....NOPE, I recieve the error
ERROR: MXM Structure not found or invalid bla bla.
Now i know there are ways you could remove that but thats not the issue, on the countdown it gets to 24 secs & the system shuts down & so it begins again on a loop.
Ive updated bios to the phoenix v.3303 but not sure what else to do if anything.
Any ideas?
Thanks all.

 

Sounds like something is making improper contact an overheating.

Microchips can heat up in microseconds.
---------------------
Oh tehsuigi, I have an acer 4650 MXM-A DDR3 module installed atm. It's an acer part, so they exist along side the 4650 DDR2 and 4670 DDR3.

Part number is VG.M960H.004

 

Thats what i thought, I tried extra Arctic Silver 5 but still the same. My origional card was an ATI 3650 HD but i cannot see if theres any difference in the width of the card. Do you think it should work in my machine then?

 

Did you check if the cooling plate fits the GPU core properly, with its full size?
There might be a gap which makes chip overheat...