[Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

I am glad you did that, because I was also planning on using Shin Etsu x23 on the memory chips and TX-3 on the GPU.

Now i know they respond the same way as the 5870's!!

 

Congrats!!!

EDIT: Sorry for double post...

 

Do you guys reckon removing the battery from the laptop (as i never move it anyway) will reduce the total amount of wattage used?

I find that my laptop intermittantly flicks between full and charging even though it never gets unplugged.

When i was on a plane, the Alienware was tripping the power and I found removing the battery stopped this...

 

Not sure it might draw a bit of power even tho full, using an external screen would help as well as turning alienfx off, I think that we'll be alright as it can handle an over clock on the 6970s
Is Shin Etsu x23-7782D the one you use on the memory chips and how much of a tube would you use on a card (I'm buying some now)

 

Good point!

Umm cant remember exactly...I would buy at least two tubes as you need quite a lot for the memory chips that do not make 100% contact to the heatsink. I would rather put more than less on these memory chips as more damage will occur if there isnt enough to fill the gap..I recall putting about a pea sized dollop for those particular chips.....

 

This is a little off topic, but, is anyone seriously feeling like the crossfire 5870's we have in their in the first place are struggling at all? I installed the Witcher 2 and was getting 45-60 frames at almost max settings...i turned off "ubersampling" and was running at 1920x1080.

When I fiddled with the Crysis 2 demo I was getting 30-40 fps...and that was a long time ago before I had catalyst 11.7 and the latest CAP installed.

I am not complaining about people doing the switch, just wondering if people who game more frequently then me are feeling like their cards are getting old.

 

Yeah I feel it could do with an upgrade.

Rift and BC2 wont play comfortably with everything maxed out.

Maybe i just like having everything cranked

 

So what are these 6990m's costing you, if you dont mind me asking? Are you getting them from Clevo like the guide says?

Also, I am annoyed that they dont support audio over HDMI...i hook my 17x up to my brothers TV sometimes...

 

I have ordered them through pkhetan and his pricings can be found at:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/598812-fs-6990m-brand-new-free-heatsink.html

 

No I dont feel they are getting old, not all games can be "cranked" but most can, to tell you the truth they do a pretty good job but.....

 

/sigh

Crunching the numbers and I am second guessing whether the psu is going to have enough juice to run the 6990s......

 

I think it can handle it - just probably no overclocking on both the gpu's and the cpu - the PSU will be over it's limit though. They're rated at 240 watts, but most of them won't cut out until at least 250+ watts of draw are exceeded.

 

I hope your right, because on paper we are well overshooting the psu. I suppose in real life you will never be using the maximum TDP of the gpu's...plus we can try reducing the voltage if we run in to problems...

Just ordered a watt meter and going to collect as much information for a before and after comparison...

 

Ok I have read this thread from end to end and there is a lot of info, but some of it is different and some people have problems doing this. I have a couple of questions.
Which cards work for sure?
What bios needs to be flashed to the cards?
Do I need a special bios on my system or is the current bios from Dell ok?
When buying the cards do they come with heat sinks?
If the cards do not come with heat sinks where can I get them? I have 285m's so I'm sure the heat sinks from those will not work.

Sorry for all the questions, maybe the first post could be updated with this info.

Brandon

 

Hi Brlowe,

To answer a couple of your questions and I'm sure the other guys can add as well.

1) The clevo cards are the ones recommended in the guide and are what most of the folks are using. However the clevo bios can be flashed to other vendor cards (Eurocom, Dell, etc) to essentially make them the same as the Clevo cards. I know aarpcard is using eurocom and Dell and they seem to be working fine, although the Dell cards run the fan at full speed all the time unless they are adjusted. Bottom line I think most would recommend going with the Clevo cards. Forum member pkhetan sells the Clevo cards.

2) Nothing needs to be flashed to the Clevo cards unless you plan to overclock, otherwise the stock bios is fine (I plan to stick with the stock bios myself as I don't plan to overclock them...yet)

3) Current bios is fine but you can flash to the modded bios if you like, again for overclocking...I am using the stock Dell bios and plan to stay that way for now

4) The cards do not come with heat sinks for the Alienware (they come with Clevo heat sinks which will not work in our systems). I don't know if the heat sinks for the Nvidia cards and ATI cards are different (I'd think not, but I can't say for certain), maybe someone who has Nvidia cards can address that.

5)If they don't work, then E-bay or the forum would be your best bet, I haven't found a place that sells them all the time (but again I haven't really looked).

Hope that helps

 

Yeah I wish we could sort out the m18x power supply issue or come up with a workable solution for the m17x-r2. Would eliminate the concerns. I'm sure at some point this will become a reality anyway.

 

I was talking to a mate about hooking up two psu's in parallel. As Aarpcard has already stated, it is possible, but our primary concern is the way that the laptop detects the hardware ID of the PSU.

If it only does the check during post, then you could set it up so that you only use the one psu when initially turning on the laptop and perform day to day stuff. Then when you are about to play a game, switch on the secondary to allow for more current draw.

Hopefully, this will bypass the check. I am unsure of how it will work if both PSU's are connected during the initial check.

If it constantly checks tho......

Aarpcard do you know anything about this?

 

Hi guys.Sorry for offtopic but I have some problems. Today I have dissasembled my m17x r2.I was doing this several times,I think all was OK.Then I have installed 920xm ES.Then I booted into windows. I had bad resolution and only one 5870m,recognized. Then some drivers installed,I restarted PC and after w7 logo blue screen of death. Clean windows installation with drivers didn't help ,no gpus were recognized. Then I have tried only left gpu and all have worked good when I connected right gpu(with crossfire cable under gpu),again the same story.Can you help me please....????

 

Initially I was going to say crossfire cable...but now I am not so sure.

Have you taken the video cards in and out at all?

 

Might be worth putting the old processor back in and seeing if everything is recognized properly. If so it might be a bad processor? Also one thing to double check is that when you installed the processor, make sure you turned the screw to lock it in place. Easy to miss.

Just some thoughts.

 

Did the problem start after connecting the second GPU? Sounds like it could be a GPU issue. Try the slave (right) GPU in the master slot(left). While doing this keep the Slave slot empty. Could be that card is bad. Would also involve removing and swapping heatsinks.

Also, be sure to unplug the system prior to the removal/reinsert of GPUs. I've done it before with the system plugged in and i've seen/heard a shock from the mainboard to the GPU. Could be potentially fatal for a GPU.

 

Agreed, I always unplug, remove the battery and perform a power flush (hold the power button down for 10-20 seconds) prior to doing anything related to the GPU's, CPU's etc. Just to be safe.

 

I just did some experimenting. Very interesting results. The other laptop in my sig (the HP) has a 150watt PSU. It has the same connector as the Alienware PSU. The only difference is that it's output voltage is 19v instead of 19.5v on the Alienware PSU.

Curiosity got the better of me so I tried a bunch of different combinations. The 0.5v difference shouldn't be a big enough of a difference to damage hardware esp because it has to pass through voltage regulators first. Anyhow this is what I found:

HP PSU with M17x with Windows Already Booted
I have the screen set to dim when on battery power. After I unplugged the M17x PSU, the screen dimmed. When I plugged in the HP PSU, the screen returned to normal brightness. However, the "plugged in" symbol did not register on the battery icon.

The battery stayed at 100% power and did not decrease so I took out the battery, and the laptop remained on running off only the HP PSU. However, the cpu remained clocked way way down with the multiplier only going up to a maximum of 4x. (On battery only I believe it goes to 9x)

When I plugged back in the M17x PSU however, the laptop just turned off about 10 seconds later. No blue screen. I tried the whole thing again, and this time it didn't shut off.

HP PSU in M17x Cold Boot
I shut the computer off, plugged in the HP PSU and turned it on. The bios came up warning me that the PSU wasn't a DELL PSU. At this screen I unplugged the battery to ensure that it really was running off the PSU. It stayed on. I plugged the battery back in, and told it to continue with boot. About 10 seconds later is just shut off like what happened before.

M17x PSU in HP 8560w with Windows Already Booted
So I tried the inverse. I put the M17x PSU in the HP laptop, while windows was running. It didn't detect it at all, the battery continued to discharge, and when I unplugged the batter, the computer shut off.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Very odd findings overall. Has anyone actually tried the M18x PSU in the M17x? What specifically did they find? To answer your question, it does seem to me that windows does check the PSU's HW ID somehow. We don't know if it only checks the HW ID only when a PSU is plugged in or if it periodically does it.

I do have another HP 120watt PSU around here somewhere also at 19volts with the same connector. I'm going to try that and see if I get any different results. It could be that the 19.5v versus 19v discrepancy is causing a problem, but I tend to think not.

This weekend I'm going to make a converter board so I can plug in two PSU's in parallel and send them both to the M17x. That way I can try booting on the M17x PSU, leaving it plugged in, and then adding the HP PSU to see if windows will display any similar problems. That'll determine if windows checks constantly or only when a new power adapter is plugged in.

I wish I had a killawatt though to see (if the HP PSU and M17x PSU combined work) how much power draw I am pulling to determine if both PSU's are being used.

 

Good times...very interesting findings indeed.

 

I'm 99% sure that is what fried my mobo.

 

Very interesting results aarpcard!

Although, the difference in voltage may be the issue here. Strange that the HP didn't even function with the m17x psu, are you sure the plugs are 100% the same?

It would be great if somebody could do some extensive testing with the m18x PSU.

 

Found my other HP PSU. Got the same results, but the laptop didn't shut off. Also, it's 18.5v, not 19v as I thought. Interesting. The cpu again didn't go above 4x multiplier while on the HP PSU.

I also checked the multiplier on battery only. It actually goes up to 23x.

 

The voltage difference might be the issue. Maybe laptops in general will function if they are fed less voltage but not allow the PSU to be used if it is a higher voltage. Weird. I wish I had another M17x PSU to try out. Might have to pick one up somewhere. I think there are a few people somewhere on this forum who own both a M18x and M17x.

Also, as far as I can tell without stripping any wires, the connectors are 100% identical.

 

If I had an extra power supply I'd ship it to you for testing...unfortunately I've only got one

 

You'll see, but it probably won't be the 485M or the Dell 580M because of the power consumption problems and price. But the cards I'm getting is mainly to test fan control and SLi now that I got SLi cables from an M17x-R1

 

holy I just caught this thread. I'm totally down for dual 6990's. Is everyone using the original 240w power supply? Has anyone successfully installed the 6990's because it seems like most of you guys are using 6970's. This is definitely better than completely changing notebooks. +1 to op.

 

A few folks have ordered 6990's to see if they'll work. So they haven't officially been tested yet. Several folks are running 6970's successfully. I imagine in a few weeks we'll have our answer as to whether the 6990's will work with the stock power supply. Right now a few folks are throwing around ideas on how to increase/improve the power, but havent' quite got it all sorted out.

 

@aarpcard one other thing you could try, in the bios under the power tab there should be an option to enable/disable its either warnings or checking (cant remember) for Dell psu's, maybe messing around with that will get better results?

 

Yes there is an option to disable the warning message. Actually i'm using it and the laptop just boot up with or without the charger, no warnings at all. But i don't have a psu with compatible connector to see how it goes

 

Sorry guys for late reply but I has written my message and then went to sleep. Yes I was always unplugging the psu and battery,and done the power draw. Yes I was moving the cards in and out. I will try today to put right card in left slot.And I will see if it works or not.Then I will try to put back old psu.And yes I have locked the CPU with screw.So I will say to you if something changes.

 

Yeah i would do that as well. If it was just the crossfire cable, both cards should still detect correctly, but there would be no crossfire support.

I would start with the video cards as aarpcard has suggested, and move towards switching the CPU back and see if it makes a difference.

Did you remove the cards in the first place? replacing the CPU doesnt require the removal of the video cards...

 

Hello everyone, I joined when I saw this topic as I have been searching for just this for dew months. I want to buy 2 of the 6970m's but I can't pm the Guy who is listed first in the OP. Could someone help me out. I just need to get a price quote for the moment so I know what I need to save this payday. Thanks!

 

Post on this thread and he'll help you out:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/596368-fs-2x-6970m-crossfire-kit-640-480-a.html

 

Thank you good sir!

 

Anytime and welcome

 

Hi SV7007 and welcome to NBR.

You can't send PM before writing 5 useful posts in the forum.

Nevertheless, you can click on my name, and choose "visit pkhetan's homepage!" and send me a message from there.

 

Hi guys,
Do we need a modded BIOS for this upgrade?
Or original Dell BIOS for M17x R2 is already compatible with the card?

 

original A10 should be fine.

 

Ahh ok. Thank you for the information! I figured I would have to make a few posts first.

 

Great good to know.
+ rep for that.

 

BTW, if you have sent a message by my website recently, I'm afraid that the mail server is down . I've just made a test and I get nothing in my mail server.

 

Hi guys.So I done several things, firstly the right gpu was putted to the left slot and it worked.Then I tried to boot with left gpu in right and right gpu in left(with and without crossfire cable in connector),black screen.Then left gpu in left,no gpu in right slot normal boot.Then only right gpu in left slot normal boot.Then only right gpu in right slot,several beeps and black screen.Then only left gpu in right slot,several beeps and black screen.For last two variants I didn't have any image on screen from starting and I didn't know should it be like I have written. So should it be like I said???The same things I have done with old CPU and gpu fan.But the same result.So my ideas:I have normal CPU,normal right and left gpus.Also normal crossfire cable.So does I have a damaged motherboard? Or something I forgot to test?Or maybe I have damaged right gpu fan???So please help me guys.And can someone say where to buy the motherboard, because on eBay it is I think expensive.

 

hey pkhetan, I've been sending emails to you on that server about my order/payment no reply's yet....getting worried.... x.x my email is [email protected]

 

My mail server is still down . I have made a note at the website to send to alternative mail, and I've sent you a message.

Oppps, sorry to hijacking much this thread

 

Ok so both CPUs don't work are there any Gpu arrangments that work? And when you turn the computer on do the num lock, caps lock and scroll lock keyboard lights flash or stay on? Those lights could tell you what the problem is related to, have a look here to see what the different light combinations mean