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

Yeah make sure you did that. I forgot to do that once, and freaked out thinking I killed my laptop.

 

Hi ichime

Can one buy two 6970m form mxm-upgrade.com and then flash them with the clevo vbios?

Or did I miss read the initial post.

Thanks.

 

This is cheaper and already have Clevo vBIOS on it, and ship to South Africa
http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/596368-fs-2x-6970m-crossfire-kit-640-480-a.html

 

Got my 2nd 6970m today, gonna install during my lunch break!

 

Yeah definitely go with Pkhetan! He's awesome!

 

+1 for Pkhetan

 

still not boot, i tried to reinstall cpu many times and remove battery, cmos pin and boot but it havent worked yet

 

Put your old CPU in and see if it works could be DOA. Also make sure you didn't bend one of the pins by accident on the 920XM.

 

it doesn't work too
i've just tried a few times

and as i see both 720 and 920 in perfect physic condition, nothing damaged

srr im onl by phone!

 

Are the numlock, scroll lock, or caps lock lights solid,flashing, or a mix?

 

with 720 qm the caps lock is fixed and both numlock and scroll lock is flashing bro!

with 920 every light is solid

 

Check your vgaCABLE/video cards bud! it is most likely the LCD cable that can be a pain. Also try to clear the bios by removing the coincell batt. by the HDD's for 69 secs

Alienware? M17x and M15x System LEDs - Hot Topic - 358462 | Dell

 

now its up for 720 but it said connect to ac adapter support,i re installed memories btw, its still stuck there!

 

OK, so Installed the second card and we have problems. The laptop powers on, and nothing shows on the screen. However if I plug in an external monitor, the bios splash screen does come up, but stays frozen and I can't do anything. I've tried booting with both the CFX cable plugged in and out to no avail.

Any Idea what's going on?

Taking the second card out, the laptop booted normally.

 

You try reseating the LCD cable? Also, you only have to remove the coin cell for 60 secs not 69.lol

The AC adapter warning is normal btw. It could be that the 920xm is a DOA(rare but it happens). I would try reinstalling it again make sure everything is plugged in correctly triple check everything before closing it up and turning it on. If it does not post still contact the seller right away.

 

Check your LCD cable make sure it is plugged in and try resetting the bios by removing the coin cell. Also are they both flashed to the same VBIOS? that could cause a conflict I think.

 

you meant cmos cell?

yeah i can access to bios now, it's been up with 720

im gonna try again with 920 for a hope,thank you all for your help and + + rep

 

No they are not flashed to the same vbios. The card I just got has a M18x slave vbios on it.

If it freezes at the bios splash menu, then how can I flash the second card? Also, my LCD cable is fine because if I remove the second card, it boots fine on the laptop screen.

 

The winfash method that DR650SE uses where he installs each one seperately into the master slot and flashes them seperately. It sounds like a conflict to me or that the second card is bad. I could be wrong I am sure Ichime or DR650 will chime in soon.

 

Ok, I tried resetting the bios, no luck. Could you link me to the winflash method DR650SE uses?

 

That's probably why; If there are two different cards/VBIOSes in the slots, the system will just stall. That is what happened to me when I tried to revive a bricked 5870M.

Try putting the new card in the primary slot (with no card in the secondary slot) and flash it to the same VBIOS used in your first card, and then try putting it in CFX.

EDIT: nevermind I see it's a slave card

What you should do is flash your original card to the M18x Master VBIOS. A copy of it is here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/682-6970m-vbios-m18x.html

Or:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/584140-6970m-vbios-m18x.html

This should allow you to boot into windows/DOS and you should be able to flash both cards back to Clevo.

 

I unfortunately don't know where the link is I was searching for it used to have it saved, but I can't find it now. Is the master card flashed with the m18x vbios as well or the Clevo one? Try putting the slave in the master slot and see if it will post. If it does flash it to the matching slave clevo VBIOS then try putting them both back in. You can also PM DR650SE as to how to do the winflash process he is the expert on that. Wish I could help you out more man.

 

Thanks man! I was starting to think it might come to that. Before I try that though, keeping in mind that the master card is a Eurocom 6970m how much of a risk do you think there is that a M18x vbios will brick it?

I did successfully flash the Eurocom card to the Clevo x7200 vbios you uploaded.

 

If ichime's advice doesn't work I'll pm DR650SE. The master card is flashed with the clevo vbios.

 

Ok, the Eurocom card successfully flashed to the M18x master vbios. Now I'm going to try and flash them both back to clevo vbios's. I don't know if it will post. I'll report back in a bit.

 

Waiting to hear the good news bud!

 

Nope, same problem as before. Gets to the bios splash screen and freezes. While the laptop screen's backlight is not on, I can see that it is displaying the bios splashscreen on the laptop's display as well.

 

I would PM DR650SE see how to do the winflash process. That may get you up and running.

 

Update, I just put the slave in the master slot and it booted! Now I'm really confused. I'm going to try and flash it to the Clevo vbios.

 

wow, good luck man. Hope you get it sorted out soon!

 

No luck. I was able to flash the card to the X7200 slave, but still getting the same problem.

I'm going to try flashing the cards, to each other . . . . so the M18x will the the clevo master, and the Eurocom will the be clevo slave.

 

Keep us posted bud! I hope it all works out in the end.

 

**** Ok so now neither card will post.

It's strange. After I flashed the M18x 6970m to the Clevo slave vbios, I booted the laptop with the card in the master slot. It started fine.

Then I flashed the Eurocom 6970m to the Clevo slave vbios with the next step being to flash the M18x 6970m to the Clevo master vbios. When I put the M18x 6970m with the clevo slave bios into the master slot it wouldn't boot. The keyboard lights turned on and the fan spinned at full blast, but nothing happened beyond that.

I tried the same with the Eurocom 6970m with the Clevo slave vbios and the same thing happened. So now neither card will boot.

Why would the M18x 6970m with the Clevo slave vbios boot in the master slot right after I flashed it, but not a second time when I tried it after flashing the Eurocom 6970m with the Clevo slave vbios (that card also booted after I flashed it)

 

I PM'ed DR650SE. So we'll see what he says. I'm guessing, the next step will be to see if I can get anywhere with my master 4870m in the primary slot and either 6970m in the secondary slot - to see if I can flash one or both back.

 

wow...let us know how that goes

 

And these cards were tried individually?

Also, putting a 4870M with the 6970M probably wouldn't work. I tried that with the 5870M and the 6970M and it didn't post even though both cards were working :/

Try putting the Eurocom card by itself first to see if that works at least..

 

OK, now this is getting really troubling.

None of the following combinations posted.

-6970m Eurocom in Primary. None in secondary
-6970m M18x in Primary. None in secondary
-6970m Eurocom in Primary. 6970m M18x in secondary.
-6970m M18x in Primary. 6970m Eurocom in secondary.
-4870m in Primary. None in secondary.
-4870m in Primary. 4870m in secondary.

ALL of them resulted in the laptop turning on, with the keyboard lights, but no picture of bios screen. The primary gpu fan stayed spun up to max, and no buttons, including the power button did anything. I reset the bios every time I tried.

Since my old 4870's don't work, then I'm guessing it's not a video card problem. What on earth could be going on????

 

Ah man so sorry to hear all that! Geee just trying to upgrade your GPUs and this happens!

It sure sounds like your having the same issues that djhuydx and myself had or am having right now.
It's a strange one indeed; because the notebook still shows signs of life as in Keyboard lights up and or the GPU fans spin full blast on one side.

I used to encounter this issue and annoyance every time I restarted my notebook or shut it down and then went to power it back up.

It took me ages to fix and seems to be just either pure luck or persistence.
Sorry I can't really say to much as I'm not too sure on the exact issue that is causing it in the 1st place. All I know is that it is really annoying but try not to give up.....you should be able to eventually boot up properly with both cards installed.

There was one time when I returned from a work trip a couple weeks back where the notebook was stuck on a black screen so I held the power button down and tried to reboot. What do you know the keyboard lights and one fan spinning full blast greeted me. So I thought yeah okay this happens sometimes so I just tried my usual tricks; power drain and CMOS battery out and so on. No go this time.... I was a little surprised but still I thought no worries I'll try again. Geeeee nothing seemed to work for what was an eternity. I was jet lagged too so getting more annoyed and by the minute.

It literally took me like over 30 mins to finally get it to boot. I had to check the AC power adapter, unplug that and everything a few times. Let it cool down a bit. I even gave the notebook a few hits lol! Like when you smack somebody over the back of the head for being stupid or silly ahahah.

Good Luck guys. All I can say unfortunately is to keep on trying.

There surely must be some info on this weird phenomenon where our Keyboard lights up with one of the fans blowing full blast.

Cheers.

 

Odd, are you guys running the modded bios? or stock dell bios (motherboard)? Just curious what would cause that. Very strange

 

Sounds like either a bad motherboard, or bad Ram. Try swapping out the ram or running 1 stick of Ram and see what happens?

Also, forgot to ask, which motherboard BIOS revision are you using?

 

I tried the ram sticks in every possible configuration there is in the 2 RAM slots. No Luck. Same problem.

I'm using the custom A10 bios. Might that be the problem? Any other ideas?

 

Hey man,

I too was using and mucking around with the modded A10 bios.

I decided to go back to the Dell A10 bios and it eventually corrected itself.
There were still times where it happen at the start where it wouldn't boot properly but after a while its all back to normal now.

I can now shutdown restart as per normal again.

So I'm not entirely sure it was the modded bios but for now I will just wait till V2 comes out before playing around again.
I'm waiting for that 10% - 15% BIOS CPU Overclock LOL


Cheers.

 

So, it's looking like I'm gonna need a new motherboard then . . . . %*$#! Anyone have any idea as to how this could have happened?

 

Where you wearing an anit-static bracelet?

 

Is your system still under warranty (for the motherboard replacement)? Saw a few on e-bay if not. However it might be worth letting it sit for awhile, then coming back to it...verify that all the cables are seated all the way, and maybe attempt to boot it up again with one of the 4870's. I'd pull the CMOS out and let it sit for awhile remove the battery, make sure it's unplugged, etc. Since you've been working with it all day, maybe it's just something simple thats being missed.

Either way good luck and hope you are able to get it sorted out soon.

 

I think I've tried everything. Made sure all the cables were correctly installed and in their correct places, let the computer sit with both the bios battery in and out, booted with no graphics cards in the system, let it sit plugged in over night, let it sit unplugged for 4 hours this morning, everything.

All results were the same. No post, no screen, keyboard lights up, primary gpu fan spins, and no keys work including the power button.

I wasn't wearing a wristband, but I was working on a plastic table on a tiled floor. I routinely grounded myself. I highly doubt that would be the issue. I think it has something to do with the custom bios. Anybody have any ideas?

If no one can think of anything else to revive the mobo, then I'm probably gonna pull the trigger on a new one later today I still have a warranty on the machine, but I highly doubt they would honor it considering the circumstances.

EDIT: I also tried letting it sit for about an hour on and in it's nonposting state. Nothing.

 

Man that sucks....sorry to hear that. I wish I had some other thoughts, but have no clue what could have happened.

 

New mobo is on it's way. I couldn't get anywhere with DELL as I figured. Yuck. Anyway, can someone tell me what happens when you try to boot the system without any graphics cards installed at all? Does it post but with no video signal?

 

Hello all,
I have an R2 with the GTX 285 sli in it. Can I upgrade to a single 6970 and get the same performance? I'm looking to use a little less power and lower the temps a little. Will a single 6970 perform the same as mu 285's or better? Can this be done?
I will also be upgrading the CPU to the 920mx and doing the cooling mods to help.
Right now the fans are almost always running like jet engines while using it.
Thanks
Brandon

 

Yes a single 6970 will have roughly the same performance as 285m in sli (slightly less in most cases) and will use less power, the temps may be a bit higher tho