Alienware M17xR3 graphics card upgrade from nvidia 580M to 870M

Trying to upgrade an alienware M17xr3 from 580M graphics card to 870M graphics card and the card is being recognized as standard vga. BIOS setting is on PEG but I have the A12 BIOS from Dell not the unlocked version that I've seen listed.

When I look at the device id I get PCI/VEN_10DE&DEV_1199 so the card is recognized as a standard vga card. I have tried to load the NVidia drivers version 340.52 and 337.88 but the install fails saying graphics adapter not found.

Been searching various forums for information. I find a very complicated and lengthy post on Nvidia's site for modifying .inf files and inputting the card to them and then doing an install. I have seen posts to use an unlocked bios with a SATA tweak but we aren't using SSD's in this machine so concerned it will have a negative impact. Also I have downloaded the unlocked bios if I should use it how do I flash it? It uses Insydeflash and not sure if this is done from a USB boot. Command prompt or inside windows.

As I stated at the outset the computer recognizes the card as standard vga not an NVidia card.

Any help would be most welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

It will not recognize the card until you install the driver successfully.
1) Have you mod your .inf file?
2) What windows are you usnig? You need to disable driver signing.

 

Check here for the inf: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

Don't bother with the search just pick one you want and follow the links. The inf will be a separate DL so you can add it to replace the existing installation file, c:\nvidia\displaydriver\version\....

Driver signing will need to be disabled on win 8 as said earlier.

Good luck, audio has been a problem with the R3 so I hope you don't get that drag .

 

^follow this to the letter and you'll be enjoying your new 870M in no time.

 

And I recommend downloading the A12 unlocked SATA tweak BIOS, I'm using that without issue. The reason I say this is that there is an option called IGD within one of the menus that you want to set to 'disable'. I once installed my 670MX and forgot to change this variable to disabled, and for some unknown reason I got about 15% less performance. Anyway, this is the link where I found out about disabling IGD:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-mobility-7970-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide.html
And this is the important part of the 1st post that I'm referring to:
"Using the unlocked version of BIOS A08 (or A04), go to Advanced>Video Configuration, and change Primary Display from SG to PEG, then click on Internal Graphics Device, then IGD again and change from Enabled to Disabled. Save and exit" (Use the A12 Unlocked BIOS with SATA Tweak though).

Good advice from MickyD about installing drivers.

 

Cheers Robbo, IG P I believe .

OP You will need to do this as well, I was hanging off until you got past the driver issue, haha....Optimus switching messes with a non-standard dGPU so windows must start on the dGPU (NV).

Good luck.

 

No, you'd be surprised, it is actually "IG D" - I was surprised when I saw the option. You change from SG to PEG for one of the variables and there's an IGD variable too (to be found in within the menus as described in my previous post) which needs to be set to disabled. (It will run off the NVidia GPU even if you leave IGD enabled (as long as it is set to PEG), but for some reason you get about 15% less performance in games - even though GPUz would show 100% GPU usage & no throttling. Setting IGD to 'disabled' enables full performance of the NVidia GPU, this is why I suggested he use the modified A12 BIOS with Sata Tweak because I know the IGD option is available within that BIOS, but don't know if the same variable is available in Dell's stock BIOS - in this case he might accidentally use the Dell BIOS and end up with 15% less performance, and be none the wiser because everything would just look normal with no throttling of GPU clocks or anything - it's weird!). Important to set IGD variable to disabled, which might not be available in the stock Dell BIOS.

 

lol, cheers man, typical of dell to invent their own acronym! 2-0 to Robbo

 

Haha, no score keeping! ;-) (I edited part of my previous post to emphasise the importance of using the modified BIOS and setting the IGD to disabled)

 

Wow I knew this was the right place to ask the questions. I will go through the suggestions and post back the progress. Pretty confident the hardware install portion is right it is the software tweaking that seems to get us when we attempt stuff like this but machine is out of warranty with Dell and their support has been less than worthless when we've had issues, so we're learning to do things ourselves. There is a lot of information around and some of it is dated and confusing. But the group here had more people upgrading alienware's successfully so figured you would be the best people to ask.

So for clarity steps in order they should be done.

1. Flash unlocked bios version a12 and make sure set to PEG and disable IGD.
2. Disable windows driver signing
3. Download modified .inf file from laptopvideos2go and replace in NVidia folder then run the install driver.

Pray it all works and report back.

 

That works just fine but personally I'd start with the driver so it is ready when you turn off the iGPU. Not important in the scheme of things though....

Good luck

 

Yes, flash unlocked BIOS version A12 with SATA tweak from here:
[M17x R3] - BIOS A12 'unlocked' & 'SATA tweak'
Follow this process within the new BIOS: go to Advanced>Video Configuration, and change Primary Display from SG to PEG, then click on Internal Graphics Device, then IGD again and change from Enabled to Disabled. Save and exit.

I'm not familiar with Windows 8 and driver signing.

Yes, download the inf from laptopvideo2go and place it in the relevant folder - run the setup program to install as per normal. The program will then pop up with a 'warning' that the driver has been modified or something along those lines, and you just go ahead & accept the process to continue. However, you might want to uninstall your previous NVidia driver before doing this (from the Windows control panel), and then run a display driver cleaning program: DDU ( Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 12.9.9.0). That cleaning program removes all remnants of NVidia drivers and makes for a cleaner install to remove any possible conflicts - I'd only advise running that the first time you install a driver with your 870M, you can just use the normal NVidia install method after that.

 

Okay Bios updated to modded version and IDG disabled PEG enabled. Booted windows 7 used F8 to disable driver signing. Downloaded driver from LaptopVideo2go but INF file is this huge thing that pops into the html window and doesn't download at all. It was just changed yesterday and I'm thinking the new version they put up didn't load in right unless I missed something in their instructions for downloading the INF. So kinda stuck at the moment until I can figure out how to get the modded inf file. Tried going to Nvidia and downloading and installing the driver and same error messages as before. Nvidia installer cannot continue This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware.

Edit: had removed drivers before starting this process and removing all trace. So machine was clean prior to changing the card.

 

Often happens, it's some sort of browser integration fault. Once it opens select 'save as' from the 'File' menu. DO NOT select txt as the type and it should save it with the correct file name.

To get the install files back, reinstall and when it fails with the hardware error you can then find the driver files that have now been expanded to overwrite the inf with the new one. Edit ops, you've already done this bit..

 

Tried that and it doesn't like it. File saves as type html (webpage complete, or webpage), mht (web archive ) or .txt (text) . It doesn't like any version of that so still stuck at the install portion then. Tried to cut and past the content from the one file to the other just doesn't like it. So still unsure how to handle until they get it fixed.

 

Don't think it will get fixed. What browser are you using? Which driver version are you wanting to use?

In FF I just select 'save as' and OK. If it will only save as a txt file then rename it in windows and you will see a .txt at the end. delete that and you should be good to go.

For some reason my FF has now decided to work so I get a download prompt not the wall of text?? I wanted to screenshot the save page

 

Only worked when using Firefox if I remember rightly (saving as text file is OK in Firefox as didn't add .txt automatically when I tested it just now, so the PC will see it as a config file if you use Firefox), Chrome & IE wouldn't save the inf file right.

 

SWEEEETTTTT!!! You guys have been just great! Beauty of this is I get to do it again to another alienware with a 460m in it but not for another month or 2. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! It's booting and recognizing the card and current driver version. Sound doesn't seem to have an issue but we'll put it through its paces here and let you all know if we run into any issues. If you don't see a post all is well.

 

Great stuff, I knew you were soo close Put another one down to the tag-team, haha

 

Cool, will be interesting to see some performance & temperature results from it though if you could post them up. Something like a 3DMark11 run, and I'd advise running Unigine Heaven benchmark for 20mins (it runs continuously on a loop) to determine there's no throttling & also to find your maximum temperature. (Will be interesting because I've never seen an 870M in an R3 - I think the 870M and 680M are really good cards, good sweet spots).

 

An INF file is basically a text file, folder options -> view -> uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" -> rename "xxxx.txt" to "xxxx.inf".

or
Notepad "Save As" xxxx .inf. Done...

 

I'm back and with the other machine this time.

First off the other card went in fine and works wonderfully. My apologies for not seeing the benchmarking request on the heat issue. When I get this laptop going I'll make sure to do that and give you guys feedback.

Now onto the new problem. I have the unlocked bios in.

1. Changed settings from SG to PEG and disabled IGD.
2. Windows 7 computer so at boot F8 and disabled driver signing.
3. Go to install Laptovideotogo downloaded driver and modified inf file and getting the message " Nvidia installer cannot continue This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware"
Notes on what's different on this install. This is a wipe of the machine and starting over from scratch. I have windows and basic services installed at this stage and windows is up to date. I've gone back through the steps from the other machine and can't figure out what is different other than possibly a services file missing because its a clean install. Any assist here would be really helpful.

Also, I'm not seeing the card recognized in device manager. Just that standard VGA graphics adapter