Anyone in London able to pop their 580/680m into my m17x r3?

Hi,

It seems my GFX card is dying. I've gone through various tests with Dell, but they won't ship me a card to test as they think it is 50/50 it might be the card or motherboard.

Any kind soul in London able to put their card in my machine for a few mins, or put mine in theirs?

Thanks!

 

Will pm you later. I have a 680m lying around unused.

 

Thank you sir! That would be most excellent!

 

What a great guy! Thanks so much sir. Testing revealed it is probably the motherboard.

I ordered a refurb motherboard for £199 with 3 month warranty. Should arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed. Dell's price for a new one was actually reasonable : £338, but they said it could not be returned if it didn't solve the issue. The other one can.

 

Well, I installed the motherboard and exactly the same thing happened. Don't know what to do now. This would suggest that the problem does indeed lie with the 580m. Widezu69's 680m didn't seem to cause my machine to shut down, but I guess I won't know for certain until I get hold of a 580m. I can't see anywhere to get hold of one in the UK.

 

580M are notorious for kicking the bucket, I'd avoid that card with a 1000 ft pole.

 

Yeah, seems to be the case.

I spoke to Dell and they told me not to attempt to put a 680m into an M17x r3 as the chipset isn't compatible! They claimed this caused the CPU clock issue I saw with a 680m in my machine (clock going up and down rapidly). This is confusing as other have put the 680m into theirs successfully.

I have found a 680m and 675m, the latter is £100 cheaper. Unsure which to go for given the 680m clock fluctuations.

 

What about a 765m (if it indeed works within the R3 and you can get hold of one)? It's roughly on a par with the 580m but for less wattage consumption.

Your situation sounds almost similar to mine. I also have an R3, there were random crashes and at first I thought it was the 580m. Then, with a replacement 460m - the situation seemed resolved - at first... but crashes still happened. So I assumed the motherboard, probably like yourself.

However, a technician came and replaced the 580m... and all is now well and has been for a little over a week so far. Maybe just maybe, it is indeed the graphics card for you too.

Whichever way you go - I hope you manage to sort it. I know how much of a pain it can be not being sure 100% what's wrong.

 

I don't think anyone has tried a 765M MXM card because they are actually quite rare (only base Alienware 17/18 and some Clevo have the MXM version of that card). I think the 680M works with no major hassles in the R3, I'm not 100% sure a 780M will work.

 

That is slightly worrying. So the crashes definitely happened with the 460m? (Black screen crashes) Did you get the MB changed, or just get a new 580m?

The 780m will work apparently, but you have to jump through hoops.

The 680m seems the best option in terms of value for money, but I'm concerned by what Dell said, and the clock results seen at WideZu69's place. I could resolve it once and for all by sending the machine to Dell and having it tested for £90, but they've already said it was most likely the MB or GPU, and a new MB doesn't change things. I'd rather just put that £90 towards a 680m.

I wonder if anyone else has seen these strange clock fluctuations when running Furmark in an M17x r3 with 680m installed.

 

I didn't think mine was still under warranty so got a 460m. Crashes still happened - so as a last resort I checked online and turns out I still had warranty. Dell sent an engineer who replaced the 580m and so far - no more crashes. I wanted the motherboard replaced due to the 460m crashing too - the engineer had it to hand (just in case) but as it didn't crash he said I should just ring Dell if crashes still happen with the new card. Then they'd replace the motherboard.

Hasn't come to that... yet - but it's only been just over a week.

edit: by crashes for me they were BSOD crashes. Never a black screen crash.

 

The 680M works fine in the R3. Hell, it works fine in the M15x. Sometimes you have to ignore what those ill-advised technical support agents say. They usually go by what their computer (in front of them) says is going to work and won't - they don't personally know from experience what will or not.

The 680M is the best route to go. You will have to do some extra stuff to get it to work, but it's worth it. And I'm sure Widezu would be more than happy to assist you again, if need be. You may even be able to purchase his 680M. How convenient is that...?

 

Hehehe. That might indeed be a great solution.

One thing: When we ran Furmark with W's 680m in my machine we saw the CPU clock rate going up and down and up and down in quick succession during the stress test, as if the card was being throttled, even when the GPU temperature was quite low, about 64c. Is this something you've seen, and is it something I can get round? Widezu was wondering if this was indicative of a power issue in the MB, but I'm not sure there is anything wrong with the MB.

Cheers!

 

Seems like it's throttling a bit. Not sure why. What size PSU do you have?

 

The 240w one. We thought the board wasn't supplying enough power for the 680m, so I replaced the board. However, the black screen crash still occurred. Either it is the GFX card alone (580m) or the GFX card and motherboard are both faulty, which seems a longshot since the machne is still working in general.

 

I wouldn't rely on furmark. It puts a unrealistic load on hardware. Use something like 3DMark11 and see if it throttles during the combined test.

 

I agree. Get a 680M, install/flash a modded VBIOS, update the drivers, and then run 3DMark 11. You should also monitor temperatures and whatnot.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm waiting on Widezu coming back to me regarding a card and/or hardware. Hopefully it'll sort the situation and I'll have a functional machine again soon! I'm getting withdrawal symptoms.

 

just FYI, no proof to back my claim up, I just did (nearly) the same upgrade 2 days back then on my flatmate's m17x r3, upon flashing the unlocked A12 BIOS, upgrading the GPU(from 6970m to 680m), and reinstalling windows on a brand new SSD, the CPU clock did NOT fluctuate but instead the GPU clock fluctuates vigorously when putting on an MSI kombuster stress test, i then flashed the "unlocked" vbios @ 1.000v (so an extra 0.125v) for which the problem went away, its even got rooms for overclocking despite having the need to use a modified 580m heatsink

temps @ prime95 + kombuster is CPU(2760qm) 83, GPU 85 (with 140/200 overclock)

i'll see if he's happy about me taking some screenshots of his thing, but from what i see, a modded vbios is definitely necessary

 

I was pretty unlucky with my R3 before. First my 580m died due to a bad driver- 320.18 I think. Then my motherboard GPU slot went bad and killed my new 680m along with it (or maybe it was a crappy tech who killed it, I'll never know...)

So I got a new R3 motherboard for $260, and changed it. Installed a 780m and everything ran super smooth afterwards.

If anybody would like an R3 motherboard with busted GPU slot, along with a 680m that might work but probably not, I'll let go of both super cheap

But on a more serious note, absolutely buy Widezu's 680m, it will work great once you flash the vbios. If you have cash to burn then get the 780m, even more powerful. But the 680m is still a formidable card even today, a big step up from the unreliable 580m!

 

Once again I have to thank WideZu. He has provided assistance above and beyond the call of duty, and has sorted my problem with a combination of hardware, time and patience! What a gent! :thumbsup:

I've had a look around and a chap on here suggests the 334.95 Quadro drivers. I've downloaded but am searching for the modded nvdmwi.inf, Hopefully once found and installed all will be sweet again.

 

Good to know it's sorted

 

I think this was what WideZu did: Modded A08 bios. All is groovy, with the small exception that I can't change brightness on the screen. I'm not sure if I can install a normal BIOS here, or need a modded one. I was considering trying the modded A12, but don't have a direct download link to either it or the A08, plus I need to check with WideZu on the changes he made to the BIOS so I can reapply them.

Incidentally, I tried three sets of drivers spanning a number of months, and all failed to change the screen brightness.