GTX 260m Possible Problems + Advice needed

Hey People,

I am new to this forum, so please correct me if I accidentally break any rules - please be patient with me!

I have a dual GTX 260m and with them connected, my m17x will not boot at all. The problem began when I left my Laptop on overnight, playing music to help me sleep when deep into the night, I noticed my laptop just turned off... The next Morning, it wouldn't turn on.

There was power coming through the AC cord (light illuminating the ring), The alienware Head was lit, but as soon as I pressed the power button, the light on the alienware head would just go out immediately and nothing would happen. For a whole 24hrs, I couldnt get it to boot. I then removed both the gpu and tried to boot; it booted. I tried putting the right one back in; it still booted. Then the left one; wouldnt boot like the first time.

Currently I still have the Right GPU plugged in, but it doesn't seem to be working? Sorry for the newbyness..

ATM, I'm playing games on my integrated card: GTX 9400M and it realllyyyy sucks balls :/, excuse my language.

Do you think the booting problem is directly related to the Left GPU i took out? and if so, I'm looking to replace it if its unfixable. What do you suggest I do? What would you do if it was your Alienware?


- Always trying to learn More!




Thanks in advance!

 

What happens later on with the 260M one that boots? Any led code, or works just fine?
If it comes to windows, you could use just single 260M, it will still own that bad 9400M.

 

Thanks for responding Max!

The 260M that boots, I left it plugged in, since it didn't cause a booting problem. I assume its not in use. I checked in device manager and I couldnt find my 260M listed on there. I dont know what a led code is x). Could you please explain?

 

is there anything i can do to check for damages?

 

Ok, one thing after another.

1. Put the card in primary slot. (Always use primary (left) slot when using just one card)
2. Do a power drain after you put card in the primary slot.
- Unplug the AC and Battery
- Press and hold the power button for 30sec
- Reconnect the Battery and AC
- Press power button to turn it on
3. Now, one of three thing should happen
- If the PC doesnt even start, the GPU that is in is probably broken beyond repair.
- If the PC starts, but doesnt display Alien head, there is probably a LED error code. You can find explanation for LED error codes here: Alienware M17x R1, R2 and M15x LED Behavior Prior to Proceeding with No POST troubleshooting
- The PC starts normaly
4. Repeat the process with the other card. (You will have to swap heatsinks)

This was just to make sure that GPU is faulty or not.

Once you have tried this steps post back results.
I'll try to help you further if needed

 

Hey max, bare with me here. I dont have thermal paste to swap the heat sink yet and ive only had the chance to just check my card. My left one is gone, my comp wont boot with it in. This is my first time removing a heatsink from a laptop, seems kinda different. Any important tips i gotta know?

Thanks for the tip about the primary slot being the left side- didnt know.

 

1. Hmm ok, so if you use just the card that was in the left slot, nothing happens when you press power button?
If that is so, put that card aside, and remove the heatsink.
2 .When removing the heatsink, you will probably have to use some force to remove the card from Heatsink, as i think they might got glued together if you never have done this before.
- Unscrew all 4 screws that hold the heatsink to the GPU
- On the top of the card (where there are no contacts) try to separate the card from heatsink
3. It should be ok, just for the purpose of diagnosis the GPU won't burn itself out if there is no thermal paste (just leave that on that was previously on the card, dont bother cleaning it off just yet)
4. Do the same process with the other card.
5. Make sure you know wich card is wich (So you won't put the heatsink on the primary again (happened to me once -.-))
6. Put the primary heatsink on the secondary card and just screw the screws on again.
7. Place that card in the primary slot now, and assemble the laptop again.
8. Do a power drain
- Unplug the AC and Battery
- Press and hold the power button for 30sec
- Reconnect the Battery and AC
- Press power button to turn it on
9. Turn it on, and report back what happens.

Hopefully atleast one card is working.

 

Okay so ive already removed the heat sink from Both cards (did this before seeing your instructions). I wasnt able to apply the heatsink onto the secondary card cause i dont have any thermal paste yet. I connected the secondary card into the primary slot to see if it would boot.

The second card boots, and once window loaded, it automatically installed the driver. After installation, my pc turned off. My window booted and everything loaded, but it would turn off again. I took out the card and will try again in the morning when i properly install the heat sink.

Ill update you with results afterwards! Thanks again for helping me out! Greatly appreciated!

Btw, i was hoping to get your opinion on something. Ive been reading around that ATI 5870 is somewhat compatible with my motherboard? (correct me if im wrong) without much hassle. If thts the case, do you think i should get it over my 260m? - would it work if i just replaced one of my 260m?

 

Ok, you probably got bluescreened, but you have enabled automatic restart on failure.

First thing to do, is to uninstall all Video drivers.
Then enter safe mode, and run Driver sweeper to clear all the crumbs that were left behind by the uninstaller.
Then go to Windows again, and try to install nvidia driver, don't install windows generic ones.

After that if you still get shutdowns, disable windows feature, to restart on failure.
To disable it, follow these steps.
Restart your PC
Right after the Alienware Logo, start pressing F8.
Then select "Disable automatic restart on failure" or something like that.
Reboot.

Report back with findings

Yes, the 5870 is 100% compatible and officially supported by dell, just swap it with 260M and you are good to go.
about 70% boost over 260M in games too
If the 260M turns out to be faulty, sure go ahead and replace it with 280,460,480, 4870 or5850, 5870 whatever you find suits you best.

 

I forgot to mention i installed the driver while in safe mode only because everytime i start up windows normally, it'll just restart when window has loaded. lol and hm.. that does make alot of sense. I will do all that in the morning ;P.

On a side note, I just want to say that, you're so helpful. I've been from car forums to phones to computers, never have I met someone persistent and patient enough to help me out. Thanks!

Lol you just saved me another hour of research x) I couldn't find the answer to that from any forums. Really... 460 eh?.. well I don't know much about graphic cards, but if it was you, which would you choose to go with keeping in mind that, the higher the cost, the longer it will be before I can buy another GPU?

I have this cable connected from one 260 to the other 260, im assuming that enables both cards to be fully functional? If i replaced the right side with, lets say... a 5870, would I need to attach that cable to the 5870?

 

Sure, no problem

Didnt know you could install driver in safe mode

Ok, just unplug both cards, and uninstall drivers like i said before.
Then just put the working one in, and install drivers normally.

If you still blue screen, let me know.

Yes, 460M from nvidia is available too. Ok, if you want the best officially supported, and hassle free instalation, i'd go for a 5870.

I dont know about the Cable if it's the same for SLI and CF, but sure you can try.

Ok, do you have M17x R1 or R2? Got a bit carried away here xD


Edit:

Nvm, i see that you have 9400M so you must have the R1.

Hm i dont know much about the GPU upgrade in R1, but from what i've heard the 5870m should work.
But if you are not too techy just grab a 4870, and it will work ok, wihout any compatibility issues
Has about 20% performance boost over the 260M.

 

just so im understanding correctly, lets say the 5870 is fully supported, that means
I'll have both GPU working; the 260m on the left side, and a 5870 on the right side.
And this will improve my Graphic Performance/Quality more so over having just
a single 260m with my integrated card alongside.... right?

I'm not all that techy, but i catch on pretty quick.

 

No, you can only Crossfire 2 ATI/AMD cards or SLI 2 Nvidia Cards.

1 AMD/ATI and 1 Nvidia card can never be used together. (Completly different manufacturer)

If you still want to use the 260M (if the second one will even work) then you must buy another 260M to use them togother.

But even a single 5870M will be better than two 260M in SLI.

First test the second card, and then it's up to you to decide what would you like.

 

No.
This is called SLI (for NVidia cards), or Crossfire for AMD/ATI cards.
What it does, is it allows 2 GPU's to work together and give you a performance boost. For this you need 2 of the same series GPU's (2 x 260's, 2 x 5870's etc). You can't combine for example a 260 with a 5870 (another brand, the cable wont even fit, this is just impossible), or even 2 cards of the same brand but a different model (260 with a 460). In theory you can Crossfire/SLI cards from the same series, but not exact same model number, but let's not get into that, you simply just want 2 equal cards for this.

Now returning to your problem, how did you insert the 2nd gpu in the first gpu slot, as you don't have thermal paste and thus can't swap the heatsink?
Get some thermal paste, it will make trouble shooting a lot easier. The best method to find problems with GPU's for me generally is:
- remove both cards, boot up the laptop on it's built in GPU, check if everything is working as it should with no problems
- Insert one of the GPU's in the first slot
- boot up, install drivers (with Maxslo's instructions), and run a benchmark. If you have any kind of problem here (sudden reboots, BSOD, drivers not installing correctly, problems in device manager etc) then this is usually an indication something is wrong with the card
- repeat this with the other card, in the first slot.

Likely you will narrow down one of the cards causing a problem. If both cards work fine in the first slot, then it's also possible your SLI cable (which connects the cards) is malfunctioning for example.

Not sure what your budget is to replace the card(s) if you want to upgrade/replace. You can go 'cheap' and go with a 5870 single or dual. But this isn't top end performance. Having that said, they are still very adequate cards for the money and by no means slow. Depends what you do with your laptop.

For about 400$ region, you can already upgrade to the top end ATI/AMD GPU, and you won't know what graphic power hit you. For a little more you could also opt for the fastest NVidia GPU (GTX 680m).
There's all kinds and forms of GPU's on the marketplace regularly, for every budget something that fits

 

Great! So ive installed the heatsink on, plugged it in and everything works great! It wasnt restarting like it was earlier.

Another question for you. Any advice on managing my pc for optimal performance? I noticed its not as fast as it used to be even though i reformatted it not too long ago + now i have 8gb of ram.

I think i will look into buyig a 5780!

 

Thanks for all the info! I've actually finished reapplying the heat sink.

Before doing much research, i was planning on upgrading my gpu if
Mine isnt repairable. I was guessing it wouldve costed me within 300$ range.
Any suggestions? In terms of my preference, i dont really hAve one, i dont know
What optiona are available. I had quick glances in other forum that the r1 mobo
Arent compatible with anything beyond a 260m from nvidia and somewhat compatible with the 5870,
But max helped me comfirm that it is.

 

Righto, I missed completely we were talking about an R1. The best option for the R1 I believe is the 5870.
Forget my remark about the gtx 680m or 7970m, it won't work in an R1.

300$ is way on the to high side, you should be able to settle for a lot cheaper.
You could do a Crossfire 5870 (2 cards) setup for about 150-200$ in general.

Optimal performance is hard. What I always do, I install a Clean windows, install all drivers in the correct order, and set it up exactly how I want it to be.
Then I backup it, and I simply restore that backup every once and a while so it's nice and fresh again.

There's 1001 things you can do to speed things up, or keep things speeded up, it's hard to say in a couple of lines ^^

 

Are you kidding me?! 200 for 2 cards?? Lol man i was way off. Btw, the guy i bought thermal paste off
Of says that i wont be able to find any 5870m for sale anywhere except ebay? Is that true?

If i got 2 5870's, do they come with heatsinks? Or would i have to swap my curret ones on them?

 

There's regularly 5870's here on the NBR Marketplace. I'd rather buy here then from Ebay tbh, especially if you're a bit new to it.

Sometimes loose cards, sometimes plug & play crossfire setups incl. heatsinks etc, depends who has what on offer. Should not be hard at all to find here.

 

Great, now try to run 3DMark Vantage on it, and check the GPU score. (should be around 5k if i remember correctly).

If it works (no crashes or anything) you have 2 options.

1. Add another 260M in that PC, and use SLI

EU
For Dell Alienwar M15X NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M MXM 3.0b VGA Card | eBay

USA
Dell Alienware M15X M17x NVIDIA G92 751 B1 GTX 260M 1GB Video Card WDXVH 0WDXVH | eBay

2. get a single 5870 (wich will be a bit more costly), but will overclock better, run cooler, and draw far less power than SLI-ed 260M

EU
DELL ALIENWARE ATI MOBILTY HD5870 1GB VGA NO HEAT SINK M15X P/N C8245 | eBay

USA
Dell Alienware M17x M15x ATI HD 5870 HD5870 1GB Laptop Video Card C8245 0C8245 | eBay

You can use heatsink from 260M on 5870M.

For performance issues, make sure the Power plan is "High Performance" and that the PC is runnin on AC. Other than that, i cant realy tell what did you mean by "not as fast", what seems to be the problem?

From the top of my head, try removing unused programs, and defragmenting HDD.
Also disable programs that you dont need from startup.

Edit:

Woow was tiking some time in writing a response :/
Yeah, you should try NBR Marketplace too, but i havent seen a 5870M lately

 

Hmm, you're talking about buying them second hand from other users right? Hopefully i can find one with everything including crossfire. I couldnt find any thermal pads to buy, so i reused the old ones.

 

Thanks alot max! Atm, my laptop is idling+ playing music, but the fan is bein alot louder than ive ever heard it to be. But its a smooth kind of loud.

Would you recommend crossfire 5870? Or just a single would be more than enough. I test out alot of different games of all kinds and i want my gpu to be able to handle anything i throw at it.

- would you also happen to be handy enough as to have a link to getting ahold of a crossfire (the wire) would you?

 

There's a big difference in 'handle everything I throw at it' and 'handle everything I throw at it, maxed out'.
The first is possible, the latter i'm afraid the system has aged to much to really handle everything you throw at it, that would require an upgrade to a more recent model.
Having that said, what games do you play? As XF 5870 still offers really neat performance. It's not top knotch anymore, but it's more then adequate and still a lot faster then what most people have in their lappies.

 

When you say recent model, are you referring to something like an r4? Or a cpu upgrade?

Games like: POE LoL WoW cod, left for dead, Starcraft, Cs. Etc. so far, almost any game i played, i have always had settings on max and had good to great performance- in terms of fps.

 

Do you guys think there is any point in upgrading my ram any further? At the time when i upgraded my ram to 8gb (2x 4gb) and that was the highest compatible ram they had for my r1. Now theres 16gb (2x 8gb) available.

 

5870 or 5870 XF is more then adequate for those games.
If you want Crysis 3, BF3 and Far Cry 3 on maxed out settings, it's a different story though ^^

Anything above 8Gb is useless for gaming, or general use. Literally you will not notice a thing.
It has it's uses when using a lot of CAD software or 3D Rendering software, or Virtual PC's etc.

I have 32Gb in my M18x, just to show it off basically, I have absolutely no real use for it nor does it give me anything performance wise.

 

Its funny how you put it that way. I originally bought my alienware for multimedia purposes and for cad.

So lets say i had a 5870 xf crossfire, would that be able to handle crysis 3 on mac settings?

 

Btw, ive never overclocked my 260m before. I dont know how to play with the settings (in bios right?). Should i even
Be playing with it?

 

That's definately a no (Crysis 3 on max, even remotely near high settings will be a problem).

Overclocking isn't hard, though I myself only use it to benchmark, I never use it during daily use (there's lots that do though).
I always want my system to handle stuff at an adequate speed which suits me, on stock settings, to not overstress the components to much with a constant OC. The top thing at least to keep in mind when OC-ing is temperatures. Monitor them always and keep an eye on them, so you can see something going wrong or problems before it damages anything.
There is software you can use for overclocking, a lot of threads here on the forum about it.
Try reading up a bit for example on MSI Afterburner, or EVGA Precision X.
For monitoring temperatures you can have a look at Real Temp, Core Temp, GPU Temp, HWiNFO etc.

In short, the 5870 in XF is nice, but a couple years old. You can play most games older games with it (2010/2011) on max or near max settings on a high resolution with a great framerate.
The more recent games it might start to struggle a bit and hav eyou turn some settings down to get a good FPS again.

The Behemoths of games which bring even the most powerfull systems to it's knees will have to be seriously dialed down in settings though. Keep in mind these are also the typical kind of games where your CPU will start showing it's age and not only your GPU's/

 

Omg! I noticed that your m18 has ssd! Im assuming its not compatible with r1?

 

I cram SSD in pretty much everything I can get my hands on
Just my m11x which still has to be equipped with one ^^
I'd even fit an SSD in my wife if I could

If you can fit a hard drive, then you can fit an SSD, it's that simple.
So definitely a yes in compatability. For raid0 SSD (2 drives in raid0 setup) you will need 2 hdd slots (which the R1 also has) etc.

 

Thats very interesting and informative. Ty for that. I prefer not to do too much work lol so i guess no oc ing.

For hdd, does it have to be a specific type or model that will only fit my r1?

 

Is a single 5870 really better than a dual 260? I feel ripped off for paying 3200 for my r1..... Lol

 

AAn R1 I believe has a max speed of Sata2. So anything faster then that is a waste of money, as the performance won't be used (but it will work).

HD5870m is about as fast as 2 x 260m in SLI, maybe slightly faster but thats going to be marginal.
But thats just 1 x 5870 vs 2 x 260m.
In crossfire the 5870m definately is way faster.

 

Im getting excited x)

 

Single 5870M is faster than 260M SLI, if you OC the difference gets even bigger
5870M is a pretty good overclocker.

The benchmark should be about the same, but real game performance the 5870M surpasses them (5-10%)

 

Hey Max, do you know if theres any specific order of stock drivers i have install first before the other? When I still had my warranty, one of Dell technician came over to install a new motherboard for me (clearly didnt know what he was doing), and when i had to reinstall the drivers and softwares and everything, the technician along with the support people over the phone told me that there are specific softwares i must install first before installing the drivers.

Ex. Install the OSD before installing the 260 because the OSD wouldnt work properly.. or something like that.

Atm, im trying to find a Register Key for vantage. Ill Post up my results as soon as i can get a key. x).

 

No, Just make sure you install chipset first, and the other doesnt matter .
I install Command Center and OSD last, because i am used to that order

You dont need a key, just run wihout a key, and Screenshot it

 

This was with the settings on extreme


Before i touched the settings at all, I had a scan with GPU score at 4909.

 

Ok, looks like you GPU is ok, i got 4978 on Performance, so pretty much ok score from yours too.

You could sell it on NBR marketplace or ebay to lower the cost of exchanging it with a 5870.