GTX 970 / GTX 980M in M17x R2

M15x also works with 970M/980M. It is because those machines do not have InsydeH20 BIOS conflicts. They use Phoenix BIOS, which doesn't have the UEFI/VGA/vBIOS conflicts that the InsydeH20 machines do with a Maxwell GPU installed. Only a guess on my part why that is, but I am guessing the newer InsydeH20 BIOS makes an effort to support the Nazi firmware signature crap and the older system BIOS completely ignores those instructions and worthless "features" the newer BIOSes and Maxwell firmware have been cursed with.

 

I have been stalling to get new laptop now since after M17x R2 AW decided to degrade screens and opted out of RGB screens , i want to keep my M17x R2 and upgrade it to latest GPU's since AW 18 have problem with Nvdia SLI and have been discontinued by dell, Initially i planned on upgrading to 7970M in crossfire but that will require modded PSU then i decided will just go for single 7970M or whatever the latest GPU is available and while researching i bumped into this thread when it was just started and since then i have kept my hopes up that it will work and now i see his signature claiming 970M works, i am desperate to know how

 

Maybe send him a PM or check his post history to see if it was already shared. Probably just a simple bolt-in with a driver INF mod, but always good to check before spending.

 

i have checked all of his posts, I have sent him a PM, will update when he replies

 

Hey !!!
I'm sorry I couldn't respond your pm , I'm busy these days and have no time with my aliens . All four of them are sitting inside a single big box.

When I had them last gtx 580m was in my r2 and gtx 970m was on my r4.
I'm involved in a big project and won't have time for 3 -4 months.

Il be back into business after that period.

What I could tell you is: buy a clevo card and flash it with msi 6gb vbios.
I know it should work, since both use the same card with different color pcb.

 

Subscribed to this thread.

 

Hi, Thanks for the reply,
I went on ebay to look for 970M cards and i foud there are two variants of 970M , 3GB and 6GB both described for MSI clevo, i am assuming that you are suggesting to get 6GB card , right ?

 

I bought the gtx 970 clevo 6gb card from rjtech , just to let you know .
They are the best.

But I have seen another user claiming the msi 970 works on m17x r2 but it was mentioned on a Chinese forum.

 

I would expect it would, MSI cards have worked in the past

 

Did you mean this card to buy --> http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30307

 

Has anyone tried two of them in SLI in the M17xR2 yet? I might be willing to buy a pair to upgrade my ancient M17xR2 4870M CF, but only if we know for sure that SLI works.

 

Haven't seen any verification with even one card working, two is a distant dream, i am planning to first at least get one working first

 

Please do the testing sir , in case it doesn't work you will have two cards for your m18x

 

I'm not going to do it, just wishful thinking. I'd absolutely love to see 980M SLI in my gorgeous space black M17xR2 antique monster working like a champ with an overclocked first generation Core i7 Extreme CPU and stomping the life out of the fancy new 17r2 BGA crackerbox. But, I got burned by jumping into the guinea pig hotseat buying 980M SLI for my M18xR2 that didn't work right. I still haven't recovered from that yet. Had to decide whether to sell the brand new 980M's as used parts for a loss or spend more for a machine they would work correctly with. My frugal $1,500 GPU upgrade turned into $3,500 cash hemorrhage by the time it was all said and done. I do have an amazing P570WM monster laptop that I was able to use the 980M SLI in, but I am way, way over budget now, LOL. I'm sure Mrs. Fox would hang me upside down and strangle me. I'd also have to confiscate it from my 20 year old son that has been using it for a couple of years, and I'm sure he'd have a problem with that. He has legitimate squatter's rights now and he loves that old beast too much for me to do that to him.

 

Haha , since you have a pair of gtx 980m's why shouldn't you give it a try in m17x r2 ?

Why what's up with the m18x r2 upgrade?
Didn't it work in sli ?

Man that p570wm is a monster, I wouldn't even go near it with my m17 r2.
Lol Mrs. Fox would do that for sure , I'm positive.

M17x r2 is a beast in a little box , who wouldn't love it ?
Buy him a Mac air then get the m17 off him

 

Yes that's the one.

 

LOL, I love my sons and would never do that to any of them. Plus, he would never forgive me if I tried to swap the M17xR2 for a Macbook. And, I would have to pay for his therapy because his psychotic break would be dad's fault.

Looks like there could finally be light at the end of the tunnel now for M18xR2 and AW18 owners wanting to upgrade to 980M SLI. We're talking breakthrough just in the past few days. It takes a special vBIOS mod from @Prema and a special driver tweak from @j95 to avoid severe throttling problems. It's too late for me. I have had the 980M SLI in the P570WM for months now and plan to leave them there.

 

LOL

Seems good for me since I already own a m18x r2 .
But you had already pulled the trigger on a monster, so nothing to worry, unless or otherwise the money spent .
Are you using all 4 beasts on your sig or just the Panther?

Respect ++++ for those who involve in vbios mods.

 

M17x-R2 is DEFINITELY my next project, but I'm not even halfway through with the current one, so there's that. Then again it's not like I left my Acer entirely, there are some records to be made and some more mods to be done. All of my things are work in progress for their entire lifespan as it seems. What I mean with this gibberish - I'm no stranger to mods, experiments, throwing ridiculous amounts of money on something that "might" work and general playing around, but it takes a lot of time AND money, both of which I'm short at. So I hope you are not waiting on someone like me to do the R&D. If you do, take a comfortable seat, it would take a while

As I side note, I think that if the SLi certificate is changed in the BIOS with one out of AW 18, or M18x-R2, any newer nVidia would do fine in SLi. Just a theory.

 

Has anyone looked at / attempted the 980m in the m17x R2?
Has one they can test?

If it's a go then I'll certainly pull the trigger on that.

That and the CPU upgrade I keep putting off in favour of other things would keep me on my R2 for a little while longer. At least until the next Alienware refresh when I can decide if I buy back into AW or go elsewhere.

 

If it is confirmed working (RJTECH, Eurcomm are you listening?) then I would be in for a group buy on the 980m. I think it would rock the ALienware M17XR2. May need to upgrade CPU as well for it.

 

I would totally be in to puchase a 980m if it was confirmed to work in the M17X R2 - in a heartbeat!

 

M17xR2 has same issue as M18xR1. UEFI in legacy mode and can't switch to pure UEFI.It won't work and probably new GPUs won't work too. If someone could mod old bios and force it to run in full UEFI mode (Windows 8.1) then it will work.

BIOS in M18xR1 at least and probably in M17xR2 is UEFI capable. It just sits in legacy mode.

 

New NVFLASH method just came out :

This should change a lot of things now

 

I don' know what this means but am salivating like a dog..

 

I am very interested in this topic. ;-)
I have been looking to upgrade to a 970M for some time, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. Will keep an eye on, maybe something will come up.

 

Assume either of these are OK?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nvidia-G...MSI-Alienware-upgrade-in-stock-/261678305882?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NVIDIA-G...988?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4635bc4e54
(Thermal pads, screws, IC Diamond etc. included)

Or is this the best place to get it?
http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30307

(Does the laptop model selection via rjtech make a difference? Assume not but just checking...)


Considering pulling the trigger and giving it a go...



Also, after a bit of research I'm seeing a step to disable on-board audio - is that required for these cards to work?
Does that mean no audio without an external USB etc. ?

 

Salivating just typing this.
They all look like clevo cards.
I would go with rjtech....
Not sure what that disable on board audio could be something motherboard related or hdmi etc.

Good luck and post vbios details etc. I will say huge good luck lots cause we all waiting for this... Go you good thing...

 

I think they do usually sell clevo cards yes.

 

This is what I was referring to with regard to the IDT onboard audio:

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienw...ode-boot-ok-normall-boot-not-9.html#post75808

Specifically, posts 81, 85 and 87.

I know it's in reference to the 780m but I'm wondering if it'll have the same issues with the 970m.

 

@Killiandros I was able to install win7, Full Legacy BIOS mode 980M/PEG.

 

First, can I just say thank you for all of your posts for modded drivers over time. They were much appreciated after I upgraded to a 680m.

OK, so I might need a little more help/insight here as I didn't understand all of that.

So a 980m would theoretically work in an m17x R2 as well?

 

I think that the bios of m17xr2 needs to be altered to support uefi is what j95 is saying to support 980m. Not sure if this also applies to 970m.

 

You can't just edit in UEFI support.

 

Not UEFI, I'm talking about Legacy BIOS (InsydeH20).

M15x works fine (Phoenix), M17xR2?

Disable the sound card and then power off, plug the HDMI cable...or out of the box (M15x Phoenix) http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/970m-m15x.766985/
Make a deal w/ reseller, return the card if it doesn't work.

 

There's 90% Chance that it won't work but you can always buy and check

Isn't InsydeH2O UEFI that is forced to sit in Legacy mode?

 

Thanks j95. So just to be clear, if I installed a 970m or 980m then I'd potentially have no sound at all and need to run it via HDMI to an external device?

Or is that simply to get it going in the first place?

I don't use my 17xr2 at a desk, it's purely on the couch or when I travel with work so I'd want sound and display working on the 17xr2 otherwise this is a no-go for me. I guess I was lucky that my 680m was just drop in and go - no issues whatsoever (apart from manual fan control with HWInfo)

If there's equal likelihood of 980m working then I'll save up and buy one next month, otherwise I'll go with the 970m if there's a better chance of that working.

 

You could use USB external soundcard and headphones, but it's not the same as having speakers working :/

 

You can hide an usb audio card in tthe m17x case and use the usb line on express card slot if you use an usb 3.0 on pcie line card for exemple. Then do some wiring to power the stock speaker. Get an other usb auudio card for heaphone use.

 

I just installed a 970M in my M17x R2. It's the 3GB version.
Doesn't seem to work right. Image is all wrong:
[img=http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img908/351/KCArYl.jpg]

I've tried the external monitor on VGA and the image is fine there.
I think it's because of my RGB LED screen. Any help? Ideas?

 

It almost has to be. Nobody really ever wanted the 900p display with 1200p RGB LED being available, but it would be interesting to know if the less desirable (and rarer) 900p display would have the same issue... just to rule out anything at the motherboard level. Since it works fine in the M15x it almost has to be the display panel. 120Hz 3D display owners have the same catch 22. Nicer display, with an extra set of complications that might surface.

 

I guess 9 series doesn't deal well with more than 6bit displays. A user recently tested 980m in DreamColor 8740w (10bit), and had grey scale issues. It wasn't nowhere near as what you are experiencing, but color issues none the less. I pulled a wild one, and I'll say it again, I guess not all color channels are wired on those new GPUs since there's no professional version of this chip, and there are no consumer notebooks with 8bit displays, let alone 10bit. I hope I'll be proven wrong, till then I stand behind my words.

 

And, standing by them makes sense. Unfortunately for all of us, that means you probably will not be proven wrong. Sometimes being right really sucks, and this is one of those times. If it smacks of second-rate laziness, corner-cutting compromise, or reflects incompetence, I think that is par for the course. I'd like to make that an "NVIDIA problem" but, honestly, I'm totally surrounded by it. In a pinch, panic and driven by all of the wrong reasons, most companies suck at what they do today. They ask for more and are willing to give less, and care less about customers (and employees) than ever before. When the governments around the globe are run by stooges that steal, strangle private enterprise and enslave their own people... ummm... Could go off topic real fast, so I'll stop here.

 

^ True that. I can't believe that I'll say it, but nGreedia might not be entirely at fault here, it's just how the world spins nowadays, which is REALLY sad. It's easier to be bad, it takes quite some effort to be good, especially nowadays.

 

Ok. Can we focus on a way to fix this... vBIOS modding ?

 

If my guess is on the spot - it's hardware, so no.

 

Albeit not the bleach phenomena I experience occasionally with my 7970m v1.1 in the m17xr2 it certainly looks like another incompatibility with the 1900x1200 RGB and these newer cards.

One thing I did found and this may apply to you blacky is to try to boot into windows with the vga path cable and once booted to windows start up screen remove the vga cable from the m17xr2 and screen should transfer to 1900x1200 rgb led of the m17xr2.

I always speculated if we could put a 1900x1080 screen into these machines these newer gpus would work. Perhaps we can confuse the gpu with modified vbios into thinking the initial boot up screen is 1900x1080 but I have no clue how to do that a programming level.

Interesting though that it can work if there is some tweaking perhaps at the hardware level with vbios adjustment.

 

Ok. I've uploaded the GPU BIOS here:
http://blacky.bestmail.ws/CLEVO BIOS/other/GTX970M_3GB_MSI.rom

No modifications.

 

Is your M17xR2 working 100% correctly with 970M now? No issues, or still not displaying correctly using the 1200p RGB LED? Got any benchmarks you can share?

 

Nope. That's the original BIOS.
With original BIOS display port, VGA and HDMI are fully working.
The image is crystal clear on display port and HDMI. I am running some benchmarks now.

I have tried this vBIOS https://biosmods.wordpress.com/clevo-mxm/
But it messed up my laptop display image even more. Which makes me believe that this is indeed something fixable with the correct vBIOS.

Note that my 860M works very well in M17x R2.