Graphics Cards or Cpu upgrades for M17x R1

My original target in this matter was to make the GTX 280m work in the R2. Since out of the water they won't work i said flashing them to GTX 285 should work,but my R2 is not here yet(complications)

They are the same cards! I made sure of that sadly i didn't took any photos back then since i thaught it's not really something to want to see.

Also OCing them to 1.01V i don't get high temps.

 

1.01v is nothing, dude.

I've done worse and kept the system cool at a very high overclock, for testing purposes only, of course.

Secondly, is 1.01v even required? My 280s overclock easily to 625/1625/1030 at 0.97v actually. No problems.

 

I think he just got that number from the GTX 285m stock settings

 

This is what i'm saying and yes the GTX 280m can keep those clocks stable at 0.9V

Also the 1.01V is the stock voltage the R2 GTX 285m come with.

 

I am in agreement with you both; 1.01v isn't high at all, and neither is it a requirement for a modest overclock.

 

The reason why I wanted to flash the 280s was to make them work in the R2,simple as that,never saw it as an upgrade as the 280s alone can OC far beyond 285s stock clocks!

 

That's true.

I had no idea. I remember some thread over here in NBR about "GTX 280M overclock" and the thread's creator wasn't able to get anything higher than 950 MHz (memory) without rising the voltage. But it seems that GTX 280M was a clevo one. Maybe a MXM 2.1 version?. And for some reason when I changed the gpu's voltage @ 1.01 V I was getting 8 more degrees celcius than 1 V. But I think I was drowning my M17x, it was over a plastic book or something like that. Changed the book and the GPU's went down 10 degrees.

But maybe you are going to have the same problem I had. Because if the GTX 280M and the GTX 285M are the SAME, then what was the reason the card failed when rendering? the screen was full of lines and stuffs. I don't think it was a setup bios problem, because someone successfully installed a pair of GTX 285M in the M17x R1 and got them to work in SLI with no problem.

I think there is something else. I am going to give it one last try, I am going to mod the GTX 280M bios, and leave it exactly as the same as the GTX 285M, .. and see what happens.


UPDATE: Tried to only change the "device ID" in GTX 280M's BIOS and then fllash the card. Nvflash actually flashed the card but it didn't changed the device's name, the card kept calling it GTX 280M.

 

The BIOSes in Katalin's thread do NOT work on the M17x. They are missing some important / necessary voltage coding. The 285 vBIOS pulled from a M17 has the exact same voltages and is completely identical (except for the clocks / card name) to the 280.

 

Well since this thread is already bumped, can someone tell my why a 460m/470m/480m/485m wouldn't work in this notebook?

 

Because the system bios will not recognize the cards. Also the power supply is going to be struggling to power all that

 

^^ Did you try the 5870 yet scook?

 

I have began testing but been distracted by other stuff (Snow storm and new M11x and new 60" TV)

So far I have not gotten CF to work at all, constant BSOD, will try single card and putting the master vbios on both cards as well

 

I ask, why Dell lack the BIOS to exclude video cards? We can get to work only video cards Dell approve. It should be more like the processor upgrade, we can place the processor we want if it fits well in the socket. MXM is useless for us.

 

Can I assume the system will boot?
Does the card run at lower clocks?
Is it just unstable?

Bios mod should be possible. Anyone thought about taking the bits of the bios needed from the R3 and injecting them into the R1?

Do the R3/R2/R1 all use a similar bios (all phoenix bios)?

Can you use the power supply from an R3/R2?


Would the cooling be ok for a 485m?
Can you control the fan speeds?

 

Cooling would be at its limit if not incapable of handling a 100W GPU.

The PSU would have to be the same voltage and plug type. The BIOS is uneditable unless you have the Phoenix Bios editor (which only licensed Phoenix partners have)

 

What are your thoughts so far on the 5870, is it looking promising?

BTW I'm not sure PBE is needed, maybe we could use a tool called Phoenix SLIC mod and a hex editor.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...eplace-SLIC-in-Phoenix-Insyde-Dell-EFI-BIOSes

Do these versions of PBE work:
http://www.rebelshavenforum.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=52;t=000004;p=0

 

The two BIOSes are just fine,they were pulled from a pair of 285 in a m17x R2
And the stock 285 BIOS doesn't have the same voltage value as the gtx 280Ms.

 

Ok, I have tested Phoenix Bios Editor v2.2.13 and it seems to support the R1 bios. Link for download here:
The New Rebels Haven Forum!!: BIOS Editing Tools Collection

Screenshot:

Spoiler

Not sure but it looks like a few modules are not supported, I'm not a bios modder but the one we want is probably one of the unsupported ones.

Though it could be oprom01 (nvidia VGA). But then where is the ATI card support oprom? Am I even looking at the right thing?

Anyone modded a bios for GPU support before?

 

I will look into that! There a few things I would love to change in both the M17x and M11x R1 BIOSes

 

Hmm. I was having the same issue as tyranus (lines on screen / unstable) with the ones you posted. I found a different one on google which worked. The ones which you posted are missing a few VIDs and run on completely different voltages compared to the ones I found. The ones I have also have the exact same VIDs / voltages as my stock GTX 280s.

 

Hi, nRabbit, could you please post/send by pm, or send the link where you got the working GTX 285M's bios which worked flashing the GTX 280M in to the GTX 285M?

Thanks.

 

This one worked for both cards for me. If you're using NVflash just be sure to specify the index==0 or index==1

 

Flashed my cards with these, but in only one of my GTX 280Ms, and the driver installed better than katalin's bios. But I was not able to get Hybrid SLI, hence I can't switch between cards on windows Then I disabled the 9400M G in windows device manager and just got a black screen.

 

That's because they are from the m17x R2 and as i said earlier this was my target: to make the GTX 280m work in the R2. Testing those BIOSes in the R1 was just a side "thing".

 

Well, with the vbios that nRabbit gave to me, I was able to succesfully flash my GTX 280Ms to GTX 285M's and they actually worked in SLI , as you can see in the next screen shot:



But two things I could not fix:

1)Get Hybrid SLI to work.. I had to disable the 9400M to the GTX 285Ms to work as primary video card. Hence the GTX 285M and the 9400M can't work at the same time because if they do, the primary card is the 9400M and there is no way to get the GTX 285M to be the primary video card.

2)The bad performance in SLI... I tested 3 different display drivers and all of them gave me bad performance in SLI. I mean with the GTX 280M SLI I was getting 48 fps avg. in Batman AA. and with the GTX 285M SLI I was getting only 44 fps avg. That's bad considering the GTX 285M is faster than the GTX 280M. So I guess it was a drivers issue, or bad bios setup support.

But YES, I can confirm, the GTX 280M can be flashed to the GTX 285M in R1 with nRabbit's BIOS.

 

The GTX 280m have much better driver support. I would just permanently overclock the cards as 280m's personally.....that is also why the hybrid SLI is not functioning properly

 

I have began looking at the system BIOS but that will not be a quick process, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Looks like this will be hard.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/480992-acer-laptop-phoenix-bios-bios-mod-request-158.html

 

I think the Phoenix Bios Editor, does not give full support for R1 Bios, when I try to open A06.rom it says that there are unsupported modules.

Besides I don't really know where to look in the bios.

PS: M17x boots with HD 5870 as far as I know.

 

I had the same question, here is the answer I got:

If you could describe what exactly is the problem in detail to kizwan, maybe he will have some ideas

The fact that it boots gives me hope.

 

Hey scook, do you still have those dual gtx 280m's for sale?
Currently im running a singular gtx 260m in my m17x-r1 and I am looking to upgrade.

 

Hey Scook, do you still have those dual GTX 280m SLi cards available?
Currently i am running a single GTX 260m and I am looking to upgrade.
I have the m17x-r1.

 

I actually sold them a while back. Sorry man

 

Hey no worries man, just thought i would ask.

If you dont mind me asking, how much did you sell them for?
I just want to know what sort of price range im looking at if i end up upgrading

 

I sold them for $500 because that is what I paid for them. I wanted to pass on the deal. I got them from a friend though and would not expect to see that price anywhere else

 

Damn thats a good deal

Where would you suggest a place to find more like this? I have been searching the internet, ebay and such, and can't really find anything. I would even be fine just buying a second GTX 260m with SLI cable and running that, but even those are almost impossible to find. Found one for about $500 on ebay, but that just seems a little high to me.

Any suggestions? Im pretty new to this scene. Does this forum have a buy/sell area?

 

Best I could do is point you to the guy I sold my cards too lol

 

Yes it'll be more apropriate to open a thread in the NBR Marketplace

 

u still looking for two GTX 280m cards?

 

Yes I am.
You have some available?
PM me if so

 

I'm also looking for dual 280m SLI cards, if anyone has any for sale please let me know. Thx

 

Here you go:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...-280m-sli-qx9300-extreme-alienware-parts.html

 

hey nRabbit do you have the files for the HD 5870 for the m17x r1 and i mean files like flasher and bios