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    HD5870m - A00 and A01, whats the difference?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Ashtefere, Sep 2, 2010.

  1. Ashtefere

    Ashtefere Notebook Evangelist

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    I have been hearing mention of differing versions of the HD5870m A00 and A01 - what exactly has been changed?

    Is the beta vbios compatible with them? is it just a pre-flashed card? whats the issue?

    -Ash
     
    Ashtefere, Sep 2, 2010
    #1
  2. Mitchell2.24v

    Mitchell2.24v Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm very curious about this too.

    Would they have altered the heatsink design a bit?
     
    Mitchell2.24v, Sep 2, 2010
    #2
  3. alexnvidia

    alexnvidia Notebook Deity

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    New vBIOS factory preinstalled? or a new GPU revision? maybe Brian could fill us up with the details. where did u hear about the A01 5870M?
     
    alexnvidia, Sep 2, 2010
    #3
  4. checkklevels

    checkklevels Notebook Enthusiast

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    I believe the A01 was made as people upgrading from 4870 CF to 5870 CF had issues with the slave card as it was identical to the master card thus causing No Post in Bios A05 and above. Doesnt affect those who bought their laptops with 5870 CF preinstalled. Im also curious to find out whats the difference
     
    checkklevels, Sep 2, 2010
    #4
  5. Grimfan

    Grimfan Personal Shrink

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    From what i understand, and what Brian told me. Is that there is a problem with the slave A00 cards that are in service stock, being identical to the A00 master card. And therefor not booting. Don't confuse this with the cards you have installed from factory. Those are also both A00 cards, but the physical serial id of the cards should be different. I think there was a problem in labeling a master as slave, and not really about A00 and A01 being different.

    A00 and A01 in general, is inside Dell their referring to a Revision Version, and which quality process it has been evaluated for. So with the new A01 slave cards, there should be no such thing happened. And they were authorized for service as A01 cards, to differ them correctly from the BOTH A00 slave cards, which one is a mislabeled slave card being a master card (in service) and the correct slave card being different from the master card (from factory).

    So if you get 2 cards replaced, you should get an A00 master card and A01 slave card. Important is that they both have different serial numbers on the back.
     
    Grimfan, Sep 2, 2010
    #5