Help installing 580m

I just received the 580m from ebay and I was wondering how to install it. I am relatively inexperienced at this and have carefully followed guides to disassemble the machine. I would like to know the correct placement of thermal pads (which it came with). My order also came with two sets of screws, one I assume to fasten the gpu assembly to the computer and the other to fasten the brackets to the gpu. Please clarify this. Thanks

P.S. They told me the default heatsink can be used, so I assume that goes for the brackets, which are fasted to the heatsink. I cannot seem to be able to remove the 4 default screws in the brackets to replace them with the 580m ones. Please help with this too

 

Welcome to the forum.

It is helpful if you put your current laptop specs into your signature so people know what you have... specifically we need to know which GPU you currently have. The 6970/6990 backplate is NOT compatible with the 580m card. It will cause damage if you use it. The heatsink from a 6970/90 will work fine without changes (I am using one without issues). The GPU is held to the motherboard with 2 screws. 4 screws hold the heatsink to the GPU via the backplate on the back of the GPU. 3 screws hold the fan in place. When removing your old GPU, 1st remove the fan, then the 2 screws that hold the GPU down, the GPU and heatsink will remove as a single unit.

 

Thank you. My laptop has a gtx 460m. Simply put, what do I have to do to install it? I heard it was relatively painless, but I guess I just don't understand it hehe. The gpu I ordered came with a bunch of thermal pads, 2 little black screws, and 4 white screws. What do I do with each? Sorry that I'm an amateur.

 

I don't know if the 460m backplate or heatsink is compatible. Best to remove the 460m backplate (without damaging it) and see if it will fit onto the 580m without touching anything it shouldn't.

 

Hmm, I'm pretty sure its compatible. The issue I'm having now is trying to remove the little screws from the metal spring clamps that fasten to the video card. The ones in them dont fit into the new video card, but the card shipped with some. How do I remove them so I can replace them? They have those little plastic discs on them.

 

They should just unscrew from the card. If you can show a photo, it may help.

 

Sorry if I'm being unclear. The clamps that I'm referring to are the ones attached to the heatsink that screw into the 4 holes of the x bracket. There are screws in the 4 clamps and theyre held in place by little plastic discs. Should i remove the discs? Are those screws, which were previously fastening my original video card to the heatsink, supposed to be fit in the x bracket of the 580m? Like I mentioned, 4 white screws were shipped with my card. Do I take remove the 4 plastic discs and 4 associated screws from the heatsink clamps and replace them with the 4 new screws? This is the part that I am stuck at. I cannot seem to attach the new video card to the heatsink clamps. Thanks again.

 

Ok, lets see if I have this right, the screws will come out, but are being held in the "in" position by the white disks. If this is correct, and the only thing holding you back is the disks, then remove them, they don't matter anyway.

What did your new card come with? If it only came with a card and screws, you will need to use your current backplate (otherwise the heatsink will have nothing to hold onto). If the old backplate will not fit onto the 580m, you are screwed, if it does. There shouldn't be any problems.

Yes I see no reason not to.

YES!

 

No, unfortuntately, the screws in the heatsink clamps are being held in place by the plastic discs, but if what your saying is true, then I can remove the discs. But you are also saying that those screws needn't be removed, because they should fit into the new video card's x bracket. Also, sorry to sound more like an amateur, but what is the backplate? Is it that small metal box on the exact opposite side of the x bracket?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-heatsink-460m-heatsink-interchangeable.html

Try reading this.

 

This helps. How were the screws removed from the heatsink on the left? Mine has plastic discs. I guess I can force them off. Also, my 580m x bracket looks like that one there. Can I use that one and replace the screws once I have take them off? Or should i replace the x bracket on my 580m with the old video card's? Also, is there anything I have to do with the backplate on the 580m?

The thread you linked me to seems useful. How do I remove the mounting bracket on both cards and place the old one on the new card? I guess once I do that, the screws will fit perfectly in the old heatsink.

 

The mounting bracket (which is the metal square thing on the back on the video card opposite side as the heatsink), which we call a backplate, is held on by double sided tape. It must be pealed off very carefully. Try not to damage your old card, and try not to bend the plate too much so it will fit better on the new card.

 

K thanks a lot, I think I installed it correctly. I removed the x bracket from the old video card, which was a tedious process as I removed the sticker underneath it as well. Then i applied it to the new video card and, hence, the heatsink screws fit perfectly. I applied the thermal pads on the appropriate places. Now I am installing the new video card's video bios to finish the process. Am I forgetting anything? Thanks again

 

When you install the new 580m, you need thermal pads along the bottom of it.


Above is a picture of a 6990m. See the large thermal pad on the top of the heatsink? It is covering the VRAM modules. The 580m has modules on the top and what would be the left side of this card (if it was 580m). Both the top and side modules need to be covered by thermal pads.

If you look at the bracket below the heatsink, you will see it has a tab on the bottom of it with pastic covering it. That is the special part of the 580m backplate that I don't know if the 460m heatsink has. If you don't have one, you need to make sure you have thermal pads on all the VRAM modules.

Since you don't have a 580m backplate

 

Well when I opened the laptop there was already a large thermal pad sitting underneath the original video card. I simply placed thermal pads in the same spots as the original video card. There were two rows of vram chips at 90 degress to each other on each side, right? That means i needed 4 thermal pads. I manually placed 2. The other one was already under the metal flap of the x bracket that I took from the original video card. The last one is the one covered by the large thermal pad. Am I missing any vram chips? Would a program like GPU-Z show that my temperature is too high if there is a problem with lack of thermal pads? On a different note, the frame rate in games is really terrible. I heard it is because of throttling. Is this common? Did i just waste all my efforts? I dont want to have to switch to the other gpu again.

 

Correct, 2 sets of chips in an L shapped 90 degree pattern.

Good I am glad the 460m HS has one. Sounds like it is just like the 580m one.

Doesn't sound like it.

Probably, you should idle somewhere in the 50C range, I idle at 56C. Playing games should be in the high 60s to low 70s. If you go over 78C, the throttle will kick in and performance will go to crap, if that happens, your paste job is bad, or you applied the pads poorly, or who knows what.

There are two throttles, a power throttle, which can disabled by using Widzu vBios here.... http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...throtting-fix-no-need-modify-system-bios.html AND a thermal throttle (78C) that cannot be disabled.

If your temps are going over 78C (use HWinfo32 to find out), then you are getting to hot and need to fix it.

 

Feral9, did you actually order a Clevo/Eurocom GTX580M ? If yes, it must be from upgradeyourlaptop, isn't it ? It would then confirm that the thermal throttling is due to the M17xR3 MOBO and that all AW/Dell GTX580M can be used in other laptops without throttling if we flash to a Clevo vbios...

 

hey you said that the backplate of 6970/6990 is not compatible with the 580M right? what about the 560M has? because I'm also planning to upgrade mine to 580M too..

 

I've never seen a 460 or 560 plate, so I don't know for sure, but according to the new guy, he is using his, so I guess so.

Of you can post a photo of yours next to a ruler, I could tell for sure.

 

Yes, I ordered from there. They tell me that it is compatible with Alienware m17x r3. They sent me a picture of where to place the thermal pads and I didn't place any on the bulky square ones on top. I guess that's why it was throttling. Is that correct?

 

Good, the thermal throttling is then purely MOBO related...just to confirm.
You have to use high conductivity thermal pads and paste, and fit some pads at the back of the card to cover the VRAM !

 

Thanks. Sorry in advance for being an amateur. So I place thermal pads on those bulkier vram chips too? They told me not to use the x bracket from the old video card on the new one. I already took them off and swapped them, but I put them back when the throttling occurred. Should I use the old bracket and old screws, or use the new bracket on the new video card and swap the screws with the new ones? (because they wont fit in the new x bracket)

 

@Pau1ow, I think that the 580M throttling is system BIOS related, so theoretically at least, a Dell 580M could be used in another notebook without the same throttling issues so long as it doesn't run into that notebook's power/temp limitations, but flashing it with a Clevo (or other) vbios should have no effect, except as needed for compatibility.

@Feral9, it is very important that thermal pads be placed between the VRAM chips and the heatsink to facilitate heat transfer and cooling of the memory. With regard to which back plate, it shouldn't really matter so long as the respective backplate/post/screw combinations result in good contact between the GPU die and chips and the heatsink, unless I'm missing something.

 

Hmm, not sure I understand. My laptop is a Dell one and I ordered the 580m off ebay. I'm told it should work. I think I narrowed down the problem to not having enough thermal pads on the vram chips. I will probably do some permanent damage if I try again so I'm thinking of just calling a Dell technician to do it for me.

 

Your warranty will be void if Dell find out you've been putting in an aftermarket GPU. The warranty only covers the parts in your current system. Here's what, I'm repasting my GPU tomorrow. I'll take as many pictures as I can of the set up for you to follow.

 

When I called Dell they told me that the warranty wouldn't be void if they do it, including if I purchase a card from a vendor. I hope they're not lying. And thanks for the pictures. I don't trust my limited knowledge.

 

Do no call Dell for such a thing, wait for Widezu to get back to you with some proper pictures and you will see that this is really easy.

 

I thought it was easy, but I'm having a nightmare trying to install it. I'm afraid of doing permanent damage to my laptop, so I think I'd rather just pay someone (depending on how much) to do it to save me the hassle and potential voiding of the warranty. The pictures would still be appreciated though

 

Yeah seriously don't call Dell yet! Just wait until this weekend passes. Then you can decide

 

@Feral9, the top card is what the backplate and backside pads of a 580M should look like.

 

Look at Rev's photos the first one represents all the correct parts in the correct use. Now if you run into throttling, that is normal. Look in my sig, there is a link to fix it all

 

@The Revelator, thanks for the pics. See the backplate on the top card is the one that was on my old card. I took it off the old card and placed it on the 580m, installed it, but was experiencing throttling (although I think that was due to lack of thermal pads). I emailed the vendor just to be sure and I believe he said not to switch the backplates or it might short out the card.

It's ok though, a Dell technician is coming and they are not charging me for the upgrade. As that will also allow my warranty to still be valid, I might as well take advantage of it.

 

Yeah the throttling has nothing to do with the lack of thermal pads. Seriously a lot of users experience this me included. It is built into the bios. Like I said, the fix is in my sig.

 

Good luck, Feral9. Pretty nice of Dell. I can't believe they're making a home visit to install a Eurocomm card. You must be a helluva negotiator.

 

Lol thanks. Am I really in the clear? I told them that it wasn't a Dell card and they originally said it was going to be $120. But then the agent talked with his supervisor and told me it was going to be free for "customer satisfaction." I guess I am in the clear then. Unless something goes wrong when the technician calls me or comes over to install it. Apparently they could also have assisted me to install it over the phone, and the warranty would also not have been voided. But I don't want my inexperienced hands to touch the inside of my laptop again lol

 

Yeah well you got lucky with the support If after the tech has installed and you still have throttling, use the fix in my sig

 

Kk thanks a lot. After installing the card I'll check some games to see if there's throttling and see what the technician thinks of it. I wonder if he has some method to fix it.

 

Well he'll tell you to get the latest 580m vbios from the Dell website that claims to fix throttling. When in actual fact, it just makes the throttle less aggressive. It is still there just less noticeable. My fix fixes everything up to 79C.

 

Out of curiosity, how common is this throttling issue? How long has it been going on? If it's really common, wouldn't Dell have done something immediately about it? What are the chances that I'll experience throttling? Really high?

 

580m is a nice car, GL

 

Throttling will depend on if you overclock, what your room temp is, and what games you are playing (& their settings).

If I play BF3 in a hot room with an overclock of 800 core/1800 memory, I can hit the 78C throttle and it ruins my game play.

If you don't overclock and have air conditioning you should be ok.

 

Dell caused the problem with an aggressive throttling policy, presumably to protect against potential component damage. The basic aim is understandable, but the execution is overly conservative. The conservative throttling points (initial throttling occurs with temps in the mid-60C's), coupled with relatively high temps because of inadequate fans or fan control, can result in very uneven performance or worse. Fortunately there are workarounds and mitigations which can avoid the worst aspects of the throttling mess, but it's an unnecessary PITA and probably not apparent to most new users without access to this or similar forums. In many ways it's a replay of the early M15x experience with the 260M's; it took a long time for Dell to even concede that there was a throttling problem then and even longer to finally fix it with a simple BIOS revision. I would expect no different here.

 

Hmm, thanks that's very informative. Well it seems apparent that it is a fairly widespread issue, so I suppose it can't be ignored for long. After my card is installed, I suppose I might have these other issues to deal with. A friend of mine has ordered an m17x with a 580m so it'll be interesting to see if he will experience this.

 

Guys I will get the Dell 580M installed in my MS16F2 by tomorrow, interesting to see what thermal throttling looks like with my mobo..

 

Share your experiences. With proper management, the 580M is a versatile, kick ice card.

 

Curious, the backplate that covers the four chips, I'm assuming there is therm pad under that plate? I see by the pic revelator posted there is a large thermal pad covering the other four (plus a large amount of the card, is it necessary to cover that much of the card or could a strip covering the chips work?)

 

That's a good question. Not really sure what function that large back pad serves other than increased surface for heat dispersion, but can't imagine that contributes much to cooling. But that's the way Alienware delivers them, so I've continued to use it. (There is a pad under the rectangular plate/mini-HS on the back.)

 

Sounds good, I have yet to tear mine apart but i'm only going from the 570 to 580 (yes, short jump, wanted the full 580 not the strip down 570) so it should be close (as far as thermal pad placement). Is there quite a bit of themal pad placement on the other side?

 

Look at the top card in the picture seen at Post #30 of this thread. That's the back of a Dell 580M.

 

I was asking if there was pictures of both sides of the card or is thermal pad placement only on the back side. (which i've got the card in hand and I see the chip sets on both sides of the card)