HiDevolution never again.

I am looking for an alternative to HiDevolution on the 980M upgrade service (not self installation kit), anyone knows another specialist retailer that offers similar service in the USA?

 

I would personally recommend upgradeyourlaptop (eurocom). Although they may be tad pricier, I can guarantee their efficiency and at the very least their honesty in doing business.

 

yeah, it's about a $50 CAD difference for me to buy from eurocom but you are only getting a 6 month warranty compared to the 1 year warranty from hidevolution. though i think 6 months might be ok but will have to try to find out.

 

Read through this post and noticed a few people reporting issues with HIDEvo. I check their ebay feedback and in the last 6 months there's 3 or 4 negatives out of a few pages which I assume the OP is one of them "l***x" seems like it could be billyqx in any case it seems like standard issues with retailers. I planned on ordering a 980m this week but not sure what to do. I like the year "warranty" but ebay seller warranties are 100% worthless anyway. Once it's beyond the ebay chargeback period you can't do anything anyway.

 

Unless you are willing to take it directly to their retailer for the warranty. Their ebay rep is slow in response to the point that you may think they are ignoring you. Not to mention that I have been lied to on a few occasion by that rep himself. Would had at least saved me tons of trouble by telling things straight to me.

 

sounds like they're only using just 1 rep to do all their CS...not good for the company really.

i sent them an email as to the screw type of the x-bracket and i didn't get any info on that.

 

Hey Billy I read in another post where you were telling people not to buy from hid and ted responded saying they weren't ignoring you. Are they taking care of you now. I'm going to buy a 980m and I'm only 3 hours driving distance from hidevolution so that seams like the fastest route for me.

 

are you going for a self install or get them to do the upgrade?

 

I will do it myself. Should be pretty straight forward. Swap gpu . Mod inf . Install driver. And away I go.

 

since you're already in optimus it's just a matter of...

uninstalling nvidia drivers
reboot into safe mode and DDU the nvidia registries
shut down and remove 770M
install 980M
reboot to disable driver signing
install modded nvidia drivers & reboot

it sounds so simple!

 

Sounds simple to you. But that's were I will need help . With installing the driver. I've never messed with drivers before. When I went from 770m to 780m I just swapped cards and when I booted my laptop it automatically installed the right driver. I didn't have to do anything.

I have been using my laptop in optimus the last 2 days and it has been working flawlessly. My overclock on my card holding solid 100%. Just hope it works same with 980m.

 

just get someone to help you with modding the inf for the driver you're using and just install them.

 

Prior to posting it, I have been ignored completely for more than a week. That alongside with how they handled things unprofessionally which would result in me not getting my gpu or money back should I not intervene, gave me a really really bad impression on them. You can read more regarding my feedback for them in this thread.

 

I'm glad to hear they are finally taking care of you. I hope the card works for you. Do let us know how it goes.

 

all the more i will try eurocom and report back as well.

 

Update; Received the card via fedex and currently looking into the contents. The card that was shipped has residues all over the chip and VRAM. feeling slightly pessimistic about it..... Could be that the shipping was rushed.

 

just get some rubbing alcohol and give it a good clean before installing.

would like to see what you're experience is like

 

So far so good on it. Currently downloading the newer versions of 3dmark. Did a run of far cry 4 on it on ultra for 5-10 minutes and its temperature peaked at 67 degree. What puzzles me though is that there is no way for me to control the temps via hwinfo64 and the fan would not speed up (runs only at 2000-2500rpm) until it hits 70 degree. Has been a recurring issue on the AW 17 with hwinfo

 

That's a HUGE red flag right there. I don't care what anyone says about HIDevolution but that's in the realm of scammer tactics. If it were me I'd tell the rep to ship out the replacement, and once I have the replacement and verify that it's not another DOA or defective part, only then would I close the Paypal case. I'm glad things worked out for you in the end but now you know that with Paypal you can't reopen a dispute once you close it.

 

Exactly why I said I took the plunge when I closed it.

Did a run of fire strike and my score was surprisingly low @ 7.5k as opposed to the typical 8k+ scores of 980m NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Alienware 041W46

Currently using 347.09 on dedicated mode

 

Any idea what vBIOS is on there? Seems one of the three is usually better than the others for certain people. My understanding is it ran "slower" on the AW17 aka m17x r5 than on the R4 and the M18 laptops. I saw one benchmark with 10k+

"4,096 MB Hyundai Electronics DDR3 @ 800 MHz"

Your RAM can be affecting it as well. 800MHz is pretty slow by today's standards.

 

It is 1600mhz for the ram. Rams are typically shown as half of its value in benchmarks. This is the benchmark for fire strike and typically other 980ms scores around 8k+.


edit: @LVNeptune the bios version is 84.04.22.00.10

Did another benchmark with 344.91 drivers and the fire strike score bumped higher to 7719. J95 mentioned in the techinferno forums that the 347.09 driver is redundant as it had overclock locked and performs lower in benchmarks.

 

keep trying other drivers!

 

went from 7.5k to 7.8k after reverting to 344.75. Something is clearly amiss here. J95 did mention that it might be my bit defender causing performance issue

 

Don't use 347.09... Use 344.75.. also I would flash svl7's unlocked Maxwell vBIOS.. It should make your stock clocks as full boost ones (there is no GPU boost in it) so then your score should be better..

As for thermal residue, you might want to call them and demand an explanantion.. I think they must have tested the card before sending it to you.. I doubt it's a used card since my card and everyone elses came new... and let's be honest here Billy, your'e the only one here I've ever seen complain so much about Hide.. Sure they weren't that honest but you also have to take some responsibilty for not communicating enough with them.. Why wait for 2 weeks for the fed ex tracking etc? I had mine updating every time it moved.. You should have contacted them earlier..

http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...s-mods-900m-series-overclocking-versions.html

 

My bet is them testing it. Since you had a faulty one originally I would expect them to hand test the next one going out so they don't inconvenience you again. That's what I would do, anyway.

 

You were not in my shoe to know my experience with them. I sure as hell did not wait out 2 weeks without doing anything at all. Why else would I say that I was lied multiple time by the ebay rep? There has been far too many occasion that I was disappointed by the same ebay rep over and over again. I sent them an email/message literally every day ever since the 10th of December outlining on my card's condition. If you want to, I would be more than happy to upload all the mails/ messages to prove you otherwise. You should probably read up on my experience sum with them:

Not trying to sound offensive here but I would never boycott anyone else if they had done their job properly because I sure as hell know I did what I could as a purchaser to ensure my product reaches my hand.

 

Prior to me boycotting them, I called them their number up only to be told by the tech support that my card has not been tested yet and would not be shipped out yet. Do take note that this is more than 1 week after my RMA arrived on their office. Under normal circumstances I would understand that there would be production lines that I would have to wait for but by no means is it acceptable for them to charge me with express shipping only to receive it 3 weeks later with DOA and subsequently, another 2 more weeks for them to receive and re-ship out my card.


With all said and done, they did replaced my card rather quickly and I have to commend them for finally getting the job done properly. In regards to my GPU's performance, I initially tested it out with svl7's vbios and the scores were pretty much the same if I'm to reset the clocks to stock. It was until I flashed prema's vbios that my GPU's turbo boost finally worked correctly. That coupled with 344.91 gave me this benchmark in 3dmark11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,Alienware 041W46

 

i'm curious to see how the 347.25 drivers + prema vbios will perform?

 

HidEvo no longer is selling the card by itself. The listings have been removed from ebay as well as their website. You can only purchase it with install now.

 

eurocom it is then!

EDIT: so long as there's other places to get a 980M then i am not worried.

 

Eurocom is good for you since it's within your country. We rarely get hit with customs fees in the US but chances are with something that high dollar it would get hit.

 

yeah, so long as they're still selling it by early feb then i'll be OK

 

Guess what? GPU died. AGAIN. wow. this is really getting out of hand.

 

how did that happen?

if i do go ahead with it i better keep my 780m for a few months as a just in case thing.

 

Indeed.. Seems weird that lightning struck twice... maybe it's better Billy if you got your money back bought it from Eurocom now... You've had enough problems now..

 

i ain't taking that risk so i'll just wait and buy a clevo

 

Aren't the ones shipping with laptops going to be BGA? Not that it matters anymore I guess. Clevo/Sager/Aorus needs to come out with that graphics amplifier deal so i can support a company that isn't turning to like Alienware. Refresh your laptops with new cpu and old gpu. Screw off =/

 

A little update here: the ebay rep has offered me either a replacement or refund. A refund seems like the best solution there as I am most definitely not taking any chances there again. A little details here as well regarding my GPU's condition before it died: Max temp reached while gaming/ benchmarking was 66 degree celcius. Gaming never lasted more than 1 hour continuously and benchmarking are generally only 5-10 minutes. GPU died on me while I was writing a report on microsoft word ( no utilization of GPU there).


Thinking of either getting a 980m from eurocom or 970m and saving up the rest for a desktop

 

Interesting. I think I'm done with laptop gaming after I pick what laptop I want to keep Aorus or Razer.

 

after all the fuss probably best not to and just keep the money for a more decent computer!

i should check to see how much it would cost for me to have an m-atx pc built!

 

If space saving is your deal get the X51 R2 and throw a 970 or 980 in it. Make sure it is the one with the 330w power supply and not the 240w one. The 760 and up should all have a 330w

 

nah, time to move from alienware i think.

 

While I agree with you as far as notebooks are concerned. I really like my X51. It's usually pretty damn quiet and a lot is packed into it being so small. Doesn't get ridiculously hot either. I have a 4TB and a 240gb ssd in mine. I haven't really been using it for gaming just transcoding movies to watch on plex in my bedroom. I'm going to throw a 980 in it then sell my R4 off and be done with it. I'll have a nice portable gaming laptop with either Razer or Aorus plus a kick desktop.

 

330W enough for even a 980?

 

Way more than enough. The stock 760 it comes with is 150w TDP

AnandTech | The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2

980 is 165w TDP

 

hmmm....if only i could get someone to buy my AW17 LOL

EDIT: would rather get tatts on my upper arms done so

 

750 USD no SSD/HDD/box

Just laptop and charger

:3

 

love to sell it now though it's the only PC I have at the moment! probably once i get the cash to buy a clevo.

 

I was looking at the X51 option as a project and it does look tempting.. but I rather have a Clevo with a desktop 4790K + 2 NVIDIA GPU's in SLI.. Which should hopefully come out in September in time for me to buy it once I start my job