How to upgrade my alienware M17x R4 to gtx 980m ?

How to upgrade my alienware M17x R4 to gtx 980m ?

I have removed my all gtx 580 m and replace the 980m into the mxm slot. When i turn the laptop on its making beep noise 7beeps im on bios A15

Ive used DDU to install the previous Nvidia drivers


Is there something im doing wrong?

Ive test the 980m in my Hp Elitebook 8770w and it works fine?

Can someone please help

Many thanks

Ritz



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

M17X R4 never came with a 580M

 

Hi sorry i meant to say 680m


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Is it a 60 or 120 Hz Screen?

 

Hi mate,

My I’ve just check my screen refresh rate HZ - its 64 Hz

Please see picture attached.

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

So is it a 60 or 120hz?
64hz means the driver for the dGPU/iGPU isnt installed so the screen isnt setting itself properly

 

Thanks for your help on this.

Im not sure myself quite new to alienware.

Is there a link to download the igpu driver ?

I will get the dgpu on Nvidia driver website.

Can you explain the difference between having a 60Hz /120Hz affect the GPU upgrade.

Sorry for this but never done upgrade on alienware before


Cheers




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hey pal,

in our old machines the 120 Hz screen usually makes GPU upgrades somewhat easier and the cards can also run their full potential.

You can distinguish by the little infrared emitter on the bottom left corner of the screen. A little red square like spot.

 

All i can see on the left bottom corner a rectangular shape, please see picture below


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for you help on this.

The laptop doesn’t boot without the 580m card in got 8 beeps code.

The 980m come from a Clevo laptop.

Ive also got a gtx 675m and 580m where. The 580m come from a m17r3 and the 675m come from a m17 r4.

The laptop will only boot with the 580m but not with the 675m and 980m and resulting in getting 7 beeps code.

Do i have to install the internal driver for the integrated GPU.

Im on A15 bios.

Your help is much appreciated

Cheers
Ritz

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Cannot tell from your photo but it looks like this. (Photo is with flash, it's not so clearly visible under normal light).

 

I hope this is ok


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ok that's 120 Hz, optimal starting point for GPU upgrade!

 

How's your BIOS' boot settings set?

 

I hope this helps im on legacy



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Legacy needs to be turned off
(and better also turn off fast boot and secure boot).

And in order you need to reinstall windows completely under UEFI.

 

Ok will try to reinstall windows under UEFI and see how its goes

And looks like my bios wont allow me to change load legacy option rom if i try to disable it i get the below warning


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Will reinstall windows in UEFI and keep updated

Thanks mate


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You'd need a UEFI capable vBIOS for your old card, in order to switch this BIOS setting. This setting is essential. Your new card won't POST with 120 Hz when legacy active.

Is your old card a 580m or 680?

 

I bought the motherboard not long ago where the seller told me a previously had a 7970m ati factory.

At the moment the gtx 580 seems to post where as the 675 & 980m wont resulted with 8beeps.

Where can i find the UEFI capable of vbios. I have never flash vbios before so im not really to sure.

If i dont put the 580 in the laptop it won’t boot on the integrated gpu .

What is the best next step as i was just about to do a new UEFI windows installation win 10 .




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thats normal the 120 Hz won't boot on the integrated.

 

Well now it becomes a bit tricky, you'd need either a UEFI capable vBios or GPU.

At the time of my upgrade, I luckily had a 780m Clevo which is capable.
In the meanwhile I sold that card, now have 660m, 675m with capable vBios' as backup card, I think i still have this 675m vBios file smwhere. PM me your mail, if I find it I will send it, you have a working 675m as I understood, correct?

In the meanwhile you should start reading how to use nvflash


You could also look over at TI, as far as I recall, svl7 had done some modded vBios for some of our R4s GPUs:
https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...t-secure-boot-gpu-issues-solved/&tab=comments

But downloading there takes alittle bit time and patience or a little amount of $$s.


_

 

Thanks again your help is much appreciated.

Yes i got a working GeForce 675m which came from an M17x R4.

I will start reading on how to use nvflash as advised.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hi mate,

I got good news I’ve managed to get the GTX 980m to work .

After reinstalling windows as UEFI GPT ad advised I tried the GTX980m into the laptop but was still getting 8beeps,

Then for some reason i decided to plug in the HDMI cable into the laptop and was posting and detecting the 980m.

Once in windows i decided to mod the 980m then install the nvidia driver.

But wouldn’t post unless i leave the HDMI plug in.

By disable all legacy and the boot change to UEFI and now everything seems to working fine now.

All i can say is a big thank you for your help.

Cheers
Ritz



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Super mate

 

Mate ,

I have noticed that my wireless connection keep on dropping like every 5 - 10mins .

Have you heard of people having issues with their wireless network on m17 r4 something to do with the killer driver/card.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

To be honest, I haven't heard anything. But maybe there's some problem with it.
I don't have a killer card.

Better open a new thread.

 

I had a similar problem with my 17 R1 where I would lose connectivity every so often, I resolved it by using an older version of the driver that was already in windows. This had nothing to do with my GPU upgrade as it was a problem before I upgraded

 

Hi thanks for you this, i will install an older version of the driver and see if this helps.

Cheers
Ritz


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Did the driver help?

If not, get a wifi analyzer for your phone and see if there are other wifi routers on the same channel. I had a problem with this for a long time at my home. Would have good signal then it would just disconnect. This was happening on every device. I changed my wifi channel on my router to one less crowded and BAM! No more disconnect problems.

 

Hey Ritz1209,
Could you please tell me step by step to upgrade your GPU?I have same machine with 120hz 3D display. From my own search, I'm gonna need windows set up in UEFI with fast and secure boot disabled.
Thanks
Duck