M17x R1 to M17x R2 in 2020

I'm obtaining an M17x R1 soon. It has Qx9300 processor and 5870m in CFX.

I've purchased what I need to make it an R2.

($100) M17x R2 Motherboard P/N 14M8C
($50) i7-920xm CPU (the 940xm was ~$30 more and I didn't feel it was worth it)
($10) M17xR2 Magnesium Plate P/N 3MJ0K
($7) M17xR2 CPU Heatsink RVXVK

($167) Total
This will make it an R2 with an i7-920xm running CFX 5870m.

Future upgrades:
(~$20) Intel 7260 WiFi/Bluetooth Chip (half card, mpcie)
($50-$70) DDR3-10600 SODIMM RAM, it currently has 2x4gb. I would like to expand this to quicker 16gb.
($100-$150) RGBLED (P/N K1NFP) if applicable - from my understanding, the R1 never came with the RGBLED. It has a 1900x1200 screen, so it must be the CCFL variant. I'll have to pick one of those up at some point. Looks like it needs a specific cable (P/N 0HP693) which is about $20-$30, but it is shown as an R1 and R2 part, possibly interchangeable and the standard part already included. I'll have to check when I disassemble.
(~$250) Better GPU(s). A single 8970m will be more stable and outperform CFX 5870ms. I've seen some traction on other cards, but this seems to be the best plug, play, and forget card. The problem - price. The Clevo 8970m, which has the CFX port and native support, is basically outrageously priced wherever I look. Cheapest I could find on eBay was $258, which is honestly comical. The Dell card and other brands can be had for $150-$200, but have compatibility issues according to other members of the forum. So unless I sell my CFX 5870s, I'll probably stick with them for the time being.

Other stuff: the full card mpciex1 slot will be open after I remove the bluetooth dedicated card. I can put a few different things in here, but the m17x R1/R2 are both SATAII and PCIe 2.0, so not much to put here to really take advantage of much speed. Maybe a dongle for a mouse or Xbox Wireless adapter with a mpcie usb adapter.

I've watched a few videos and this honestly looks pretty simple. Disassemble, thermal pads, paste, and reassemble. Anyone know the thickness of the pads for the CPU and GPUs? I have extra fujipoly 1mm and .5mm. I also have Phobia thermal grease.

I will edit and update with pictures and such if anyone wants me to.

Conclusions: this isn't cost effective at all, but it is fun. The m17x R1 I am buying was my first gaming laptop. I bought it in early 2010 before I deployed to Afghanistan and it came with me. It has been in close proximity to some explosions and was filled with Afghan sand. I'm glad to be getting it back and messing with it. This is more a passion project than anything. I have a custom built desktop and a 13 R3 for my gaming needs. With all the extra parts, I may end up with a second Frankenstein M17x R1 at some point! I might just sell those parts off (inquire).

edit: links to products are autopopulated and do not necessarily represent what I bought.

edit 2: (May 15 2020) Just to update, I am waiting on parts. The 920xm and 8970m are taking their sweet time, while everything else is on order.

I decided to do the AX200 WiFi 6 installation. It seems possible but will require some effort. I'll update that later.

 

I had a 680m in my M15x and thought it was a good setup with the 940xm. Fun project. Hope your mobo is good.

 

How is driver support for the 680m? IIRC it is about on par with the 8970m, at stock maybe a little bit less, but eclipses it with some light overclocking. I'm trudging through old NBR posts. Is 680m plug and play, with native fan control? I read on a 2011 post that XM CPUs required HWINFO controlled fans with 680m, but not sure if that is still the case. The price is much better on these, about $150-$170 and I can get a matching pair for SLI. I would still need an SLI cable and to check if 680m SLI even works on the R2. I only have the 240w power brick. So many questions and millions of google responses!

edit: WOW! I found lots of my replies from 2013, a lot of knowledge gained and lost in 7 years

As I thought, the 8970m and 680m both require 100w. To run them in CFX/SLI would require at least a 330w PSU modded with a 240w ID chip. That still seems to be pushing it, and that lead to several people modding 2x 240w adapters together to make a 480w adapter. I've seen several people here running i7-940xm and 2x 8970m, so there must be something to it. I think I'll stick with a single card solution, and that will be the 680m if I can find out if it works well enough. I'll also look in to the heatsink, as it may be different for the 680m than 5870m. I remember something about that when I upgraded from 260m SLI to 5870m CFX.

 

Yes native fan control on the M15x with the Dell card that is why I never went any further. I would think you could do SLI on the M17x R2 but what titles would benefit from it?

OC was good on the 680M also (core not memory on the GPU). Just make sure you get enough thermal pads for all parts that can touch the heatsinks.

 

Alright that will be on my list. I have plenty of thermal pads and paste around since I've been doing a lot of local maintenance work as a side hustle. Heatsink the same for 5870m and 680m? Modified inf for driver?

 

Yeah at a certain point 680M just fell out of the nvidia list. So you have to add it back into the inf, I forget what one I stopped at. I was coming from a 260M so not sure about the GPU heatsink. I did do some fan upgrades if you search old posts of mine in the M15x section.
Maybe it will give you some ideas on how to swap in stators of faster spinning fans into the M17x R1 housings.

 

Nvidia stopped kepler support back in march-april 2019. No more new drivers to be had for them, and frankly they stopped adding anything performance related to them around 2014. None will give native fan control in the M17x R2, you will rely on HWinfo which I found to be unreliable, so I do not bother with 680M. @Rengsey R. H. Jr. got 880M working but with more problems: no native fan control, no onboard sound (must use USB headphones with built in DAC and disable HD sound in BIOS), and 880M is a very very hot card that will overwhelm M17x R2 cooling capability in the long term.

Dell 5870M (factory card) will work without problems, but it is very tired in 2020.
GTX 285M will also work (but it is even MORE tired than the 5870M) with full native fan support and HDMI audio as it is a factory card.
Clevo 7970M V1.2, and Clevo 8970M are they only AMD upgrade cards that will give native fan support. They will not give sound over HDMI but they will give sound over display port to hdmi. they are still supported in latest drivers, and definitely outperform the 680M. Do not bother with crossfire 8970M, only for bragging rights. They are expensive cards because they work better than the rest. Don't bother with the Dell and MSI junk as they do not have native fan control and are typically binned lower in my experience.

 

Welp, guess I'll be going for the more expensive 8970m blue card. Should be plug and play, same heatsink as 5870? I'm sure I can sell the 5870 CFX for a good amount. $250+ is nuts, I could almost buy a GTX 1080 for a desktop for that, but that is the goofy old Alienware life I suppose.

I'll make sure the mobo is running and do all the other upgrades first, then I'll do the 8970m.

Edit: ...well, I got a 8970m with pads, xbracket, and clevo screws for $200. Guess I might as well start looking for a good deal on ram and the screen and just go full in.

edit 2: thinking of a few more variables that will come up. What bios should I put the motherboard to? Is there a specific vbios I will need for the 8970m? Can I leave a 5870m in the primary slot, flash the 8970m while it is in the secondary slot? Or do I have to blind flash? Will it matter that nothing is in the second GPU slot when I'm running the 8970m?

 

There are cards that can be had for what a couple of rolls of sushi cost that work pretty well in the R2 like the firepro m6100 that is bit of a furnace though it can be hit or miss on some machines. I've been daily using an R2 that has a K3000m installed for the past two weeks while waiting on a Precision m6700 to arrive and found it to not be bad at all. Did try a K4100m last night and the existing drivers gave me a green screen as I didn't uninstall the drivers before hand. The R2 is pretty much limited to the Clevo 8970m unless you go through hell and back to get a 6bit panel installed then go through the usual inf crap to get much better Maxwell cards to work. 680m is overpriced for what it is like most mxm gtx cards in general and the only reason for going with quadros is better prices and they often don't conflict with the audio. I've tried to crossfire firepro cards three times without any success so only single card.

 

Just an update to this. The m17x R1 to R2 is 90% done, just waiting on some important parts.

Still waiting on: webcam (didn't realize the screens had different webcams), i7-920xm, 8970m.

I ordered an i5-520m for $7 just to test the system since i7-920xm is taking a while due to COVID-19 delays and overseas shipping. I'll put one of my 5870m back in while I wait too. I'll swap those out when I'm done.

I also ended up buying an adapter and the AX200, plus IPEX extension cables. I'll report back on those as well, but I won't have much data to provide since I don't have a WiFi 6 router (waiting for Wifi 6E honestly). At least I'll be able to post what I bought and if it works.

As for the extra half mini-pcie slot, I've seen USB adapters and dual microsd card readers. I might grab a microsd card reader to throw in there just for some extra storage, but I'm already set up with an MX500 SSD and 2TB Seagate HDD. I might do a Logitech unifying receiver inside for a semi-permanent wireless keyboard and mouse. I'll leave it be for now though.

Everything is assembled minus the CPU and GPU, which prevents me from putting on the magnesium plate, keyboard, touchpad, and power light bar. I have to wait on the screen because of the webcam too, but the m17x has one of the easiest to assemble screens I've ever worked with (so long as you aren't just switching out the panel, since that requires a heat gun and finesse).

Also grabbed a new CMOS battery just for good measure.

Cosmetically, I grabbed a new top plate and new touchpad. Makes it look like a near brand new system! I'll probably paint the old one since it isn't worth more than $10 in its current condition.

I'll have tons of m17x R1 parts to sell when all is said and done. Perfectly functioning Motherboard, 2x 5870m (flashed to master and slave) + crossfire cable and right heat sink, 8gb ram, QX9300 CPU, bluetooth card, wifi card, and whatever else I forgot to list.

 

Bad news everyone!

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1019-alienware-m15x-m17x-led-error-codes/
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Beep-Codes-Table/td-p/5588971

I have 3 system beeps: chipset failure
I have flashing scroll and caps lock: video card is preventing post
Solution: replace motherboard. So the mobo I have received is junk >: (

I have tried replacing various RAM modules, booting with and without mxm GPUs, no luck. Only thing I haven't been able to test is a different CPU as I'm still waiting on the i7-920xm. I only have a i5-520m right now.

 

Well your pricing on the mobo seemed too good to be true.

 

At the time there were a handful of auctions and buy it now around the same price. Seems all that has dried up! Saw 3 m17x R2s with various defects go for around $400 earlier, I bid but gave up too soon!

 

Requesting some help:
5870m gives three loud beeps, plus blinking lights indiciating GPU fail
5870m crossfire no longer beeps, lights blink
8970m black screen
260m black screen

tried this with the i5 and the 920xm


edit:
external monitor via VGA: no display.

Plugged my 5870m primary card into another R1. It boots but all black colors are green on screen..?! Very strange things happening. The R1 has BIOS A02 so that could be part of it.

Interestingly enough, the 5870m doesn't give error codes when inserted with the 920xm.

Perhaps the mobo AND the i5 are bad.

 

Burn it all.

 

Got an m15x in. Boots up just fine and is in great condition. It has an i5-540m, gtx 240m, 4gb ram inside. Tried the i5-520m - no post, error codes. Alright, that CPU is bunk. Tried the i7-920xm - POST! Installed Windows 10, the i7-920xm is working fine.

Tried the confirmed working i5-540m and the i7-920xm in the m17x R2. Black screen, repeated restarts, hopelessness. So the mobo and i5-520m are heading back to the sellers.

With all the parts I have, I'm going to end up with:
m17x R2 (Red)
RGBLED
i7-920xm
Clevo 8970m
16gb ram
500gb SSD
2tb hdd
blu ray drive

m15x
HD+ (might do the FHD upgrade)
i7-920xm
GTX 675m (might upgrade to 970m)
8gb ram
256gb SSD
500gb hdd (in dvd caddy)

m17x R1 (original mobo) (silver)
RGBLED 1900x1200
qx9300
CFX 5870m (if these actually work, otherwise single 5870 or 4870 or 260)
4-8gb ram
256 GB SSD
dvd drive

m17x R1 (black)
CCFL 1920x1200 (screen from original m17x)
whatever c2d is inside it right now
260m or 4870m depending on what is left over
4-8gb of ram depending on what is left over
Likely a 256gb ssd
dvd drive

Plan on keeping the R2 and the m15x, but I'll probably sell the R1s when I've fully restored them. The black R1 has some cosmetic issues so I have a few parts to replace.

The m15x, like the m17x r1 and 2, has a full mini pcie and half mini. I may do the WiFi 6 upgrade to it as well. I haven't actually tested it yet as I've been waiting for a working R2 mobo.

The 8970m passes post in the m15x but crashes a few minutes in because I have the wrong xbracket so thermals become an issue (this is what I presume, otherwise the card is bad). The correct xbracket is on the way. In addition, I'm still waiting on a right angle adapter so I can use a psu greater than 150w. This could also be why the m15x is crashing with the 8970m as the around 100w card, plus 55w cpu is more than the psu should push.

Hopefully by this time next week I'll have m15x and m17x R2 up and running and have something interesting to post.

 

Here is the update for this week:

AX200 Wi-Fi chip is WORKING.

Parts:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZVYKRW9/
AX200

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0838ZDD7L/
m.2 to mpcie edit: this adapter no longer has the ipex/ipex4
converter on it and as such will not work with the IPEX extension cables. I'll look for an alternative.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P85J34J/
IPEX extension cables.

So installation was simple. AX200 into the m.2 to mpcie adapter. The adapter in the link has small antenna cables that go from the adapter to the card. This is due to the old standard of cables having a different size than what is used on the AX200/m2 cards. The IPEX extension cables then go from the larger slots (the same size as the standard IPEX cables in the m17x) and reach the original antenna cables. You will have extras. I used the black and white cables, connected them to the IPEX extension, and used electrical tape to hold them together (they snap together well, though some reviews say the extensions are quite fragile). I taped the end of the blue cable that is longer and originally went to the bluetooth card and stuck it near the new wifi card. I taped the grey IPEX cable and stuck it where the old half mini pcie network card once was. I used the extra space there to tuck cables and tape.

Windows 10 needed an internet connection to download drivers for the adapter and the AX200. After it connected, it quickly installed the drivers. I plan to benchmark against the original m17x card soon. I will say that it had different speeds than my gaming PC (with an ASROCK b450m/AC mobo) and phone (Galaxy S8 Active). Slower, but not drastically. My connection is only 100 GBPS, WiFi 5, and I have a whole bunch of smart home stuff, so I'll see if I can find a better environment to test.

The m15x has a full and half mpcie slot as well, but it looks like it will need longer extension cables. I'm planning on doing this for that laptop as well. I'll be ordering the adapter and the AX200, installing those, and measuring the length needed for the IPEX extensions this weekend. I'll also benchmark

I have an R2 fully assembled now, working well. The touchpad is glowing but not registering any movement. I have to troubleshoot this a bit. Could be a driver issue or it could be the touchpad cable. I tried 3 different touchpad assemblies, so I'll have to figure it out. The 8970m installed easily and bench marked as expected without thermal issues. 16gb of ram shows as 0 in the bios, but 16gb in Windows 10. Windows 10 is working fine, AWCC and UI working as well.

I have an R1 that I'm testing with a few different GPUs. I have a 675m inside and don't expect it to post. It came from an R2 from another user here. That 675m will possibly end up in the m15x or I'll upgrade it to a 970m. I received a 1080p screen for the m15x, but it was scratched to all hell out of the box.

I still need good batteries in both the m17x and m15x. I can't find the 9 cell m15x for a reasonable price anywhere and m17x batteries are difficult to locate as well.

Happy that the systems are starting to run. It was looking bleak a little bit ago.

edit:
This adapter should work but is currently OOS: https://www.amazon.com/M-2-PCIe-Converter-Bluetooth-2010-2016/dp/B083YW3RM3

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NGFF-M-2-K...ter-BCM94352Z-for-Intel-AX200NGW/223944874884
in stock, US Seller on ebay

 

Has anyone actually tried something like Quadro M5000M in the M17xR2?

I'm trying to see what GPUs work and give what issues so maybe someone wants to correct me on the following:

285M/5870M - Native GPUs everything works

7970M - v1.2 Clevo models native fan control, onboard audio and sound through DP/HDMI (Dell/MSI no fan control) Then what does v1.0/1.1 do?

8970M - Clevo models same as above (Dell/MSI no fan control)

680M - Requires fan control? Onboard audio working? Sound through DP?HDMI working?

780M - Has IRQ conflicts? There was a driver mod somewhere here that address these IRQ issues, I will dig them up later and update on this...

M1000M - Apparently works fine according to one ebay listing

K3000M - Works according to one forum member here

K4000M - Works according to me, fan is constantly around 23xx-24xx RPM though, onboard audio works, will confirm HDMI/DP sound later

M6100/8950M - Works? Fan control? Onboard audio? HDMI/DP sound?


970/980M - Inveted/messed up colors? Require 6 bit panel mod (kills R2 purpose today IMO)

Any others I missed?

So basically same thing I did in M18xR2...I might try this on M17xR2 LOL

 

I didn't know anyone else was really doing the m.2 to mpcie wifi adapter for these laptops! I found through your video on a comment that said there is already a half mini card, and it is very cheap.

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/4000571421339.html

Searched and found this... That would be much easier to install and probably have better compatibility. I just ordered the parts to do the ngff m2 to mpcie in the m15x. UGH!

It would leave a full mpcie slot open as well, which has a lot more options than a half mini pcie. I had no idea they were making half mpcie wifi cards still.

Also I can confirm the 675m works in the m17x R2, but requires manual fan control. I'll be testing it in the m15x this week. I'll also try it in the m17x R1, but I don't expect that to work as the 580m has been said to not work.

 

I put the AX200 in my Area-51m.

Might order 2 of those Mini PCIe versions, but says out of stock.

I also didn't know they still made mini pcie versions until I saw that comment.

 

770M/870M/780M/880M will never work with onboard audio so throw throw those options out.


680M works perfect except fan control requires HWINFO regardless of make.

M6100 requires HWINFO fan control.

M1000M requires fan control.


To my knowledge, and I’ve tested a lot of cards, the only ones that work 100% in the M17x R2 are the original factory cards. The closest thing to that is Cleve 8970M which works except HDMI audio.

pascal/Turing are not possible and neither is maxwell GM2xx cores (not realistically anyway)


So really M17x R2 is capped at 8970M. I’ve gone broke testing cards and this is my final conclusion.

 

Quadro K4000M HDMI sound works.

Thanks. I'll try and search over the next few weeks for a cheap 8970M.

It sucks there's $106 Dell/MSI cards but cheapest Clevo is $216.

7970M is even cheaper at $96 lol

 

I think I am officially burned out on working with old Alienware laptops.

Was finally putting my nebula red m17x R2 fully back together. Everything was running great, AX200 running, 8970m and i7-920xm running cool, all with new pads and kryonaut. Blu Ray drive installed and nice. Win10 purring with all the correct drivers.

I tightened all the screws, put the keyboard, power button, and touchpad on, and pressed the power button.

Nothing happens. Pulled the cord and unplug the cmos battery, did the reset. Nothing. So I figured it must have been the keyboard cable was loose, since that causes the m17x to not respond or boot. Reseated it. Nothing. Tried a different keyboard. Tried a different powerbutton/panel lights. Tried different cables for the panel lights. Tried different power supplies. NOTHING.

Now I sit here with an m17x R2 max'd out that won't respond. An m15x and 2 m17x R1s I have to put together and I think I'm done. I've spent so many hours on these.

I think I will part them out. I'll have to make a full list. At the very least, I know the 8970m and i7 works since they work in the m15x. I think I just keep getting bunk motherboards.

If anyone has any last ditch efforts, anything that could cause the m17x to not show even a sign of life, I'm all ears.

 

Have you tried taking everything out to the point where it was working and try again?

Did you try a power drain?

Sounds like it could be a short somewhere

 

Sometimes the M17x R2 needs power drain because EC gets stuck. Remove main battery and hold down power button for 1 minute then try powering on again.

 

So the good news is that I got it all working! I did a full power drain and it still didn't work. I disassembled everything and prepared to sell it off as FOR PARTS/Not working. Then a couple days later, decided to put it all back together. I made 2x m17x R1s - one with RGB LED, qx9300, and cfx 5870s, and another with CCFL, t6600 (or whatever the c2d was lol), and a 260m. I made an m17x R2 with RGB LED, 920xm, 8970m, 16gb ram, etc. Installed windows and stressed them. All was working.

Good thing I had insomnia for a couple of days. However, I did lose the nostalgia and desire to continue working on these as I had and decided to stick with an m15x I've been messing with.

Thus, I'll be parting out and selling the systems. Enough parts to build 2 R1s and an R2! I'm probably holding one of very few for sale 8970ms in North America, so I'm sure I'll do alright on that one

So stand by, I'll be putting these up for sale shortly!

 

Still wondering why so few people have tried Quadro K series even though they work well without needing to worry about fan control, my prototype R1 (2008) has a K4100m installed and though one of my R2s is picky compared to normal has a K3000m installed and once more no issues.

 

People usually go for the strongest cards possible, so that would be Quadra K5100M and Quadra M4000M/M5000M which do not work. Why bother with lesser cards when the known strongest with native fan control is the 8970M

 

R2 does not have native fan control with Quadro cards. I have K4000m in my R2 and fans are constantly at 2500rpm. Need to use HWInfo to control to any other speed.

680m had same issue. Good thing about them is though, HDMI works both audio/video, DP works, brightness controls works.

8970M does not control brightness with latest drivers from my testing. I have yet to try the registry tweaks though.

Idk if K5100M works since 780m had issues?

K5000M works though

 

Hey bud I had similar no issues with my R1 a few months back tried over 3 different motherboards only to find out the reason mine would not power on was that the keyboard was shorting and would not let it power on or even charge. I got another keyboard and issue was fixed. My question to you is however do you still have the 5870's? If so I would purchase them off of you for my m17xr1 if they will drop in with no issues.

 

Sleep and fan control will be broken with every video card except GTX 260M and GTX 280M/285M in the M17x R1

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-m17x-r2-with-m6100-hd-8950.833499/
Here I mount the M6100 on my M17x R2, I don't need HWinfo for Fan control

 

Which version of M6100 did you buy?

 

I have no idea but it was one that came with a dell precision m6600