M17x R3 Upgraded to GTX 580m from GTX 460m and it's stuck at base clocks P-State 8 74mhz

As the title says... Have a M17x R3. I upgraded the video card to the GTX 580m and I have tried absolutely everything I can think of to get it to clock up past 74mhz and it seems stuck there. Beginning to think I got a bad video card but I want to be sure before I send it back.

Here are the things I have tried:
Updated all drivers
With and without battery
3 different AC adapters ( I get plugged in not charging no matter what I do as well with a new battery)
Pulled battery & AC adapter and held power button for 1 min
High performance settings in nv control panel
Updated vbios and laptop bios to latest from dell website
Disabled Intel graphics in the A12 bios
Clean install of windows 7 and windows 10

If you watch the card in Nvidia inspector it starts at powerstate 12 51mhz and then as soon as you put a load on the video card it goes to power state 8 which is 74mhz and doesn't go past that.

 

Have you flashed modified bios for the M17x R3?

Try booting with PEG settings (dgpu only mode).

 

Here are some data on your card:

Also you might want to consider repasting, 61c on 74mhz is way to high.

The issue you're experiencing is driver related.

 

Hi, I think you may be chasing a card fault. The 580m was the single worst card I have ever used. I had three fail (one was a 675m which is a rebadge of the 580m) and have seen a ton of them here on NBR.

With that hot temp at P8 (should be in the 30's) then in all probability a component has overheating almost immediately forcing the card into low power. I've had one that would only start in safe mode after weeks of weird faults.

Try a repaste but time to shop around I think...

 

I have done the PEG already. Makes no difference. I have only tried the bios on the Dell site. Can you link me to the modified one?

I thought the temps were high too but when it's at this power state the fan doesn't seem to be running much at all even under load. In the GPUz screenshot it shows that the fan is at 0%. It does spin up for a few seconds under load once it hits 62C and then it goes off again completely. The fan was working fine on the GTX 460m and would move a ton of air under load. I don't think its thermal paste related but I could try it again once I get some more thermal tape for the ram and other components. I don't think it would last another removal. It seems like the GPU die for this card is a lot bigger than the last one but the stock cooler seemed to line up and cover it completely. I was concerned the coolers were different but all of the thermal pads line up and the main part covers the whole die of the new GPU.

 

I never had an MXM GTX 460 so I wouldn't know. I just did some research on this matter and yeah. I think you might need to mod your cooling solution a bit. You went from a 50W TDP card to a 100W TDP Card.

 

It looks like the coolers are the same from what I can tell. Mine is still the 3 heat pipe design and everything is in the same spot on the card. I just ordered some new thermal pads to test and see if that was the issue as the old ones ripped a bit when taking them off. I was able to re use them and they were fully covering from what I could tell but maybe not enough.

 

The other thing I was concerned with hence swapping AC adapters as I listed in the OP is the one I currently have is 150W and I read somewhere that the 580M needs a 240W AC adapter. I am wondering if that's why my battery isn't charging and if the laptop is sensing it doesn't have enough power to kick up the clock on the 580M. That's just speculation though and seems like an expensive thing to test as I can't seem to find a 240W AC adapter for less than $100. I tried the stock 150W one, a 120W universal one and a 130W Dell one from a friends brand new Dell laptop.

 

I would try to get the 240w, I think that's what causing the system to hold back the card.


As for cooler, I'm not sure what's causing the high idle temp. Maybe you have too thick thermal pad or too little paste on the die, I would check both possibilities and try to fix them.





I'll rip the modified bios off techinferno later, I will @ (mention) you when I get it.

 

Is there any place to get a 240W adapter for less than $100 Also looks like there is a 180W adapter that is a bit cheaper. Would that one work?

 

I have a 240W adapter I can sell you for cheap if you are in EU.

 

Bummer I am in the US.

 

So I had a thought about this. Woudn't the laptop clock up over 74mhz if the AC adapter was unplugged and it was just running on battery? I know that its not going to put the card at full clocks on battery but I would assume it would go higher than that. Every other gaming laptop I have had plays games moderately well on battery for an hour or so.