M17x r3 680M compatability

Already posted months ago!

 

If it is still possible to manually switch between PEG and IGP, does it mean that you adjust "SG" in the BIOS?

Is the Nvidia 680M GTX graphic card heatsink from the M17xR4 identical with the Nvidia 580M GTX from the M17xR3?

 

hoping someone can help... I installed Windows 8 on my R3 - downloaded nvidia 310.54 drivers amended the inf and txt files clicked install and.....

install keeps coming up as failed...

Any ideas please lads?

Thanks!

 

I believe you need to turn off' driver validation' in win 8. Not sure if that is the correct term but I do know that win 8 does not give an error message like vista did when a driver was not WHQL certified. HTH

 

as usual sir, thanks for the instantaneous help! How do I do that though, is it like Win 7 where you you have to constantly have to do it through the F8 menu before windows loads?

Thanks

 

You're very welcome

It will be in windows like turning off that annoying 'confirm' window every time you want to install anything. I suggested the same as I did to you for another guy and he found it in windows help (try 'driver validation' search), turned it off, and the driver completed successfully. Good luck

 

well I've been trying to locate it all I get when I search in help is about the validation and no details in turning it off...

what a pain!!

 

Doh! Sorry man, I probably got the wrong term. We need a win 8 user that has done this to jump in. I'll try a web search and see if I can find it...

 

Command prompt(admin)windows+X>bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes>reboot>Install.
Command prompt(admin)windows+X>bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no>reboot. .

 

Sorry I am noob any chance you could step by step that for me?

Thanks!!

 

1) Open command prompt (Admin) windows key + X
2) Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes" (without quotes) enter.
3) Type exit and reboot.
4) Install
5) Repeat/replace with "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no" reboot.

 

Many thanks guys, I love this forum - everyone is so nice and helpful!

Thanks again!

 

Which .inf/txt files?
It looks more like an Nvidia installer issue rather than a windows 8 driver signature enforcement one.
This is the .inf for M17XR3/680M/Nvidia v. 310.54, there's no need to use the .txt file.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-310.54-beta-driver.html

 

ones that were posted here mate...? Just about to try that method now!

 

Those were for previous versions.

 

well it worked mate, just had to disable signing!

Thanks!

 

Cool, +rep to J95
I thought it was that since you got past the 'device not detected' driver install problem but it just finished with a 'failed' message. Usually you need the modded inf to get the driver to recognise the card.

 

I don't recommend that it's a new release 31x as opposed to previous 30x, use this one for Nvidia v. 310.54 http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...352762095-m17x-r3-680m-compatability-nvdm.zip
A new modded .inf is required for each driver release, it'll end with wrong install paths and probably mess up the fixes/optimizations.

 

oh I see! Thanks for that then man!

 

All right people, I really really need your help here. I bought a 680m upgrade kit for my R2 from Eurocom via Ebay and I have had nothing but problems with the upgrade.

The first kit installed very easily and I used all the tutorials and instructions I could find and was extremely careful as I installed the card. The card seemed to work perfectly fine for several hours during typical usage. Then I put the card under a small load with the first Borderlands game and the screen went red and the machine longer was able to POST. I put the original 4870 card back in the machine reinstalled windows and the machine ran fine. I discussed the issue with Eurocom and they were happy to RMA the card.

The second card installed easily and I was double careful this time. For both cards I used HWinfo64 to manage the fan speeds. But, even with this card the problem occurred again. The machine worked fine for several hours and then stopped Posting. As with the previous situation the original 4870 resolved the issue.

I'm practically at the end of my rope with this upgrade. Have there been a large amount of failures with these cards?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

With newest bios A12 you need to choose PEG in order to disable the IGP.
Then you can install the driver with modded inf.
the heatsink of 580M works well for 680M. The backplate X is the same too. I think the heatsink from R4 is the same as R3.

Hi, I would like to check with you. Which max voltage you have now with 850 vbios flashed? I got 0.962 and there is no throttling.
It seems that the stock voltage is 0.987 and with some other vbios of SVL7. It throttles with stock voltage.
I have found that with OCNew version 758 one, the software OC didn't make me to get more than P6300 in 3D11. But with 850 one, i got GPU score P6800 as yours.
I think it's perhaps the voltage is donwlocked so it became more stable?
What do you think?
The DELL 680M works differently in R3 and R4 because the bios of R3 didn't support it well. That's why we don't get boost and 3D functionalites...

 

That's cool to know. I am still sitting on the fence as to where I go for my 680 and NOT loosing the boost feature is important. Guess I missed that nugget Thanks.

 

Now the only way is to overlock with vbios. But there is an other constraint too. The OC by software is not allowed in R3 neither...
so need to find good vbios with correct voltage. Otherwise, we got throttling.
SVL7 has posted one vbios which allow the OC in R3 but i can't find easily the effect of OC by software. So I have chosen the 850 vbios definitively.
For me i don't know why i got under voltage at 0.9620 after 850 vbois flash but it works very well.

 

Yea, the 850 bios works by far the best. The card does behave differently because there is no boost, so we never hit boost voltage. That ends up keeping us at a lower voltage all the time than the same card flashed the same way in an R4. It seems to really prevent throttling. I know Widezu worked for a long time to get his R4 to just never boost because it caused throttles. With the R3 we never boost by default which I guess is nice.

 

Hi Yoda, nice to discuss with you. You have completely the reason. Unfortunately Svl7 has not released new vbios with stock voltage for 900 or 915.
That will be nice to try to see the card can be stable with 0.987. Anyway, more voltage will surely make the DELL 680m throttling. that's proved.
I don't know even in R4 with 0.987 the card throttles. The speed is boosted to 889 for Wiezu?
It's strange that because in 18R2, with 850 vbios, other people didn't get throttle. So it's only for R4? motherboard bios issue?

 

sorry to ask yet more n00b questions - just having a look at the posts on this page and am I understanding I can flash the bios on my 680M for better performance? If so any chance someone could step by step explain how to do that for me?

Many thanks to you all as usual!

Thanks!

 

Hi i saw that you got 4GB 680M. It's clevo or MSI? Anyway you can flash the vbios to get more performance.
You should google "NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods" to find the threat and download the vbios.
There are many versions and make sure that you take the good one.

 

[GUIDE] NVIDIA VBIOS flashing
NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

 

It seems to vary for each system but Widezu thinks that the boost causes throttling. So his card will boost the higher voltage but then it will drop to like 200mhz core and then jump back up over and over. It is not really clear what is causing it. The R4 has a weaker power brick (like 180 watts?) versus the R3 has a 240 watt power brick. It could just be the motherboard throttling because it feels like the 680m is draining too much power while boosting.

A lot of people with the R4 have used the 850 no other changes vbios without throttles though, so it isn't a universal thing. Just kind of a mystery. Thankfully, it doesn't throttle in the R3 so we are all good.

 

You are right, I have not noticed that the power for R4 is 180W. I have requested SVL7 to give us more testing bios like 900 at stock voltage. Let's see what we can have in the future.

 

The R4 has a 240W power brick, that's Dell standard throttling implementation policy for Alienware, but in this case it seems that GPU Boost is probably conflicting with it. The fact is that the vast majority doesn't care or has no knowledge about it until now, where a specific feature will start dropping fps during gameplay then throttling becomes a big issue... :thumbsup:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR4/en/specs/specs_en.swf

 

Thanks matey, downloaded what I need to I think though, cant seem to get nvflash to work on Windows 8 - I'm probably missing something?

Thanks in advance!!

EDIT: Dont worry! All sorted!

 

Good but Thank svl7 and you could leave feedback so he can have more info for future mods, probably not many W8 users.

 

Hi J95 you are right. it seems that DELL deliver 180w for 660M user and 240w for 675m or 680m user.

 

Sorry to be pain - seeing as I'm really a bit crap without step by step... Any chance someone could post/upload a .inf for driver 310.61 or explain what I need to do?

Many thanks in advance! Hitman is absolutely unplayable at the moment!!

Thank you!!

 

I couldn't get it to install on mine. I downloaded the copy on laptopvideo2go ( LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers) without the .inf and it installed

I did notice that the one posted on the NV site did not even have the .inf that is usually modded...

 

Gah no luck for me, damn didnt know they changed the format - any ideas how to install it then?

There is an INF for Win8 64Bit on there nvwi.inf which allows installation to a certain point until the driver installs the graphics card as something else.... Then the driver install simply fails...

 

That was all I was going to suggest. Is this the problem with the driver install running but fails at the end on win 8, something to do with the way it validates drivers? I've seen here a command prompt string (J95 I Believe ) that needs to be entered to allow the install to complete.

 

Nah the driver signing is off - with the help J95 other .inf file he posted earlier in the thread I was at least able to roll back to 310.54. Hopefully he'll upload another one for 310.61!

 

1) Open command prompt (Admin) windows key + X
2) Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes" (without quotes) enter.
3) Type exit and reboot.
4) Install
5) Repeat/replace with "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no" reboot.

NVIDIA DRIVERS 310.61BETA
nvdm.inf v 310.61

 

As usual sir you are a legend!

Many thanks!

 

So thinking about upgrading to the 680m since the hassle of a 7970m doesn't seem worth the price difference.

I saw this: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 2GB DDR5 MXM 3.0b VGA MODULE | eBay

Will it work in my R3 and is the price alright or is there somewhere else to buy a compatible 680m under 700 dollars?

 

with the new AMD driver i'm not so sure...

 

Sorry, me again. Can I have the modded .inf for 310.64 - hopefully to help Far Cry 3!

Thanks!!

 

NVIDIA DRIVERS 310.64BETA

 

Thank you again sir.

 

Thanks J95

 

@kmeyer, I can't add any more rep to J95 - so can you add some for me instead.

Thanks!

Sorry err, 310.70 please?

Thanks!!

 

NVIDIA DRIVERS 310.70BETA

svl7 revised Dell vbios best performer http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks.html

 

Hey everyone I'm abit stuck and confused with upgrading

I have the M17xR3 with 580m/3d screen
Is it Possible for me to upgrade to the 680m or 680mx .

If So which Gpu version do I need.
There seems to be a fair few. Thanks in advance guys