M17x-R2 + GTX 580M + SLi

As some of you may have heard, I have ordered and installed two nVidia GTX 580Ms in the M17x-R2. So far, it boots and posts into Windows. Everything works; battery mode doesn't freeze, closing lid puts computer to sleep, 3d clocks work. The two issues are fans being stuck at max speed (which was expected) and SLi not working, even though I have an SLi cable pulled from M17x-R1s.

I've tried most things such as modded infs and a SLi-patch that supposedly tricks nVidia into enabling SLi on non-SLi certified boards.

So far, nothing has worked and I'll need some help in getting this setup to work. First off, have any M17x-R2 owners with the 285M SLi installed any of the newer nVidia drivers with SLi enabled? And is there a way to check what's blocking SLi from being enabled registry wise or actively?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

Thx to TheWiz, Anatolymik and Chukwu77 for their hard work! (oh, and be sure to donate if possible!)

 

nV News Forums - View Single Post - My Dual 6800 Ultra SLI's

This seems like it might look promising.

Also, have you been able to confirm the the SLI cable and ports on both cards are functional?

I've encountered bad CFX cables and Greywolf got a 6970m with a bad port. Also, did you try Eurocom vbios'?

 

Well, I haven't confirmed if the SLi cables work, but SLi has been shown to work without the cable and just in case, I have 4 M17x SLi bridges. The connectors work and snap on correctly too.

Nothing seems to be working so far; even registry hacks. There must be something blocking the SLi signal I think.

 

Seems like a hardware issue (either an incompatibly or hopefully a faulty part) as you shouldn't have to jump though so many hoops seeing as very thing else works fine and both cards support sli

 

Reading this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...area-51-m17x-dual-gtx280m-project-thread.html might be useful. The guy who started the thread got 2x 280m (SLI) working in his legacy Area 51 M17x by flashing the cards bios from 280m to a compatible model for the old Area 51 M17x.

 

This only works as long as there's enough PCI Bandwith... A single 580m will produce more than 2x 280m... so I doubt the cards would be able to work to their full extents. There wouldn't be enough bandwith.

 

So far I've tried editing the registry, the SLi Patch to get SLi to work on non-SLi certified motherboards, Fresh copy of Windows, nV Inspector, etc.

At this point, I don't think it's software related. So it's either Hardware or either the VBIOS needs to be edited to allow for SLi?

 

wow, im looking to just get one 580m and you have two! good luck getting them to work, seems like it would be a screamer!

 

How many different vbios' have you tried?

 

I know there are SLI issues, but are there single config issues besides full fan speed?

Thanks bro! Nice work btw +rep

 

I've tried the original (Clevo X7200), the M17x-R3 and the M18x VBIOS versions only to find out that they're all the same VBIOS pretty much.

Aside from the fan issue, a single 580M runs fine. I'm able to overclock it too. I haven't tested HDMI audio and such yet, but battery mode, 3d mode, etc, all are fine.

Speaking of overclocking, here's another Vantage run at 750/1500/1750



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I did use some external cooling, but it looks like the R2's cooling can handle at least one OC'd 580M. Temps maxed out at 83 and highest power draw was 221 watts (which is really 191w if you take out the other 580M just sitting there).

 

That's fantastic! Thanks! Looking forward to more progress with SLI.

 

try to get holds on a m18X powerbrick and sli cable.
if that does not work then the systemboard is just nog able to handle the sli 580.

 

I think I know what the problem is: no SLi certification for the P55 chipset. Another member tried something similar with two 485Ms and the Clevo X8100, which also uses a PM55 chipset. Although the ugprade worked, he wasn't able to get SLi to work either. What's strange is that there doesn't seem to be any SLi Certification for the M18x motherboard, yet SLi works fine. I'm going to ask X7200 owners if they can show SLi certification too. The 285M SLi setup is able to get around this because the VBIOS are customized in a proprietary way (Master and Slave GPU setup vs essentially two Master VBIOS setup in the newer nVidia cards).

At this point, I'm thinking a BIOS mod would fix it; one that is able to insert this certification as if it were a desktop mobo. That, or I'll have to wait on some Hyper SLi patch the guys at xdevs.com are working on...

 

How about you try it on a R1 , just an idea, because , the R1 has the default SLI configuration , right,

 

great job man! Great endeavor
I really want to upgrade mt R2 with two 6970m~but i just dont have the money yet.

 

Ahh, ichime, that makes sense about the certification. I take it then that Crossfire doesn't use such certification, and that's why CFX works no problem?

 

It's different for notebooks but still embedded into the BIOS, much like the graphics card certification for 3d.

 

Yep, no stupid certification nonsense for Crossfire. Hell, I was able to get crossfire to work in an Alienware M9750 that used an nVidia chipset.

Now I'm waiting to see if someone could mod the A10 BIOS to insert that certificate to see if I can get anywhere. The SLi Patch (another method of getting SLi to work on non-SLi certified motherboards) doesn't work on P55 or P67 based chipsets.

I already made an offer to R1 owners if they want to test to see if these cards work on their system.

 

I would love to but I'm too far :/

 

Well if the second card is detected, you could see if you can use the second card as a Physx card?

 

As long as it's detected, there's no doubt about that, you don't need a SLi connectiosn to do this.

But why stop here when we're half way , let's dig some more.

 

Good point. I'm just saying it would be better to at least give the second card something to do

 

Great you got one card working, how did you manage that?

Some time ago some guys tried to get a GTX460 running with not luck, let alone running in sli.

 

Don't know a lot about Mobile nvidia cards but I'll put my 2 cents in. If you could get modded desktop drivers and maybe mod the v-bios to trick the cards into thinking their desktop cards. Like change the manufacturer and device model. Just a thought.

 

^ You would still need the SLI certificate in the bios.

However if you somehow managed to get a vbios Master Slave combo, you could bypass that like the SLI GTX 260m and SLI GTX 285m did.

 

The GTX 260M/280M/285M don't need different vBIOSes to work in SLi, both cards can be flashed with the same BIOS and SLi will work even if you change the 2nd card with the 1st.

 

Well does anyone know how to modify bios? Does the m18x have sli certification.

 

so just looked at dells webpage and did anyone notice that the gtx 560m is now available also

 

HOWTO: SLI on a non-SLI Motherboard (GTX5xx compatible 1.0 final released!) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net
I know you said you tried an sli hack. Well try this one but use forceware 190.62. alot of those people have gotten sli to work with your chipset.

 

HOWTO: SLI on a non-SLI Motherboard (GTX5xx compatible 1.0 final released!) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net
I know you said you tried an sli hack. Well try this one but use forceware 190.62. alot of those people have gotten sli to work with your chipset with a combination of those drivers and that hack.

 

Stuck on a greyhound bus ATM so I scoured google found the results in my next post. Hope they help

 

Good luck on this Ichime! everyone's watching

 

Hello Ichime

Any luck with the 580m in SLI yet?

And how did you get the single card to work, was it just a plug and play or were there some other tweaks you needed to do?

I'm very eager to hear you succeed in this.

 

Dunno if I can help at all, but I still have my Area 51 m17x-r1 (pre-dell) that I'm awaiting a video card from another NBR member. But I'm pretty certain that you'd want someone with a Dell m17x-R1. Anyway, it's out there if you need help.

 

Your laptop is MXM 2.1, Ichime wants somebody with a M17x.

 

We both have one but we are in France... a bit far^^

 

You also have a M17x?!

 

I think so, with and SLI of 260M yes and hybrid graphics (9400M) ?

 

Yup, that's a M17x

 

You got the cards....I've got the M17XR1...lemme know if I can help! Love to prove this baby's NOT obsolete yet!

 

That would be nice if you live close to eachother, send him a PM and let's see what we can get out of this

 

Hi Ichime i have 285m SLI setup and want to do this upgrade if you can get it working. See my signature let me know if i can assist with anything

 

Ichime any news there?

 

ichime did you order official dell cards or clevo cards, i'm wondering about the sli cable.

 

Just found out this thread while wondering if I could put some nvidia into my M17x-R2 (sick of ATI)... sorry for digging this out, but did anyone get the SLI working?

 

Heres the latest from ichime (Ordered 580M from Clevo)
Date: 11/12/11 - 11/15/11

 

Thanks a lot for the head up DR

 

ichime

The only problem with single card is the fan control?
There is no problem with temps, heat sink and hdmi?
(I mean a single card configuration)

 

Hi to all, I am not new to this forum but have been lurking in the shadows for some time whenever looking for help with my AW system. I have researched for days and have gone back and fwd through Ichmie's thread regarding getting SLI to work with dual gtx 580m on a m17x R2 unit. I too have spent hours upon hours trying to figure this out. I bought 2 cards and while both are detected, SLI option is not available. Even though the original dual GPUs that came with my m17x R2 were SLI (gtx 285m x2). All I have done is replace those cards with the high end GPUs. So I stand at a stand still and would like to ressurect Ichmie's courageous efforts. I will offer to Paypal 200$ to anyone who can find the final solution that will allow the use of SLI for both GPUs without major problems. I will provide 100$ via paypal to the first person to find the solution. And the other 100$ will be sent upon video evidence of a successful endeavor that is fully explained and made into guide format for anyone who wishes to use this setup in the future. The gauntlet has been thrown down men. I will check back on the boards 2 times daily to see what progress has been made. Please pm me details of success and i will HAPPILY begin payment. I have been at this forever and its just been too much. now i hope one of u guys have the juice to get it done. Happy hunting!