M17x-R2 + GTX 580M + SLi

OK just tried it and now skyrim doesn't trip it. furmark does but meh. Ill do the 2x 240w splice whenever I get the dough..

 

My 675ms came in today. I'm no good at driver modding but would be willing to allow a dev to teamviewer into my computer and try to make them work
I understand the risks and blah blah blah I can all ways go back to my 580ms.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I apologize for the necro post, but I'm currently attempting to replace a dead 4870 card in an m17r2 with a single 580.

I see in the quoted post that guys were using 5870 heat sinks with the 580m. Is there any difference between the 4870 heat sink and the 5870 heat sink?

A very helpful member here suggested I look at this heat sink: Dell Alienware M17x 280M 260M Video Card Heatsink X648M High Quality AF013 | eBay as a possibility for putting on the 580. Anyone know if this will work?

 

Hello, FloorPizza,i saw your post in the Marketplace before this one and answered there:

The M17x R2 has one heatsink type to fit all cards it came with (the GTX 285M, AMD Mobility 4870 & 5870). The 560M was never officially supported in the M17x R2.
So your only option is to use your current heatsink(s).

 

I bought a used 580m from an NBR member, which arrived today.

I know there's been quite a few NBR guys that have put 580m's in to their m17r2's using the r2's factory gpu heat sink.

The problem I'm having is that the screws the r2's heat sink came with are too short for the 580's mount.

What size screws did you use? Is it M1.6x3.5?

Thanks a bunch!

 

Make sure the heatsink you are using is from a nvidia card and not AMD

 

i thought heatsinks for amd and nvidia r da same

 

You need to twice the X brack, I believe. it uses a sticky tape to hold on from the back. just get it off and switch them.

 

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

There is only one heat sink that will fit in an m17xr2, and it's used for both the nvidia and radeon cards.

The problem is that the 580m wasn't ever installed from the factory in the r2; only the r3, and the r3 uses a different heat sink which won't fit in the r2.

The screws that come in the r2 heat sink don't work in the 580m card: the threaded portion of the screw isn't long enough, and the non-threaded part is too long.

I'll try taking the bracket off of the toasted OEM radeon card and putting it on the 580m.

 

It was early in the morning meant to say x bracket

 

That did it, thank you very much.

The card went in fine. The computer now POSTS ok, but the screen is completely dead. Either the connection to the motherboard is bad, or the screen got blown when the old graphics card blew.

Back to work...

 

OK, Gents, thanks to the "swap the x-brackets" tip, I got the card installed. I re-seated the video cable connection to the motherboard, and I'm back in business...well, for the most part.

I went to nVidia's site, searched for the 580m driver, downloaded it, but it refused to install "No compatible hardware installed."

So I found this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/647208-nvidia-verde-295-73-whql-driver-5.html. Downloaded the drivers from there, and once again, "No compatible hardware installed."

Any tips on how I can get the darn drivers installed?

Thanks a ton for all the help.

Never mind...

Just spent the last hour reading up on INF files, etc. at laptopvideo2go.com. Downloading the driver and INF file now.

Edit: Got 'er going. Yet another r2 owner hanging on.

 

I'm glad you got everything sorted out. +1Rep to LVNeptune for the fix.

 

Yup, + rep to LVNeptune!

BTW, I think it's great that Alienware guys hang out here.

The results are in: the 580m is kicking tail. At least, compared to the 4870 it replaced. I was getting 6,990 in Vantage with the 4870. The 580m is clocking in at 16,600.

I'm controlling the fan speed with HWINFO64. The auto fan function works perfectly when I'm running Vantage, but it does not work at all when running Diablo 3. I was running Diablo 3 when my 4870 burned up. I'm thinking that something about Diablo 3 isn't allowing the fan speed to be controlled correctly, regardless of the method used to control the fan speed; the built in fan controller used when I was running the 4870, or even HWINFO now with the 580m

There was a thread by a guy on the Diablo 3 forums, stating that his m17 also melted a graphics card while playing Diablo 3.

This correlates to my experience, as I remember that the GPU fan was not speeding up when playing Diablo 3 when I was running the 4870 card. My 4870 card burned up while playing Diablo 3.

The workaround is to use the manual fan speed control in HWINFO to set the fan speed to max before playing Diablo 3.

I had set up the auto fan speed control in HWINFO, used it successfully in Vantage, then launched Diablo 3. After noting that the fans were not speeding up, I immediately quit out of Diablo 3 and switched to HWINFO. I was shocked to see a max GPU temperature of 100C!

I'm thinking that a warning to M17x users that play Diablo 3 might be worthy of it's own thread, as there are two confirmed cases now of m17x's melting their graphics cards while playing it...

 

Heh...Twice the X brack...I'm glad you understood what I meant. I am not sure how it came out as that. Might have been on my phone. No prob, glad you got it going. You need to INF mod to use the drivers on the site. I don't hav a thread to link to about it but it's pretty easy.

 

I'm fluent in smart phone auto-correct. If I wasn't, I'd never understand a single text my wife sends me. : )

Yup, I got the modded INF file and the drivers installed, no sweat.

 

its nice you know you got it sorted, lately alot of m17x users have been having problems with fans and diablo 3, not quite sure if i want to buy it now

 

Hello to the Alienware-folks ,

maybe you could help us, the Clevo users, with a very similar problem as the original one in the first post by ichime:
The Clevo X7200 doesn´t support GTX 680m, 580m was the last supported.
Of course we want to upgrade , and so one of us has startet trying and bought 2 GTX 680m´s...
And he has the same problem as SLI user here, SLI can´t be enabled... both 680m´s are regonized with modded infs, but you can´t enable SLI.
After searching a little bit, we saw that project here and thought maybe someone could help us .
It seems the last modded drivers here are not compatbile with the GTX 680m because they came out BEFORE 680m was launched.
So I guess all we need is a newer driver that is as modified as for the GTX 580m in this thread...?
ANY help and suggestions are very welcome!
Here is the thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...689439-x7200-panther-2-0-nvidia-680m-sli.html


Thanks for reading that!

 

hi,

just installed a 580m into my m17x R2 and now have lost the ability to adjust brightness from the fn+f4/f5 keys.

I had a GTX 285m installed previously and there were no problems.

ive installed different drivers with no luck and reinstalled OSD drivers which made the birghtness animation display again but does not change the brightness of the display.


ANY help is appreciated

cheers

 

yes you have encounter the exact problem i have with 670m and 675m, even m15x still get it! but if i uninstall the nvidia driver and istall the "basic display driver" then the problem is gone, guess it's the driver's problem. Did u use the driver with modded inf?
it's not a big problem since it stay at the max brightness, so bear with it!

 

yes i had to use the modded .inf to get the drivers to install. It isnt really bad since it is at 100% as you said BUT im living in a dorm room with 4 other people and when i use my computer at night i have to turn off the lights for everyone to sleep, meaning i get mad eye burning because im staring at a super bright screen in the dark.

ill probably sell my GTX 580m, as sweet as a card it is, with a 6990m.

 

oc_masta, download and try this, you'll be happy

 

thanks for that, its helped me out in the last few days.

but i would prefer a permanent solution that actually changes the backlighting of the screen. going with dual 6870m cards.

 

got brightness to work with a 580m in a m17x r2!!!!!

Had a 5870m installed previously, drivers and everything.
flashed the 580m to a 675m.
removed the 5870m and installed the "675m" *WITHOUT REMOVING ATI DRIVERS*
Booted into safe mode, installed latest nvidia drivers *STILL HAVENT REMOVED ATI DRIVERS*
Rebooted into windows and brightness control works fully!
Go ahead and uninstall all the ATI drivers and catalyst sh*t.

:thumbsup:

 

Does anyone know if the 485m will work? I got a killer deal! 180usd per card! I imagine that it would.

 

I have a M17x R2 with no video card in it at all( I replaced the motherboard) How would I go about installing a single 580m into my M17x R2?
So this is what I think I know so far:
1. Uninstall my current video card drivers.
2. Turn off the laptop and manually change out my video card ( I know how to do that part)
3.Turn the laptop on and then get the drivers from:
LaptopVideo2Go: NVIDIA & Laptop News
(Do you know what one I should get? I have Windows 7 64 bit),
4. But how do I edit the .inf file I have no clue how to do that?
5. And then what do I do? Am I done and just need to update the drivers or did I miss something?
Thanks!

 

hi

I just instelled gtx 580m in m17 r2, I still cant see the driver for it. its using standard vga. what do I need to do. anyone plz help.

 

New thread title:

M17x R2 + 580M + SLI = Big Mistake

 

You need to mod inf file to install driver!... J95 is the person to ask and hell he's put a lot of info to mod inf's...

 

I bought a pair of gtx 580m's to do the upgrade on my m17x r2 lunar silver.
They are on their way to me.
I want to know if the Alienware m18x sli cable would fit this .
Also if anyone who has done the upgrade give any support or suggestions towards my upgrade would be really helpful.
Thanks

 

Yeah should work.. You just need any Alienware SLI cable (well M17x R2 onwards or M18x R1 onwards)...

 

Thanks , il get a aw m18x sli cable.
Il keep you guys posted on my upgrade.

 

I got the clevo gtx 580m today , il get the other card on Monday.
I installed it and tried to power up but it doesn't post , all lights and fan works but nothing on screen, it doesn't even show a backlight on the screen.
Can anyone give me blind flash instructions to dell vbios ? Or what else should I try ?
I guess that issue is due to clevo vbios.

Thanks

 

I did blind flash using autoexec and got the gtx 580m to work.
I also want to confirm that if anyone bricks the vbios dont need to replace the chip or reprogram , a blind flash with correct commands would do the force flash blindly.

 

Hey,

Has there been any fix for the fan issues since teh beginning besides using HWinfo to monitor them?

 

I use my card with a different vbios for sometime , couldn't remember which one it was . With that I didn't need to adjust the fan speed via hwinfo.
But it was less stable though so I flashed a different one.

 

Thank for the info, can you try to check which bios? when you say less stable you mean crashes or heat?

any other users?

Ichime ?

 

Heats up , I have never seen a crash though.
Temps go high as 92*C , I don't like that , so I lift the laptop with small bottle cap then temps drop to 80*C range.
After vbios flash it was never hitting 90*C , I guess something must be wrong with my heatsink.

 

what is your current 580m vbios and current nvidia driver?

 

Have you Given up making 970M work in M17x R2 ?

 

Not yet, havnt got my hands on my aliens yet.
I'm little busy these days .

@Tom , atm I have nomeans of checking it . It's in its big box along with its brothers.