M17xR2 no boot or post after 940XM install

Good Morning Gentlemen,

I have an M17xR2 I am attempting to get some more utility out of. I bought a 940XM from a reputable ebay seller however when I install it the computer does not boot or POST. The lights all come on and the fans speed up briefly but then it just sits with a black screen and lights on indefinetly.

Installing my old 720QM fixes all problems, I have tried reinstalling the 940XM several times checking for proper socket fit/locking, and trying both the A09 bios and the A10. In all cases the 720QM works fine and system does not turn on with the 940XM.

I am running the windows 7 distribution that came with the laptop.

Any ideas?

 

Odd that no one has replied despite the thread being days old but anyway chances are the 940xm you bought is a doa as it should have booted regardless.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Is there any chance the motherboard could not be compatible with the 940XM? I seem to remember when I bought it the 920XM was the best available CPU, do all the R2's share the same exact motherboard or could there be a hardware limitation? I also still have my old slow 4GB of 1066MHz memory in here, I have 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance stick on the way.

Can anyone running a 940XM reply with what BIOS versions work for them or what they are running?
I'm really at a loss here as to what the problem could be.

I've swapped back and forth between my 720QM and the 940XM three times and the 720QM works each time and with the 940XM the lights come on and the fans spin up briefly but no boot/post. No CAPS/NUM/SCROLL flashing error codes either.

I've made sure there are no debris in the socket or around the pins, the processor slides into the socket smoothly and with no resistance, and all the pins look fine.
Seller claims that they tested the CPU thoroughly before sale, and they're a reputable bulk Chinese ebay seller.

 

I know there's someone on this forum who's a little more knowledgable than me regarding the issues I'm having. Is there any factor other than an outright dead chip that could cause no boot/post with an m17xr2 and a 940XM? The seller offered me half my money back and I can keep the chip after I complained after the issues I was having.

Frankly, $50 USD back and being able to keep the chip would be *great* if the chip was actually working and I was trying to scam the Chineee seller, but I just want to get the most out of my m17xr2 in 2019 and I genuinely can't get the thing to boost/post with the 940xm.

Is there any factor that can cause the 940xm to cause the issues I'm having other than the chip being fried on the way here by airport security x-rays or whatever else?

You guys are my best bet here. I could easily keep throwing parts at this thing, just gimme the odds of the CPU actually being issue before I return it and throw another on in there.


No pressure or anything, I have a stable confrig on this laptop already with my 720QM, I'm just genuinely curious if the CPU I got off the Chinee seller is the issue here or if there's possibly something I'm missing here.

Frankly having to replace the MB if it was a compatabily issue wouldn't be an issue here, I just want a kickass r2.

So yes, please, any and all advice/anecdotes/heckling/lewd remarks are very much appreciated.

 

There is a chance it was a bad CPU and shorted your board somewhere. Logic dictates to reinstall your old CPU, see what happens. If no dice, your board may have been killed by the CPU. I have a known working spare 920XM/940XM if you are interested going down that route. It would suck trying to source a M17x R2 board now though, the parts for them are becoming less and less available.

 

Thanks for the reply.

It works fine with my old CPU. I've swapped back and forth four times now, works normally with the old CPU, no boot/post with the new one.
From the sounds of it is probably the CPU itself? I'll just try and get the seller to replace it, but thanks for your offer.

 

Bad CPU, send it back.

 

BIOS compatibility shouldn't be an issue. The x40Ms were the same silicon with a clock bump, nothing special.

Sounds like a totally bad cpu, so see if sending it back (with tracking) is worth the added $50 or whatever.

Since you haven't mentioned it's an ES/QS I assume it's a retail 940XM SLBSC.

 

OK, so I recieved a different 940XM and upon swapping it in i'm having the same problem. When I hit the power button the fans will spin up momentarily but then the computer just sits with a black screen and nothing happens.

Am I missing a step in replacing the CPU here? I am draining the power and pulling the CMOS battery after installing the new chip.

Also at this point I think i've had this computer apart at least a dozen times swapping chips back and forth and all my AlienFX have been working intermittently until now they don't work at all, nothing lights up. I'm assuming I wore a ribbon cable out somewhere.


What could possibly be up that the computer is not booting with a different CPU?

 

Huh. Weird stuff. for the purpose of expetimentation I took the 940XM out of my M15X and put it in newly upgraded M17XR2, and it seems to work just fine. I guess You should check on another system and/or try to get a refund (you've got 14 days to resing from purchase).

 

I don't think I'll be able to get a refund, I got the seller to send me another chip assuming the first was faulty. So I've got *two* 940XM's here and both are causing the laptop to behave the same way. The odds of both being faulty are significantly worse than when it was just the one...

 

Well, that's pretty odd. If it was an issue of poor pastejob or anything else you would at least get a brief visual of booting before the laptop refused to work. Are you from Europe by any chance? I would be willing to get one off your hands for testing and possible adaptation in another machine. In Poland I got one 940XM and that's it in second hand market I use for now

 

Well, that's pretty odd. If it was an issue of poor pastejob or anything else you would at least get a brief visual of booting before the laptop refused to work. Are you from Europe by any chance? I would be willing to get one off your hands for testing and possible adaptation in another machine. In Poland I got one 940XM and that's it in second hand market I use for now

 

940XM works 100% in M17xR2. i'm running it in my laptop since day 1 of purchase 9 years ago and it's still running overclocked to 3.5GHz till this day.

 

The odds of both being bad are almost zero unless they were handled or stored improperly which again is nearly zero so I would assume that something isn't right with the board.