Need help or advice with gtx 580m

Hello!

I have an Alienware m17x R3 (3D model) equipped with a gtx 580m. For the last two weeks, my system has suffered from random resets. I'm rarely able to use it more than 15 minutes before it reset.

According to the crash dump, the problem is related to nvlddmkm.sys and it's a VIDEO_TRD_ERROR. I tried a few tricks that are posted online and nothing worked so I formatted my computer to make sure that the problem isn't software related. I only installed older drivers from a previous working installation afterward. The problem still persist after formatting.

So the problem is hardware related. I'm looking to replace my graphic card, but I have a few questions before I commit to buy something this expensive.

1. Is it possible that the fault comes from something else than the graphic card? Motherboard? Powersupply? (I just realised I left the cord on the heater could it have been damaged?).

2. Is there a physical fix I could try?

3. Should I go with a 675m instead since they are about the same price online? Is the 3D working on the 675m?

4. Is there a safe way to buy it? Sellers on Ebay could easily send me an heavily used card, so I'm wary to go that way.

Thanks to all! Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Hi,
Unfortunately the 580m is not a very reliable card. I had two in my R3 go bad (3D model) and this R4 has had one 675m failure . NV didn't help with some drivers overvolting them!

Usual way mine went was occasional BSOD's and lockups getting more frequent with driver updates helping for a few days before it all starts again. Driver 314.22 is widely used as the fallback driver for the card and for some this is all they can do.

The 675m is exactly the same card as the 580m, clocks and all. Just a simple rebadge. It will not be able to support 3D though in an R3 as the bios specifies the 3D cards. This means that to retain 3D only a 580m is a plug-n-play replacement.

You would also need to get modified drivers whenever you want to update with a 675m. At this point you might as well go the whole hog and get a 680m. The performance gain may be enough to give up on 3d?

I've never purchased cards on ebay but I've seen a few people here use upgradeyourlaptop or upgrademonkey with no problems.

On the bright side NV have finally released a decent driver with no overvolt

 

Thanks this helps a lot!

I looked a bit on Ebay and I found that most of the gtx 680m goes for around 600-700$ which is too much for me currently. I saw this one particular ad on ebay for a gtx 680m 2gb (not 4gb) that is around 400$ but it says that it work only for the R2 and R4. Is that true?

The ad is in this link :
Dell Nvidia Geforce GTX 680M Alienware M18XR2 M17XR4 Laptop Video Card 680M 2GB | eBay

Also, I found that the gtx 780m is only 100$ pricier than the gtx 680m and that, according to this ad, this will provide 3D on the R3. I would need wait for a few month before buying that tough.
Alienware M17X M18X NEW Nvidia GTX 780M 4GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B | eBay

I'm thinking tough, won't my processor, a 2760qm be a bit too much of a bottleneck even for a gtx 680m?

 

The 680m 2gb is a Dell original. Only dell used a 2gb version. The 680m was the 'stock' top of the line for the R4 but I've seen plenty of R3 owners use them (without 3D).

The 780m ad is very strange. Unless they know something I don't it will never give 3D on anything other than the latest AW17 . I would certainly want them to confirm this so you can return it easily.

The problem lies in the fact that laptops are designed to work with specific cards. Things like optimus (which you don't have) and fan/power profiles are OEM set. This means that fitting any card not sold with the machine will need a modified bios to be able to disable the on-board. On the 3D model the display is connected to a different port and the internal GPU is completely bypassed already . Upshot, pretty much any NV card can be used in the 120hz model BUT 3D only works with a stock card sold with the model. 120hz is working though.

The drivers have specific machine and card ID's that Dell supply to NV. Once you use a non-standard combination a modified driver is needed for the same reason. User j95 here supplies modded .ini files needed, often within 24 hours of driver release

You can get them from here though: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers as well (win8=win7 as well!).

it's important to get the x-bracket and screws. Yours will probably fit but they are what sets the heatsink to card pressure and clearance, so overheating can become an issue. As for the heatsink, yours will fit and you can track down pad placement diagrams but personally I'd just call dell and get an original one. They come with the pads/paste pre-applied and ready to go. Not too bad a price last time I asked them, around £25.00.

Good luck.

Edit: forgot to add, seems that the 780m is only marginally faster than a 680m and the 680m can easily be tweaked to perform as well.

 

I'll probably go for the gtx 680m with 2gb from the last ad. At 400$, it seems to be the right price for me, and I can live without the 3D. Is there a huge difference with the 4gb models?

I won't bother looking into the 780m since the price difference doesn't seem to be justified.

In general, are the 680m more reliable than the 580m?

I also used a modified bios last year, will it give me trouble upgrading to a recent one?

 

Sounds like a plan, that's my choice and the price is good. No noticeable difference with the 4gb version. It only gets used with multi-monitor high-res setups.

I've not seen one 680m hardware failure against probably six or seven 580/675's so they do look robust.

You should have no trouble with the latest dell bios but I have to ask why you got a modded one?

 

I really don't remember why. I think it had to do with the throttling under higher temp or an increase in performance. Or it could have been that my hard drive was starting to fail last year and before I identified the problem as my hard drive, I tried many things I found online. I don't really know much when it comes to bios, hardware and performance adjustment...

But I installed it and never had any problem with it so I stuck with the modded bios. My computer was running really well before the 580m started to fail. It was rarely getting hot, tough I didn't push it too much.

 

Gotcha. probably best to just leave it alone then. With the 3D model it is possible to completely brick the machine with bad unlocked bios settings . Been there, done that!

The vBIOS on the card will almost certainly be a Dell one. You can get ones to allow higher overclocks but the +135 that Dell allow is good enough for most people

Good luck and please keep us updated

 

Thanks! I will keep you updated! Will probably takes a few weeks before I try to change the card since I'm too busy with school and work at the moment. Thankfully my wife lent me her Asus RoG for the time being for my school works which is a nice laptop too. I can't stand my older laptops since I've had my M17X .

 

Checked with Dell Canada and they're out of stock on everything, even the thermal pads. I'll think I'll try to use my existing heatsink and try to buy precut thermal pads from upgrade your laptop.

For the thermal paste, I have a leftover tube from a year ago of Arctic Silver 5 (almost full). Would that be ok or should I buy another kind (or a fresher one)?

 

Oh well the existing heatsink should be fine with a new set of pads.

Thermal paste is all so similar I say use what you have. The difference between the best and run-of-the-mill stuff appears to be only a couple of C and it won't 'go off' as long as it's sealed.

 

I'd recommend buying a sheet of 1mm pad that you can cut to whatever size you like, you won't know how many pads & what size until you have the parts in front of you & start playing around with it. That's the approach I took with mine. 1mm thickness is good because you can double & triple stack where necessary. Reuse your existing pads where you can too, you'll have to rearrange them on the heat sink to fit the card though.

 

Thanks for the advice! I ordered a sheet online and made me save 15$ on the precut one.

 

Will I need the modified drivers with the 680m or where they part of the original Dell configuration?

Also, I'm running an unlocked version of the A12 bios. Do I need to modify this to work with the 680m?

I bought the card, should receive it this week!

But the thermal pads won't come t'ill next week...

 

You will need the modified drivers on an R3 but as you have a 120hz model the bios should not need to be touched. The 580m was the highest NV card with the R3.

 

Thank you! Your answers are a great help!

 

I finally got everything and found the time to repair my laptop! Everything's is working fine and it is way faster than before! Big thanks MickyD and Robbo for their help!

 

Great news man - you're very welcome

 

That's excellent news! Can you post a 3DMark GPU score? (I'm always curious to see how different GPUs perform in different systems, plus it confirms that it's working well for you.)