Upgrading my Ranger

Alright, I’m going to take the MOBO out, cut that are off, put the MOBO back in, and then reset the CMOS. (I have tried to plug this into an external monitor, but nothing happened.)

 

Update:
I didn’t have a dremmel, so I used a hacksaw. It took me forever but this was the end result.

 

That works, before you are done MAKE SURE to sand off the edges and hose down the whole chassis.

You dont want metal shavings to make it to the board

 

I used about an entire can of compressed air and used a flashlight to make sure there were NO metal shavings left. I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t found any remaining one, would you still recommend that I hose it down and if so, what would I do about the LED bar connector and the foam pads where the HDD bays are.

 

Also, I got the CMOS battery out of the MOBO, about how long should I leave it out?

 

As long as you account for the variable and have confidence in your methods then should be okay I suppose, that being said I didnt have compressed air so I substituted with water.

Foam is fine to leave, it will dry. Also they arent LED strips exactly, there are little plugs with LEDs that hook into that transparent plastic strips. Since that is electronic I would remove if you indeed use water.

As far as CMOS, I just remove it, the battery, and AC power then hit the power on button a few times. Then I would put half of it together to see if I got the results I wanted first before full reassembly.

 

Ok, I turned it on and nothing happened. Turned it off then on and got into the BIOS, nothing seemed to change besides the display mode, which was set to SG. Though, the BIOS time did change.

 

SG mode is optimal until you make the changes needed in your system then I would stick to PEG. More consistent performance overall

 

Yeah, I was going to ask, usually Optimus is on, but when I switch using fn+f5, it restarts, but goes to Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. If i’m wrong, correct me, but isn’t it supposed to route the display to the discrete GPU instead of through the CPU when you press fn+f5

 

I’ve also had an issue with the HDD that it only works if it’s set to RAID in the BIOS. I haven’t thought much of it, but isn’t the standard AHCI?

 

From my understanding it switches from SG to PEG mode, but every time that it does that you will or windows will need to reinstall the GPU drivers. At least in my experience it had done so every time I used that function.

It should function in AHCI, but if you swap back and forth and your WIndows installation is on one then it will not function on the other. If WIndows is installed on a raid mode setting then you will need to reinstall windows under AHCI for it to function. Otherwise you will have BSODs iirc

 

Could it be due early bios versions? Because it never worked for me in the days around late 2013.

 

I always ran A14/A14+ on all my motherboards, always the same behavior.

 

With Dell's disgusting firmware mess I expect they have changed something vs. the older firmware.

 

I know this thread is a bit dead now, but can the Ranger take RAM speeds up to 2133? I'm also a bit confused about the 4 RAM slots. I know the CPU only supports dual-channel, but would getting four 4 gig sticks be better or just two 8 gig sticks?

 

Yes, ideally if you plan to hold on to the Ranger for a while yet, then 32GB would be ideal or 2x8GB would be good too so you can expand later

 

Alright, thanks.

This thread will probably come alive in about a month when I get the money/gifts to upgrade my Ranger. I also probably plan to buy the 4930MX off of you soon, but we can talk about that when it comes up.

 

oh right I forgot about that lol, it would be good that you do that, as it would prevent me from pursuing costly ideas

 

I'm thinking of ordering this exact display, it's on sale and I'd rather not have to do any mods to the bezels. Is there a way to tell what exact model this one is. I know the DO1 and DO2 revisions guarantee work with the Ranger. I just can't find out what revision this one is.

http://notebookparts.com/dell-inspi...ed-3d-17-3-lcd-led-backlight-0gn36t-rf-gn36t/

 

You would be in uncharted territory with that panel

I really like the N173HHE-G32 panel, its true that you would have to mod some things but considering my Ranger is retired, I can part with them as well. Most of the work is done in the hinges actually.

 

Alright, If you're willing to sell your display too, I'd be willing to buy it.

Just for future reference, is this the thread that talks about how to install the N173HHE-G32?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...r-120hz-5ms-panel-n173hhe-g32-success.813154/

Last thing, can you confirm this:
3D Panel: 6 bit, IPS, 1080p 120hz, 3D capable.
N173HHE-G32: 8 bit, TN (though a nice TN panel,) 1080p, 120hz, not 3D capable.
I'm not sure if the Dell 3D panel uses 6 or 8 bit color.
Also, is the N173HHE-G32 from the MSI GT73?

 

I dont have that panel anymore, just the stock 120hz panel meant for the platform. I destroyed my N173HHE-G32 as I didnt expect the double-sided tape I used to be so damn good. I cant verify if that panel works anymore as I dont have willpower to test it and doing so would make me want to re-start some projects I should not do lol

It worked just fine last time I used it, but its been in my closet for some time now.

The most important quality beyond the obvious is that the N173 is matte, while the stock panel is glossy.

The N173HHE-G32 is used in many of MSi's laptops, GT75 is one of them as well as many of their higher end 17.3 laptops.

 

I'm a bit confused, so your N17 is broken, but it still works?
I also know the 3D panel is glossy and the N17 is Matte, I personally don't care all too much because I'm usually in a dark-ish room.

 

It's broken and doesn't work. I have a stock panel.

 

Oh, so you have a modded bezel/hinge, but a stock 60hz panel. Makes sense now.

 

I have the modded bezel/hinge but its currently equipped with the 120hz panel.

EDIT: Stock 120hz panel

 

I guess I'll always have new questions coming up, but I'm currently on an ASUS GL502VT with a 970m and a 6700hq. Would the 4930MX outperform (even slightly) the 6700hq if it was OC'd to 4ghz on all cores? And if so, could I get a general % performance increase number? I know IPC and other general stuff is better on the 6700hq, just a bit curious of how much better, if at all, the 4930MX is compared to the 6700hq.

 

@Papusan can give real numbers

iirc the 4930mx edges it out but thats mostly due to the low clock speed of the 6700hq and likely low memory speed you might have on that system.

 

Alright, thanks!
I'm using 2 sticks of 8gb 2400 DDR4 CL17. Here's the exact modules if needed:
https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct8g4sfs824a

 

6700Hq. A locked Cpu. Newer doesn't always mean better. And BGA is an disgusting tech.


With trash cooling and implemented caps in firmware it will perform even much worse as you can see from Notebookcheck database.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-Notebook-Processor.149420.0.html

i7-4930mx

 

Also if you get a 1070 at some point it will smother that 970m quite soundly.

 

Ok, Thank you very much for the info. I hope one day intel and AMD will re-implement a non-BGA option for Laptop manufactures. (intel doesn't get capitalized, they don't deserve it after milking quad cores and just being a **** company for the past 4ish years.)

 

Yeah, the 970m barely even gets close to the 1050ti mobile. The leap from 900 series mobile to 10 series cards were quite insane.
Edit: Also, I know a desktop-grade 980 came out for Laptops, did an MXM Card ever come out for the desktop-grade 980?

 

Yes, and yes someone had installed it into the Ranger but it would require external power for it to the function since its 200w, better off with the 1070 at 115w and doesnt require external power.

If you decide to go down that route at some point, its quite capable still

 

Yeah, I never plan on doing that, a 1070 is still a great card. Who made the 980 though?

 

I cant recall, the thread isnt here on NBR but on a German alienware forum the link for it is in one of the OG 1070 upgrade threads

 

Another one of those question I get from time to time, but can the Ranger take a WiFi 6 Card?

 

With an adapter, yes.

 

Externally?

 

No, just a mpcie to M.2 adapter with an adapter for connecting the old antennae to the new WiFi card (different size plugs)

 

Alright, thanks. I may do this later down the road if the current card starts being a major bottleneck.

 

Its not that expensive at all for the adapter + card, maybe 40-50 off of amazon. Of course if you have a WiFi6 router, otherwise its just a helpful update with the other features (bluetooth)

 

Yeah, everything seemed dirt cheap. Isn't there a revision or something coming out called WiFi 6E or something?

 

Yeah but most consumers wont have a need I think plus it will be a while yet before Routers support it and price is reasonable, were barely getting that with WiFi6 recently

 

I followed TheReceiver's advice and put a wifi6 card in mine. It may never touch a wifi6 network, but my stock card was so flaky, it seemed like the smart move. Did you upgrade to an SSD? If so, what did you go with? I bought a couple of hybrid drives a few years ago, but now I am thinking of just going with a 1TB MSATA.

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk

 

I'm getting a 1tb 850 EVO for general storage and a 256gb mSATA drive for the OS that had good reviews off of amazon. I'm also getting a 2tb 5400RPM HDD and cloning my current machine's files so if I need to grab anything off of my old drives, I don't need my current laptop. (for more context, im switching from my GL502VT to the Ranger and plan on selling the GL502 to get enough money for a 1070MXM.)

 

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you all had a great day. I got some new things for my Ranger. I am now using it full-time as the 4930MX and SSD's justify the 6700hq and the **** hard-drive I was using in my GL502VT. I am working on getting the heatsink from Cicichen for OC's and am trying to find someone who is selling a 1070 MXM. I'm really almost done with this project as I just need those 2 just listed and some 2133mhz RAM.
(Sorry for the picture being sideways!)

 

Alright, I've been using the Ranger for about the past week and my god is it great. I'm coming from a GL502 with a crappy 1tb 7200rpm HDD for the the boot device and games. Everything with the Ranger works normally, but when I run games, it sometimes shows that my laptop has been unplugged and the framerate plummets. I've managed to get around this by unplugging the AC adapter from the wall and then plugging it back in. The issue I have is that this seems to happen at random when I play games and when it happens, it happens every 5-10 minutes or so until I stop playing. I'm either thinking the laptop is somehow power throttling or that the adapter may be damaged. Would anyone know whats going on?

Notes:
If I unplug the AC adapter from the laptop and then plug it back in, nothing happens. It only can be fixed by unplugging the adapter from the wall.
If it is power throttling, how could I tell. I have no way to see how much power is coming from the wall. Though, I don't think its power throttling as the games I play have both low CPU and GPU utilization. I also haven't OC'd the 4930.

 

Try running HWINFO64 while your gaming and you will see what warnings have been tripped.

There ARE some benefits to having the unlocked BIOS, there are some power safety measures that can be disabled BUT that was really for an OCed CPU falling down. If its the whole thing throttling because it think its unplugged I suspect something else is at play.

I still have a 330w AC adapter I used for mine sitting around here somewhere, if you end up going that route feel free to ping me, but I still dont think its explicitly needed other than just to have a lower temperature on the AC adapter which I suppose it has its perks but usually isnt worth the price people want off of ebay.

 

Ok, I've never had a warning go off in HWINFO before, does it just pop up or do I have to be looking at the all of the sensors.