Upgrading my Ranger

Alright, just making sure, so basically do what Max said earlier, but pressing Y twice to flash the new vBIOS?

 

Is it the funky looking MSI card with the extra piece of PCB sticking out?

 

You good Max?

 

1BE1 is for the g-sync card. Don't flash that one

 

Stupid thing posted it twice for some reason

 

Ok, I am going to save the old vBIOS and then disable the GPU, wish me luck!

 

May the Flash be with you!

 

Well, ****. I now get 8 beeps upon trying to boot.

 

Remember if the flash fails for some reason then keep trying. Do not exit cmd or shut the machine off until it works. It should work first time though

 

Did you try the flash yet?

 

The flash said it worked and it needed to restart to take effect, I restarted and then it started doing 8 beeps, which is LCD failure, (I don't think my LCD is broken though.)

 

Yeah I flashed, I had already had everything ready at the time hence why I responded so quickly

 

When you have the 120hz display, an 8 beep error also relates to GPU failure as the 120hz display is run directly from the Nvidia card

 

Well, what should I do then?

 

Not entirely sure right now. Did you have the 120hz panel or the 60hz? I thought I read earlier that you were in SG mode so you must have the 60Hz.
You will need to reset the BIOS to get off PEG mode, if that's what it was set to

 

Yes, I have both panels. So all I need to do is to reset the BIOS and let the card stay in the MXM slot or do I need to take it out.

 

Also, instead of waiting like 30-45 minutes with the CMOS battery out, couldn't I just hold the power button down with the CMOS battery in to reset the BIOS?

 

If you can get it off PEG mode then the laptop should boot with the intel graphics. You can then try a different vBIOS if you want to

 

They made it harder to reset the CMOS (NVRAM reset) in the 17 and 18. Guide link below. Note that you do not have to remove the CMOS battery like it says.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...-to-reset-UEFI-BIOS-when-no-POST/td-p/5521711

 

Sorry for bombarding you with questions, but how would I flash another vBIOS on the card if its bricked right now? Also, the guy who sold it to me said it was mandatory that a vBIOS flash was needed to get it to work in another system. He said Woodz was a good flasher. This probably means Woodz flashed this guy's card to the Dell vBIOS. I wonder if Woodz remembers this and could help us out, though, he has probably flashed so many cards that he wouldn't even remember.

 

He should be able to help you out. Hopefully it's not actually bricked, it could just be a very incompatible vBIOS.

I wouldn't have thought an MSI vBIOS would work in the Ranger and it would have needed a Dell or Alienware one, but I'm no expert on vBIOS'

 

Alright, I'll take out the 1070 when trying to get into the BIOS.

Also @woodzstack , would you remember flashing a Dell vBIOS on an MSI gtx 1070 MXM for someone who was going to put it into an AW M17x R4?

Also, here's the Ebay link with images from the seller:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alien...468329?hash=item4b89ae9969:g:H1UAAOSwTOxf5nJ5

 

wait wait wait......he had it in an M17x R3?? That shouldn't be possible.... I am very intrigued now.

EDIT; I see in the pictures he had the R4. All makes sense now.

 

Oh, I thought because it had a sandy-bridge CPU that it was an R3, sorry!

 

I don't quite understand though. If the card was working in his M17x R4 then it should work in your Ranger with the same vBIOS. Like I said, I'm no expert but it doesn't seem right.
The conspiracy theorist in me would think that he knew the card was bad and sold it as 'needing a new vBIOS' and then the buyer tries this and it fails so he blames the vBIOS flash.

 

The R4 and the M18x R2 were backwards compatible with the 2nd gen processors.

 

If **** hits the fan, I think ebay will side with us.

 

Could you explain though what to do after I get into the BIOS? I am going to try to boot with the card out, and then what do I do from there?

 

Just managed to POST and get into the BIOS with the iGPU only.

Edit: I am going to get off for the night and won't be working on the Ranger until late in the afternoon tomorrow. I just found this, its a Dell vBIOS with the same GPU code as the MSI one, if anyone is willing to help me somehow flash it onto my bricked 1070, that would be well appreciated. Thanks for the help everyone!

Link:
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/205682/205682

 

Have you tried to see if the GPU still comes up in nvflash like last time?

 

I posted with the GPU not in the MXM slot, if I try to boot SG with the GPU in the MXM slot, do you think it will work?

 

If it’s in SG mode then it should boot. Even if the card is dead.


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Well this is quite a predicament. Flashing that MSI VBIOS should've done the trick.

 

Yeah, it’s a bit weird. If a few more flashes don’t work, I am going to talk to ebay about it.

 

It seems that @Maxware79 is right, for what I know it should've worked with the previous vbios.
There're 2 sides, or he broke the card or he mess-up with the vbios and now tried to fool someone on ebay.
I would put again the previous vbios and request a refund to the seller.

Regarding @woodzstack he is maybe on holidays, I am waiting for his answer to buy a new card for my M17X R4

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Just tried to boot with the GPU in while the BIOS was set to SG mode, it doesn't work. Do you think if I take the 1070 out, get into the BIOS, set the graphics to iGFX, and then put the 1070 in I can then boot? And if I set the graphics to iGFX, can I still mess with the 1070?

 

Did you not backup the vbios before flash?

Programmer is likely the next route if the machine can't boot

 

I did back it up on the boot SSD.

The thing is though, even before I installed the drivers and figured out everything about the 1070, I could never get it to boot in SG mode. I also did end up trying to boot into the BIOS with the GPU out, but the computer would turn off whenever I tried to get into the BIOS, I'm currently resetting the BIOS, but I find this very strange.

 

UPDATE:
After resetting the BIOS, nothing has changed, I managed to get into the boot manager for like 2 seconds and the computer shut off. I can't even boot as the computer automatically goes to automatic repair, probably because when the BIOS resets, it defaults to RAID, but I have my drives set up as AHCI.

Edit: Okay, now I can get into the BIOS for like 2 seconds before the computer shuts off, but I cant do anything due to me not having enough time to do anything.

Edit 2: I fixed the issue by re-seating everything and set the BIOS to iGFX and managed to boot.
I can send the old vBIOS of the 1070 if needed.

 

If I was you I would flash the previous vbios and contact the seller to request a refund

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I'll keep the original vBIOS, but I will probably test a few more or get some of you guys to see the original vBIOS and to figure out what was wrong with it. I am doing things right now, but I plan on testing if the 1070 works when the video config is set to iGFX.

 

The part that doesnt make sense to me is even the R4 uses the MSI vBIOS just fine, it shouldnt need the Dell vBIOS but regardless if it works then it works. That being said were hitting a wall here.

I would personally send the card back mostly due to I personally didnt like the backstory on the card. Its either that or you will need a programmer as that is the best method for flashing bar none, requires the programmer of course which will delay things. However its much more trust worthy than software flashing. Not pricey at all either

 

I'll try talking with the guy and will get this sorted out. I can't even boot with the card in to flash the old vBIOS back onto it, what do I do?

Note: Everytime I try booting with the card in, the LVDS panel makes a clicking sound every few seconds, like its trying to turn on, but it cant. I have tried SG mode and iGFX mode and am just kind of stuck.

 

Did you flash a gsync bios by chance?

 

No, it was this exact one, 1BA1.

Link:
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/222470/222470

 

Disregard this post, I was looking at the other alienware BIOS instead of another MSI one, sorry!

 

You cannot change the vbios through DOS?

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Nope, I just can't get a display signal, even with an external display. I have tested said external display with a HDMI and Mini DP. I'm going to talk to the seller and if he doesn't want to cooperate, then I will take it to ebay. I'm just hoping I can get my money back, even if I have to return the card.

 

I am currently getting into contact with the seller and Ebay about the situation. I appreciate all the help you all have given me. I just hope I can get my money back, even if the seller had the intent of selling me a faulty card, I really hope he doesn't lose money on this as it seems everyone's in a tight economic situation, and what I payed can really help someone out. I'll keep you all updated on how everything goes.

If everything goes alright, this 1070 seems like my last resort. I know its the Dell variant, and I would really like the MSI variant for some decent OC's, but if this is what I have to work with, I don't mind too much.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Precision-Workstation-GTX-1070/dp/B088PY9KWW?tag=coa_us_g-20

 

That one should work, its not the best but its perfectly adequate