m17x R1 and a 580m, installation issues!

Hi guys!

So, my friends are awesome and got me a 580m brand new for my birthday... but I have an m17x R1. The card is supposedly not compatible, but I've got it in the computer and the PC boots up just fine. My system doesn't actually let me do anything with it though. My system has the integrated 9400 card, and the 580m inside of it. I am upgrading from a 260m.

I put the new card in, and the computer wouldn't recognize it. It recognized that it was a display adapter, but it just installed it as "Standard VGA Adapter" and had a Code 10 (device cannot start). I kept uninstalling the nvidia drivers and changing my PCI-E Gen2 and integrated/hybrid settings in the bios, and finally the code 10 went away, but now the PC doesn't recognize the card at all. It shows that I have a single Standard VGA Adapter as my display, (and my screen works fine, no artifacts/etc.), but I can't install ANY nvidia drivers. At all. I disabled the integrated card in the bios, but I don't know if it automatically enables itself if the 580m doesn't work. I've downloaded modified drivers and infs from laptopvideo2go, but nothing is working. GPU-Z identifies the card as a GF114 architecture card (which is the 560/580 series), and it identifies that my card has the correct vBios for a 580m, but Windows will do nothing with it.

I did flash the vBios to the newest dell 580m vBios, but it didn't help.

I'm stuck and could really use some help if anyone has any ideas!

Thanks,
Brandon

 

That's awesome. Your friends are very generous.

Maybe this will help: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/700525-580m-vbios-question.html#post8992893

 

That's the one I'm flashed to already. I'm not sure how to get windows to stop recognizing it as Standard VGA Adapter and actually let me install drivers... :|

 

Unfortunately, with the M17X R1 NVidia is not the way to go with GPU upgrades. The best NVidia GPU that has been tested and working in the R1 is the 285M. The most powerfull GPU available to upgrade to with the R1 is the AMD 5870M, even though in theory any MXM 3.0 card should work. It has something to do with the motherboard of the R1 that locks us to the 285M/5870M... however, both of those cards can work in Crossfire/SLI with the newest drivers.

I know this because when I was deciding what to upgrade to from my 260M SLI setup I looked on these forums on what cards have been tested. People have already tried higher cards than the 285M/5870M and unfortunately none of them have had any success. The 5870 is still a very capable card and runs most of my games at high settings without problems thanks to new drivers, and this is just with a single card.

Really, the only way to get your 580M to work in your R1 is to swap the motherboard with a R2 motherboard. People have done it before with success, but it is a lot of work. http://www.imsolidstate.com/archives/1097

I hope this clears things up for you.

 

Really? I read in a bunch of different places that the R1 would run a single 580m just fine.. dang it. I've read in a few different places that people have modified the R1 bios to allow other cards, but I can't find actual decent instructions on how to do it. I love my m17x, but the problems I've had with the 260m are making me regret getting it. Thanks for all the help!

 

No problem, I have also had major issues with my 260M's (BSOD, constant freezes, screen tearing, screen artifacts), and since I upgraded to the 5870M I have basically had no issues. Just 1 card destroys 2 260M's lol, it's awesome. New games like Far Cry 3 run on everything maxed out at 40fps+, Crysis 3 on medium 40fps+, Skyrim with full texture and graphics mods on ultra is stable. The only games that have given me issues were Metro Last Light and Arma 3, which only ran on low. But a driver update allowed me to up the settings of Arma 3... haven't tried Metro yet. However, I also have the max CPU and Ram (Q9300, 8GB) - so if you don't have that you have have to upgrade those parts as well.

A 5870M can be found on ebay for about $150, and you can sell each of your 260M's for about $100 each, give or take.

But, if you are really feeling up to it a full tutorial of replacing the motherboard can be found here:
¹ýÄêÀ²£¡Ë͸øËùÓÐM17X R1µÄÐÖµÜÃÇÒ»·Ý´óÀñ£¡R1¸ÄR2³É¹¦£¡£¡£¡£¡_´÷¶ûAlienwareÍâÐÇÈËÂÛ̳

 

Akazeth is correct. The M17x "R1" does not support the 580M. I was unaware of this until I searched Google for more information and it seems you are not the only one experiencing issues with this. I could not find a solution, therefore, I must conclude it is not compatible. Sorry, brotha...

 

Aka, I have had the same issues constantly. I can't watch ANY videos at all without the PC locking up. It's horrible. I am terrified of embedded youtube videos now haha.

I'll definitely look into a 5870m. Thanks guys.

 

if you want, you can upgrade your mobo to an r2 mobo. its gonna cost more though because you will need a new cpu to go along with the new mobo; however, the gpu upgrades available to you goes up to dual 7970m, as well as, a 1200p screen upgrade.

 

1200p RGB LED screen is supported by the R1 motherboard, that is actually going to be my next upgrade along with a second 5870M, already have a bid on the screen on ebay . Eventually I will upgrade my motherboard, but that will only happen when this R1 absolutely can't run my games.

@huckler - 5870 is just plug and play, and you can use the R2 drivers off Dell's website. However, if you want to be able to overclock and have better performance, you will need to do a vBios flash and install the new beta drivers. You don't have to do this, I only did this a few days ago lol.

vBios flash tutorial: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/734549-should-i-buy-m17x-r2-5.html#post9421159

CCC 13.11 5870M Beta Drivers: AMD Catalyst 13.11 BETA1 (13.200.16.0 September 26) Download

5870M Tested Overclocks: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/734549-should-i-buy-m17x-r2-4.html#post9417042

Just posting this for your future reference so you don't have to look all over the place later on.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...ti-amd-hd-5870-mxm-3-0-type-b-video-card.html

 

That's a non-Dell 5870M, the Dell ones are red, not green. I actually have no idea if a non-Dell card would work, maybe the bios flash would make it work?

 

Not sure if it's the same issue but have you tried disabling hardware acceleration in the browser options? This has been happening for a lot of people for about 6 months now with NV drivers, 314.22 is the last good one reported.

Fixed it for me.

HTH

 

Ah, I didn't notice that. It may work, some Clevo cards work in Alienware's.

 

****insert generic amd fanboy comment here****