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    m17x r4 From GTX 660m to m290x Upgrade troubles

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Skyl3r, Jan 28, 2018.

  1. Skyl3r

    Skyl3r Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello everyone.

    I got a m17x r4 used with the following specs:
    • i7-3610qm
    • (2x8GB) 16GB DDR3
    • GTX 660m
    I flashed unlocked BIOS version A11 from SLV7.

    I bought an m290x, thermal paste and thermal pads (1mm). To swap the m290x in, I did nothing besides remove the 660m and place the m290x in its spot. I didn't change any BIOS settings or anything of the sort.
    I saw in Device Manager that a "Basic Microsoft Video adapter" was detected, so I just went ahead and installed the m290x drivers. It shows it as a 8970m in device manager. I believe they are the same cards, so I figured this is probably fine.

    Nothing seems to actually use the card though. When I run Furmark the card does not seem to be getting used. So I was going to try to flash a M290x vbios to the card, but when I try from ATI flash I get the error seen below. So I thought "Hmm, maybe it has UEFI VBIOS on it". So I booted into a UEFI installation of Windows 10 and got the same error again.

    I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I was told the card was a dell m290x.

    [​IMG]


    I tried ATIFlash from FreeDOS and it failed with the same error. I did get potentially more information though. Here's the results of -ai:
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2018
    Skyl3r, Jan 28, 2018
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  2. Reciever

    Reciever D! For Dragon!

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    Just because it wasnt detailed in your OP, did you use DDU to wipe the old nvidia drivers/registries before placing the m290x in?
     
    Reciever, Jan 28, 2018
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  3. Skyl3r

    Skyl3r Notebook Enthusiast

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    I apologize - yes I did run DDU prior to installing the m290x. I also ran it once while the m290x was installed just to test and see if it may be a driver problem.

    Also some other details - if I switch the Primary Graphics Adapter in BIOS to PEG, I get the 8 beeps of death.
     
    Skyl3r, Jan 29, 2018
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  4. Skyl3r

    Skyl3r Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, I've come up with a new theory... I'm using a 180w charger. When I installed the m290x it started warning me that I need to get a 240w charger. When my charger was underrated last time, the 660m was underclocking itself and not using turbo and the CPU was underclocking itself too.
    So I am starting to suspect that maybe Dell is disabling the card before the system can even boot. I've gone ahead and ordered a 240w charger (3rd charger I've bought since getting this laptop :( ).
     
    Skyl3r, Jan 30, 2018
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