need help upgrading from ati 6870 to ati 6990

hi i just received dell ati 6990m
it comes with the graphic card itself, no gpu bracket or heatsink
is there any special guide to upgrade ati 6870 to 6990m on ALIENWARE M17X-R3?
do i need to remove the bracket from ati 6870 to ati 6990m?
please help guys
thanks ahead! !

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-6990-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

 

1 question mate..
do i need to take out the gpu bracket from ati 6870 and replace it to the ati 6990m?
and yea mine is R3 not R2
thanks!

 

to be safe this is what I would do:

1. uninstall the old graphics card from the device manager.
2. shut down the laptop and pull the bottom plate off.
3. take the CMOS battery out so you can reset the bios later
4. unscrew the GPU heat-sink and remove the old card ( here is a good guide on how to do this in an r-3 by an older forum member).
5. hold the power button for 10 seconds to reset the bios.
6. seat the new card and apply thermal paste(many different methods on how to do this).
7. carefully place heat sink straight down on the GPU die and alternatively tighten screws so the heat-sink makes good contact with the GPU die.
8. put the CMOS battery back in.
9. put the bottom cover on and attach battery.
10. start the machine and see if the new card shows up in the bios.
11. if it does, you are set and good to go, just install the drivers for the new card and you are done.

hope this helps you out and it is easy to follow.

 

just an awesome short guide, man, you made me want to upgrade GPU good job bigtony! +rep

 

+rep!
the question i am asking is there is a square bracket just behind the old ati 6870m graphic card, do i need to just take em out and place it to my new ati 6990M?

 

just replaced the gpu, from the bios itself discrete graphics 1 (NOT DETECTED)

 

If the 6990m doesn't have the x-plate carefully take it off the 6870 and place it on the 6990

Edit: do you have the bios updated?

 

don't worry you will be there, just follow the pros, I am sure a ton of people will reply soon

 

I had the same issue when I bought a 6990m to replace my 460m. Never could figure out the issue. sent it back to the seller and he said it works fine. If we can get this to work, I might see if I can get another card

 

oh crap, man you were sure it was dead, what happened?

 

still don't know, he was going to put it in one of his r-3's and get back with me. I tried getting that thing to work for hours and I prob forgot 1 simple thing

 

i have never update any of the bios before..
is there any guide how to flash the system bios and vbios for ati 6990m?
thanks!

 

for the system bios, just download the A08 bios from here and let it do its thing. should reboot after its done and you should be all set. As to the V-bios I tried to flash the card but it wouldn't work

 

i have the latest bios of A08 though, now flashing the same A08 bios again from dell.com..

 

try it with the card installed and see what happens

 

flashed with ati 6990m installed but still GPU NOT DETECTED from the bios
any other solution mate?
if there's no solution ill try to give dell a call and ask the technician to fix this..

 

hmm i'd advise giving dell a call and seeing what they have to say if you bought it from them. Please let me know what they say

 

just called up dell. they will send a new heatsink for ati 6990m together with the technician

 

I don't think its the heatsink, but I could be wrong. Please let me know if they do anything different than what I said in my guide so I can modify it and try it myself

 

i just tried to dissemblance em again removed the fan, heatsink, gpu, and the bracket..
then i plug in the gpu without the bracket and the fan without the heatsink too..
powered on, goes into bios and woot! system can recognize the ATI Graphic

i believe there are 2 problems here
-firstly is the bracket.. the ati 6870 bracket doesn't compatible with the ati 6990?
-secondly is the heatsink itself..
I just called dell and requested for another heatsink and gpu bracket
and lets see how it goes tomorrow

 

hmmm interesting. wonder why it needs a different heat-sink if I get my 6990m back ill have to try that and see what happens.

 

just read this guide from mxm..
6970 & 6990m looks pretty similar.
cant really see the difference though..
from what i see, there's no need to replace the heatsink and bracket though..
even nvidia's bracket is still fits perfectly to 6970m card =/
Alienware m17r3 HD6970 MXM Upgrade

 

from what I have seen there is no reason a heat sink would cause the laptop not to detect the card. I wonder what magic the dell tech is going to do

 

pretty weird yea..
others doesn't have this issue..
only both of us having this issue =/

 

yea sure seems like it.

 

you ever get this figured out? just wondering so I can get my 6990m back and get it to work

 

everything works perfect when he got me a new heatsink and the bracket,
the bracket is completely different from the ati 6870m.
everything works great, just passed the beast to my sister for her college haha

you should request for another bracket (backplate) for the ati 6990m mate!

 

ill do that. lets just hope dell will sell me a heat sink :/ +rep again

handed out to much rep today, ill give it to ya when I can

 

wonder if something like this would work?? the price is robbery though