Just got my 880M twins!

Hey guys, I called it first! LOL.

Nah, really... I hope you keep it and get this sorted. An Alienware 18 isn't going to be half the machine that bad boy would be... it simply can't be because it has performance-limiting design defects that the M18xR2 does not have.

I agree with Codenamefa. It looks like a defect with the GPUs to me also. Connecting the SLI bridge would never cause that unless there was something wrong with the parts. You had trouble with them from the very beginning and I am not aware of anything you could do to cause this even if you wanted to. If the seller is reputable they will take care of the GPUs and any damage they may have caused to your system. Removing the original support plate would not cause this damage. They are designed to be removable, otherwise you would not be able to buy them and GPUs would not be offered for sale without them.

 

Darn work.
So ummm, the sg mode was only to see if the card was good or not. And sg mode will not work with two dedicated video cards in the slots only one in the main slot.

 

Thanks for the feedback, some good news, it seems like only one card is broken as I can see one card in BIOS and in GPU-Z, I switched over the broken master with the slave and I just did Extreme FireStrike (1900points) and everything was okey.

I gonna contact upgrademonkey and see what they say. Hope fully it will be a warrenty claim so that I can get a refund (will order a second card anyway),

 

That component on the card is replaceable as well, but it could involve one more component. Not sure where that would be though.

So now you are in normal mode correct? PEG or AUTO.

 

I started up in PEG and the master 880M card was still working while BIOS could not see the second 880 card and I could not see it in Windows either.

Just to make sure the MXM slots where working, I installed a 580M card in the second GPU slot and went into BIOS and then I could see both Nvidia GTX card so MOBO seems to be okey, its only the of the 880M card which is broken.

 

I am with johnksss. I really would like to see you get this worked out.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Ok, so now we are down to one bad card. Better one than both.

 

yeah, at least some good news. Just need to get an reply from upgradmonkey

 

It seems that it is a resistor which burnt, like if something was drawing too many amp out of it. Maybe a short?

 

Now wait a second... we need to be fair here. He even admitted swapping cards without performing a power drain. Seems like he did that several times. That's how you fry a card. Easily.
You can't just carelessly mess with your system and new hardware and then blame the seller.

 

True but this happend after I started to power drain the system, it was only the first time when I installed both 880M cards I didnt power drain (holding power button down for 30 seconds after disconnecting battery and AC adapter right?).

Anyway, I have bought myself a new 880M card and I will return the faulty one to upgrademonkey and see what they say. Im not blaming anyone (maybe more myself), computer components are sensitive equipment and it don't take much to damage it. It might have been a user error by myself or it can be a defect component.

Yeah, it worked fine until I installed the second card and attached the SLi bridge to it. When I started up and a big light came from that small resistor along with smoke and after this, it died.

 

When I have moved cards around in my system I never did a power drain. I've done it many times. Is it really required ?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

Technically you should not have to, the capacitors should drain very quickly, the only big suckers are in the power brick, most damage is usually from static rather than any power remaining in the circuit itself.

 

Dude I feel for you. When i upgraded frm single 680m to 780m sli in my m18x r2 i was damn scared to flash those bioses and open up and upgrade as i was new to it. i hired a technician for usd 50 he upgraded and did thermal pasting with arctic mx 5 to my 3920xm and sli 780ms as well

 

That's true... shouldn't have to. Although it never hurts to be cautious, I have never done that before when swapping GPUs. I am always meticulous about grounding myself repeatedly and discharging any static electricity before handling any internal components on any computer. I've never had an issue before, but just to be sure I don't jinx my perfect record I am going to start doing the power drain as svl7 suggested. I think I can spare the extra 30 seconds to be extra careful. I don't want to break my perfect record of never having a mishap.

 

I'm probably a bit late to all this, but when he put in the first card, the original master GPU, he got the weird GPU-Z look, correct? With only 3GB of VRAM and the "current" clocks showing nothing? I can say that I have witnessed a dead desktop GPU (a GTX 470) that did the same thing. It'd list its RAM size and default clocks, but it would NEVER list the current ones and forcing driver installs was a failure. I did every single thing I could do with that card short of opening it up and ripping it apart manually, including forcing a BIOS flash, installing drivers in safe mode, even throwing it in a different motherboard. It simply did not know what it had to do, and has never worked properly. The original owner claimed lightning struck his PC and since then his card never worked right. The original owner is a known idiot, however so we didn't take him seriously, but after a couple weeks of trying and not being able to make it work, we all gave up on it.

So if the card that had the odd GPU-Z reading was the one that blew out once he connected them in SLI mode, then his card was damaged before he ever got it working. So that may be something he can point out to upgrademonkey in terms of a refund and/or replacement. I only brought up my somewhat-lengthy story about it because it's the only time I've ever seen a GPU-Z screenshot from someone else where its card didn't appear to know what it was properly. Also, he had (and still has) the latest GPU-Z version, so it wouldn't have been a problem in that respect.

 

This is correct, this was the GPU-Z picture (v0.7.8 which support 880M's) just after I installed the card which minutes later blew up when I installed the second GPU and SLi bridge.



When I installed the second card into the master slot, the GPU-Z picture was correct with no missing information.

 

Yup! In that case sir, I am fairly certain you did not break that card. I showed that same GPU-Z picture to my friend who thought he could do better with the 470 than I did. He simply said "so it DOES exist elsewhere...". We haven't ever found a similar GPU-Z picture like that on the net before, so (reading through this thread from the start) the minute I came across your picture like that, I figured your card was bad in some way.

I hope you get it replaced, because it was DEFINITELY broken before you tried to plug in that second card.

 

GPUZ won't show correct info until the drivers are installed.

If the card is dead often drivers won't install as they swap from software to hardware rendering and then you get the BSOD.

 

Did you get a response from upgrade monkey?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

This is true, but the card has its own information installed already and doesn't usually turn up a null reading for its current clocks/memory/etc.

 

I have found it will without any drivers at all IIRC.

 

Well when I get back my laptop on wednesday or thursday of this week and I resintall my OS from scratch, I'll run GPU-Z before any install drivers for the machine and see if I get such a picture. Whatever the result I'll (eventually) message you or post it here.

 

They will issue a RMA and will send the card to Clevo for inspection.


Just to clarify, I didn't install any modified driver when I took the GPU-Z picture from both my cards. So, one card showed limited information and one showed full information.

 

just got my second 880M card but it looks different from my two other cards.

It has come different components.

New 880M



Old 880M

 

Different revisions usually tend to have different "better quality" components to reduce return percentages. Either way, how's the SLI setup going? I've been following your thread for a few days now. I felt your pain when the 1 GPU was found DOA. I just hope this is sorted for you now.

 

Well, I carefully removed the supportplate and installed the dual VRAM plate and have attached the heatsink to it. I have powerdrained the system 3 times and installed the second 880M card (no SLi brigde at the moment)

Now, I just need to grow some balls and attached the powersupply and start-up.

 

Power on in peg mode. Do not put system back together until it works. Make sure backplate is not touching any components. And that system boots at correct pcie speed of x8.

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

How can I check the PCI speed?

 

Like this...

 

ahh, but there is nothing more I should do prior to statup?

The backplate cant really touch anything because there is a plastic layer behind both cards...only thing is to keep an eye out for small screws or similar inside the heatsink/backplate.

 

hi guys I'm having a problem with the GTX880M as well there you go:
I bought a new GTX 880M, it apears at BIOS (NVIDIA GTX'''' if I'm not mistaken) but it's time to install the video driver he does not find'' the board, and says the message'' this graphic driver Could Not find compatible graphics hardware''
Notebook: Alienware M18X R1 does anyone know / can help me? 'm desperate: S

 

Have you modified the drivers for R1?

 

no , i just download latest beta Nvidia 337.61

 

M18xR1 included cards: 765M - 770M - 780M - 860M - 880M.

- GeForce 337.61 Beta
- Extract driver with 7-Zip/winrar
- Display.Driver folder -> open nvdm.inf (notepad) CTRL+H -> Find What: 05AB Replace With: 048F -> Hit 'Replace All' -> Save.
- Nvidia 337.61...International folder\ run setup.exe.

 

work but dont work , now pass the system check , i put to driver install begin instalation , and goes to error ,

 

Did you edit the .inf file?

 

i just do :
Display.Driver folder -> open nvdm.inf (notepad) CTRL+H -> Find What: 05AB Replace With: 048F -> Hit 'Replace All' -> Save.
- Nvidia 337.61...International folder\ run setup.exe.

change nothing more, there any other thing to change?

 

Win8 disable driver signing, then install drivers.

Command Prompt (Admin) Win key + X

Code:

bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes

> "The operation completed successfully" -> reboot -> Install drivers.

Exit test mode

Code:

bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no

->reboot.

 

works ! =D thankyou j95 ,i need now a tutorial to put a I7 2960 xm at 4.6 ghz all 4 cores =D

 

No problem...

 

Ahh, good for you!

I havent started up yet

 

I'm talking about the backplate not touching any components on the 880M card itself.

 

GUYS 3D Mark 11
The middle test (Cloud Gate), with I7 2820QM AT 3,281ghz Crossfire HD 6990M 830/1230 both, as score 18691 and with I72960XM at 4630ghz with 1 GTX880M score 9500 i`m ultra disaponted , what are your scores? must be something wrong =/

 

You may not be sustaining an actual 4.6ghz. As I mentioned in the PM you'll likely need to increase your Pri Plane to sustain a clock like that. Do you have an unlocked BIOS?

Also if you haven't purchased the full version of either benchmark - use 3d Mark 11 as you won't have to sit through 10 minutes if crud first. Save you some time

 

Right now it`s at 4.648 ghz 4 cores ,nvidia can be overclocked? 3d mark make more score by gpu ?

 

nevermind you have a single card

 

Yep, you are way off.....
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2

 

hi johnksss, help me, what do you think might be missing the plate using all performance? far I am frustrated with the performance I expected something like your score 20,000 or more , FOX also said this, which driver you use? changed something in the driver settings?

your speeds :

Core clock1,243 MHzMemory bus clock1,650 MHz

mine

954 MHzMemory bus clock1,250 MHz

I know the AMD edit clocks with Atiwinflash, NVIDIA is the same thing?