NVIDIA GTX 680M Thread - M18x R2 and M18x R1 Upgrade Discussion

Ah, that must be the part I"m missing. I'll try it now!

 

If that doesn't work, try and install them manually (with DSE disabled) by doing the following:

Go to Device Manager, Display Adapters and you should see the default Microsoft Display Adapter, click update, direct the updater to the folder your driver is in and it will install your driver for you.

Disabling DSE should do the trick though.

 

Someone doesn't want me enjoying the 680m.
The drivers finally installed and I played a bit before going to bed.
When I woke up, the laptop screen had red lines.
External monitor was fine.
I rebooted and got 8 beeps.
Hopefully it's just the cable.
Anyone know the quickest way to buy new LCD cable?
I don't have warranty.


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Chances are the Display cable isn't connected properly. You could try opening her up and ensuring that it's firmly attached to the port on the mobo. That should help out. 8 beeps is LCD/display related ( Alienware Beep Codes Table | Dell) and I doubt that anything has got "broken" overnight. It all worked before the install so it should work after too.....

 

I tried reattaching it and still got 8 beeps.
I don't have any monitor with VGA to see if it boots but the one that I have was working when I had red lines.
I know the problem is the LCD or the cable but for now I can't get it to boot


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You could also try resetting the BIOS and booting from battery, then from ac again. See if that helps.

 

Yeah I tried that too.
Booting from battery I got 5 beeps.
Plugged ac in and got 8 beeps again.


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Did you say it works fine with the external? - if so, that would potentially eliminate a problem with the gpu's (and how they are installed) and would point more so towards either the LCD display itself or the cable that carries the signal. The part number for the cable is 8NW7M - maybe you can buy one from Dell or Goggle it for resellers close to you. You could tear down the LCD assembly to check that all connections on that side are okay before buying a new cable - no point in spending unless you have to.

You could also try what is suggested in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/686946-m18x-r1-wont-boot-fails-post-8-beeps.html - see if you can boot running iGFX. If so, there would be nothing wrong with the display or the cable.

 

Doesn't boot either way.
I think it is the cable if not the LCD.
I found one from parts-people.com for $35 but $11 shipping won't get here until 25th.
The rest are $35-$100.
I will try dell but It'd be great if I could find local reseller.


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What I meant was that you could try was to remove the 680m's and see if you could boot with iGFX and get the display working/get past 8 beeps. I'm sure that was one of the things suggested in that last link.

 

Yep. I did try that and still got 8 beeps.

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Bugger. Hope you can source a cheap cable and that it resolves the problem. Can't think of anything else to try.....

 

Your laptop won't boot with the graphics cards completely removed?

I'm running right now on just my CPU, neither GPU is even in the laptop.

Running really cool, obviously. Maybe my cat will quit sitting on the palmrest.

 

Yep.
Problem is with the LCD, hence the 8 beeps.
The screen obviously is not turning on and laptop won't post.
Hopefully a new cable will fix that.
I'm looking for the best place to buy.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the upgrade. Hope it works out for you soon!

 

I called dell and they said it's $14.99 but they don't have it in stock.
Are parts-people.com reliable?
I might just buy from them for $35 + $35 shpping to get this fixed by wednesday.

 

Never dealt with them - did Dell tell you when you could expect one in stock? - $14.99 is a lot cheaper!

 

Told me to call back on friday to see if they're in stock.
Of course I'll be calling again on tuesday at least.

 

Hello all. Not trying to hijack Thatoe.

majster msi has a 4GB 680M for sale from an MSI laptop. Does MSI have their own card in addition to Dell and Clevo?

I did not read every page of this thread, I admit, but I have some questions about the upgrade.

Will it work in an M18xR1?

Does HDMI-In work?

Are the Intel integrated graphics recognized?

I also asked these questions in an older Tech|Inferno thread, so pardon the redundancy. I need a clear answer before I drop that kind of cash.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

Is it an LVDS cable for your M18X that you need, from what I was reading it looks like it. If so I have quite a few of them laying around, I would need to put some Two sided 3M tape on them and they would be good as new again. (I have a roll of the exact stuff Dell uses) If you need one let me know, Just pick up the shipping the cable you can have lol I've got 6 of them I ain't going to miss one or 2.

 

Update:

I just got two LVDS cables from ligithin.
I tried both of them with 680m, 580m and no GPU.
Got 8 beeps on all occasion.
So it must be the LCD itself or the motherboard.
I don't want to buy both of them to fix it so I think I'll be parting out the rest of the laptop.

Thank you so much again ligithin and everyone who's helped me with this.

 

I had a quick question. I have the alienware m18x r1 motherboard. I bought my m18x from a shop it came with dual 560ms. I have the 680ms which are 100W cards each (560 is 75W). Will the motherboard support them?

 

Yep. My R1 has two 680m's in and it flies (as mentioned on your other thread, the only drawback is having to modify the driver to allow install - other than that, it's a perfectly legit. upgrade for the R1)

 

Try this (last post): http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...p-alienware-m18x-does-not-post-8-beeps-2.html

Your system should post, if you´ll follow those steps.

 

Yep. I've gone through all the threads about 8 beeps and tried everything suggested in those threads including yours.
The laptop still doesn't post. 5 beeps after reconnecting cmos. 8 beeps after another restart.
I'm afraid this is either LCD or motherboard like I said and I don't know how to tell which one it is.

 

If vou have a xbox, ps3 or dvd player with hdmi-output try if you´ll get a signal on the lcd. disconnect the lcd connectors from the mainboard and try to boot with a lcd-tv or lcd-monitor with hdmi in.

 

Most of the time this problem is the LVDS cable, but not always. Since you have tried multiple GPUs and no GPU installed, (also a potential cause,) I would say it is probably something with the motherboard, Thatoe... perhaps one of the PCI-e slots is bad. If I were a betting man, that's where I would put my money. But, I'm not a gambler and there is no way to know with 100% certainty, which is why Alienware normally requires a depot repair for this problem. They will not use the "shotgun" approach and send out all of the components that might be causing it.

 

Ok, I promise this is the last time I spam in this thread.
My parents (they're buying me the new computer) didn't like the idea of me getting a desktop.
I was also thinking, instead of buying a new LCD assembly and motherboard to fix the R1, why not upgrade to R2 while I'm at it.

I found an R2 with these specs for pretty cheap.
Space Black
i7-3610QM
GTX 660M
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230

I can swap the CPU and GPU out for 2920xm and 680m sli that I already have.
I know how to take out the LCD cover now. How hard is it to take out the bottom chassis. Red is a must for me and I'll need to swap it.
Does Wireless-N 2230 already come with 3 antennae? I'll be swapping it for Killer 1103.

 

Removal of the motherboard is the same process as swapping the chassis. The M18x R2 bottom chassis is interchangeable with the R1 and vice versa, but you will not have a special place in the chassis to attach the mSATA bracket. The opening where it is attached is smaller on the R1 chassis. If you don't plan to use the mSATA, please let me know. I have been trying to purchase the mSATA bracket from Dell and they cannot identify the part number. Additionally, there are some little tabs on the plastic bezel for the right side of the chassis that fills the openings for the USB, card reader, HDMI in, ODD slot. You will have to knock those tabs off with an X-acto knife or the motherboard and I/O daughterboard connector will not line up properly.

The Intel 2230 is not a 3x3 MIMO card like the Killer 1103 and Intel Ultimate-N 6300. However, the chassis is pre-wired with all three antennas on all of the M18x R1/R2, so there will be nothing to worry about. The extra wire is there.

 

Guys quick question I bought heatsinks for my new 680m cards for my r1. The part numbers I gave dell are from heatsinks used on the 680m on the r2. Will they fit properly in an r1 and clevo cards? Just want to make sure, their still on the way to me.

 

Yeah same.

 

I just installed the 680s into my R1 and tried changing the INF file, problem is when I try and save the changes it says "Access is denied"

How do I go around this?

 

Copy the .inf file to the desktop (or anywhere else) edit it there and save it, then copy the file back to where it was overwriting the original one.

 

It's official...I'm an idiot...got it working.

 

well you must not be that much of an idiot!! you did get them working ~
congrats on your upgrade! thats one mean beast you have now!
Do you see any improvement over the 580s?

 

Afternoon everyone. I finally got a single 680M installed in my R1, and I'm having a few issues. I bought it from an Ebay seller. Everything looked fine when the package came in the mail, and the install was relatively painless.

There's a message before my laptop even POSTs now about the Svl7 VBIOS it's running, and the core clock is at 760. So the guy who owned it before me must have been OC'ing the card.

The display driver crashes about every 30 seconds UNLESS I'm gaming, which is better than the other way around, but still annoying. I'm running the 326.41 driver.

How do I edit clocks/voltages? Nibitor and other programs will load the VBIOS, but can't read/edit the clocks or voltage? I know how to flash the VBIOS from a USB stick, but that makes no difference when I can't manipulate the clocks or voltage. I read a lot about these cards overclocking like mad, but I never bothered to figure out how to do it. Is there a guide for dummies somewhere?

Any help is very much appreciated.

 

I use Nvidia Inspector Nvidia Inspector 1.97.1 Download - TechSpot to overclock my cards and I believe a lot of others do as well. You can only adjust the clocks not the voltage, at least from when I last checked.

Also I think the drivers that everyone likes is 314.22 Drivers | GeForce.

I think what you should do is flash you vbios back to stock and start from there to eliminate any probabilities of a bad flash or any other issues. That way you know where to start.

If you want the stock vbios PM and I will send it to you if your card is a DELL 680m.

As far as how to overclock, it is an art and every card OC differently. Cooling is a huge factor obviously as well as power as you can see Mr. Fox and John's progress with the dual power adapter project. The best thing is to start in small increments, I am no where near an expert or guru in OC so I cant really give you good advice.

Good luck with everything and again if you want that vbios let me know.

 

I use EVGA Precision X. Afterburner works great, too. I prefer Precision X because it has K-boost and has 10 profiles available, and you can use keystroke combos or TactX keys to switch GPU profiles on the fly without ever opening anything or moving any sliders. Just decide on your key combos and clocks, set them and you're done. Works awesome.

 

Good point Mr. Fox. I forgot about K-Boost. So I would say I use both .

K-Boost if you don't know keeps your video cards clock locked at what you set them too instead of "scaling" back when not being used.

 

@Mr. Fox: I am just going to combine this thread and our PM for simplicity, if you don't mind.

Here are the front and rear pictures of the card, although I can't read the numbers on any of the little labels. I did not take pictures of the card before I installed it...I was too excited!





The card came as a kit for someone who wanted an SLI setup. I got the GPU, a secondary M18x heatsink, and an SLI cable. I already had a primary 680M heatsink from Dell.

I'm guessing a VBIOS flash will remedy the problem, so if someone would be kind enough to send me the one I need (card is green PCB), I would really appreciate it.

The card is an absolute monster. I have only played WoW, Black Ops II, and Crysis Warhead so far. I can jack every setting up to maximum and run a smooth 60fps. Even with the new 16xAA options I have in all of my games, 60fps smooth as butter. My OC'd 7970M could never do that. I'm a happy camper, just need to iron out a few issues.

I also can't get a 3D Mark 2013 run to work correctly. The test starts out at it's typical ~22fps, and then plummets down to ~8fps. I know it is OS or software related, because my 7970M did the same exact thing.

Games all work smooth as butter though, which is what matters. The display driver did crash half a dozen times just while I typed this though.

Really appreciate all of the help guys!

 

I flashed to the Dell VBIOS I found on T|I, and I no longer get the message before POST. Nothing has changed as far as the random and frequent driver crashes though. I also installed the 314.22 driver. No changes there either.

I either still have the wrong VBIOS flashed, the card is defective (which I find very unlikely considering it's performance), or I need to reinstall Windows 7. Is there a possibility that there are remnants of my 7970M installation that are causing issues? I uninstalled the AMD driver and performed a sweep, but I'm not sure if that's sufficient.

So what is a definitive way to tell if it is a Dell, Clevo, or MSI?

I really appreciate the help guys!

 

Hey Champ! :thumbsup:

Nice to see you back up and running on your dream card the GTX 680M.
Are you scouting for a 2nd GPU to go SLi as well?

The message that you saw before the POST was just svl7's signature that he and Prema leave to show their ownership of work sometimes on different vbios's they have created. So no real biggy there

I would try a few different drivers 1st as I know driver crashes in the past have been from buggy or corrupt drivers. Also if your not already, I would run the GPU on stock clocks 1st just to try and solve the display driver crashes.

Cheers.

 

Chief, I have tried several different drivers. The clocks are at stock now since I've flashed the Dell VBIOS to the card. I'm still having the same issues as before.

Is the green PCB Dell or Clevo?

I thought the Clevo cards were more turquoise?

The performance of the card is spot-on. It is very powerful. The constant driver crashes are kind of a bummer, so if nothing else prevails, I may just reinstall Windows 7.

Thanks for all of the help boys!

 

Have you tried any driver from the 314.xx releases? - the 320.xx's seem to be hit and miss....

 

Yeah, I'm running 314.22. I did a fresh installation of Windows 7 and the problems I was having are completely gone (for now). Windows hasn't finished installing all of the updates though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I think there might have been some remnant of my old 7970M installation hanging around somewhere that was mucking things up.

 

Nice one, nothing like a blow out and re-install to set things straight. From recollection, the 314.xx's are more stable anyway's. I have a feeling all will be well for you now!

 

It isn't too bad when you do it from a USB stick. If you're running an SSD, Windows installs in a few minutes. But yeah, so far so good.

Everything seems to be fixed with the fresh Windows installation. No driver crashes whatsoever. I even flashed the Svl7 VBIOS to get higher clocks with EVGA Precision X. The card is a monster, and I can't believe I waited this long to get one. Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

Now get another one.

 

question gents. Is 314.22 the best driver set for ski 680's? I have the latest 320 drivers and I haven't had any problems with them at all. The reason why i'm asking is whether the 314 drivers deliver better performance? I mainly play crysis 3 right now. Thanks in advance

 

314.22 seems to be stable and perform best for most people. As Steve said, the newer drivers tend to be hit and miss. If the newer drivers perform better for you, let us know.

Sent from my Galaxy Note II