M15x R1 graphic chip upgrade from Nvidia 8700M to ATI 3870 trouble

Hello,

Just recently my 8700M on my Alienware M15X died so I decided to replace it w/ ATI 3870. I got the graphic chip + correct heatsink.

I noticed there's a square bracket below the chip of 8700 that is used to clamp down the heatsink to the chip. For those that did this before I guess I will need to track down a different square bracket? Since the one I have for 8700 doesn't quite fit on 3870...

I wanted to test 3870 to make sure it works on my system so I put only the chip into my machine. It showed a blank screen & after a short while it powered off by itself. For people that had done this before is that normal? I understand it would turn itself off from chip overheating w/o heatsink but it still showed a blank screen.

I would really hate to put in more effort & then find out it wasn't the graphic chip. While using the Onboard graphic will windows recognize 3870?

Please help me.

 

Hi, I would be interested in this as i have the 87mgt..

I wouldn't want to power it up without the heat sink, some one will come along with the answer you need. Good luck.

Pete.

 

The 3870 uses a different heat sink and square bracket. The chip heats up quick so I wouldn't be surprised if it shut off the computer so fast.

 

Thank you for the reply dhoang417. If you don't mind me asking when you upgraded to 3870 your machine didn't have any problem recognize it once you have heatsink installed on the metal bracket w/ good thermal paste?

I just don't want to later find out my M15X R1 won't work with w/ 3870. My bios version is X35. Please help.

btw while troubleshooting I put my old 8700 chip back into my machine & it worked for 2 days before black screen me again... Good thing I didn't try to return my new chip. Cursed Nvidia chip giving out false hope & then just crushed my spirit lol.

*edit* made a mistake / typo. My bios is x36. On bios screen showed: vX36 P3A37

 

well the black screen might be that you need to flash the card or?
perhaps update the bios to x36

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but I won't attempt that before I can track down the metal bracket.

At this point it seems more trouble than it's worth, Ztronics stated they don't have any in stock. Does anyone knows where else I can get the metal bracket for 3870? I searched around ebay too w/ no luck.

Oh yeah guess I should also ask just in case are the screws used to sandwich the GPU between the bracket & heatsink the same for 8700 & 3870?

 

should be able to get it to fit im sure but...what i did i also needed this metal bracket and could not find anywhere here..
try making a homemade that will hold the both together not sure if there is a guide out there...but i did it

 

I upgraded from the 8700 to the 3870 just over a year ago now (I ordered the card from AW). Alienware forgot to send me the new bracket and I didnt realise the brackets were different until I tried to fit the 3870 in! I just called up AW and they sent the bracket to me - I doubt you bought yours from AW but might be worthwhile giving them a call...might have some left in stock? :S.

I know the 8700 and 8800 brackets were different, but does anyone know if the 8800 and 3870 brackets are the same? (not sure)...might be worth looking down that route?

 

I contacted Alienware again chr15g. They gave me the same "we don't carry parts for m15x anymore" talk like before.

I ended up buying some 1/4" long screws w/ washers & that enabled me to tighten the heatsink to the old bracket. I did remember to apply thermal paste.

Now when I power on I still only see blank/black screen it'll act like it's booting up then restart, repeat... Does that mean the GPU I got was a slave & needed to be reflashed? It did have a 'master' sticker on it through (I'm sure that doesn't mean it wasn't tampered) I remember seeing old thread discussing that would someone be kind enough to point me to it, or tell me how to flash it to master please? (Sorry but I can't find that thread again)

I also tried downloading the ATI driver from alienware. Everytime I ran the ATI Catalyst Install Manager it always gave me an error & won't install the driver. I tried updating the driver manually from Device Manager & the result are the same. When powered on it'll go into a restart loop w/ blank/black screen. When I right click on touch pad it'll boot up integrated card but now w/ ATI mobile 3870 driver -.- I ended roll back the driver so my integrated card will look normal.

I am not familiar on how does it work on laptop. On desktop if you have integrated GPU & a GPU on AGP slot it will show up as 2 separate cards on device manager. Does it do that on Alienware m15x laptop? I tried scanning for change in hardware too & it didn't do anything.

Please advise @.@

 

The driver from Alienware doesn't work. Try these extreme-g drivers from tweakforce.com I use them and IMO, they are the best.

http://www.tweakforce.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=23

 

The brackets are different on the 8800 and 3870 card.

 

Thanks for the suggestion dhoang417. When I tried to install them while running integrated graphic same result as before, it won't add the driver from setup.exe & updating it manually won't do anything to the boot up black/blank screen w/ 3870.

I did notice a change though. Instead of black/blank screen restart loop I got before now it's just black/blank screen but it'll boot up to windows login screen. I know that from the Windows startup sound. I could login & shutdown but it's still black/blank screen all the way. I reckon it's because the thermal paste are set & now the temp are stabilized?

Now I feel like I'm back to square one. The whole reason why I thought my old 8700 died was because of the black/blank screen all the way, Can hear window startup sound, can login & shutdown.

What could be the culprit for the black/blank screen? If the monitor's going bad it shouldn't show me anything under integrated GPU. It doesn't look like it's the GPU now since the new 3870 is doing the same thing.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I'm quite baffled.

 

You won't be able to install the ati drivers for the ati card while using integrated gfx mode. The best way is to boot up using the external vga ati card into windows 7 safe mode to try to install the drivers from there...

 

I had the same issue of black/blank screen while i could hear windows loading, turned out that my 9800m gt was dead.. i fear the same for the 3870 too.. sucks to have a the replacement card conk off so soon.

Check it with somone else's m15x just to be sure.

Peace`

 

I figured out what the problem was all along. I read Sunksat's post from http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...k-blank-screen-lcd-display-2.html#post6849941 & he suggested applying pressure to the GPU. Although he has a different model of alienware the idea can be applied to m15x.

It makes sense since at this point I can clearly see that my GPU is not bad. Once I pushed down on the GPU (after removing the battery of course) & applied some pressure especially on the end where the GPU connects to the motherboard my old 8700 card worked like a charm.

So most likely those of us who have black/blank screen but windows could loadup is caused by the loose connection between the GPU & motherboard. Give that a try firen & reply if that works or not for you.

I have not tried to implement the cooper coin fix he did. I am trying to see if the problem will come back 1st. On his post he also suggested to apply pressure on the GPU while turning the machine on. I'm reluctant to touch any component while it has power so I only applied pressure w/ battery out & machine unplugged.

By the way for anyone that's looking to put an ATI 3870 to their m15x R1 don't buy the chip w/o the proper heatsink + metal bracket. I may have screwed down the heatsink w/ longer screw to secure it to my old 8700 bracket I found out after I removed them it didn't truly secure the heatsink to the GPU. The rice grain sized thermal paste I put on the GPU didn't get flatten at all.

 

Too late for me to try.. since back then when everything i tried failed, in a haste i tried baking method overlooking only tiny lil factor.. used the microwave owen instead of the regular one .. you can guess the result :cry: ... anyway right now i got another card...

Actually i do remember now that back when i had this problem the screen would work properly occasionally immedietly after i removed and refitted the card.. Could very well be loose connection.

 

whoa did your microwave light up like a Christmas tree?

So your new card doesn't have the same problem? the new 3870 I got had the same issue. Well it turned out the fix is temporary it worked for a full 2 days before it's back to blank screen for me. Reseating the GPU & applying pressure no longer work for me. Guess the fix is a hit & miss (Seems like even in the m9750 laptop thread Sunksat's fix was a hit & miss). The issue has to be the motherboard or the connector.

At this point I think I'll just cut my losses, there's no meaning in sinking more money into the laptop when I have no guarantee it'll fix the problem. Not to mention a mid-range gaming laptops are quite reasonably priced now.

Good luck to those that have the same problem & if someone figured out a fix please post result.

 

It smelled real bad actually rather than lighting up

And Yes the new card, which is essentially a 8800gts with 9800m gt vbios, works perfectly. Sucks to know that the new card is also not functioning. It has definitely got to do with a loose connection between the MXM slot and the motherboard.. Would not be bad idea to ask the advice of a local laptop service guy..

 

I'm kinda surprised you didn't destroy your card when you turned it on without the heatsink. Thank God the physical connection wasn't good so it wouldn't boot. If it had, the card would have overheated and possibly fried in a few seconds. The onboard logic to shut down from such a temperature spike may not have reacted quickly enough to save your card.

You got really lucky. Don't turn on a computer without a heatsink on a required component again lol. On older AMD cpu's I remember seeing a video where without a heatsink on, they caught fire after 3 seconds.

 

hehe were did you get that card? does it look really strange, with like, red glue stuff on it?
those are from the HP HDX 9000 dragon. they are really great cards you know, only 50w TDP which is perfect for the m15x