m9750 - broken down at last - upgrade reasonable?

Hey guys,

After having been a (passive but appreciative ) user of your forums driver and help sections for some time, I now face severe problems with my m9750.

Let me give you a short abstract of my Laptops background - I have been owning the m9750 for 3 years now. During that time, my gpus (2x Nvidia 8700) never had much power, even broke down regularly and had to be exchanged approximately each year- Thank god I have decided to invest into the 3-year warranty. After that warranty ran out and my gpus stopped working two months later, I am wondering whether to invest into new models or make it a whole new laptop. To cut it short, since I am not that versed in current models and hardware-related issues, I need your help!

I). Is streching its lifetime reasonable after three years? What are the most current graphics (in SLI/Crossfire) that work with the m9750 and you can recommend?

II). I feel the cpu will also be a little "dusty" and will not make sense in combination with a new graphics adapter. I currently have a CORE 2 DUO 2.16GHZ T7 installed. Are there also compatible newer models on the market?

III). The other reason why I currently am a little itchy with Alienware is that I paid for a system with 4GB RAM, only to find out that the motherboard only supports 2,75GB, according to win7. Was any of you able to solve this issue (e.g. with a BIOS upgrade)? I have never found a newer version...

Thanks for your advise!

 

the memory limit is hardware related, there is nothing you can do about it...


the "best" card is the ati 4850, but they are super rare... the next best is the 3870, but CF has picky drivers/etc. Watch ebay auctions, a pair of them went for $255 2 weeks ago with CF cable, a pair went for $100 a few days ago, but no CF cable. The cable is ultra rare too...

the "best" cpu is the t7600g that has an unlocked mulit and can be OCed via throttlestop. The next best is the [email protected] which isn't much of an upgrade from what you have...

I had a m9750 with 3870 CF and a t7600g, OCed to 2.6 ghz I was getting 12.5k in 3dmark06 when I could get the drivers to work...


for prices, your looking at
$200 for the t7600g
$200-$300 for CF 3870 cards

 

your best cpu would be a X9000 with an unlocked multi so you can oc it as you wish with throttlestop

on the gpu side the 3870's in cfx are your best bet every other card compatible with the system will suffer the same issue as your 8700
the 4850 holo first edit ;p are so rare trying to find them is a waste fo time and i'm 99% sure they would overheat in that system

you are curently running windows 7 32 bit right? cause the over all maximum of your system is 4GB so you should see about 3.5 GB in windows unless you are not running the laster bios then the total amount is quite randoom

 

You CAN NOT use the x9000 as it is a socket P, the M9750 has a socket M

 

trust him more then you trust me on the cpu thing i don,t have a m9750 my self

 

whoa, cool guys, thank you for your fast help!

I had Win7 x64 running on my laptop, but now I cant get it to boot with the crashed graphics. So I cant tell you exactly what windows showed but i think it was only 2.75G. RAM. Why does Alienware sell a Laptop with 4G that only supports less I have always asked myself...

What are your experiences with the new configurations? Can two 3870's and a t7600g cope with current games at a resolution that big 17'' Display needs? A 12k 3dmark 06 seems pretty fair...

 

Based on everything you've said so far, it is my opinion that you should give up on that computer and get a newer one. You could get a much more powerful desktop computer for a third the price of an equivalent laptop. Since you already have an external monitor, it seems to me like a good way to go. If you need a portable computer, then I recommend a small cheap laptop that isn't powerful enough for games. You could get your m9750 to work well enough for that. Then get a desktop for games. Option two is to get a console for games. One of my reasons for thinking you shouldn't get a laptop for games is they often require real good hardware skills.

 

Thanks for your advice. Normally I would follow your good reasons but I am just about to enter a one-year course of study abroad (which should also take care of my English ) and mobility is a really important thing if you have to think about every kilogram that you can take with you... I think I will try to get one of the "new" graphics for that year and switch over to a desktop afterwards. I'll keep you informed how it works for me!

 

The RAM limit is chipset limited. It sucks. The 4850 was never confirmed to work, but there IS one for sale on the forums right now! Also, I put a 3700M in mine, and it worked great. Then randomly stopped. I don't know what it was, but other cards worked, so I guess the card died.

 

highly possible if you ask me, my cards kept dying for three years... think it could have something to do with a poorly designed cooling system... but shouldn't the temperature of the gpus be monitored?

Anyways, the 3870 are really hard to find, I have nothing floating at the bay for some days but will keep looking.
I have got some offers for 200$ each(!), but with no cf cable included...

 

I just saw some people recovering their gpus by reflowing them in the oven. Is that just a myth or does something like this really work? Since I would throw the old cards away anyways i'd give it a shot. I even have access to a special reflow oven so that I don't have to mix my future meals with these tasty gases...

Is there anything I have to consider for the 8700m gt in special? I have seen some sites that propose 200° 10 min (preheated). Does that sound legit to you?

 

They show up pretty often. Picked mine up for $150 locally. Also, when I baked my 7950GTX, I went for 375F for 8 min. Probobly the most recommended settings.

 

@kevmanw4301, do you mean that post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/501069-fs-ms-1722-mobo-msi-4850-mxm2-1-tiii-msi-gf9600mgt-mxm2-1-tii-2x2gb-ddr2800-so-dimm-psu-120w-liteon.html ?

 

No, Niffcreature was selling one, but he sold it. But that could work too. We don't know if the 4850 works in an M9750, though, so, who knows. If it does, though, that would be siccccck.

 

Hey guys,

could you perhaps take a quick look at these offers

( Link 1)

( Link 2)

( Link 3)


and tell me if one (or both ) of these models are compatible with my m9750?

I have also found a crossfire cable but am not entirely sure if that would work

( Link 4)

As always, thank you very much for your help!

 

They are all compatible, but you would need to get one from either 1 or 2 and a different one from 3 to do XFire. And nooooo, thats a desktop cable.

 

lol watching these pic i noticed that some one really motivated could solder a cfx connector to the msi 4850 and run them in cfx (would probably need the vbios of mines but heck)

 

Hey guys,

I now went for the 3870's, installed and tested them. Apart from huge difficulties (as you already mentioned) to get a proper xf cable for the cards, I observed the temperatures this time.

The results are somewhat fascinating: As soon as windows boots up, the fans reduce to minimum speed regardless of the actual temperature. When I start a game, the cores heat up to 65 °C until the fans start to spin (a little) faster. During that time, the gpu however has reached temperatures beyond 80°C (!), which I know is not especially healthy in the long run...

Is there any possibility to increase the fan speed? I wouldn't mind the noise as I often play with earphones. I have tried fanspeed, which shows the temperatures but doesn't seem to be able to find any fan on the bus...

I am also not sure whether I changed the graphic cards correctly. Does anyone of you have an m9750 and can tell me whether the master card comes into the slot near to the RAM-bars or in the other one?

Hope for your help!

Best,
Dawn

 

Should add, during booting and if I deinstall the graphics driver, the fans become somewhat faster

 

The temps go up considerably on those cards without drivers for some reason, so you need drivers installed. Also, 80C is perfectly safe. Just as long as it dosen't break 90C.

 

Thanks for your answer!

Unfortunately for me its exactly the other way round: with drivers, I got the lazy fans spinning at minimum level getting the graphics adapter to overheat. I cancelled my experimentation when the adapters reached 85°C but I might just as well reach 90... I'll risk that though and give it a try and post the results here.

With drivers deinstalled, the fans work better somehow or the graphics just down't overheat as they only depict 800x600 pixels...

So in the end the fans are my problem because at these extraordinary temperatures shouldn't they spin faster? I can barely hear them...

I would greatly appreciate any idea or hint on how to control the fan speed or on my question in which slot the master card belongs or where to get a xf-cable. Plenty of opportunities to be the early Santa Claus guys...

 

Temperatures are also easily going over 90°...


Does any of you guys have an idea where to obtain an xfire cable for these graphics

 

IRRC you can cut the yellow wire on the fans and they will always run at full speed.



I have never seen the CF cable offered separately...

 

Yep, cut the yellow wire, it'll run full bore.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks to a somewhat wild combination of a poti with an Op- Amp, the fans are working all 'fine' how. Lastly, I am still on the lookout for an appropriate X-Fire cable for the new cards. Do you guys know any help here? If need be, it could even involve a little handicraft. . .

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

 

Will this work? Or have you found one already?

Alienware Area-51 M9750 SLI Cable | ALIENWARE Aurora M9700 Series | Laptop Parts By Model Number | Ztronics

 

Hey daminibeast,

Thank you very much for your answer, but I fear, this is only compatible for the old ATI cards not for the new ones...

I'll contact that shop though and see if it could probably offer anything

 

Hmm ok. Sorry about that!
But how do you mean "older" like the MXM 2.1 card? or 3.0? That kind of "older"? Just a little interested myself.

 

My older cards were the ones initially installed on my system (Nvidia 8700 X2). These kept dying multiple times and were replaced on the warranty, but after that ran out, I replaced these with "newer" models (the 3870's are the most modern ones fitting into the system). I think that is 2.1, but ask the guys here, they have been really helpful.

If you decide to upgrade, look for cards with cable included though, this is hard to get...

 

the new ones are from ATI, that is why the cable is not fitting by the way.

 

Oh ok. I see. Well sorry about that. Was kinda hoping that that was the right one.