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    Dell 7970m not working in MSI notebook (uefi vbios?)

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by kakashisensei, Mar 13, 2013.

  1. kakashisensei

    kakashisensei Notebook Consultant

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    I thought I'd ask here since this forum may be more knowledgeable of dell 7970m stuff. I recently purchased a used dell 7970m from a surplus dell parts vendor off ebay to replace my gtx570m gpu.

    I believed my original gpu had died, because every time I have it attached to the mxm slot, laptop cannot power on, cannot charge battery, etc..., even the led light in the ac adapter turns off. It's completely dead. Without the gpu, laptop can power on and boot into windows, but without display because my notebook has no iGpu.

    I installed the 7970m and the laptop can power on. But it will just reboot over and over again within 5-8 seconds. The fan spins at a high rpm, and then spins down, and spins up to a high rpm again every restart. Without a working output display, I can't see whats going on. I've heard dell has begun rolling out 7970m cards with a UEFI vbios. A person on ebay selling his 7970m w/ UEFI vbios claims his card can only work or re-flash vbios on ivybridge gen notebooks. The sticker on my card indicates the vbios version from factory is 015.021.000.000.000000. That is not the most recent version, but its pretty recent. I noticed the x-bracket on the back is bent, so I think a previous user took it off to install on another laptop, only to put it back on. This leads me to believe he may have bricked the card with bad vbios flash or perhaps to a newer vbios that has uefi.

    I tried blind flashing, but its not even booting to the point where I can.

    Anyone have any info on this? Much appreciated.
     
    kakashisensei, Mar 13, 2013
    #1
  2. lordvader111

    lordvader111 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi mate
    Did you solve this matter?
     
    lordvader111, Apr 20, 2013
    #2
  3. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    Bit late now, but did you try changing your BIOS settings? Either with or without the card in it, I get the restart issue when I try using the 680m for boot but its vbios is not UEFI compatible.

    Can always just change from UEFI to legacy on your bios? your windows installation will become unbootable but it should at least try and start the screen to work so you know the card is ok.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Apr 23, 2013
    #3
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    Try another vBios flash, it could help out. If that does not work then you may wanna get the card replaced.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Apr 25, 2013
    #4