G73 Graphics Swap, Bios?

G73-rxxb05

Radeon 5870 mxm3 card.

Card Died.

Swapped it for another 5870 mxm3 from an MSI Laptop my boss upgraded. We tested his card. Worked fine.

Put the card in my box. No dice. Just fans, all lights (Scroll lock, numlock, etc,) Both fans going.

No display.

He said it could be the bios doesn't recognize the card.

Issue is, I can't flash the damn thing because I cannot access a bios with a dead video card.

RMA not an option, out of warranty.

I'll buy a universal programmer if thats what it takes.

I just want my baby back online.

Please, give me the advice, and knowledge I seek. I cannot afford a $400 replacement card, $150 universal programmer is well within the budget.

Links to recommended models and bios revisions would be amazing.

Thank you.

 

It is going to be the BIOS because if it is an MSI card you need to flash it with the ASUS Vbios. Also the Asus card is reverse engineered and the only person I know of who attempted this successfully was @Tilla swapping one from an MSI. He would also know how to sort out your current problem as well so i would wait for him, i think from his review of the procedure however the fans stuck on full thing is not fixable and even when running they remain at 100%.

Here is his original post of the work. Have a read through it might answer your question till he arrives.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/567898-g73jh-running-msi-5870m.html

 

Thx Yiddo for taking a word.
But I have no right answer for this. My MSI 5870 worked as I described in the thread. The vBios isn't a problem in case of running or not.
I just checked the Asus vBios to get rid off the fan issues, but without success.

The GPU might be OK. Can you check the CPU and RAM?
Might also be a problem with LCD or even the whole motherboard.

 

Im very sad to hear my problem again.
can you do ctrl + alt + del restart ?
and one more thing with your original gpu inside does both the fans run 100%,
and when gpu is removed and system is turned on does both the fans run 100% ?
if you anwser my questions then you got the solution/\.

 

Check your display cable.

 

Hey , is your asus hd 5870m got a corrupted vbios?
or did it burn >? how can you confirm its dead , there are some bios chip programmers for 30$ that would program your vbios chip as im going to.
friday I ordered an spi programmer to reprogram vbios chip, if you want instructions on how to flash n all pm me.

 

Ill take some pictures soon of the Dell and asus GPU underside and the pins. Asus does not have some pins and they are as one big pin but on most others MXM all the pins are are separate but some are not used (Asus might have made the one big pin to get costs down). As i posted in the 6970 info the Dell (migh also be MSI) seems to use these pins for fan control as if you start to follow the pin on the GPU it goes to a controller (Chip).

So far the best option for any dell GPU seems to be a self made fan switch like the person evgasr2 showed once.

Asus did not want fan control on the GPU and that why there is non. On most other standard MXM machines you have fan control under any program that should control the fans.

 

Yes , 6870m and 5870m are the same card, so if the fan works perfect on 6870m it will in 5870m . I would receive my Dell 5870m in a week or so.
you will be posting the results before me. let me know how it goes with 6870m in G73.
so did you return the 6970m card , did they accept it?

 

I've done massive memory swaps. But to no avail.

I'll try an external display.

CPU should be fine. But have no way to actually test it.

If the board had an issue, wouldn't I get something like a beep code?

 

As i said the Dell GPU uses some pins that ASUS does not so even the 6870m in the G73 will have the fan problem ( My opinion). But as soon as i get the green light from the service ill do the test for you.

The Asus bios did not work as the GPU does not have fan control at all just temperature signal. The standard MXM on the other hand has a controler and flashing the bios does not disable it.

Why the clevo does work i have no idea at the moment. If i had a clevo GPU i might be able to examine it. Ill look over the pictures of clevos ....might spot something.

No i will get the answer next week. As i have swaped the 6970m 2 times and if the GPU turns out to be faulty( If they see that the bios is ok and there is no physical damage on the GPU) then i might have an option to get a better GPU. Bad part is it might not be a 6990m as they are almost or at least seem to be out of stock...... i might get a nvidia 580.

 

Spoiler

As you can see, I get all the lights. With the msi gpu in it.


The original card, the gpu fans don't spin at all.

I tried new ram. Right out of the package.

 

can you toggle , numlock or caps lock light?
and when you turn on your laptop does the keyboard light light up ?

 

@OP: Did you check the display cable??

That's not true, there's no universal fan control software for MXM cards, it's up to the manufacturers to decide how to implement fan control, and all systems I've seen so far used the EC for fan control.

The GPU doesn't require any sort of fan control... I haven't seen a single MXM card which was able to control the fans, it's mostly the EC that does this. It only needs the temps signal. That's also why there's no universal fan control software, each manufacturer implements this differently.

 

Clevos are the ones that have fan control on the GPU. The fan control on the Clevos 6970m is open and you can change it.

Yes it takes the temp values from the GPU but it has a controller on the GPU to ....I might have said it a bit wrong. it not a direct fan control it get data from the fan speed and temps. The only GPU that does not give out a Fan speed value is the Asus GPU....all other MXM give out a fan speed value. It is not correct but it does show that there is some sort of a fan control.


Ill do some more test with the AW to as so far all program are able to set the GPU fan. CPU stays at the speed it is.

Using aida64 i found that the G73 does not support any software thermal control but does have have support for bios fan duty cycle.

Edit:

Here is a screenshot of the AW sensors




The GPU register a crazy value for the fan.
Strange part is that the value given out by the controller does not interfere with the G73 at all and fan control does work but it works with a offset as the fan is at a dead stop under 50c and spins up over that. So there is some sort of a value given out by the GPU. If i were temperature value then it should not show wrong in the software programs ?

 

Nothing toggles.

External Display shows nothing.

 

then your problem is not with the vga,
your problem is with the ram,
now remove all the ram, and turn on and see if you get same results?
I think you should get the same results, and is the 2gb hidden memory still there?
Do you know with only that memory you never can turn on an G73,
so install the new ram in the lowest slot , that means the one sticking with mobo, the lowest one.
If you insert the ram in the higest one and hidden one you g73 will never turn on.

 

If it is ram then you do not even get keyboard lights it just starts and kind of like hovers.

But yes try evgasr2 as that can cause a no boot. You do not have to remove all the ram just the first to as the last one and the one under the keyboard should be the first slots (white color)

 

He didnt say the keyboard lighted up, without the ram the fans will run full speed and he cant toggle num lock or caps lock, and no use with the ram under keyboard until your computer works as normal, so insert the ram in the lowest one that is sticking with mobo, the one under keyboard is the 2nd slot and the slot sticking with mobo is the 1st and next to the 1st is the 3rd slot and one on the higest is the 4th slot.
so if you insert the ram on 4th or 2nd your g73 wont turn on forever.lol
So DH48 you got your AW m17x R3? did you run 3dmark 11?

 

AW question is OT at the moment. Can PM on that.

No the fans should not spin at 100% with faulty ram. At least i have never seen that happon. After ram swap it just did not boot with my JH. All light exept the keypad turned on and just hovered.....did not restart just was idling with no picture and the HDD light did not blink.

 

but I did a test with mine without rams , then the fans were 100% ,and even without vga its at 100%. try switching the place of your ram.

 

I've tested new ram out of the box. All slots tested. No difference.

 

can you toggle num lock or caps lock and can you do ctrl+alt+del restart?

 

I ing love you. So I opened another package of ram, (have a surplus, own a store) and popped it in. Turns out the sticks where defective. Thank you. Video card works perfect with no custom bios needed. THANKS GUYS!

 

yES thats what I suspected at first, good thing you go it fixed.

 

This can be marked as closed. Result Video card works fine,bad memory.