Upgrade a G73-jh to 6970?

Also check what is the voltage being reported by various utilities for the CPU, don't want the CPU over-volting by any unexpected means.

 

Well I found the problem with my GPU. It is not it the socket correctly the heatsink might be the fault. Will have to take it appart but its alive again. At least I can get to the desktop and no vertical stripes.

Hmm stange the GPU fan effects the CPU fan. Bouth are running at 40% and that is the same speed as with the 5870 when its at 75c.

Thanatospy what vbios you have on it? 013. ... . .... ?

The GPU need at least 3 heat pipes like on the R3 to remove the heat faster. Anyone know how fast the fans work on a R3 at idle and load ?

 

Hey thanatospy GREAT JOB on your work you really have had me on my toes this whole forum and im finally glad to see you got it running good couple questions for you if you dont mind. I have the g73jh from best buy meaning i got stuck with 1600x900 by upgrading the card to the 6990m does it allow for 1080p? or is that controlled some other way, also once you do completely get this upgrade running flawlessly i was wondering if youd offer to do the upgrade for those of us who arent so laptop hardware friendly obviously labor will be paid for but i currently have the 740 qm which im looking to keep i just want to upgrde the vid card thanks in advance for your answers!

 

the best buy 1600 x 900 resolution is the max resolution that Screen can handle so its limited by the sreen it self not related to the gpu cuz you can see other owners non BB versions got 1080p screen with the same GPU.

 

The screen has 1600x900 physical pixels. They cannot procreate and multiply, no matter how good the mood is.

 

That said, replacing the BB 1600x900 panel with a full HD panel (1080p) is not a difficult job and has been done by several people. There's a write-up around here somewhere (I believe in the stickies).

If you order a 1080p screen, it can be swapped pretty easily.

 

Yes DH i got the 013 bios on my card, the hdmi output works amazing btw forgot to say

Thanks for your words jay! very kind sorry but for fullhd you need the correct monitor and that is the 1920x1080 one, also sorry but i dont make this crazy mods to ppl, i make them for fun purposes, you know that something can go wrong :s, so i let this job to the pros and people who lives doing this kind of things, i can say it works very well, but i still wanna see if i can make it work better and cooler, right now i can say the gpu works amazing with these rudimentary mods, now i have to improve my cpu performance because is getting very hot and i don't like that, ill try add a heatsink to the cpu cooler today, ill keep you updated later guys

 

Im very interested in doing so but i wouldnt know where to begin i was wondering if maybe you can inform me more such as what to look for to purchase and any guides you may know ive been looking on this forum but a sticky but i guess i missed it thank you

and if anyone else can answer would i benefit from upgrading my screen from 1600x900 to 1080p besides quality, i play bf3 on high settings and mw3 on high settings and i dont get a single piece of lag

i see i like how you set it all up and how cool its running at this moment, i remember you posting you were using a bigger power brick will this be needed if i were to do the upgrade myself? and what if i knew going in with all the risk and dangers that face self customization i still would feel as you doing the upgrade would be my best bet i have $$ and am awaiting for a final clear to start buying everything i need for and upgrade like this

 

Some pictures from my phone of the build. Will get more after i get the notebook running perfect:

The heatsink:

The R3 is on the JH heatsink



What i needed to do:



And the bios i got on the 6970

 

i think for the gpu upgrade there is no need to move to a bigger psu, just for safe try to buy someone like the targus 180w, or if you wanna get cpu/gpu upgrades then move to the 240w, normally my sistem doesn't go further than 210w only when runing stress tests over the cpu/gpu, playing games like crysis 2, bf3 my consumption goes something like 170/195w

 

just off-topic a bit but Thanatospy can you estimate with my current set up a 180W would be enough? I'm having a 240W right now but havent done any modding yet.

 

Thank you for your answer i will most likely end up buying the targus 180 i have seen it cheap throughout the forums, once i do the upgrade of the vid card will you be putting up a how-to guide? im so excited

 

WoOot?
Thanatospy
I good understand ? You have Asus G73JH with 940XM and 6970M ?
How you do that? i7 i know how ... but ... how 6970M ? How temps? can i do it too ?
My 5870M can now o/c to 800/1100 fine but i want something more but i dont have money on AW or Clevo (PH170M)
Can you upload in other day tutorial how connect 6970M to G73JH,how change bios to work with 6970M and everything about that?

HD48
How you o/c your ram?
I have now i5-430M and i can o/c from stock to ~3ghz with setfsb - but after that voice isnt synchronized with graphic
Movie from that here: Stalker : Shadow of Chernobyl Before and After SetFSB Asus G73JH - YouTube

Really sorry if my english isn't perfect (but i think you know what im saying about )

PS - that 6970M,where you buy it? can it be aw/dell/sager (clevo) or samsung 700g7a graphic card? or maybe 6990 ?
If you answer me on that questions... i will love ya! :*

 

Sorry bro but i know my consumption because i have a tester here were i connect my laptop and it gives me the numbers :s also your system is a new world over what i know :s

A guide is not really need it, only have to know your machine, once you disassemble it you gonna see is the same thing as play Lego , the cooling mod we should wait for DH48 because hes idea looks better than my frankenstain vga xD

 

start to read from page 60 and you gonna have your aswers

 

found this on tom's hardware

 

I rode all
I now know you bought 6970M from Dell yep?
I know too about your hot 940XM - i think - if in your country its some like 30*C ? you are hot boy but... in Poland there is something like - 20-25*C max - maybe in my G73 in future there wasnt that temps?

Do you think about do big topic/tutorial how connect 6970M to G73jh ?
You used standard g73jh heatsinks?
Ohh... and what Thermal grease you used to CPU ? maybe try coollaboratory liquid pro ?

 

Really quick how do remove the asus g73jh 5870 video card? There's like two pins blocking the ability to completely take out the card, how do I bypass them?

 

Pins? There should two small black screws holding the Card down. Once the screws come off the card should rise up by itself due to the small tensile tension units at the base of the MXM connector.

This is all of course after you have removed the heat-sink assembly itself.


If you have a picture of the pins in questions it would help us better answer the question.

 

What is the D48? it's another heatsink or what?

 

I think it ..... might be me

3h or work and then ill get to take the JH appart and remodifie the heatsink of the R3. Just hope that no damage is done to the card. Still get into safemode but windows will not work ....everything freezes and keyboard will no respond (Might be some conflict or the GPU is not in the socket correctly). As i did not resolder GPUs screw mount to the standard MXM location + the heatpipe worped abit from the heat then the heatpipes when warm expand abit and actualy pushing the card out of the mxm socket so just have to bend the pipes a bit and solder the second mounting point for the GPU and ill be able to have a nother go.

I had a similar problem with a desktop GPU ....it booted but screen was all messed up ....had to push the card int a littel to fix the problem.

 

I think I will just get the card and do a custom made heatsink for the VRM I will be happy if i manage to get mid 80s with it.
still cant figure it out how come the AW m15x and the MSI 660 Manage to handle the card better that the G73jh with the cooling solution that it got and the MSI and AW are much more compact sized.

 

Dont forget you need to control the fans to. They stick at 40% no matter what. So need a bios mode or a manual fan speed controler.

Amm maybe AW and clevo have a vbios that supports the notebooks and JH does not megaX05 ?

 

i dont know about the AW but the msi almost got the same temps with the same components, the msi vga heatink got 3 heatpipes and the cooler covers all the card, also the fan got a turbomode (extremelly loud) that help to lower the temps, the cpu heatpipes are bigger algo than the g73jh, the fans in the g73 works 40% all the time so the mod is need it or a program to manage them

 

that means the fans are not working normally
40% all the time may cause a disaster heeeh.

 

Hey guys,

nice build battle.

@40%
How do you measured this? HWInfo32/64?
How much rpms? No ups and downs?

What is Tijo saying to this? Were your fan(s) also running at 40%?

You see in the last picture of DH48 (BIOS) the vBIOS string which ends with "NOT...". I think it's meant to be "Not compatible" or so. I had the same with my MSI 5870 and the MSI vBIOS. I had flashed the Asus vBIOS to the MSI card and it was gone. But the fans still were at 100%.
Yes, i know that there is no Asus 69xx. :|
I don't know if it is dangerous to flash a Clevo-vBIOS to a Dell card.
Maybe svl7 has more information.

Keep on guys and be careful!

 

Thanatospy:1 Hightemps:0

After 5 runs of 3dmark 2011:


My Exterme (and ugly) mod to the cpu :

 

According to svl7, flashing a Dell vbios to a clevo card works just fine (should work the other way around too i guess). I haven't tested my 6970m to see if it is completely dead or not yet. I thought it was dead, but at first, i didn't have a display on my JH when i switched back to the 5870 so maybe the issue lies somewhere else. I suppose i could contact the clevo reseller near me to see if they could test the card.

The fans worked as the should with the Clevo 6970m, the fan % indicator wasn't accurate, but i could hear the fans spin up and down and the RPM indicator in HWiNFO was the same as it should have been. I won't do any modding to my G73 until i change laptops which should be in around half a year. I'll go for either a Clevo or an AW for the upgrade potential probably. Once i get around to that, i'll actually test said 6970m in the laptop to see if ti is clearly dead.

Unfortunately, i do not intend to take the G73 apart unless something goes wrong with the laptop. The Dell vbios worked fine with the card, but the TIM didn't cover the whole die and i got a black screen when running furmark. All clocks were behaving normally with the dell vbios and the fans were running properly too.

EDIT: I just checked, and i'm afraid i do not have a screenshot of the fan RPM. It was stuck at something like 40% in GPU-Z, it was either 30% or 40%, i'm not certain. Check the fan RPM in HWiNFO.

I'll add that i got the card to work, but something went wrong when i tested, either is was overheating which caused the card to shutdown or it was something more profound like it starving for power or voltage ripples.

 

OK.

Imho, GPU-z always shows 30% for the 5870m. It's a constant in the vBIOS. Same for the GPUObserver gadget.
Only tool which shows the real rpms is HWInfo.

 

thanatospy
I see you still got the stock Volt on your card, have you tried to UV it?
i think you will get a nice drop in temp that will give enough headroom for others to not to open holes on their laptop bottom panel and case.
also have you tried any fan controlling software?

 

There is no way to control the fans on the G73 so far aside form making them run at 100% (~4400RPM) that is.

HWiNFO contains code specific to the G73 for reading the fan speed registers and that is why it is the only utility accurately displaying the fan speed.

 

why uv if the card works amazing, my temp problem was with my cpu, and no i haven't try a software for the fans, the holes wasn't a need, i just open them to give a extra help to the gpu/cpu with my zalman nc3000, the holes don't bother me so im relaxed and my temps too

 

Bad news. The card is dead. No picture but it looks like its not my fault. The core has turned gray on one side. The heat sink was ok and it was cooling it ok. So ill be taking it back to get replaced as it look like a factory fault.

Back to my 5780 ill let you know when I get my answer from the shop.

Strange the heatsink was on the card. After removing it I could see from the thermal pads that it was ok.

 

Sad to read that DH48 hope you can get your card asap so we can have more benchs and temps

My id in origin is thanatospy if any1 wanna play bf3 with me

 

The GX660 handles my 920 and 6990 beautifully, and only a small modification dremel cut was needed for the heatsink. Also GX660 doesn't have to mod the fan controller. It works on its own, or I can force 100% with turbofan button, which obviously keeps it very cool during heavy load. But I think it's great that the JH is finally able to use a 6900 series card. Now you guys need to try out the 6990 and see how it handles that.

 

Really strange how the card dies:/ i re solder the JH heatsink back + added the AW thermal pads fore the 5870 and the temps are even better then before :/ just played Dead Rising 2 the photographer edition for about 45 min and the temps stay at 63c

The 6970 had good cooling. It must have been a fault in the card as it gave me a GSOD right after i opened a movie. The card was not even hot.

Here are the pics i took before the card died



and the damage on the GPU (top corner. It look like rust worm under a cars paintjob)
It is under the glass layer not on the core.

 

DH48 Could you please look for other damages on the PCB not just the GPU core but the back side or the faceside of the MXM board?

 

Backside look OK nothing looks out of place or damaged. I used IC-7 on the core and it was evenly on the core.

 

This looks like faulty batch of chip, since cooling wasn't an issue, the die shouldn't change color like that on the top.

If the ASUS board caused it, the VRMs on the MXM card would be the first one to pop.

 

Not out of the game yet . Turns out one of my old friend started work there and....well they will just order a new card for me

Should get the new card in 2 weeks

 

good to hear
I will stay tune untill we sort the fan control thing cuz I am not comfortable to make fan blast at 100% all time.
and dont want to blow the card running constant 40%
maybe there will be a bios fix for that i hope .

 

There will be no BIOS support, why will ASUS do that for supporting something that isn't their part and more importantly voids the warranty agreements to the customer?

You are on your own.

You should do the fan wire sense mod (blue wire pull) to have fans at max running. Buy some extra fans and stock them as they will fail after ~1.5-2 years of continuous running.

Modding without support is always on the modder as far as risks go. You can alternatively mod the System BIOS and vBIOS to make it work if you know that kind of work. Don't expect much help on this front from the experts in the field as this a phased out model. Their efforts are into brand new systems out there.

This mod is not meant for everyone. There is always a risk when it comes to any kind of modding. The mod clearly works when done properly and when you have a good proper MXM card (what if you ordered one and it turned out a lemon?). The costs involved alone makes selling the system and getting an outlet AW or other gaming laptops with the same or better MXM cards with SB CPUs a far more attractive option.

 

Agreed, this is a great thread and there has been so much learnt from this thread and even now people are attempting this but seriously people should not jump on the wagon just because the card is better than the 5870M. Because of DH48 failure I have decided that if someone can even go to the effort of modding a heatsink and meet failure then it is a gamble one that someone with a lot more knowledge than I should look into so I will not be going down the 6970M into my G73JH route.

Bravo to those that have tried and those are seeing success and failure but unless you are rich I would think very carefully before buying a card and attempting this if you are met with failure there is no guarantee you will be lucky like DH48 and get a replacement.

Great work and information from many of you and I certainly have enjoyed this read so I will leave my feedback for the day to this post. Seeing how it performs with Skyrim I am going to wait for the 7000 series and stick with the old 128 bit monster.

 

Yes. You have to be prepared to possibly replace the whole laptop itself is something goes cataclysmically (not a word, but it sounds good) wrong. I could afford to do the mod, but it would be rather annoying to have to replace other components in this wonderfully running G73JH. I'll probably stick with the 5870M... unless there's much more progress in the future

 

Now BF3 and Skyrim are out and working well if the 5870M handles Guild War 2 and Diablo 3 which I reckon it will comfortably and Diablo 3 has already performed well on a 5870M during pre testing so I have no need to upgrade till mid 2012 and the 7000 series will be in full flow by then. Its hard to not want one because we are all power hungry haha we all want more bandwidth its in our blood but at the end of the day we are still runing a high end GPU even if its slightly dated.

Asus should feel ashamed to have not released a laptop with a 6970/6990M however I want to stay with Asus because of their style but they need more power.

I am having to consider the eee pc 1011px in the UK because we cannot get the 1015pn I want ION 2 because I know 3150GMA is going to suck badly.

 

Well my cards death is from a faulty GPU. I talked to the IT guy at the shop and he said you could boot the card without a heatsink to windows without it overheating.

When moding there is always a risk and what I learnd from the build was never hurry with this type of mod. Take your time. Check and double check eveything.

Sad but true will not have support. We are on our own on this one but. We will have to figure this out on our own. I'm looking for ppl who know a bit more about the bios source code and who might be able to find the right location of the fans.

Well even if you wait for the 7000series you will not have bios support. Just need to learn how to. Who know asus might come out with a notebook that has a 6970 in it but....well it seems more likly not to happon.


13 days to go untill my second attemp. Now have a nother idea. As I had only two heatpipes on the core and not the standard 3. I might order a second JH heatsink and solder the resistors part of the R3 to the JH heatsink. I will look into it.

 

IMHO a BIOS-Mod isn't possible/available because of lag for the newer AMI-tools. The crackers can't do it without the right tool from AMI.

 

I wont be going for another Asus for my next gaming rig that is for sure!

Just got myself an Eee Pc so that I can stay on the Forum for the near future

 

My next rig is probably going to be a M17x to have an easier time upgrading. That being said, my desktop is running on an Asus motherboard and video card so they still get some of my money .

 

I know that we wont get asus in our side
my point was cleared by DH about other pro programmers who can do a moded bios and about the fan mod its not a big deal i'v done it before its not difficult i was having some cooling issues in my xps 1330m before and make the fan run at full blast and its still working till now
and also I will stick with my HD 5870 just for one reason and that is to wait till the 7xxx cards are out to get better deals on the 6990.
so far i am satisfied with my laptop performance so far I play BF3, Metin2, EVE online and they all run just awesome.