Upgrade a G73-jh to 6970?

I am a bit confused. I am writing the summary about the 6970 swap and was reading the M17x guide and it says you can flash dell vbios to clevo and the other way around.

But reading other threads i find the it will brick it.

And gz megaX05 on the 1000th post on this thread

 

I'm watching this thread since its beginning more than 1/2 year ago. It’s like reading adventure stories back in childhood and following the steps of heroes on their dangerous paths with breath held. Brave fellows here in NBR community do the research and development by steps of trial and error investing their time and money, gaining valuable knowledge of experts in HW companies labs and sharing their experience with the rest of the community.

The whole story now has about 1.000 replays full of knowledge and hope; its final words were not written yet. These 1.000 replays or 100 pages are a bit difficult to go through and have a complete picture when someone (as myself) who is not brave enough or having not enough experience to be a pioneer in the waters of unknown. What I’m missing here is to have some condensed conclusion one may follow if he wants wisely do such modification to his favorite G73JH unit to leap from great 5870m to even better 6970m (6990m).

This way I’d like to ask someone of those brave ones who went so far to start a new thread with the key information wrapped up in the first post and keep this first post updated alive, until all important remaining issues are addressed (fan speed, bios, vbios). Such thread may become a permanent sticky until a solution for next generation cards will be known or people loose their interest in upgrading GPUs in their G73JHs. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a complete guide how to make a successful swap, but should address on general level questions such as:

• Which card to choose (Dell, Clevo, Eurocomm)?
• How to adjust cooling HW - pro’s and con’s for different variants (modify original G73’s 5870m heatsink, use the new card’s heatsink, let CNC friend create a brand new copper heatsink, cooling other parts of the card, additional fans, additional venting holes…)?
• How to resolve different screw sizes?
• PSU wattage issue solution especially with 920xm/940xm CPUs (I like the utilization of AW 240W PSU – this seems to be the ultimate solution)?
• What are expected cost levels for the modifications (cards prices, heatsink components prices)?
• How to diagnose something went bad early enough to prevent cards burning?
• Management of fan speeds (HW solution, bios/vbios)?
• Setting up right clocks and volts for the card.
• Other information regarding bios or vbios and their modification tools.

In the end after answering all the questions the ideal swap guide may be defined with respect to best practices of our pioneer fellows.

 

Well i am putting a summary together at the moment and will try to answer most of the questions you asked.

 

Just connected my FlatTV through HDMI, but I can't switch to it. There is no second display found in CCC.
May this be a driver problem or because the 6970?

edit: Cable is working with my other notebook.

 

is the BIOS of your card the problem atilla, you should try to find some1 that can make the hdmi work correct

 

Yes its the vbios.

funny thing is you got fan control and no HDMI and we Dell and Eurocom users got HDMI and no fan control.


Been keeping my card at 720/1020 for a few days. Yesterday played batman: Arkham City all setings maxed 1080p. Temps i saw were near 82c. Game ran almost perfect. I dont know maybe its the CPU as i got a lot of lag when the game saved or i got into a new area. Also at some save points the game just crashed or froze on me. Same thing happond with 680/900clocks to but a lot more lag in open areas.

Will order a 180 PSU next month.

 

OK. I will try some points later.
The Eurocom card has Samsung VRAM too? And Thanatospy is using a Dell vBIOS?

Played a bit Dirt3. Very smooth at almost 60FPS all the time. Had to enable vSync because tearing was visible. Had turned it of with 5870, because got some minilags.
The card is running 680/[email protected] and the highest temp was 79.5°C at the last of the TS-sensors (shader?). IDK exactly, but it was like 76 - 76 -76.5 - 79.5. I'm using the NC3000 at low speed too.
IMO the temps are good. Remember, this is one of the latest mobile gaming GPUs. And you really can say it is silent (OK, with fan control, sry ). IDK the loudness of a M17x or P170HM.
And don't forget about all the problems the G73JH (not all) had at the beginning.

 

will an gtx 560 fit on my g73jh?

 

IMO nobody tried. The card should fit, but would it work?

Please don't post the same statements in every thread! That is against forum rules.

 

There might be a ATI chip on the JH mobo that only alows ATI to work.
580 has been tested in the JH but it did not post at all. Also the JW does not post with the 580 so it seems that at the moment no Nvidia card for the G73JH/JW

 

Will it work on asus g73sw?? I dont have enough money to buy an 6970m but i have money to buy an gtx 560m will it be worth to me if i give it a try? and i have herd that nvidia cards runs pretty cold than hd 5870.
however if the power brick replacement fails , I have to buy a vga so i dont know whic one to select.

Im very sorry , i didnt know that earlier, wont post like that again , sorry again

 

Don't worry too much about it, mods remove crossposts so it serves no purpose to crosspost either (of course, we don't catch them all). In my experience, almost no one reads the rules when joining, so those things are somewhat expected of newbies. Just don't do it on purpose again .

EDIT: Regarding the issue at hand, i'd say GPU upgrades on the G73JW/SW are pretty much a no go unfortunately. There is one user that claimed having upgraded his SW to a GTX560m from one of the lamborgini edition model, but screenshots backing up that statement were never posted so until someone actually confirms this, i'd still consider it a no go on the xW models.

Slightly off topic, but since i'm already posting here: Unfortunately, i don't have a weak enough PSU to try and replicate your issue, otherwise i would. I could try booting up on a 19V 4.5A PSU to see if i can get the display to work. I don't think i have an adapter with a lower wattage, but i'll check. If i manage to find one, i'll try to get my laptop to boot up with it and see what happens. If you want me to try the 90W adapter, just say so and i'll post the results in your other thread.

 

offthe topic :Thank you helping me, up to now i didnt find a adapter, and the one I have is 66.5W 19v 3.5A , so give it a tory if yu have somting like this or slightly diffrent. can you post it in my thread. and a great guy helps me in this forum ,we talk in msn he have done his best to serve me, he did a test with his g73jh with i7 920xm with a watt meter and results was when turning on the laptop it takes 115W but in windows logon screen its 65W . so i dont know whats happening.

 

Does anyone have the ASUS 5870M vbios at hand ? would really love to have it.
The "How to fix GSOD" only linked at megaupload and that is gone

 

Hello DH48, are you talking about the 93vBIOSa.rar file from this link? If that's the link that you are mentioning, I can still see that the link to the 93vBIOSa.rar file is still accessible on mediafire

 

If you have problems getting it even from mediafire, i have it saved up somewhere on my G73, just post here or pm me and i'll upload it.

 

Got it form mediafire thx

 

Greetings all, I too have been following this thread for about 6 months.. It is very informative, but very broken up.. If we could just start a new one with the first post listing the hardware needed, the software needed the steps needed to do the upgrade that would make this project infinitely easier for some of us less electronically gifted owners...

DH48 your guide will be much appreciated

*EDIT - I found the new thread. Foolish me.

 

off the topic : asus g73sw can handle ati cards.
was tested by a chinese guy./

 

Very optimistic.
Wasn't it just a ASUS 5870m from a JH? Has this chinese tested a genuine 6xxx card too?
Sry, but you should give us a source/link and no little phrases.

 

sry for cross posting,
but I have the picture proof, that a g73jh hd 5870m vga on asus g73sw motherboard, and he did some bench , idk where i stored the pictures he sent me.



He is using a ES processor.

 

i'm new to this current discussion.. but where in the pic does is say its a g73sw?
and i;m pretty sure you can get windows to recognize your gpu as whatever you want through simple registry tweaks..

you can also just change the name in front of your HW ID of the main ini file of driver while installing it..This causes it to loose whql status though

I used to change it to 5870 mobility radeon everytime..

oh and that pic you posted wouldnt be too hard to fake.. So be careful before you spend money on something that might not be a 100% legit..

Edit: Ok, found his original thread.. seems pretty legit.. Why didnt you just post links to his threads..?
anyway here they are for anyone else who wants to read em..

5870 on a sw mobo thread - http://benyouhui.it168.com/thread-1882676-1-1.html Translated - http://translate.google.com/transla...//benyouhui.it168.com/thread-1882676-1-1.html

6970 upgrade - http://benyouhui.it168.com/thread-1927323-1-1.html Translated - http://translate.google.com/transla...//benyouhui.it168.com/thread-1927323-1-1.html

there are also some threads on some pretty neat cosmetic mods on that forum..

 

Well it the links are interesting. It seems that one SW machine has a working 6970m in it but i see a lot of talk about tutorials and i dont see others testing this.

If the SW does have support then hello 2 gen I7 and 6970m

 

you just looked at the pictures of that forum but I have direct contact with him,

omg he have sent me the pictures of his thread I thought it was only for me , my bad. sorry DH48 if I have hurt you.

yes with second gen i7 and 6970m that would be a beast

 

Look at the board closely!!!
Compare it with the pictures from JW (thread I posted).
That is no SW. In the first post the guy even says, that it won't work with SW.
Do you speak chinese???

LOL

 

google translater is my friend, hehehe , do you know? does a jw board have a hole?
I got to know him because my friend buys harddrives for his shop from the chinese guy , and my friend told me I saw thread that my seller opend and he have mentioned upgrading vga in g73sw , and gave me his email. if I didnt buy a g73sw motherboard on ebay I would not care to look in it, but I got it recentl and returned it to seller. hheeehehehhe

 

Here is a JW board


And this the chinese guy board (link -> very big)
http://benyouhui.it168.com/data/attachment/forum/201202/13/215941kdulkgh6e33gek0m.jpg

Do you see the mini PCIe port for the wifi card? Right, it's at a totally different place. Because the GTX460m is big! Bigger than the 5870m. ^^

 

omg its not the SW motherboard its g73Jh A2 .
I read motherboard very well. and I didnt even tell this a g73sw motehrboard the one I told is this



this is the one im talking about who did tell you that im talking about the one you posted but I have never seen your picture before, is it your mobo?

 

Cmon, you still don't even post a source of your magical chinese buddy.

Please post a picture of the 6970 on the SW board. That's all. I don't wanna see a pic of the back.

 

We'd need to see the other side of the board to confirm that it is running an ATI card.

 

I have given enough info to prove that it works in a Sw mobo, im not forcing anyone to trust. even if I test it my self I wont post results because , try your self and feel the horror. I just wanted to tell it works on sw and in any occations I didnt force anyone to buy it if some one have a sw and an ati card they could have done the test , I wont give a single info about it anymore.
wait until someone on this forum tests and give newb info , like teaching a child.

 

Sry evgasar2 but the picture you say is a SW look just like my JH


All the parts are the same as in the picture you posted. I do not know how to read japanes nor chinese but i do know that google is not the best translator. If it is a SW then good news .....you might want to test it

But might you friend be able to get a bigger picture of the board then we can confirm that it is a SW. When we did the JH test we took lots of pictures. Its not that we dont trust you we need more info or a test ( if someone with a SW is willing to test the 6970m or even the 5870m ) to post it as a fact.

 

What DH48 aid, the 5870 in the SW looks legit, i'd just like to see a pic of the whole underside of the motherboard or just a pic of the board with the bottom panel off. That will be enough to tell if the mobo is from a JH or not since we'll see the location of the mpci-e slot as well as the leads for the tv tuner that were removed in the later revisions of the G73. I'm still not too sure about he 6970m in the SW though.

 

Nothing about the 5870 in the SW. That wasn't the point at all.

If it comes to facts and pictures, all is hidden. Lot of spam till now.

 

omg its not a hd 6970m ,the card in sw mobo is from Jh. so its a 5870m ,can you look at the hole ,you can see a card but not big like gtx 460.

 

Why is the heatsink covered in foil?

 

to hold the thermal sensor and to send heat in one direction.

 

Well im lost in translation now.

Lets start from the start the picture with the foil taped mobo picture is of a SW with a 5870 in it right ? ....no doubt about it that it is a SW mobo and that it has been moded to work the fans ......the guy even says that the SW was to loud ....and something about so loud that cant live in the same room with the notebook so he moded it to idle at 1500RPM or so.

Is he able to take the a picture of the bottom of the mobo to confirm that it is a SW with a 5870m ? he does not have to take it apart ....just the bottom panel. We want to believe you but you have to have better pictures. Even the ppl on this forum who did the 6970m and 6990m in the JH did not just say that they did it and post a picture of the mobo-s top side.

actually having foil on the heatpipe or even copper or Al heatsinks on it makes it work worse. The idea of the pipe is to move heat via vapor from one end to the other. Having a heatsinks on the pipe will cool the vapor and it will turn to liquid and actually keeps the heat near the GPU. Foil on the other hand will heat the pipe up so it is vapor trough out the pipe and will not cool enough down were the cooling fin and fan are. ......Idea is ok but to a point. Best way to cool would be to add another heatpipe but thats OT already lol.

If possible ask your friend to take a picture of the bottom. At the moment the SW with any other GPU is still a myth and well at the moment it is looking more like busted rather then plausible or confirmed.

 

DH48 your a person who understand me effort, ok il contact him and ask him to send a picture of bottom side so all doubts will be cleared.

 

Hi everyone
I've been a proud owner of G73JH for about a 1.5 years now, couple a months ago upgraded my CPU to 920XM.
I definitely want to upgrade the GPU as well, especially after reading the success stories in this thread.
I wonder, if my machine can be fitted with this bad boy
NEW AMD RADEON HD6990M (BlackcombXTX); MXM 3.0b; 2GB GDDR5; CrossfireX Ready | eBay

It is marginally more expensive that 6970m, but performs much better.
My concern is that along with my 920xm it will be drawing loads of power.
So:
1) Can the extra power requirements be remedied by a bigger power brick?
2) I know this thread is about 6970m upgrade and apologise for being slightly off-topic, but has anyone attempted an upgrade to 6990m at all? Will I encounter the same issues while upgrading (fan speed control, heatsink incompatibility) ?

 

6990m? omg ,
I dont think it will work , please dont waste your money to buy it.
A guy have done the test and had failed it and finally his card is bricked.

 

That's not very encouraging ...
Still, a 6970m would be an awesome upgrade and this one looks good:
AMD Radeon HD6970M MXM 3.0b; 2GB DDR5; w/ Soldered Posts & Matching Screws | eBay

I do prioritise fan control over HDMI out though, but had no luck finding a Clevo card. Someone in this thread said that it it ok to flash Clevo bios onto a Dell card, can anybody confirm?

 

Hi Pa!nkill@

Look at this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...um/641007-g73jh-6970m-upgrade-infomation.html

The user Dionysius tried a 6990.
First attempt failed, but second succeed. IDK, if it still was a 6990. I would PM him.

The vBIOS isn't the problem at the fan control. We discussed in the thread above. My Clevo 6970 (with Dell vBIOS) works fine. Just no audio over HDMI.

 

off the topic
@ @tilla
if im installing an dell 5870m do I need to mod my Jh heatsink and flash the vbios in it?

 

You don't have to mod it then.
But I guess you will have problems with the fans too. As I had with the MSI 5870 in my G73.

 

should vbios be changed to any other version to work on g73?
is there a fix for fan problem but I saw someone telling that he had a 5870m on a g73 that didnt have fan problem.

 

I'm a bit confused:
So the fan issue is related to a Dell card and not the Dell vbios then?

 

IMO yes. We discussed about that in the thread. It could be a communication variable at the BUS system (MXM standard?) which is different. Means, the G73 (the EC) doesn't "understand" the values coming from the GPU board exactly. There must be a physical difference at the Clevo cards, as it works there.

BTW: Dionysius confirmed the working Clevo 6990 in his G73.

 

im very sorry, I thought it wont work on g73 , but now its working in it without problems.6990m is good but dont buy the one with soldered posts, because you have to use the backplate that came with 5870m.

 

@tilla,

Thanks for the info, man, really appreciate it. That's some seriously exciting news, I'm gonna pm Dionysius and ask him how his 6990 ;p I am still concerned that 6990, being a 100w card, and i7-920xm will be drawing so much more power than 5780m and 720qm.