[NW] Upgrade the C90S to a 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 [FIXED!]

I wonder if you can transplant the GT130M with a 9650M GT bios. Could be a way out of nibitor no man's land as it were.

 

i`m scared of doing that. but if i do screw up, will a blind flash bring it back? if so then i guess i can try it.

 

Yup a blind flash would bring it back. Just make sure you note down every step of the vbios flashing process so you can do it without a screen to look at. There are quite a few peeps with 9650M GT 1GB DDR2 cards about, maybe even a couple of peeps with the DDR3 version. I guess best to stick a new thread up in the gaming section.

Considering both cards are obviously based on the same core and are both 55nm I can imagine it being the ''most likely'' bios transplant to work.

 

The idea is good, but is there any risk of brick that card?
I mean if there's a posibility of black screen booting or something like that?
Could you post a copy of the BIOS please?
Thank you.

 

There probably is a risk in bricking the card but maybe if nibitor won't support the card then maybe it is a worthwhile risk to take. Naturally it is up to Atvaark to take it

 

nope, the bios didn't work, but i was able to do a blind flash back to normal. that was a scary experience honestly.

and i donated 1$ to Makve again and i received the 5.4 version of nibitor. indeed, there is no support for the gt 130m. and on top of that i think it's defective; almost at every action i take in it, it says the driver won't start.

Cant start driver:1275

that's what i get. so i don't understand this. version 5.4 is complete (although defective in my case) yet he won't release until march from what i read on his update log. 5.3 worked perfectly and was released quite a bit later, almost 4 months after in fact. i don't quite follow his logic. i suppose i'll just donate another 1$ when 5.4 comes out public, and i'll get a 5.5?

it's really annoying. is there really no one else able to do what he has done?

 

I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!
the card is now working at full power.
it seems nibitor, even if not compatible with the current bios, can STILL modify the performance table entries!!!

doing that blind flash earlier gave me some courage, so i said, what the heck, i can fix it if it goes wrong.

i modified the tables like nightwalker said (using the 8000 series compatibility mode) and took the plunge....result? HUGE SUCCESS!

you will find here attached, the gt130m modified and working bios. although i still recommand you do the update yourself with the bios from your own card.

my usual temps before were hovering around 60 degrees...now they jumped to 93-98 so just be mindful of this.

 

Nice one!!!

93-98C though? That is pretty hot. Is this running stock in a stress test?

Have you done the vicious mod and got yourself a decent notebook cooler, I recommend NZXT Cryo LX. Also using IC Diamond 24 carrot will help knock off 5C or so off the peak temps. Then you can start OCing that baby. Would love to see 700-50 / 2000/ 1150 for clocks. Possible I reckon if you can get the temps under control

Well done mate. Enjoy your new card and new found performance.

 

nibitor still reports the settings out of proportion, so i'm afraid i really will need a compatible nibitor update to play around with the settings. for now, stock clocks are amazing enough as it is.
now to launch...yes, of course, i need to do a 3dmarks06, don't i?

as for the temps, it depends on how much cpu is used. when i start a video, almost no cpu is used, so the temps go high, but say i start world of warcraft, the temps after a bit lower themselves to about 84. good enough for me! keep in mind the only mod i have is the copper heatspreader. if i cut out holes and put a mesh i'm probably going to get lower temps. time to get choppin on that plastic!

 

Hi,

Good job Atvaark, really good.

Have you a stock C90S about cooling ?

Have you drill any holes in front of the video card and have you a notebook cooler ?
If no, it might be difficult to keep fresh your GT130M.

@+

 

@Atvaark
Did you OC it or stock clocks?? you would need to do something with that temps. Now you have the card working, it would be painfull to see it burning!!
We are waiting for that 3dmarks score...
Gratz dude!!

 

aah...well everything can't be perfect it seems. the laptop is now unable to boot on battery. i get a blue screen of death every time...works fine plugged in though. any ideas? oh and for a 3dmarks score, everything on stock clocks, i got a nice little score of...6021! and the temps calmed down to about 79 because of the cpu stress. idle now hovers at 65.

 

That is good news! You could set up a vbios flash file on your usb stick that sets the clocks nice and low (a basic powermizer) then when you want to use battery simply boot up on power, flash to the power saver vbios, pull out power and go on your way on battery power. Repeat same process to bring clocks back up with your other vbios file.

I remember doing it so many times with my old DDR3 8600M GT cus rivatuner didn't work and neither did powermizer. Once you have flashed a dozen times it takes mere seconds to do.

Btw very nice score nice to see the C90S finally breaking 6000 points at stock clocks! I can imagine you ought easily to get between 7000-7500 with a decent OC

 

you don't understand; i don't have control over the clock settings yet. i can only copy/paste the performance table entries as of now, because the clocks described in nibitor are completely wrong. modifying those will undoubtedly brick my card. for OC'ing this card, i will need a new nibitor. but it's fine for now. it's already more than i could ask. right now i'm working to solve the battery problem. i'll get it working soon i'm sure.

 

Perhaps you could test the entry tables of a OCed 9600...
That blue screen could be a problem of voltage or perhaps of boot clocks settings...Did you feel that blue screen before you mod the bios?
What is your current OS?

 

i'm using windows 7 home premium 64bit edition.
as for using the performance table entries from another card, i doubt that would be a good idea. since the entries might be written in a different way depending on the card, it's like asking for a big mac at burger king. the card will have no idea how to process it.
what i do wonder is this: the 8600 has 3 tables enabled, and the 9600-9650-gt130m have 4. if i modify the number of available entries to 3 instead, you think i could get the 2d mode back to normal?

and for the boot clock, it's fine. it's when windows load that i get the error message. and yes, i did remove/clean/reinstalled my drivers.

 

I moded my 9600m GT to 2 available tables. It works fine for me, and should work for you to. I think c90 just read two of the entries (2d and 3d, except for the 8600). You can test it since is less scary than writting an "foreign" BIOS into your card...
good luck

 

nope. lowering my card to 3 available tables did not solve the problem. i was back with the initial problem of clocks stuck at 2D settings. well, full power card or portability...make your choice. until ASUS releases a bios fix that correctly uses the performance tables (yeah right.) we're stuck with the 9600 for portability and power, or the gt130m for power only.

now my max temp is 105 degrees...i'm getting a little bit worried. i pierced holes in the back plate for now, but i'll need to do something more. do you think the fact that my custom heatspreader only has 2 screws might be a cause? and i put the ic diamond paste in...

 

get yourself a nzxt cryo cooler and then get a 12V universal adaptor for it. You will see temps drop 20C or more.

 

if possible, i'd still like to carry the laptop around, i'm fine with having to plug it in so it can work, but carying an extra cooler is a bit much. i'm looking for something different. maybe that mod that angel did

i don't get it though, the 9600 i had before never went above 85 degrees. is there that much of a difference in power? and isn't the fact that it's 55nm supposed to make it run cooler?

 

The ziggo0's mod would be great to, but pics went down... someone did it?

I don't know at all but, maybe there is a voltage GAP between them. Temps grow far in my 9600 at full voltage (1.4v I think, so I'm using 1.1v)...perhaps you can try new thermal pads and thermal paste...
cheers

 

the IC diamond paste is the best possible thermal compound available as of now. and that's what i use. my thermal pads are fine as well, i got the same kind that nightwalker has. the only difference i think is of course the card itself and the fact that i am only using 2 screws to hold the heatspreader in place.

 

I am not sure how snug your card is to your heatsink, but thermal conductivity in conductance is heavily influenced by contact pressure. The tighter you have your heatsink smashed up against your card the better the conductivity will be. just don't tighten it to the point where you might crack your chip. Just gooping thermal paste or thermal pads in between gaps isn't a very good substitute for a nice tight pressure between your surfaces.

You might try seeing if you can modify your setup to add another screw or two.

 

that's what i figured. i lack the tools to do the job though. the dremel i have is for plastic and wood. it's too weak for copper.

 

Hi Atvaark,

I cut my heatsink with a hacksaw like that, I've no dremel.
I also used a hand file, and a electric drill (3mm to 12mm), rather heavy.
The result could be nicer, but it works well. You can see I use 4 screws.



If you have a piece of copper left, try something like that ?

@+

 

Atvaark, where is the screws you couldn't put in located at? Are they to hold the copper to the card itself or are they to attach the heat pipe to the copper?

You'd be surprised what you can cut with your dremel and some of those cutoff disks. It might not be very fast, but copper is soft and even a wood / plastic dremel should be able to cut through it given some time and effort.

 

I'm agree, it is more important the disk than the tool itself. You would be able to cut it with a fine stone disk, perhaps you would need some of them...anyway the copper is your way to down that temps...
cheers

 

Makve sent me version 5.5 of nibitor. and still no gt 130M support!

anyways. the screws missing are 2 of the 4 screws used on the copper heatspreader to attach to the video card itself. 2 diagonally.

 

After some time here I am again. Greatings to all!

@AngelMarinov@ have you started the new thread "C90S Unleashed" yet? I have some quastions related to your mode.. Let me know where to find you.

 

Has anybody here lapped the IHS of their CPU? I am thinking about lapping my Q9650 to remove 5-10C extra as it loads at around 80C which is just below the throttle point.

I guessing noone has as usually C90S owners value a hot CPU to get their fans spinning to cool the GPU. The C90P actually independently controls the GPU fan lol so Asus got something right in the end.

 

wait, whaaaat? the c90p has independant gpu fan control??? and they can't bother to patch the c90s bios to fix it? *swear words. lots of 'em.*

 

@evala
Hey Evala! It’s nice you are here again.

E) “ … have you started the new thread "C90S Unleashed" yet?”
A) No, I didn’t. This will be done on February 10, 2010.

E) “I have some questions related to your mode. Let me know where to find you.”
A) I’ll be glad to answer at all your questions. If you prefer you can use my e-mail ( [email protected] ) with mail’s subject that contain “ NBR:”.

 

Hey Angel,

Did you happen to have to do any vBIOS mods for your HD 3650? I ended up getting an ATI HD 3650 for pretty cheap and have all my heatsink / parts machined. I'll be getting my part around Feb 1-10 as well. I can't wait! Thanks for your help so far.

 

Well I decided to buy a desktop and I did, but now school work demands that I use a laptop over here so Im going to fix up my C90s.

I've decided to buy a 3650 and some copper to start working on it but I cant find the the thermal padding used in the original post. Do I really need it? Can someone link me where I can get some good thermal padding if its really needed?

Also about the aluminum spacer used on the mod, where can I get one as well?

 

@brehidran
Hey Brehidran,

Thank you for the question. I hope you soon will receive your ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650.

B) “Did you happen to have to do any vBIOS mods for your HD 3650?”
A) No, I’m not. Just plug & play. Here you are GPU-Z info from my ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with 512MB DDR2.

Graphics Card:


Sensors:


@~Cross~
Hey ~Cross~!

~) “I've decided to buy a 3650 and some copper to start working on it but I can’t find the thermal padding used in the original post. Do I really need it?”
A) No, in the context of “ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with 512MB DDR2”. My personal suggestion to you is to use (made by you) copper’s pads (14.5 x 11 x 0.8~0.78mm) as I do on the next picture:



~) Can someone link me where I can get some good thermal padding if its really needed? Also about the aluminum spacer used on the mod, where can I get one as well?
A) In the US all you need is on:

www.mcmaster.com​

 

Talking about ATI cards I will be getting a 4670 512mb GDDR3 card during the next month or so. Expect a lovely guide once I get it

&Angel
BTW what did you use for the heatsink backplate on your HD 3650 Angel? The 4670 on its reverse side has a slightly different backplate template to the 8600M GT so I won't be able to transplant the one from the back of the 8600M GT to the new card. If I did the metal backplate would crush several tiny chips and probably break the card lol.

Would be interesting to see what you used on your HD3650 as judging from the above photo it looks you have used something more custom made Currently I am thinking of shaving some of the metal off the backplate so that it no longer covers those chips but would be good to hear some other ideas

 

@King of Interns
Hey King of Interns!

Congratulations for the choice of "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3"! The guide will be available for you in time. Thanks for its nice description.

K) “ … what did you use for the heatsink backplate on your HD 3650 Angel?”
A) Nothing! The use of a backplate is a bad decision. Probably you've missed Post #726 with some ATI’s pictures. The idea to attach a video heatsink in that way is unique. Here you are the picture you need:



King of Interns,
With your actions you are a danger for laptop manufactures and theirs new products. Please, show some kind of mercy and stop your upgrades!
Personally, I like the attitude to make your system faster and faster.

 

Ha ha i hope to break 9000K with this setup in 3dmark06 once I am done The card will work fine.

Where did you get those threaded screw mount things? (I don't know their official name) I wish to use the original heatsink screws with them.

Also when I wrote guide, I meant I would write one

 

little update on the gt130M

after reinstalling windows 7 64 entirely, getting the latest stable video card drivers, the c90s is once again able to run from battery. i have no idea why but it works fine now.

as for the temperatures, after a lot of time spent using it at full power, the max temp i reached was 106 degrees. however lately i haven't gone above 102.

so if the card is fine working at those temps, i guess we can call it a success.
the GT130M is a viable solution after all. i'll keep following this thread, but i probably won't post anything until i'm ready to do angel's full heatsink mod. that will take a while. so unless my card dies, this is probably farewell. thank you all for the help. the modified gt130M bios is already here in one of my previous posts, so feel free to use it if necessary.

 

@King of Interns
Hey!

K) Where did you get those threaded screw mount things?
A) At www.mcmaster.com

• Picture of Video Adapter Screw M2.5 x 6:
  
  
• 3D Model of the screw ( pdf, 469kb ):

A guide related to "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3" I find that very interesting.


@Atvaark
Hey Atvaark!

Don’t forget that temperatures above 95 ºC are a real danger for the stability of every system. Also produced heat is big concern and will reduce the life of most components.

Please, don’t use your GT130M at full power!

From my point of view it’s not worth to destroy your system. If you haven’t another video adapter I’ll send you my 8600M GT 512MB DDR2 for free.

 

Angel!

Thanks for the picture of the screw and the link. As for fastening the heatsink to the card to you just use a simple threaded bolt or what? If you could give me the exact links to both the exact screw model and bolt you used would be awesome as I am really not knowledgeable on the hardware side of things (well at least still learning lol)

About that spare 8600M GT I would be interested. I haven't got a working card at the moment. My 8600M GT DDR3 was swapped out with a DDR2 part by asus and that died within 2 weeks of use even though temps never exceeded 75C Asus may not supply me with another.

Atvaark!! Don't leave Give those pearls of wisdom of yours to newer members and continue to join us in developing Asus's best laptop

 

Hello everybody,

I finally received my C90P copper heatsink. Then i installed it on my 770M and my E7400. The temperature are 87°C max on GPU, and 69°C on CPU (O/C). The best thing is that there is almost no noise even if it is O/C !

I re-installed TurboGear, and it's working really fine ! Here there is a picture of one of the simulations on 3D mark 06 : 6947 pts with 3 Go DDR2 (around 640 Mhz), E7400 @ 3187 Mhz (318,7 Mhz on bus and 10x - not 10.5x - multiplicator), and a 770M O/C :

 

My old 8600M gt took nearly a year to die from constant 110 degrees temperatures, and my 9600 that i sold never passed the 75 degrees. if my card dies after 1 year because of the temps, then i'll just buy a new laptop. with asus's refusal to fix the issues in their bios ( fan activation thresholds, inability to correctly identify the performance table entries of newer nvidia videocards)
or their assistance for us to do it ourselves, i don't really want to put so much effort in it anymore. i guess i can just keep the video card power at what it normally is if I'm not playing a very graphic intensive game...and i didn't say i'd be leaving. i said that i'd still be following the thread, just not participate so actively in it anymore. of course, if someone asks me a question, I'm not so cold as to not lend a hand...speaking of which...Angel, since the chances of me making your mod rather slim,(lack of tools) tell me if you ever think of building more sets, i'd gladly buy one off you. that way, all the problems would be solved.

 

C90P heatsink also worked like a charm for me, anyway you need to mod it...
@ Atvaark I think you should care abaut that temps, just for the work you did to make it work, it would be painful to you finally if the card burns out...take a look at the c90p heatsink...
cheers

 

Wow beefy score there! Must be the highest 3dmark06 score yet for the C90S! Try an OC some more and break that 7000K barrier Also I am impressed at your OC with the E7400 as you say the chipset won't allow 10.5x multi so 3.2ghz OC is really good. The E7500 maxes out at only 3.25ghz. Download Crystal Cpuiz. With that you can force the processor to use its full 10.5 multi and then undervolt it if you wish with the same program.

 

Angel,

could you tell the score of hd3650 in 3dmark05/06, seams that I have ended with one so I would like to know what to espect. Thanks!

Related to cooper pads, is it the hight distance betvean the GPU and MEM chips only 0.8mm? (it's not in my hands yet)

 

Hello toaster_54,

My own score of 6763 is swept off, and it is very well like that.
You made a very good job, really.

Do you use a notebook cooler ?

I thought TurboGear shouldn't work, as it can't go higher than 2.9ghz ? Please, tell us more.

@+

 

Hey 9800xpv,

I can imagine he is using Turbogear extreme. I use this for the C90P and it allows me to OC the Q9650 5% to 3.15ghz. From there I can use setfsb to churn out 3.35ghz.

To get this program go to the asus international website. Go to the drivers section and look at the driver/software for the G71/72 laptops. You will be able to get the latest Turbogear extreme program from there. It is 85% the same as the old turbogear but instead of having set gaming and OC modes. You have one OC mode but can choose either 3%, 5%, 10% or 15% before turning the OC on.

The upper OC's may be unstable though. On the C90P with the Q9650 while I can do a 5% OC to get 3.15 ghz from 3ghz stock. 10% OC is impossible and the laptop will instantly restart. Even so with setfsb I can comfortably achieve a total OC of 12% or so at 3.35ghz lol. I can imagine the instability is due to the fact that turbogear changes fan behaviour and the such and the bios might not be able to handle it.

So basically use it to get whatever OC it allows then use setfsb or clockgen to screw the most from the CPU. I found the higher the OC it allows you the more aggressive the fan behaviour and as we all know that means a cooler GPU in the dear old C90S.

For everyones attention

On another note check out ebay here :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nvidia-Geforc...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW?hash=item3a57541fd2

The 9650M GT 1GB GDDR2 for sale. Not a terrible card and it looks very compatible for the C90. 5 cards being sold.

Clocks ; Core - 575mhz, Shader - 1400mhz, Memory - 430mhz

Vram is obviously pretty bad but I have read that this card can achieve a respectable 6000 3dmark06 or so. Only the 4650 DDR2 is a little better.

 

King of interns,

I basically did Angel's mod too.
You need a lot of tools and some fabrication background. The tools I used included:

Drill Press
Bansaw
Tin Snips (Straight)
Anvil
File
Hand Tap
Hammer

Supplementary Tools included
2.01mm Drill Bit
M2.5 x .45 Tap

The bonus to Angel's method of not using the default bracket is that you don't need to countersink the heatspreader to use the original screws.

Angel I did make some 1/32" THK Copper DDR Pads snipped to the dimensions you gave. I think there is still a small clearance between the pads and the RAM and Heatsink. Can this < .5 mm space be gapped by thermal compound on both sides?
I got 2mm THK Nylon spacers. How did you get 1.7mm spacers? by filing them down?

Thanks

 

nice find kings. too bad it still doesn't give any OC options on the c90s. just being able to get more fan juice would probably have been a big help...

on another note, did anyone get their hands on a q7500 yet? 800Mhz bus with a 13X multiplier for a total of 2.6Ghz. with a tdp of 65 watts. it only has 2Mb of cache though, but if you clock it on 1333Mhz, you get a nice 4.3Ghz...
now...will that work on a c90p?