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

Hey folks!

I just replaced the mobo, and everything is working again, besides I could update the BIOS without replacing the CPU (E7500), via alt+f2!!
I don't know if sell or keep it...I love it...lol

cheers!

 

Hi phoenon,
Nice to read you again.
What a dilemma.
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Salut foobiker,

J'ai zippé le post1 à NW et uploadé chez 4shared : 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download NW9600post1.zip
As-tu accès à ce site ?

I zipped the post1 from NW and uploaded it at 4shared: 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download NW9600post1.zip
Do you have access to this site?


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Hi Folks,
So I'm getting a few quotes from some CNC places in my area (US location) in regards to the C90S Unleashed Copper Heatsinks ( here) . I'll also ask about prices for bulk, and see about essentially making a small kit for sale with all the pieces required and printed instructions on assembly.

If anyone is interested in one of these kits, feel free to send me a message.

 

Bonjour 9800xpv,

non maleureusement je n'y ai pas acces du boulot.
Il faudrait que j'aille a un cybercafe pour le recuperer.
Merci en tout cas pour ton aide.

 

Dommage, et j'habite trop loin de chez toi.
A ta disposition, questionne n'hésite pas.

Bad, and I live too far from you.
Feel free to ask any question.


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Please adhere to the forum rules. Any language other than English should be accompanied by an English translation.

 

Sorry,

I've edited my 2 posts.

 

Sorry for that,
I was just telling to 9800xpv that I can't access to his link from here and I will try to get from a CyberCafe.

 

After months of using my GT130m at half speed it finally seems to be included in the new Nibitor 5.7...

Got the version today as i donated sth some time ago.

These are the new supported cards:
Support for NiBiTor
- GeForce GTX 465
Through the Fermi Clocks and Fermi Voltage (see Tools from the menu section).
- GeForce GT 130M
- GeForce 9650M
- Quadro FX1700
- Quadro FX380

I havent tried it yet, and im not sure i will try it. Im in China now, and its quite hot outside, so even now the overall temperature of the notebook is quite high... i fear id very likely fry the GPU.

And as im still using the standard E6600 processor there will be those fan problems... so would require major "adjustments" to my notebook

 

Hi,

Don't worry Kaliki, first you must take care of your C90S instead of modifying it.

So I went to mvktech.net and see nibitor is now v5.6.
Have you got the same or a v5.7, or so?

Something HS here : have you seen Angel Marinov is running a Q5550S on his C90S ?

Thanks alot.
Take care of your C90S.
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Q9550S pheeeew!! Great stuff...great upgrade, with the 4670 there would be a performance near KING's C90P beast. Awesome for a 07-08 notebook.
Anyway nowadays it's a lot of money...I wish this updates got a price drop son!
Cheers!!

 

i got 5.7 as well now, it works as it should. if you're not into hex editing, it will do the work for you. the gt130M is finally a fully viable option!

 

Hi folks,

3DMark06 this morning : 7157 .
Link in my signature.

When I had 8600M GT and E6600, I got about 3600 to 3DMark06 with TurboGear (vista home premium 32bit).
My aim was 6000 or more when I decided to upgrade to a 9600M GT and E7500.

Enjoy your C90S.
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How on earth has Angel got a Q9550S processor to work in the C90S?!! I thought it would be limited to 1066mhz processors. Anyways I am presently working on doing a fan controller mod although struggling greatly with it (due to lack of time and limited technical ability) to shut the screaming fans up when I don't need them at full speed which is most of the time.

I was wondering if anyone has a clue about modifying ACPI values and DSDT stuff. Apparently one can control fans and other things using a program called Notebook Hardware Conrol and importing these values into it but it takes quite alot of programming knowledge. I would love to be able to control the fans this way rather than sticking fan controller in

Heyy 9800 you are getting close to my stock 3dmark score . Very good!

 

Hello King,

You should read Angel. It's difficult to explain in a few words, in fact those Q9550 has not began to run. He needs a new bios.
He can't say more.

Thanks for your words about my score.
I think to be almost at the best the C90S can go.
At the end there was some artifacts due to heat.

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Sorry I can't help you, but it should be working like SpeedFan on a desktop.
I've asked them many times, but they never reply only a word .
edit : one more time at this moment.


I think it would be The solution to this longstanding problem.

 

I worked with a computer engineer yesterday and my fan control mod is almost done I will post pics of it up when its done and will try to explain the stages of the mod. Basically I have done what swoley did hardwiring the fans but have also fed the fans through a 2 fan speed controller (one designed to fit in a destop pci slot) The end result will mean the controller will hang out of the back but I can simply stop the fans by pulling the wire out of the connector to the fan controller, which I will do when I also go mobile with the laptop. This design also means very portable still, easy to use and still perfectly easy to access the guts of the notebook without snagging on any wires.

At lowest speeds fans will run at 5V so nice and quiet but still effective cooling but I will be able to jam either the CPU or GPU fan/fans up to 12V or anywhere in between independently whenever I want. SOO happy.
Here's link of product I bought PC CPU Fan PCI 2 Shifts Speed Controller Noise Reducer on eBay (end time 31-May-10 12:37:23 BST)

 

Good job, very good job
I'm impatient to see the result.
I undersand you hare happy.

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Thanks mate. I really need to start thinking about the next upgrade haha
Blu-ray/4GB ram modules or better HDD/SSD....ridiculous

 

Hey King,

I have an idea :

We all know the fans are under control of the cpu's temperature.
More heat means the fans will spin up, more and more.

If it was possible to tweak the temperature value, for instance you add +10 or +20 degrees at 50, the fans will run at high speed, instead to be at idle at 50.

Please, could you tell and ask your engineer ?

That could be a way to spin up the fans.

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ps : it's not very easy to write with my smartphone, but I didn' want to wait.

 

Hey King,

I have an idea :

We all know the fans are under control of the cpu's temperature.
More heat means the fans will spin up, more and more.

If it was possible to tweak the temperature value, for instance you add +10 or +20°C at 50, the fans will run at high speed, instead to be at idle at 50°C.

Please, could you tell and ask your engineer ?

That could be a way to spin up the fans.

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ps : it's not very easy to write with my smartphone, but I didn' want to wait.

 

Yeah that was what I was thinking before as in modifying the acpi values and the dsdt table. The process however is incredibly long and complicated and I think a good knowledge of C++ programming is essential. I can ask him but I think his specialty is electronics as he was an electric engineer before he started his computer repair business. For me independent fan control hard-wired will be enough. Some day I might even get him to swap out the fans for the faster 11,000 rpm fans I now have, so long as they aren't too noisy as I may have stupid plans to get hold of a QX9650 haha (the changeable multi is very attractive!)

Anyways I won't be able to get my machine until Tuesday as I have work till then and I work pretty unsocial hours being in the hotel industry lol so be patient

 

Hi,

@King

Please, to work with your mod did you use the stock fans ?
Or the others you ordered, those with one wire missing ?

Thanks.
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I used the stock fans. I don't need the faster fans. Considering the lowest voltage my fans run at is 5V that is still plenty loud for quiet use. The faster fans would be too loud at 5V and at max power I wouldn't need the extra cooling.

 

sigh. my cat nibbled through my power cord last night, and when i started my c90 this morning, the power supply shorted itself. now i need to find another 180W psu...kings, what was the brand of your adapter? i used a targus before and am curious as to other models...

*edit* apparently, the damage was more severe than expected. my dear GT 130M has died. using a spare 8600 i still had lying around, i was able to determine that this was the extent of the damages.

i tried baking the card, nothing works. GT 130M is dead. time to go ati for me i think. so refresh my mind at what is the best solution available now? was it the ATI Radeon Mobility 4670? i know King has it in the c90P, but would it work in the c90S as well? if so, where could i buy it, i can't find it anywhere...

 

Oh dear mate. That really sucks!!

My PSU is the same as yours. It is a 180W targus power supply. As for cards. I wouldn't try getting a 4670 it is almost 100% unlikely you will ever get your hands on one as it isn't for sale at any retailer. I really cannot help you out unfortunately as it was a one off that took months to achieve lol.

The best available cards from what I have seen is the Nvidia 770M or the 4650 1GB DDR2 card. The 9600M GT cards also seem to punch high above their weight considering 9800xpv's scores.

 

Hi King,
Hi Atvaark,

My 9600M GT is exactly the same as NW one.
My 3dmark06 score is with the same frequencies as NW, just see my signature.
Usually, I run with 600/850/1500 .

GDDR3 is much better than DDR2.

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@9800xpv, well I think King means that an ati 4650 DDR2, would perform better than the 9600m gt DDR3, and its probably right.

A couple months ago I contacted mxm store, they told me that they were abaut to have some 4670 DDR3 MXM II, but the web still without them. Perhaps if you are interested you could contact them.

Well back on the thopic, I just tested some things on my c90... I was unable to use nTune tools, for OC my 9600m GT, well I changed the the number of perfotmance tables from 4 to 2(throught nibitor), and now I'm able to use nTune. That probably means that you could leave stock clocks, and use nTnue as any other notebook(I still use BIOS OC) so I would have to test nTune with stock clocks.

Cheers

 

Hi,
@phoenon,

So you haven't yet sell your C90 :wink:

To tweak your 9600, you could try MSI afterburner ?

It doesn't work on my C90S because of performance table tweaked.

I never try nTune.

So long
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Alain

 

Hi,
@phoenon,

Did you read Angel M about 4650 ?

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Yup I was talking about the GDDR2 4650. I don't a GDDR3 version of that cards exists for mxm unfortunately. From what I have read although it won't do much better than 6000 in 3dmark06 even OCed because it is of newer tech than the 9600M GT it runs modern titles apparently better than the 9600M GT. The difference however I guess is marginal.

 

i noticed something interesting. there now are a TON of nvidia 9650M GT on ebay for an average price of 100 $ US. including ddr2 and ddr3, in 512MB and 1GB flavors... just though i'd put that here...

 

Hi,

9650M + DDR3 or perhaps GDDR3 : that could be very nice.
Please, have you kept the link ?

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Hi again,
@9800xpv, I thinking to keep my c90s...I will try afterburner this evening(I hope)...
As far as I know there isn't any 9650m GT DDR3, and I think GDDR3 = DDR3... that G refers only to 'graphics' right?

Abaut 4650, I tested last week a toshiba based, and just got black screen (DDR3 version) so I'm not pretty sure that Acer version DDR3 would work... That's why I would look for an MSI, and I just would look for a DDR3 version wich is a REAL improve.

Now I have a question, do you know abaut 'throttlestop'? Is a OC tool for intel xtrem processors, it allows to unlock multiplers and voltages, (I use in my m1730 to reach x19 in a x9000 it means 3,8Ghz!!!)
The question is, what abaut get an x6800 and try it??

Cheers

 

Hi,

@phoenon,
So you keep on C90S

That's I thought also about 9650M and DDR3.

I've tried 'throttlestop' but I have nothing to unlock on my E7500
So I can't say more.

X6800 on C90S :
I think about bios issue, I'm not sure C90S will start ?
Then it as a max TDP of 75W, E7500 has only 65W, E6600 also 65W.

In fact E7500 is much colder than E6600, so it should work. If bios allows it ?

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@9800xpv

Yeah mate, I'm in love with this notebook (C90S)...and I still wonder max it out.

for the X6800, it's supported by C90s, perhaps we had a lack of power with the 9600m GT, but we could get a bigger powersupply.
Perhaps we have the second trouble with temps. But keep in mind that you can balance multipleir and FSB clocks...Theoricaly we are talking abaut a lot of OC power...

ThrottleStop won't work with E series, it's for Xtreme series from what I know. I think it's worth for i series but not sure... edit I meant for unlock multipliers

 

@phoenon,

I'm afraid a X6800 cost a lot of money

Do you still use the C90P heatsink ?
I'm in the way to make a such mod, like you.

Angel could cool the C90S with Peltier effect. But he didn't write more.

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The X6800 does work I used it once with my C90S but it is a very hot processor. it topped 80C doing just 3ghz! I can't believe it would achieve a higher OC than the E7500 even with throttlestop due to the high temps and voltages involved. I would say it is hotter than the Q9650 and needs higher voltages. The Q9650 already pushes the cooling system of the C90 to its limits.

 

Hello everyone!

My brother bought his c90s about 2,5 year ago. Since that time I have been reading a lot on this forum about the issues, the solutions and all the great modifications you guys made on this notebook. Unfortunately I think the VGA of his c90s is dead now. The notebook powers up, but then it just stays there with a black screen and no sound. So I guess it is his 8600m gt ddr2 that died? Now I hope I can make his c90s working again. I was thinking for now to bake the card and hope that it will work again for some time. Meanwhile I can look for a new vga. My question is if there is a way to make sure that it is the videocard that is broken, so I won’t be baking a good vga? (I guess when the notebook still powers up it can’t be much else then its vga?)

My second question is about a new vga. I have been reading about the great efforts you guys made on this notebook to make it possible to upgrade the c90s and keep it even cool. Now I’m searching for some mxm-2 cards and when I’m right it is the best thing to buy a card that is unlocked. But what does this exactly mean when I want to buy a card from for example Acer or Toshiba. Is there a way to know before buying it, if it is possible to flash the bios of these cards?

Thanks in advance and thank you for taking the time to read this!

 

Well as for your first question, it seems to be a VGA issue. Anyway could be a mobo issue, it's less common, and since you didn't flashed that BIOS I would bet for the VGA, the most part of hardware issued would show the post screen and if were the screen you would hear the OS sounds...

For the second question, if I were you, I will look for a known VGA compatible. You can find same model card with diferent manufacturer or subvendor, and diferent VBIOS aswell. This means that the same model (chip), with diferent version (manufacturer) would not be compatible in same systems.

Cheers

 

hi Phoenon,

Thanks for your quick response!
Is it possible to know from which manufacturer the videocards are known to work in the c90s? The thing is that I find it difficult to know which card I’m save to buy. For example there are some 9600m gt cards on ebay and other sites. Most of them are coming from used notebooks from another vendor. Does this mean that I can only be sure that videocards with no bios on it will work and that it is impossible to tell if a card from an other vendor will work? Isn’t it possible to hack any card with a vbios on it and flash it with a new c90s compatible vbios? So a card that uses a vbios compatible with a msi notebook gets unlocked so it becomes possible to get rid of the msi bios and flash it with a c90s bios?

Btw. Kaliki how is your gt 130m working at the moment? I did read that nibitior is fully supporting your card now. Have you found time or been able to get more performance out of the card already? Im very curious about the performace of this card at full speed. Would it perform better than the ati radeon mobility 4650 1gb ddr2? I guess it performance will be somewhere between the 4670 ddr3 and the hd4650 / 9600m gt?

 

okay, I have been reading a bit more from this topic and I guess the answer on my first question is, that it is possible to flash a card with a vbios from another vendor, with a c90s compatible vbios. Next question is, would this always be a blind flash or will some cards give you a postscreen? And I know it could be possible a bad flash bricks the card, but would a bad flash only brike the card or can it destroy more components in the notebook? Else when finding a cheap card it might be worth a try.

Thanks in advance!

 

You can brick the card with a bad VBIOS, but nothing else. I think the most part of 9600m GT are working, anyway look for Asus or Nvida subvendor, and I would avoid acer version.

The GT130 should be far away from 4670 DDR3, if I'm not wrong it's like a 9650 but DDR3. You would perform near (above course) the 9600m GT. Someone did also use the FX 770, wich should be same 9600m GT but seems to perform better, but I noticed someones are locked to.

I would recommend in order:
(MSI) ATI HD 4670 DDR3, (Asus) 9600m GT DDR3, (unknow) ATI HD 4650 DDR2
Theoricaly HD 4650 DDR2 would perform better than 9600m DDR3, but you would find better support of that 9600m GT here!!

cheers

 

Hi guys, I write from Italy, and I wanna buy an used C90s.

The standard configuration is E6600+8600M GT, but i'm thinking to "upgrade" the CPU with a E2200 (because is possible to downclock with 15W of TDP , and very easy to overclock, so could be very usefull for battery life). The other upgrade is for GPU, now I wanna change the 8600 with a 4650, but unfortunately is very hard to find a gddr3 version, so I'm thinking to buy the DDR2 version, it should be a good upgrade.

So my question is very simple, can I use a E2x00 CPU and a 4650 without problem ??

 

Hi Zaza,
I would not use that config (E2x00 4650)...that CPU would probably act as a bottleneck, and if you care abaut your battery life, don't buy a 4650 it's 35w. instead of 23w. 9600m GT, and as I said you would probably notice a great performance with the E2xxx series...

In other words, performance and battery life are oposite, you must choose. I tested a 4650 DDR3 from toshiba, and didn't work in my C90S. So by the way we only confirm MSI 4670 DDR3 512Mb works, but it's almost impossible to find.

Well an easy and cheap configuration it's our most common E7500 9600m GT...it's powerfull and easy to find. You can easy save battery with the right energy config.

Cheers

 

Considering this is now pretty much a C90 owners thread I thought I would share here that I have just invested in a Panasonic UJ 220 IDE ATA Blu-ray drive. I wont state the cost but it costs well under 100 pounds and can write and read blu-ray discs at 2x which is pretty snappy for an IDE drive. Here's hoping it will work if it does we C90 owners have a affordable quick blu-ray drive to upgrade to! Will post again once and I have it..

 

Ey King, nice found! Your C90 is becoming better and better. =) I think your C90 holds up great against todays notebooks. Not bad at all for a 2-3 year old machine. =) Good luck with the blu-ray drive! I'm curious if it will work.

 

Indeedy Trecu! I hope so too! I can't wait to get some high def movies up on my projector (also bought second hand nice and cheaply , come on I am a C90 owner things have to be either cheap or used ). Anyways yeah I am proud of my C90 now that it is running and how I want it and with the components I wanted however I am also sad that I have now run out of things to upgrade. A new HDD and extra memory wouldn't happen for a looong time. It was a long but fun journey to get the machine running at its full potential.

Really happy with my new Hitachi 7k500 HDD too not quite as snappy as the old SSD but I care much more for reliability and of course capacity. Also for some reason turbogear extreme seems to act glitchy in that a 5% OC now gives me 10% at 3.3ghz rather than 3.15ghz that it should. Basically I am getting 10% OC with it while before 5% OC on it would be 3.15ghz and selecting 10% OC would course system to crash. Iam happy for this glitch haha. Now I have no need for setfsb to push CPU to chipset limits

Anyways cheers/kampai/prost everybody the C90 is the best laptop in the world

 

Hi King,
Hi Trecu,

Here, I think most of us love our C90.
So we want it runs more and more, better than at the beginning.

@ King : you have already try many tips to improve your C90, and you even jump to C90P. Nothing is remaining to go further. But you still keep your C90.
Some who try another more powerful notebook is disappointed.

Myself : I'm on the way to make an all copper cooling. I'll mix phoenon's mod, Angel ideas, and mines.
I only need time, I've already began to work on it : I've got a C90P gpu heatsink, I've removed all the fins of a northbridge heatsink. So I've to solder.
I've also a C90P all copper cpu heatsink : I've already began to shorten some fins to leave some place to northbridge heatpipe, but to be finished with the new GPU cooling in place.
Then that will be copper bridges between all the heatpipes.

Later, perhaps I'll get the last Seagate Momentus Hybrid HDD.

I've sawn ASUS G51J or G60J, they are powerfull, even more than an AlienWare M15X.
But King is right when he says

An Asus C90 can't die as you can change _ or mod at your mind _ every component inside.
So, Enjoy your C90.

Hope you spend a nice day.
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