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

Hello,

Since this morning : 7232
I made some mods to the cooling which was not so good, a lot of artifacts at the end of "Deep Freeze". But it is not yet perfect, there's still some artifacts, so 7300 could be possible when I have finished all the mods. I hope so.


@+

 

Lmao that is funny! If only I could assimilate an even better GPU!

Already looking at getting a lapped C1 stepped QX9650 and have a final cooling mod in mind ; stripping out the lower vent to increase airflow. I hope to drop 2-3C more at load so I can push the chip to i7 crushing speeds.

 

have you considered the indigo extreme thermal compound for that new cpu, kings? i'm really curious about it, but until i actually get my hands on a xeon, it would be pointless to buy some. after all, i don't need the fans to stay LESS active than they already are...

 

Nah I haven't but I still have a little ICD lying about so will use that up. I have now got a QX9650 C1 stepping and it has been lapped

The seller says it does 3ghz stock at just 1.06V while my Q9650 which is newer does it at 1.0375V so barely any difference! Sounds like I have myself a decent QX chip. He also mentioned that it did 4ghz (400x10) at 1.4V easy so I might be able to reach 4ghz with just 1.35V and a higher multi The cooling won't be able to take a quad at anything over the voltage I reckon. Heck it takes water cooling to take it further in a desktop let alone a 15" laptop lol

 

well, i received the thermal pads from mxm...it's a good thing i sent em an email reminding them to send me the screws as well before they had time to ship me the pads, because they completely forgot again. as in they're not in the second package...my own screws are good enough i guess, but they have really small heads, which can and probably will just go right through such a thin material as the heatspreader. well, time to turn everything off again and get back to work...

 

Good luck Atvaark!

And remember. We're all counting on you.

 

just as i though, my own screws are too small, merely an hour after putting everything in order, the heatspreader popped out from the screws. i have to find screws with larger heads now. wish i could just use my copper heatsink though. but mxm were right, putting the die in contact with the copper square of the heatspreader ( via thermal pad) does give much more cooling. there was a good 15 degrees difference between it and copper heatsink+ heatspreader (still used the thermal pad.)

 

Running QX9650 now peeps. Can achieve 3.5ghz at 1.225V with temps loading at about 68C however my adaptor cannot feed it enough current.

Now to find a compatible 220W laptop adaptor...

 

LOL, 220w. That's almost my XPS 17'' PSU. good luck finding one. By my side I'm waiting a XEON for my c90s, and I think I will need a 150~180w. And I'm very interested in a backlit keyboard mod. but I need to find a compatible backlit spanish keyboard...

Good luck, I hope you can make it work full speed!

 

Well I am starting to think I am bios limited at 184-185W at the wall is more like 155W at the brick. So I am now looking into re-flashing my system bios to an earlier one. Perhaps this will solve my problem..I only changed to latest 0803 as it was only one to support Q9650. The older bios's are better having support for AHCI etc and now that I run a QX9650 is the better choice. The older bios will recognise the older quad and hopefully allow me to suck more power from the wall

 

Hello phoenon,

I had the same idea today so I have searched a little, and found that at ASUSparts :
French backlight keyboard,
and Spanish backlight keyboard.
But I wonder if it could fit and work ?
And it costs some money, I think so.

Did you read UL30 Backlit Keyboard Mod ?

@+

 

Sounds good, I told you the same I said before...you could always inject the CPU microcodes with MMTool. Do you know for sure it will work?
good luck!

Yes I already read it. It's very interesting. I'm worried abaut the ribbon connector lenght, for the asus c90s shoud be very long:

and of course I would spend a little less money. That keyb seems to fit.
(lol the spanish pic, shows numeric keyb...)
This one also seems to fit, but the price is more reassonable:
Acer Aspire 3810T 3410 Keyboard Teclado Spanish Backlit en venta en eBay.es (finaliza el 08-dic-10 08:04:50 H.Esp)
But this one has a very short ribbon. I will deep in this next week. keep going.
cheers

[edit-PS] - I saw that post yesterday, and finally inspired to me. It's very cool!!

 

I didn't think that other brands keyboards should fit. :/
And I don't know where to find it at Zand Parts .
Please, tell us if you do. Thanks.

@+

 

I'm thinking about upgrading my card to the 9600m gt. I see them on ebay but they have acer bios. I was wondering if these cards are compatible with the c90s.
nVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 MXM II VGA Card - eBay (item 270574969832 end time Dec-02-10 01:16:56 PST)

 

Hi,

I myself bought another 9600M GT, so yours seems to be the same.

I must say it fits in a C90S, and it is working.

But :
I got it without backplate, and I wondered how to screw the heat spreader ?
I tried with a 8600's backplate but it doesn't fit because holes are too small. I thought for a short time to oversize the four holes, but it might break some wires in the pcb, so it is not a good idea. Finally I used longer screws, washers, and the 8600's backplate. It is not a lego game :/

So if this 9600 come with a backplate it should be good for your C90S.

@+

 

Yeah. I dont think that this one comes with a backplate either. If it doesnt im gonna try your method of using the 8600 one. Thanks.

p.s. Did your card have acer bios on it?

 

hey kings, i ordered myself 1 delta fan, since i only need to cool the gpu, cpu's fine.

*edit* i looked at the delta fan's data sheet and i found the answer i was looking for...however, i'm a bit worried now. the working voltage for the fans is 7V- 13.8V. does using 5V risk damaging the fan?
by the way, that whine you described is the alarm for too low voltage/not working. that's my take anyways.

also, for those who were a bit curious about the exact specs of that fan...

AFB0412SHB delta fan 40mm x 40mm x 15mm
11,000 RPM, 12V rated voltage, 7V to 13.8V Operating voltage range 0.25 Amp rated current, rated input power is 3W, maximum noise is 41.5 db
more specs: rated airflow: 0.420 cubic meter/min OR 14.83 CFM

and on a more comic route...would this work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Remote-12V-3A-D...078?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25558d1446

i also found a 15k rpm fan. it demands a bit too much juice, and at 55db at max level...meeeeh.
http://www.jarothermal.com/1043spec/newcat/AG04012VB157300-LF.pdf


*more edit*
well, something strange happened. and i do not understand. after hardwiring the gpu fan to the 12v output, i decided a few hours later to install the switch. i do everything according to procedures, and the switch is done. however, i get no 5V from either side, only 12v on both. so of course, i think that i messed up. i open up the machine again, triple check the wiring, try again. still only 12V on both sides. makes no sense. i completely remove the 12V wire ( removed from the chip as well, no shorts possible) and leave only the 5V wire (the original fan wire). the fan fires up still in 12V mode. i am completely lost here. it's no big deal since i plan on getting a mod done just like you, king, but i'd like to understand what happened. was my switch broken and i fried the control or something? if the 5V and the 12V make contact, is that enough to overwrite the 5V setting on the vga fan control chip? i did not mix the wires, that i am sure of. middle branch was tied to the fan, number 1 to the 5V and number 3 to the 12V. plenty of electric tape while i test everything out. not a single wire was ever in contact with anything it shouldn't. expect maybe inside the switch, but that i can't really know...

 

Jesus...catalyst drivers give me a huuuge headache...since i lost cuda by switching to an ati card, i decided to use it's open cl capabilities...
yeah...which drivers do i get? catalyst 10.9 is supposedly the drivers who are made for this card and open cl, but then you have to say good bye to sound on an hdmi output. upgraded to 10.11, my clocks are now locked to 400/500. performance in games did not seem to suffer, the card is cool, but of course, open cl is gone again. in the span of 3 days i think i saw 4 different drivers update from amd. i am soooo lost... is it too much to ask to have the card work as it should? also i received my delta fan and my pci controller. did a gpu fan only upgrade like kings and everything is dandy on that side. oh yeah. sound on 10.11 hdmi works, BUT you have to download the realtek ati HDMI drivers. and then good luck configuring it, because it's certified to work only on 10.10.....my head. it hurts.

 

Cool Atvaark. The fans work no problem. I run 4 of em. You can also check my mod for extra ideas if you wish to get full control of all fans from 3-12V.

If your clocks are locked. Simply download RBE editor. Then open up GPUz save your current vbios. Then open it in RBE (just like for nibitor). Then change values 03,11,12 to the clocks you want. Save the new bios file (give it a simple name).

Get a memory stick that is configured as a boot drive. Download atiflash. Put atiflash together with both your bios files onto it. Then type at the command prompt at booot:

atiflash -p 0 biosname.rom (follow the spacings exactly)

The flash will take a few secs to complete. Then hit the on/off button. When the machine is off which should be instantaneous remove the pen drive. Then turn laptop back on. Voila you have your new clocks. Simple. I have done this to alter my clocks to 790/990 from 675/800 stock. While the powermizer modes together with the lower voltages still kicks in fine.

Don't change your boot up clocks that is table 00. Only change tables 03,11,12. If you are unsure post up a screenshot of RBE showing all the clock tables and I will make surre you hit the right ones.

What I found was changing the boot up clocks away from the original clocks gave me a black screen as soon as windows was about to go into the desktop so its a no go. By changing all the other values the card still remains a little confused however it is very much to my advantage. Because it is unsure which clocks it should use after booting into windows it will only use either 220/300 at 0.9V or the mid range clocks 300/500 at 1V. It is only when I load into rivatuner and hit the return to default clocks button that the full 790/990 clocks are unlocked but even then the powermizer switching still remains in effect so it is perfect. This means unless I intend to run a game I find no need to "unlock my full card speed" thus saving power and heat as even if the card tries to clock up under demand (say a blu-ray) it won't hit your OC clocks

So if you find your card reacting the same way enjoy it don't worry about it. Also btw about HDMI I have never used it so I cannot comment however for gaming 10.10 I found far superior to 10.6 or 10.8. I am on 10.11 now due to re-installing windows due to my fiddling with GPU vbios shenanigans lol so haven't tried them for gaming yet but they look to be as stable as 10.10. Tis annoying though that I cannot get the memory stable above 990 I crave for a nice round 1ghz! Maybe time to try a pencil mod.............. heat be darned I hit 52C at my OC

 

well...like i said, the performance is great, and i followed mxm's guide for the clocks. and it worked until i upgraded to 10.11. i talked to mxm's representative and sent him a copy of my vbios. waiting on an answer to know what's going on.

 

Can you not change the clocks youself?? If your cooling is in order give it a try.

 

i can change the clocks myself, sure, but if i screw it up, mxm wont refund me. i'd rather leave it to them for now, i'm pretty sure it's a drivers issue, since the clocks changed without problem before i updated them.

*edit* their answer was to flash the clocks that the drivers were now using and see how it goes. they agree that it's the drivers themselves who force the card to use these instead of the 675/500 clocks.
i'm still puzzled though by the fact that the performance did not take a hit with the decrease in clocks...maybe it's because of the driver's ability to better utilize the stream processors? keep in mind i'm talking out of my hat here since i have no clue what makes it work...

 

the clock problem is now fixed. apparently, it was due to the fact that i disabled powerplay...still no sound on hdmi however.

 

Try setting as default the digital output trought control panel, or sound icon via taskbar.
BTW we still waiting for some benchmarks...
cheers.

 

the hdmi problem is a common one to radeon hd cards. it seems to be plaguing users for over 3 years already, with ati doing nothing that fixes it permanently it seems. it's a driver issue though, since catalyst drivers version 8.3 works with it. i tried making the digital audio the default output, but no sounds comes out. i downloaded ati hdmi audio driver, still nothing, it's always considered unplugged. of course, it worked with my previous nvidia card. now as for benchmarks, the card surprisingly performs worse than the nvidia gt 130M.
i get a mere 6.4k score. must be the DDR2 instead of the faster GDDR3...

 

Sorry to hear you are still having HDMI issues Atvaark. I am currently having display problems with blu-ray due to windows re-install lol but will figure it out with time hehe. Anyways peeps I am reverting back to Q9650 use the QX simply uses too much power to make it worthwhile without a bigger brick (say 220W) however it seems that upgrade is impossible to do. 180W is pretty much as high as we C90 owners can go without serious and dangerous treading into unknown territory lol. I considered it of course (you know me) but decided against it.

Maybe one final upgrade to an SSD next year

 

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my Asus C90s died out on me. It looks like it's still running but nothing appears on the screen, and an external monitor doesn't help either. Reading about the C90s here I get an hunch that my video card (8600 GT GDDR2) is broken.

What's the easiest way to replace it ? I read a lot about changing the cooling fans, heatpipes, added new plates, changing the screwholes in the MXM-II etc. I know how to open my C90s and replace some parts, but I'm a bit scared at doing drastic modifications. So what's the best video card to replace it in Dec-2010 for a guy like me? Still the 9600M GT? Where to order?

Thanks all! I appreciate your help!

 

to be honest, with the c90s aging as it is, i'm starting to consider telling others to just get another machine. if you take a 9600M gt, you have to spend at least 100$ on the card, you'll also need a custom heatsink to use it properly. if you go up and take a 9650M GT instead, you face the same situation, but the card will cost at least 175$. anything higher, like the gt130M, the ati HD 4670, those are cards in the high 200$, closer to 300$ even. while the performance gain is nice, the DDR2 667Mhz ram is starting to become a choking point, even when adding a stronger processor. so my answer for you would be to try and find another 8600M GT. they're like 50$ now. and save up for a new machine.

sure, our laptops are much more powerful than even some i5's now since we use desktop processors, but we invested probably more than the laptop's worth itself in new hardware for it. and even their appearances are changing. cutting holes for an external fan controller for example. it's fine if you're an upgrade maniac like most of us here though.in that case, basically every card requires some sort of modification, but the 9600M GT is the cheapest of all the options and provide the best upgrade for the money. plus it's the card this guide was made for in the first place. read the first few pages and you should be okay. if you find a card on ebay or something like this, dont hesitate to ask questions, and give us links so we can see if the cards are good or not.

just a little pointer. you need an MXM II card, the c90s is designed for 25W cards, but since i'm using a 35W card, i don't think it means much anymore.
try to find cards with mounting brackets. as good as mxm upgrade's soldered spacers are, a mounting bracket provides support under the card, preventing the card from bending and thus, saving you the trouble of the gpu breaking solder points. ( did not happen to me yet, but it happened to others.)

 

Thanks for the tip. I know that except for the low-mem speed, the maximum of 3GB will also be a bottleneck in the future.

So, the least trouble is getting a similar replacement for the 8600 GT. This should probably the right model for the C90s? I haven't seen them yet for $50, but for about $120 I did. Guess I have to do some better searching. The only issue I have with it is: will it break down again after 2-3 years? I know my C90s will be very old then but right now it's still faster than some current notebook I can be today for $600 here.

With somewhat more trouble I get the 9600 GT working (more customization, etc). I'm not familiar with getting the right mount brackets and so on, but that info will probably be in one of the beginning pages of this thread (sorry for not reading all 128 )

 

By the way, what's the deal with "baking" your GPU? Anyone point me to the original post in the issue? Can you resurrect your GPU with it? What's the recipe?

 

I will buy one of these cards from "mokkin", but only if I know that it will work in my C90S. wwetrex, did you buy one? Did it work?

The safest way to get the card to work in full speed is to do the modify-the-vbios-yourself way mentioned in NightWalker's guide which started this whole thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/316079-nw-upgrade-c90s-9600m-gt-512mb-ddr3-fixed.html

Also, since my C90S is a Linux box, I don't have access to the fancy VBIOS modder programs and such. If mokkin's ebay listings are accurate, every 9600M GT he is selling is the same. I am hopeful that you, wwetrex, could send me your modified VBIOS -- since (after I purchase too) we have the same card.

 

I believe it might be the ATI 4650 or even the 4670, but im not really sure, there are DDR2 and DDR3 versions too.


Hi guys bit late to the game but have just bought a 2nd hand C90s($250 ). At the moment its better then my last laptop(Asus Z96J) and thats at it current low end state(E6420, 2gb ram & 8600M GT). But im at abit of a cross roads so i've come here for enlightenment.

Should i spend $500 on a X6800 and new GPU? or should i put the money towards a laptop with better specs? Once these Upgrades are done what kind of performance can I expect? My current bench mark is left 4 dead 2 with the current specs I am only just able to play it with the uber low settings. I move around a lot so a laptop is my only option, and if I did buy another laptop I’d be looking for something 2nd hand for around $700


Sorry about the long post

 

Well I found that there's no need to force VBIOS clocks to be OCed everytime, you just can swap perf. tables number from 4 to 2, and leave stock clocks. You would be now able to use common OC utilities by software:

This make your life easier for test your OC performance, temps. or perhaps you won't OC at all...

$500 for an X6800 that's crazy. You could find in ebay from over $200 or even less, anyway I recommend the E7500 (over $100), wich is the most common used in this community, but needs a BIOS mod. The good news: it's done and posted in the community in this threat, and the the ISO download LINK.

I'm now also testing an QUAD-CORE XEON X3220, by the way it doesn't boot, but It must be for the power lack. This is an 105w TDP instead of 65w. E7500. I will deep on it when I have time, I'm now finding an 150/180w. PSU.

cheers.

ps your c90s for $250 is a great deal, you can spend over $250 more and get a great machine with the E7500 and an 9600mGT DDR3. Spending much more would not be a great idea, you can get better gamming notebooks for those $700~800.

 

Sorry that was $500 for CPU and GPU

 

Oh, I missunderstund. It's a good deal, but there are some reports that the X6800 works hotter than the E7500 with similar performance.
But I wonder if Throttlestop would work with the X6800, we could unlock multipliers.
cheers.

 

The X6800 is hot chip (have used it in the C90S) yes throttlestop would be able to unlock the multi however you might have the same problem as me witht the QX9650 in that you run out of juice. Of course unlike me you can easily upgrade to 180W and have all the power you need while I am already at that point and needing even more power meaning pointless for me to use it instead of the Q9650.

With a 150/180W powersupply you could indeed push it to at least 3.5ghz.

@Phoneon I still have my original 150W asus power supply if you want it. Free of course! Very interested in your quad-core results! Looks like you got the equivalent to the Q6600 there is also a 105W 2.66ghz xeon quad if I remember correctly. Costs a bomb though

 

yeah probably gonna go with the E7500.

So has anyone been able to get the 4670 1gb ddr3 working on a C90s?

Edit: might be able to get a hold of a E7400, is this CPU compatible with the C90s?

 

That would be great. I thought you would no longer have it, but I'm not pretty sure if it would be fair having for free.
I injected the Xeon microcode, wich is the same as Q6600, but it just doesn't display anything on screen (as without CPU), perhaps this CPU is unable to work, or perhaps just with the power cord plugged, but I won't want to spend so much on those test, I do for fun. I also asked a friend (electronic tech.)for an extreme mod, if it would possible to do a kind of PCB for bridge those asus inverted MXM ports(9700m GT, 8800m GS...) to a normal ones. But I still not pretty sure if they would work even with all that...lol
Yeah there's a better xeon, but this one I could get on the cheap, less than 100€, and I would always use for a new desktop computer. I think there's also a xeon (don't remember wich right now) with 95 TDP, keeping in mind X6800 is 75 TDP. It does not seem a big difference.
edit Just researched, X3230 @2,66 is 95 TDP lol, my X3220 @2,40 is 105 TDP (they are almost the same)...

E7xxx series are not supported on the original BIOS, but I think all them were injected in the modded BIOS we all are using.

Cheers.

 

Nah you are welcome to the power supply. PM me your address and I will see what the shipping costs are. Considering you are abroad I would probably ask for you to pay for shipping costs but I won't for the power supply. It is just lying about gathering dust. Might be a bit of wait though as work stupid hours at the moment and also have to get my QX9650 back onto e-bay.

 

Ok guys i've decided to stick with the C90s till i can afford a laptop with Dx11 support.

so..i've got a cpu sorted(e7500), but what GPU should i be looking for? I'd prefer to go the 4650/4670 route, I'd love to get the 4670 1gb ddr3, but will it work with a c90s? will these run hotter then a 8800gt?
so whats the deal with Vbios?

 

@urban
The 4670/50 DDR3 would work in C90S sure, but there are almost impossible to find, and DDR2 version is more expensive than efficient and also there seems to be an HDMI issue with the sound. I still recommend 9600m GT DDR3.
Good luck!

 

Urban as Pheonon says it is very hard to find GDDR3 4650 and 4670's. As someone who has spent months fruitless researching and then finding one through further months of hard work I can tell you there is no 4650 wit GDDR3 memory for sale in mxm II 2.1 format. The only cards that you will be able to find are the 4650/4670 with 1GB GDDR2 memory and the very very very rare 4670 with 512mb GDDR3 memory. The 4670 with 1GB GDDR3 memory was only released to MXM A format card but doesn't make a difference to performance anyways.

If I were you I would purchase a unmodified, unaltered 4670 1GB GDDR2 card from mxm-upgrade. It would work perfectly. My 4670 512mb GDDR3 card worked plug and play although I had to create my own simple workaround for a backplate for the new card.

 

mxm-upgrade does not have MXM type II cards available right now, they suggested me to follow their twitter messages to see when they are available again (I'm waiting for the 9600 GT version).

BTW: Is there way to get more than 3GB working in the C90s nowadays? I'm running 64-bit linux FWIW.

 

Wow roalt! I didn't expect them to sell out so quickly. Hopefully they will get fresh stock in soon! Perhaps they will be able to source the GDDR3 4670 lol.

As for your memory can indeed put 2x2GB into your C90S however it will only recognise 3GB due to the chipset limitation of the 945G based motherboard the C90S uses. Using 4GB still has its advantages. Firstly you will have higher bandwidth as you will have full symetric dual channel ram running and secondly your components might find a use for the hidden 1 GB even if your OS won't read it.

 

Hey fellas, last night while surfing the net on my C90s, windows started to lockup due to my 2gbs of ram being 90% used somewhere, tried to track down where is was being used but had no luck, all i was doing was surfing a forum and had some music playing. I know these laptops have trouble with ram over 3gb but thought 2gb would be ok. Currently using two samsung 1gb sticks and running........Vista sp2

Is there anything i should be looking at?

 

Well there is not a secret, vista eats lot of ram. You should try W7 or XP. Using vista with 2Gb is a pain. You also should dissable (if it's active) sidebar. If I remember well, Vista loads a sidebar process for every gadget, instead of windows 7 wich only loads one.
Cheers.

 

Side bar is long gone, I disable it after an install. That being said I never had this problem with my ASus z96j which also had 2gb ram.

 

I see in your signature that you have 8GB. Is that because your C90P does not have the 945G but another chipset?

 

Indeed you are correct. The C90P has a P35 chipset that allows support of 1333mhz penryn quads/duals and 8GB of ram. Otherwise apart from some very minor change in heatsink design (all copper and passive northbridge cooling to allow larger GPU heatsink) the machines are identical. I previously owned a C90S so can confirm that. To see differences just pop open the link in my sig. Got the guts of the C90P exposed there.

 

Picked up a E7500 over the weekend, was a relatively easy install, though couldn't get the C90s.rom to run from a thumb drive, but got it to run from a cd and the ISO i was pointed to seemed to be empty.

also locally theres a 9600m gt that im watching so will probably grab it, its no 4650 but it should be ok.