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

The CD seems empty, but it is DOS filesystem, and it is bootable. Try to boot with it and type update.
Good luck!

 

Has anybody here been tempted to do a volt mod on their card?? I am very tempted personally. Can't get higher clocks than about 785/985mhz and have temp in the mid-fifties playing crysis at these clocks.

I am thinking a voltage bump on the vcore from 1.2 to 1.25V would suffice to bring me up to 850mhz on the core perfectly safe thanks to my cooling and an equally small bump on the vmem would allow 1050mhz. That would give me the performance to play anything including crysis on very high at native resolution

What do people think. How does one do it. I saw someone do it to a 9600M GT GDDR2 card online somewhere but I don't have the electrical equipment or know how to do it myself

 

Yes! It worked! I resurrected my original 8600 GT by baking it in the oven!

I have a hot-air oven and put it there for 8 minutes on 175 degrees Celcius.

After putting the thermal pads back and adding some thermal paste on the copper part of the heatsink, my Asus C90s screen worked again! Thanks all for the tips on this forum!

I might have enough courage to replace the video card with a 9600 GT (if they become available again), so I can extend the life of my C90s.

Hope my 8600 keeps working for some time. Anyone experience whether it will keep working after a baking experience?

 

No more C90s
Picked up a XPS m1730 with 8800m GTX SLI, for $500. Was for my friend but he said it was to flashy, so i snagged it.

 

@urban
wellcome to the XPS m1730 trhead!! LOL.
You picked a nice beasty. Cheers!

 

So, since I'm new to the whole swapping out MXM modules and my 8600 finally seems to be dying, And I have a bountiful supply of copper for new cooling components...

Question: If I were to swap to a 9650 is the process exactly the same as with the 9600?
...Does it require different sized cooling pieces?
...Is modding it's bios the same?

I'd just go for the 9600 but I found a 9650 for $99 so I figure the double memory factor makes it worth considering. c90s if that affects anything.
Thanks for your time!

 

@Sol Vector
Welcome to the trhead, the 9600 is more powerfull than the 9650, since 9600 is DDR3 instead of 9650 DDR2 memory. As for the installation method it is the same, and probably temps are pretty similar. Perhaps it's a bit higher on the 9600...
You would probably need to mod the BIOS, but take a look at clocks because memory clocks would be diferent (than posted in this guide).
Cheers.

 

Unfortunately the only 9600 ddr3s I can find are running at $200+
I guess I'll hunt for a while...

I know I'd need to do the bios I was just clarifying the whole copy and paste one section over the other method using stock clocks. Thanks though!

 

Hi Sol Vector,

If you search through ebay :

Go to Advanced search,
In Enter keywords or item number type 9600M MXM,

Then Show results : PayPal or not, or others choices,

Then in Location ,
Select Only show items:,
then Available to, => choose your country.

Then you can Sort by: whatever you want,

So you can press the Search button.


You should see more than one seller.

Enjoy the C90S,
@+

 

Also you should create a WTB thread in the NBR marketplace.

 

Hi, I've been reading this thread for the last few weeks since my laptop GPU was dying (Baked it 4 times), now that I managed to get myself a 9600m GT I followed Nightwalker's guide but kinda got stuck. I'm not familiar with any of the program's that's used to modify the card. I guess what I don't understand is that I can't seem to find any working drivers for the card. I've tried Google-ing for the past 2 days but still couldn't find a working driver is this normal? Does flashing the card solve this problem?

If someone could post some links or at least point me in the right direction I will greatly appreciate it.

I'm using WinXP 32bit and got the GPU with horizontal samsung memory chip version which should be the same one Nightwalker used.

 

@Skyto
You can try at laptopvideo2go forum, if Nvidia official ones fail. You could try any forceware version, but you should need to download a moded .inf (provided on that forum) for driver to work. Good luck.

[offtopic]
I just finished testing the Xeon processor. I just can make it work. C90s wont boot with this Quad, perhaps there is no power enought from the motherboard. Not even with the King's 150w PSU. just black screen....*sight.

cheers

 

Thanks for the reply Phoenon.. After hours of reading through most of the thread and confirming with a friend, I had to used the modify .inf file. After installing the driver I got a score of ~5300 in 3dmark06. I didn't modify the bios or anything yet, but this should be fine for now. I still need to get a better piece of copper to make a better heatspreader before I OC it. I'm currently using 2 thin plates of copper .025, one on top of the other, with some generic thermal paste sandwich in between. I'm getting temps of 55 idling and lower 90's Celsius gaming.

Does anyone know where I can get a cheap copper sheet for the heatspreader?

 

Hi Skyto,

Your score isn't so bad, NightWalker himself got 5049 at his first try.
Just see at post #1
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/930/nw1e.jpg

Then you have to take great care with the cooling. Perhaps you could try some Angel's ideas.

When I got in upgrading my C90S, my aim was 6000. And it is easy with the 9600.

Cheers
@+

 

I think it must be a bios limitation. Even my C90P needed the unofficial not even properly released 0803 bios to allow penryn quads to work properly. That was only available from a Chinese forum member lol. I bet people in asia that own the C90S have figured out a way lol. Have you found a newer bios that supports xeon quads pulled the microcode and then create a new bios like columbok did for the E7500?

 

hey guys i just stumbled upon this thread today. very cool to see that people are still actively using/upgrading the c90s

mine is sitting on a desk gathering dust. i built a new desktop + bought an f8sn for portability and have not seen much need/use to use my c90s only 6months after buying it a few years ago

after seeing this thread, i was curious as to what i can still do with it since i actually really like the laptop for what it has (besides cpu + gfx, the rest of the laptop has better or more specs than most current laptops on the market today! e.g. hdmi, esata + screen)

so without reading through all 200+ pages, can you guys give me some ideas for modding/upgrading my c90s?
im interested in simple overclocking + improved cooling options.

as much as id love to upgrade the cpu and gfx, i dont think i have the time or ability to play around with the hardware too much. but ideas are always welcome.

currently off the top of my head, my c90s has 3gb ram, E6700 cpu and nvidia 8600gtm graphics
ive got win7 installed as an os

im also curious whether the c90 is easily compatible with the DIY vidock, because i dont have the tv tuner and i THINK that u can use the empty slot for vidock (along with the expresscard slot)

thanks for any replies guys
ill try to read through this thread as much as i can

 

Hey Furythree. I haven't time to condense 200 pages of thread but I will summarise as well as possible. You can upgrade to a E7500 2.93ghz core 2 duo penryn chip with a bios update. You can change the GPU to a nvidia 9600M/9650M/GT130M or the ati 4670 chips. You just have to make sure the GPU is a mxm 2.1 II card with an unlocked vbios. The ATI GPU's are plug and play such as mine but the nvidia cards need some vbios tweaking the get the clock speeds right as well as some custom heatsink manufacturing . As for cooling mods you can read about mine to get you started (see sig) I changed the 9,500 rpm fans out with the highest 11,000 rpm fans one can get and installed my own custom fan control. I have the C90P but applying the mod to the C90S will be 100% the same. As for ram you are pretty much as the limit already as the 945G chipset cannot physically recognise more. Although 2x2GB modules will give you higher memory bandwidth rather than 1GB +2GB. Also you can also upgrade your dvd drive to the Panasonic UJ220 drive. Reads and writes not only cd's and dvd but also blu-rays!! It can read and write blu-rays at a pretty astonishing 2x speed(75mb per sec) while the drive is cheap as chips. I picked mine up 6 months back for 70 pounds!

Yes you could do the vidock with the C90S, however personally I believe it to be a rather clunky setup (Laptop + separate mouse, keyboard, separate GPU and then power supply and then an additional screeen) more clunky than a desktop which you already have so pretty pointless.

 

thanks for the reply king.

in regards to the cpu upgrade, its about $130 to buy an e7500. im just wondering if its worth upgrading, is it alot of hassle? or just a simple swap out of cpus and a bios update? (get it from asus website?)
i cannot find the E7500 on the notebookcheck website: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html
probably cause it doesnt list every desktop cpu, being a notebook site. so roughly how would it rank compared to cpus on that list? considering the e6700 is already in the 60s, am i looking at low end i3 and i5 performance? or lower?

cause one of my dillemas is simply just upgrade to a SB notebook.

as for the GPU, i think i will be trying vidock, simply cause it sound interesting, fun and can be used on other systems (i have like 5 laptops from the same era at home) has no c90s user considered vidock? I spoke to Nando4 today and we had a look at the ports. I think i may be able to do an X2E link or something.

what im really interested in is that fan mod you did. im a little confused. as in the begining of your tutorial, you said u got help from an electronics engineer contact, so does that mean it will be difficult for an amateur like me?
im really interested in being able to control the fan speeds, cause i want them to cool faster!

also, i think nighthawk cut out a hole in his ACE cover. and when i first bought the c90 years ago, i remember trolling on these forums and saw someone do the same thing but they covred it with mesh. does this actually produce good results? would it affect the airflow of the fans at all? i have a laptop fan dock thingy, so i can just take off the ACE cover completely and leave the guts hanging out exposed but not in contact with anything...or is that a bad idea...

 

i'll reassure you right now, i did the fan modification as well, i did not require help. of course, my results aren't as pretty as king's but it functions properly. i'm planning on making that controller internal, getting rid of the battery and making a dial pop from the palm rest, if i can find a spot where it wont be in the way of using the keyboard. my idea was to have the dial perpendicular to the palm rest, so it wouldn't be sticking out like a sore thumb, and wouldn't damage the screen every time i try to close the lid. i can't explain very well, but whatever. if i do it, ill post pictures.

 

Is there an alternative way to upgrading the c90S to a 9600M GT? I'm not very good at cutting, so is there somewhere I can buy the heat spreader made already with the screws? Thank you.

 

i think i may need to cut a hole in the ace cover door anyway to do a x2 link vidock

anyone already have one precut or a spare they dont need? theres one on ebay but quite a hefty price for a cover....

 

Where is this piece at ebay? I've looked but couldn't find anything. Thanks.

 

Why not just make the hole in the side of the fan module like I did for my fan mod. This way it will be quite unobstrusive. I am interested in your results!

 

i think the mpcie slots are too awkward to reach. theres one all the way at the bottom near the hdd and one to the far right
dont really wanna make holes in the side of the actual machine if i can avoid it also the hole will have to be pretty large to slot a mini hdmi through

at least this way, it cools + increases performance via accessibility at the same time



Also for the ACE door
Asus C90s Laptop CPU Ram Assembly Cover 13GNQ01AP061 (eBay item 330492078462 end time 01-Feb-11 08:41:55 AEDST) : Computers Networking

i found another one somehow but ebay search is being inconsistent and
price was similar anyway

 

First off, I found an 8600m GT sli (dual 8600s one card) that was mxmII and quite tall. Anyone else ever seen one or better yet tried one?

I may actually be able to do some good here! I happen to have an E7500 seeing as my battery issues were too severe for some reason... (RM Clock Failed) Its got a whole 45min of use on it still in box with all it's goodies if you're interested furythree. Although without my only machine functioning I probably won't be able to check back here right away... Unfortunately my 8600 is no longer functional (again) and baking it did nothing this time, fortunately I should have a ddr3 9600 on the way, (Fingers crossed) and I can get all the copper I need for free.

PS: How do faster fans perform without any modding? Worth the money?

 

Hi,

Something like that ? http://forum.notebookreview.com/3132524-post147.html

I tried myself something like that, but I'm disappointed because I hoped a better drop of the t° C

Then I read Angel Marinov's thread, I tried his "Some Thoughts and Tips".
Now I think it is the best cooling mod.
You should try it.

@+

 

With cooling there is a point where the law of dimishing returns wins out. Upgrading to the 11,000 rpm fans over the original 9,500 rpm fans even without modding the vents like I have for maximum airflow is worth it I believe but only when you really crank the speed up(so Sol Vector if you don't implement the manual control mod they are pretty pointless). Right now my Q9650 at idle fans while just typing here on notebookreview is running at 33,33,33,30. Pretty cool. Sometimes I see 27C but it depends on the ambient temp in the room. If I were to crank the voltage up from 3V to 12V I would see at best 20C or so after a long time lol

So basically yeah it depends how extreme you want your cooling for me I wanted the best plus I am running a quad which naturally gives out more heat than a duo so I think the C90S will probably be fine with the stock fans modded to give the user manual control.

 

yeh something like that but instead of slits, just a big hole covered in mesh
i use a laptop cooler underneath, so technically i can just remove the whole panel anyway lol

but just wondering why angelo said to not use the hole over gpu method?
his english is really bad so im not getting the logic. i think hes saying to seal off all hole except for the ones u want to redesign ur own airflow or something? sounds like too much trouble

 

Essentially if you cut a large hole where the GPU is then the airflow over the heatsinks will be disrupted. The airflow has been designed to suck air in behind the fins under pressure then to eject it out the back for the best cooling. I have tried the hole method (I even cut a hole under the CPU too) and I would say from my experience the best airflow is simply to remove all the mesh and plastic struts from the existing intake and exhaust vents so that the fans can move more air. This coupled with the faster 11,000rpm fans gives the best cooling.

Also I will add that I use a NZXT Cryo LX cooling pad. I don't use it for its active cooling capability (I fried its circuits putting 12V through it haha) but for its passive cooling. It is great as firstly it sits at an angle giving a nice comfortable typing postion but also it is entirely made of aluminium so it absorbs the heat from the laptop very well. I do recommend a sturdy laptop cooler.

 

Heya Everyone

I'm looking into replacing my GFX card on the ASUS C90S, i did find this on Ebay:

HP Acer 770m 9600m GT 512m ddr3 video card MXM 2.1 II - eBay (item 320654742471 end time Mar-10-11 16:04:01 PST)

Feel its a priceworthy replacement, compared to other options i've found. (Want to replace baked 8600)

and wondering if anyone has done any conversion of the NVIDIA Quadro fx 770M to 9600M GT? Or the 770M will work unmodded in the Asus C90S? (Since some have reported that Acer "bios" cards will work fine in Asus C90S, especially 8600). Some of the answer i have from Toasters posts on page : 82-83 where its states:

"I bought 770M on Ebay 2 months ago from taiwan. I started with a modded heatsink from 8600M GT (a little use of sew). I got temperatures @ 98 - 105 °C...with a notebookcooler @ 650/900/1600.

It's Plug and play, just need a flash bios to get the right frequencies : get bios from 3D card with GPU-Z then modify it with nibitor and finally put it with Nvflash.

Actually, this card seems come from HP support (it's write HP support on it...) and it's used in 8510W."

But was it the HP default bios on it or?

Seller on the ebay article says: "unless you specify it is for an Acer when you buy or provide me a 9600m GT VBIOS. Feel free to contact me for more info or with a VBIOS you would like me to try flashing onto a card (free of charge)". With Bios should i ask for?

I dont have any other Laptop to be able to modify the MXM card with besides the Asus C90S im putting it into, so having a compatible bios is my first step.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

I think remember someone did install the 770 FX with success. BTW for what I know HP VBIOS are uncompatible with other brands. And maybe a 9600m GT is a better choice. I wont install a 9600m VBIOS in a 770 FX, even it is pretty the same card, but diferent power consumption, this could finally brick the card, without no other benefit. Even if the 770 FX is not able to read 4 perfomance tables, you just should modify the VBIOS like we did in our 9600m GT, and NightWalker explained perfectly in his guide.
My final thought is better look for an 9600m GT, the most part of ebay sellers don't refound the money for an incompatiblity issue.
Good luck!

 

guys my asus c90s died
the thing powers on but screen doesnt turn on
no audio
no boot logo (no screen anyway)
only random hdd activity

tested ram, doesnt seem to be that

so its either mobo gfx or cpu. but dunno how to test that

 

Probably it's the graphics card. But it's a dificult diagnostic, maybe you could tell us something more abaut how did it die? Or just it shudently stopped booting?
Cheers

 

Heya Furythree

I had similar problems with a defect Asus C90S with i aquired. It was the GFX card in my case and without explaining your problem more in detail i would guess its the same problem as you have.

My recommendations would be the following:

Clean the machine make sure the components are firmly in place.
Remove the battery.

Power on without battery and check the following:

Does the Fans poweron?
LAN connection (Check what your connected to, to see if it has link)
Connect External monitor.
Is the HDD light fixed or blinking, and does there look/seem like activity ie loading to system?

Let us know how it goes and good luck

Cheers

P.s Myself did bake the GT8600 Card in the oven and my machine works now, i only did this because im looking to replace it anyway and had nothing to lose.

 

Hello Guys,

It's been a while and I still did not change my 8600M GT

I have just found a 4670M DDR3 from an ASUS N81VP with Asus Bios as well.

Do you think that it will really be plug'n play ?
Can I also use the 8600M back plate + screw ?

Thank you very much for your answer.

Here is the beast.

Looks quite different for the plate.
Thank you in advance for your advices.

 

Hey Jsengir. Great find! Unfortunately this card although a great card is reverse mxm II 2.1. As you can see from this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...424963-msis-hd4670-running-my-acer-5920g.html which is exactly the same card I am using the connecters are switched the other way round.

The mxm connector in the C90 simply will not accept the reverse mxm II 2.1 4670 even if you insert it upside down. Also as you can see the heatsink mounting holes are arranged quite differently so you would need to manufacture one anyways. The 4670 I own anyways and other 4650's cannot accept the 8600M GT backplate however as the screw holes are smaller on the ati cards.

Hope this helps.
KoI

edit : I am pretty sure the C90 won't accept the card if inserted upside down but I welcome you to try it sometimes there literally is "no pain no gain" I have experienced this often if modding and upgrading my C90 to the max. Good luck

 

Heya JSengir

As stated by "King of Interns" you would have to have some Custom mounting for heatsink at least. I dont know if the mounting holes to the mainboard can be reused (2 screw holes) or if reverse mxm slot would work at all in the c90.

If the card would work you could probobly get a heatsink to fit, since Nightwalker did the: dual heatsink mod and it will "fit" see link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/232716-nightwalkers-c90s-8600m-gt-512mb-dual-heatsink-mod.html

Good luck testing!

@Phoenon i went with your recommendation and got myself a 9600m GT 512mb instead, i get boot picture but since i want to have a custom copper heatsink build first i havnt tested more (since it would overheat). Thanks for your help.

//Styggo

 

nice choice, you will be happy with it, I'm pretty sure.
Cheers

 

Hi Styggo

thanks for your suggestions
i actually listed everything, but i posted a new thread about my issue and mod merged my details here into the other thread -_-
Anyway
THis is what i have tried so far:

Plugging in my laptop into AC, or using battery, or ac without battery, or remove battery and powercycling and retrying = all produce same result

symptoms: screen is dead (well may not neccessarily be broken but doesnt power on, so i know its not just showing a black screen, its simply not on. cause when it shows black colours, u can at least see the backlight from the screen bleed

fans whirl on, hdd clicks on and spins, hdd light flashes, hdd has been tested to be fine.

in fact HDD seems to act like its loading something. so i wait. and based off memory, i try to get it into windows logon blindly. not that it wud do anything cause i cant see!

i have tried plugging in a monitor via hdmi or vga and nothing happens (monitor does not detect anything)

i have swapped the ram modules around

its not using ethernet so no cables besides power

i have done absolutely nothing different to it that i do normally.

i used it one night. turned it off. 2 days later (didnt even touch it for 2 days) turned it on. the blue power switch goes on (btw lately it has a 1-2sec delay before actually turning on) and then it does all the above symptoms of no screen.

it doesnt even play the sound u get when the Asus logo splash appears during first few seconds of bios. theres no reason that the sound card shudnt work if the GFX doesnt right?

the only other thing i can think of is that ive removed the ODD drive a week before to test an ODD caddy i bought. i put it back in and computer worked fine for a week at least after that just fine.

ive also stumbled upon this ebay seller selling this "repair" service. mentioning its a common problem to nvidia notebook cards of our model
and that there are fixes such as baking, but they have a permanent proper hardware fix for it.

sigh i dunno. i really wanna keep using this thing. its in such good condition

could u explain the baking thing in more detail? thanks

 

Hello Furythree

Sorry for the late reply, been hectic at work. I sent you a PM regarding the principle with link to External website.

If anyone else wants to read a good guide regarding "baking" see this:

Fix Your Graphics Card By Baking In Oven

Good luck "Only do this is youve lost all hope"

Joseph

 

thanks joseph. ill read that MBL and hardforum guide in detail before i try


if the mobo or gfx were gone, would the computer even turn on at all like it does with mine?

 

Hello Furythree

Well my Asus C90S with i brought defect had the symptoms that the LED lights turned on and it sounded like everything was working fine, but nothing happened. But i could see that Power was supplied, many like the issues you describe.

I assume the Machine is dark as a symptom to GFX card going bad and since most sources point that the most common issue with dead C90S machines is the "notorius" Nvidia 8600m card in it, an estimated guess is thats where the problem is. Could ofcourse be other issues as well.

And i only baked my GFX cardo, since i had plans to buy a new GFX card regardless so it was a win win for me since the Extra GFX card will go to my friends computer (brought the defect Asus cheap enough for spare parts otherwise, since my friend has a C90S already with i might "inhearent")

So see no reason to also bake "Mobo" (initially)

Before doing any actions you could always check the area you live in and see if you could "borrow" a MXM 2.1 card just to test. If your located in Sweden i could ship you my Card for testing.

Regards

Joseph "Styggo"

 

It Worked!

 

Great news Furythree

The quality of the GFX card might be lowered and its more prone to break again, so make sure to get proper cooling or replace it

Regards

Joseph

 

Hi Guys !

Thank you King of Interns & Styggo for your time.

Saddly, as it is not a company I won't be able to try to card and send back if unfortunately it was not compatible.
Will keep the doubt

Anyway, I found a 9650M from an Asus N80VN with Asus Bios as well from a shop and I will try that one (80€ only).
It should be plug n play.
Well it is DDR2 but my main wish is to reduce heat from the deadly 8600M and ensure more lifetime of my old C90S.





Sounds good as I can use the plate from the 8600M.


I also find a post from ANGEL MARINOV talking about a caddy to put instead the DVD-R and put any sata hard drive inside (then get 2 HDD in a C90S).
If you are interested I just bought that one and I confirm that it fits perfectly the C90S.

Now, with the 2 HDD possibility I will put a SSD OCZ Vertex 2 with 120GB and I can keep my old 320GB as a second hard drive.
Here is the link if some you want one :

Laptop 2nd HDD 9.5mm caddy Sata to Pata /Ide fHARD DISK en vente sur eBay.fr (fin le 20-avr.-11 05:31:13 Paris)

Inside connector is sata II then PATA especially for the C90S.





Hope now that the Vertex 2 will bring the expected speed on the C90S.

Have a nice day guys and thanks again for sharing all your knowledge

Jerome, in Taiwan.

 

i can confirm that the caddy works and is a great idea

i got mine for around 10 bucks and make sure its PATA (sata on the inside) and 12.5mm not the 9mm (too thin)

let us know how the 9650M goes!

wats the power difference between 9650M and the 8600gt?

 

Does that caddy allow raid 0 configuration guys? Or is that not supported by our laptop.

That would make it an interesting prospect indeed. Even though I would find it hard to be rid of my blu ray drive

 

Hello everyone

Angel Marinov used such a bay with a SSD !

And DIY: Adding SSD or HDD storage using an optical bay caddy

@King : your C90P still running ?

I had problem with my 2 C90S : the plug connector works no more
I must find someone who know how to solder and repair them.

Actualy, I have a G73JW

So long,
@+

 

Heya King

Specification suggests that you should be able to use Raid on the chipset in the Asus C90S

"Intel® Matrix Storage Technology◊3

Provides protection against data loss from a hard drive failure, and quicker access to digital photo, video, and music files by supporting NCQ as well as RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Matrix RAID enables two RAID levels to be combined for data loss protection plus performance."

According to information from Intel 945G chipset.

I don't know how it looks in "Real life" i will check it when i get home, some other posts also suggests that you can use E-sata to enable raid etc.(other laptop models)

Regards

Styggo

 

Wow even 9800 has deserted us :'( hehe

My C90P is still going strong mate. Putting a SSD is there soon and then new wireless card perhaps a intel 5300.

Also thinking about volt modding the 4670 get it up to 850mhz on core 100% stable and 1100 on memory then I will be laughing....