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

I still see my C90s as my son is using it...I never had a problem with it. I went with this dell rippleback monster for support because I need onsite, etc since I make my living at home from it...and of course, it runs games pretty flawlessly. My son is trading me his A8js for the C90s because the A8js is having problems with Supreme Commander....so, liked it, but don't miss it...glad my son has it.

 

Hello to everybody!
I am following this thread now for a while and decided to upgrade my C90S as Nightwalker described so excellent.
I bought on E-Bay a 9600M GT DDR3 card (G96-630-A1) and also built a copper cooling plate. Since the scews to mount the cooling plate are different and hard to find, I temporarily use the No.1 method with the adjusted original heatpad until -i find screws which fit.
With the card I had no problem at all, means even with the original Rom I could boot and run Vista, but nevertheless I flashed it with the Rom of Nightwalker. I had to use the parameters -5 -6 to force it.
Still everything works relatively well, but it has a really bad performance and shows temperatures which made me immediately shut down my laptop.
In 3DMark it reached a score of only 943(!!!) and the temperature was 118°C.

When I start the laptop (cold) it already shows a temperature of ~72°.

Can somebody give me a hint of what is happening here ???
I tried now everything I can think of.

Thanks already for any hints.
Maxmoto

PS: The clocks are shown correctly with GPU-Z and I use 180.41 (driver)

 

Hi NightWalker,

I recently bought an 9600M GT with 512 MB GDDR3 Samsung chips (preloaded vbios unknown) for my Acer Aspire 7720G.
I downloaded a vbios for an 9600M GT with Hynix memory, so I guess it isn't useful for me.
Can I use the vbios you provided on my acer or is it exclusively for the C90S?
Can I first boot without flashing to see if it works at all? And can I modify the vbios manually with NiBiTor the way you did in your guide?
Thanks in advance!

Ruben

 

Greetings Nightwalker. Hats off heads and big respect for your lovely mod. You saved my life and a lot of money in my big fight with Quadro FX770M and old laptop Gericom 1st supersonic pcie. here are details
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299494&page=13
Maybe I should make similar quide like your for all people who want make this upgrade.

 

Hello again

I was able to solve the problems with my screws and could install now the copper plate cooler.
I could start Vista without any problems, but when I installed the nvidia driver it only showed me some garbage on the Vista screen and then BSOD with "nvlddmkm.sys" error. Research on internet showed that it might be either RAM, Drivers or Cooling from the GPU I edited the BIOS from Nightwalker to downclock the card. But it still resolves in a BSOD with the same error. When I uninstall the drive and run Vista with the standard VGA driver everything works fine, just slow. So at the moment I would like to check the temperatures of my card, but nothing seems to work with the VGA driver. RAM is surely ok because it worked flawlessly with my 8600M.

Next step is testing with XP (under Win seven Beta the same problem).

Maybe somebody had the same problem and could give me a hint what else I could try.

Thanks
Maxmoto

 

Maxmoto

I had similar problem look at the link above from my previous post and picture with garbage or maybe better here http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,34/func,view/id,53168/catid,13/. In my case bios had wrong values in Performance table entries, but if you edited your oryginal bios step by step the Nightwalker guide I have no idea what is wrong. Run gpuz and in Sensors menu mark Log to file and Continue refreshing this screen when gpuz is in background then run 3d mark and later check Log file if card can switch to full 3d mode

 

Hello Rado32

Thanks for the link to your thread. Unfortunately I still didn´t find anything which helps me with my card. Now I installed XP and the card works only with the standard VGA driver. The moment I try to install a nvidia driver my notebook (Asus C90S) ends up booting into a bluescreen (not the BSOD) where only the mousecursor works. I can see that the cursor changes into a "hand" symbol when I move it to the area where the login icon is. That makes me think that XP is running, but I can only see a blue coloured screen. As I said, with the standard VGA driver it works normal (just very slow). GPU-Z shows me that my card is a G96M Rev.A1. In NiBiTor I compared the BIOS and everything is exactly as described by Nighthawk. Logging doesn´t work, it only shows me 0MHz; but I think that is because I have no Nvidia driver currently running.
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions what else I could do.
Since I still have my original card (8600M) I dare to experiment with the risk of blowing it up.

regards
Maxmoto

PS: Of course I tried already different verisions of drivers

 

maybe try other bios's versions for 9600m gt and upgrade your laptop bios to the newest. Is this happen even with your oryginal bios? In my case I could install drivers with unmodified bios, but card was lower clocked.

 

Hello

I tried different BIOS files I found on the net for a G96M card. Actually there are not too many of them, so I only found one from ACER and Alienware.
With the ACER Rom the screen didn't get any signal and I had to reflash blind.
With the Alienware Rom I encountered the same as with my original or Nightwalker's Rom. I just want to be able to install a Nvidia driver, but it is frustrating and never works. So yesterday I exchanged it again with my 8600M and enjoyed some hours of a "relative" good performance.

lg
Maxmoto

 

I wonder if there is still a chance of Asus releasing a new card for us C90 users! Maybe they will surprise us all with a 9650M GT 512mb DDR3 (dreams...)

 

maxmoto
If you want try my bios from Quadro FX 770M. It almost the same card.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29210&d=1231417526

 

Hello Rado32

thank you very much for the effort to share your rom file.
I used the original version and a version where I changed all the values according to the description of Nightwalker. Still, it didn't change anything. So right now I am running my laptop with the 8600M and will rethink if I should purchase a better (stronger) Notebook.

regards
Maxmoto

 

maxmoto
I also had problems with drivers even with oryginal bios. With Forceware 185.20 my laptop couldn't run just was restarting permanently at the moment when driver was loading. With other version laptop just hang on with blue screen. Now I'm using forceware 181.20 with enhanced *.inf file from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com. Here is my inf file http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29734&d=1232327151

 

anyone knows what happened to nightwalker? he's been gone for 2 months already...i'd like that template/order a kit if possible...

 

Last time he was on NBR was the 2nd of January, so he was still around. Perhaps he's a tad busy with life so he's taking a break.

 

he sold his c90s... so maybe he's in other forums.

 

well i gotta give the guy props at least he left giving something great back to the community a real family man

 

^True, hopefully someone can get this hack going with the other memory modules as I can't find one with the samsung memory anymore.

btw, nice m35 brother, I have a 6mt G37 coupe. I'm loving infiniti's more then any other make I've had.

 

LMAO Atvaark,

You must have summoned me to these forums tonight by some sort of mystical powers

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile guys, been extremely busy with life crap . I just finished making (hopefully) the last modification to the guide. I updated the following:

-FINALLY got around to uploading the template!
-Posted some very helpful information about where to source more Samsung 9600M GT cards and maybe even 9650M GTs.

I'll still be around to help when I can.

 

Here's a Samsung card on eBay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/Nvidia-Geforce-9600M-GT-512MB-GDDR3-MXM-II-G96M-NB9P_W0QQitemZ260353466212QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item260353466212&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

I have no idea who this seller is though, and I'd never buy from someone with 0 feedback. Their user ID is "zeptousa", does anyone know if Zepto has started selling on eBay?

Anyway, that looks like the exact same card that I used for this upgrade and you can even see "Samsung" written on the memory chips. If it goes for $150 (and IF the seller is legit) that's a pretty good deal.

 

NightWalker: you had 2 "Ace doors" one original and one modified, where did you get the second one?

 

Check out the asus e store

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4094&catid=568

 

Sgt. Hollywood is correct. Follow his link to the Asus estore, that's where I bought my spare door.

 

Hah Nightwalker, I just noticed how close our "e"stats are here, including join date... fun with numbers...

 

Heh, and your right next door to me (CT), might have to buy you a beer some time. You get the pizza though.

 

hmm...i tried to print it out without resizing it, but it seems it depends on the printer itself. would it be possible just to get an edit of your template with size in centimeters for the sides? I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate it.
the template printed was too large for the card...

 

Just a heads up. I bought my 9600 off Ebay from the seller "zeptousa". Here


-The item is NOT located in USA. So Expect 1-2 week shipping.

-The item I got was USED. I do not know why, but it was listed as NEW.
- Evidence towards this theory
- There was old paste on the die, (I Bought my 8600 from Ken, it was clean)
- The lettering on the memory chips were fading away, (Again the 8600 I got from Ken showed no sign of fading)
- The 4 holes for screws, 3 of them had washers, not sure why it would have washers? (8600 from Ken didn't have any)

- I paid for the item 3 days after the auction, they shipped me the card 2-3 weeks after that. (He said he was sick)
- They never communicated with me during those time. I had sent them over 3-4 messages.
- However, they did ship the item with UPS 2 day.

The payment was sent to ""DenneD Computec".

 

I was wondering if one of us had bought that one. I thought it looked a bit sketchy, esp with the low number of feedback. Hope it works out.

 

Interesting. I thought the seller zeptousa was basically the manufacturer zepto. Seems that might not be the case thanks for sharing this information.

 

Hello Nightwalker,

I have read your guide and I have one of those 9600M GT cards with Quimoda memory chips.
Basically I have the same problems with the card not running at full 3D speed like you did.
I'd like to know how to contact you via email to send you my bios file so you can have a look at it and to give you more information on where I bought the card and the specific problems I had with it.
Greetings,
Magneto7777 (you can email me at [email protected] too)

 

Just came across another 9600M GT sold by zepto. I reckon they gather all the old 9600M GT cards their zepto customers return to them when they upgrade to the 9650M GT. Hence they are used. A complete hoax if you ask me!

 

I would suggest you remove your email from the message... but by this time it's already been indexed by google many times so I'm not sure it'll help.

 

I wouldn't say that as the resellers/distributors receive cards also have slightly faded memory chips as well.

The issue is every card we receive has to be tested to work as we have learnt the hard way that some of the defective video cards that come out of factory have "Christmas lights" effects when run on 3D. If we don't physically install and test every single card, chances are the receiver and customers will blame us for problems.

 

Haha, well it's no problem, I only use that address for public communication. So far I'm not having much spam on it ;-) But thanks for the note EBE.

I don't know if you (or anyone else reading this) have any knowledge of it but since I'm here now I guess it won't hurt asking.
You've probably read about the problems with the Geforce 9600m GT (30 seconds bootdelay, working in throttle mode only etc).
I've read that this happens because the card is not registered (listed) in the laptop's bios. The error during bootup (but before actual POST) is that there are no associated callbacks nor mxm structures and that these should be added in the 'Sbios'. The error message further continues with saying that it will halt POST for 30 seconds (hence the boot delay) for safety reasons and that after POST it will refrain the card from reaching any higher performance mode than those in the power saving mode or throttle settings.
Of course if you adjust the throttle settings, like Nightwalker did, you work around it but it's not always a solution.

I have both XP and Vista on my laptop and with this throttle fix i do get the card to work in XP but not in Vista. Vista crashes after booting in to the os desktop. When I remove the drivers (so that only the standard VGA driver is installed) it works fine (but with very poor 3D performance and so so 2D performance). I've tried a whole bunch of drivers (modded, regulars etc.) and it's not a driver issue.
I guess that Vista is a bit less forgiving when it comes to error information provided by the bios than XP is (after all, there IS an incompatibility between the laptop's bios and the card) and that when a driver is installed that addresses all the card's functions (a standard vga adapter doesn't do this, for example it only uses 64Mb of the card's 512Mb, no 3D functions etc) it crashes out.

So I guess that most of it comes forth out of an incompatibility between the laptop's bios and the card. Is there any way to modify the bios of the laptop so it accepts this card? I do have Phoenix bios editor but I don't know where to put what in the code, so I would need either an instruction on where to modify what, or someone who can modify my bios for me (willing to pay for it if it succeeds).

Is there anyone out there? (my god... I sound like that dude in 'The Day After' lol)

 

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but what size screws did you use to hold down the heatsink to the anchor nutplate in the nvidia card? I have some 3/8" long #1 x 72 thread/in. allen head and cap head screws that seem to be okay until I start to run them down to around 3 threads deep, then they feel like locknuts are holding me back, and I'm afraid I'm going to snap the screw if I continue.
Thanks,
Dave

 

Sweet hardcore mod~!
This kinda stuff is keeping the forums alive!

Now back into the shadows I go~~~

Muah h ah ah ah ah ah ah a

 

Lol fair enough, be sure to pop out again some day

 

you know, as magneto said, it would really suck for all the work nightwalker has put in hacking the vbios to be a waste, if all that needed to be done is inject the video card's data in the c90s's bios...by the way, anyone tried a nvidia 9650m gt in there? or a ati hd3650?

it would be nice if this mod could be applied to other c90s compatible video cards as well. hell, it would be awesome to have a list of cards that could work in there...

 

I just ordered a 9650M GT from zepto, its on the way now Will post up once I get it all working, just need to find some smaller screws from what I read

 

Installed the 9650M GT today and all went well(in fact typing from it now ), however after modifying the bios in nibitor like nightwalker suggests the card refuses to run any faster than the unmodified 2D mode 169/100. I have tried making all 4 modes use the same code ie running at 550/1350/800 and checked the voltages are at the max level and the screen will simply become screwed up after the bios flash and initial boot.

What else could I try to get this thing to run at full speed and beyond? It should be very similar to the 9600M GT as it is using the same samsung ddr3 chips.

 

you should try the ATi 4650 from an MSI EX625.

 

That would be sweet. For now simply returning the card for a 9600M GT that I know will work. I guess there are limits to how far one can upgrade. On the plus side it seems bios flashing the 8600M GT allows for higher stable OCing for now while I wait for the 9600.

 

Did you ever experience the 30 sec issue when upgrading the card?

 

I am not aware of a "30sec issue" ? What is it?

 

When upgrading some notebooks (mine included) when you boot with the new card the laptop gives a "mxm sturcture..." error during post and waits 30 secs to boot into windows. After the pc will work fine except it will run at a lower clock speed so you need to manually modify the card's clock setting for it to run properly in 3d mode.

 

Interesting. That didn't happen to me it behaved like normal but it never ran at full speed even after tweaking the vbios as outlined in the guide at the beginning of this thread.

 

you know, i've been wondering. the c90s is supposedly able to run any mxmII cards under 25watts, since it's unlocked, right? then why did you guys run into so much trouble with the 9600 and 9650? could asus actually move their behinds and check what's wrong? you're already doing the job of making their machine better than it was, the least they could do is give some sort of support to help us out? i want to upgrade my gpu, as my 8600 is starting to die on me, and was considering maybe an ati card for a change. however i called asus and asked for help about this, literally told em about all the work the community has done for their machine, and while supposedly impressed, they finally admitted having no intention whatsoever of making new gpu's for the c90 series. and they won't help either in giving any helpful information for gpu upgrading. anyone is skilled enough here to research how we can truly make the c90s bios allow new video cards? I'm no expert, but it has to be in there, right? they promised upgrades, and then on the phone told me the opposite. I'm at a loss. i still love this computer and would really like to have a good reason NOT to replace it...

sorry for the wall of text.

 

An ATI 4xxx card might work: it just needs to be tested. I am sure someone will buy one and try it out before long can always be returned like my 9650 if it doesn't work.
Asus tech people are completely useless they told me upgrading to a penryn e7xxx series CPU was impossible and voila I have one working so I wouldn't bother ringin em Although not using my beloved C90 at the moment as the 9600M doesn't have the necessary screws for the heatsink yet

 

The EX625 has a 4670 and is probably MXM-3 since it has a 28~30W TDP

 

My 8600 apparently just fizzled while playing L4D... So my laptops screen doesn't turn on anymore. Is it possible to find these 9600 or even an 8600 anymore? Is it worth saving my c90s, which is now almost 2 years old? And if I can find a 9600 or 9650 or anything that could maybe work, has anyone besides Nightwalker actually got the thing to work, and work better than the stock 8600?

MY c90s internals were/are: 2.66ghz Core 2 duo, 120gb 7200 rpm hd, 2GB Ram, and the 8600m GT, running Windows XP SP3

Also is this the right card for those who might know? http://cgi.ebay.com/nVIDIA-GF-9600M...s?hash=item1c08e25d9f&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116