ASUS K70IC MXM issue

Hi!

Bought today a ASUS K70IC.

First off, a few specs:
currently 2x1GB DDR2 (though I'm upgrading it to 4GB once I can get it working)
had a Geforce GT220M 1GB (ASUS branded) that was dead
17.3" LED LCD
160GB Samsung SATA HDD
Sony-Optiarc DVD-RW
Pentium T4300 (to be replaced by Core 2 Duo T9400 once I get it working)

Here's the issue, to keep it short:

I have tried a MXM Geforce 8400MG and a Radeon HD4650, both with Acer BIOS I presume (both came from Acer laptops - one from a 5520, the other from a dead 6930G) and the issue is as following:

-8400M G works (although with artefacts, I'm using it as test card) - I can control the keyboard and do everything as normal, and will let Windows boot fine.

-HD4650 (1GB DDR2) however, will only boot up to the POST screen, then do this:
- entering setup freezes everything except clock
- pressing F1 on the CMOS date/time not set prompt, with a working HDD, will show "No physical memory is available at the location required for the windows boot manager.The system can not continue. " and then lock up with a blinking cursor.

Any ideas what to do at this point? I'm quite lost as to what else I could try.

 

look like to me a power shortage try to get a power adaptor with more power more watts
depends of the configuration if you put an upgrade that need more power from the laptop it can leed to some issues like what you had i was having issues when i change my 980 to a 1080ti
for laptops, power spread is different you can try put back the original parts and just start swap MXM cars see what happens
or ther is one other thing your laptop maybe do not support it or the BIOS do not and maybe need update can be many things

 

It seems like the HD4650 card is not compatible to this laptop from what it looks especially when it's for a laptop catered to Nvidia to begin with. Unfortunately, not all MXM cards are easily swapped for plug n play. I feel like you need to tinker more on the GPU bios and look for one that would support better for this laptop that you can flash with.

 

Thanks, but I ended up gutting it.

I tried a few more cards before gutting it:

Acer Geforce 9300 256MB
Acer Geforce 9600GT 512MB
Acer Geforce 9600GS 512MB

none would activate the LCD, though would POST (evidenced by the AMIBIOS beep), but no output on either HDMI or VGA. I know the cards are good as they are in use on the laptops I took them from - two 6930G and a 8930G. The 9600s still work fine on their respective laptops, the 9300 I moved into a 5920G and works fine, no artefacts or anything awry.

I gutted it of most parts (WiFi card, LCD, keyboard, CPU and RAM), which mostly got reused. The LCD now resides on a Acer 7738G w/ GT130, the RAM is currently unused, the CPU is unused (it's a T4300 and I don't have much use for it), and the WiFi card might go into a 6920G if it doesn't have the WiFi card (it was listed for parts, though the NEC TOKIN might be at fault there).