Precision M4700 No Display on Startup After Installing FirePro M5100

Hi there, I've ran into an issue today and I'm not sure how to go about fixing it. I currently own a Dell Precision M4700 with 8GB of RAM, an i7-3740QM, and the AMD FirePro M400 graphics card. I recently ordered an AMD FirePro M5100, curious to see if it would work on my laptop. My laptop is a MXM A module, and so is the GPU I ordered. Something important to note is that there is a small crack on a piece of the GPU. I have a hunch that is what my problem may be, but I wouldn't know enough, so here's a picture: https://imgur.com/a/906FIcs

Fast forward to just an hour ago, I finish putting the laptop back together, I boot up the computer and the screen is entirely black. I can hear the fans spinning and hard drive spinning, and eventually the Windows startup noise, but still the screen is black screen and I have no cursor. Connecting the laptop to my monitor also resulted in a black screen. I tear it apart a second time to make sure everything is connected properly, boot it up again and still the same result. I reinstall my original graphics card, and everything works as just fine. I'm beginning to become frustrated, the card was $50 online but I'm disappointed that it's coming out to some pretty lousy results. I'm at a loss, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

M5100 are red, there is no green PCB m5100. Its likely that you got the W1570M sold as a m5100. They are very similar but not the same.

Also, if they sent you card like that, send it back and get a replacement. Its broken.

 

I'm going to go ahead and send it back. I'm assuming this card doesn't work because of the damage, if I were to install an M5100 I should be okay or do you suppose there is a different issue apart from the damage on the card I ordered?

Quick edit: I really really appreciate you pointing out that this isn't even a M5100 card, I must not have looked closely enough, thank you a ton

 

There is one other variant of the m5100 from HP, iirc its blue PCB, but its certainly not red.

But yes that damage can easily kill a card, if you had the skill you could replace that piece but coming fresh out the mail like that, just get a replacement or your money back.

The m5100 should work fine, I have seen a couple of confirmations here on the forum at some point but I dont have a reference on hand. Works on the m4600 and was sold with the m4800 iirc.

 

Quick question, in terms of performance should I refund the broken card I have and order a M5100, or get a replacement of the broken card? Basically is M5100 more powerful than the W5170M?

 

They are the same physical core but the features they support vary slightly.

The m5100 is cheaper but IIRC the W5170m formally supports DX12. @valuxin had modded the vBIOS of that GPU and the m5100 when I had one for my m4600. We spent a little while playing with overclocking these cards.

The m5100 will pull ahead very slightly and only when it comes with hynix memory, samsungs didnt overclock as well, but its hardly something I would forsake the W5170m for, which probably plays better with Vulkan API and DX12.

The best card however, is the 965m 4GB MXM 3.0a card. Though because of that its rather expensive last time I checked.

 

I think I'll go with the M5100, I think I'd like to (safely) give overclocking a shot, my current M4000 won't budge when I adjust clock settings. Where would I find the hacked vBIOS, should I look for the page on his profile? Thank you so much for helping! Tinkering with laptop projects like these are really fun, so I'm glad I might be able to make some headway. Thanks again!

 

There is a dedicated thread for the m5100 vbios and you can also take a look at the m4600 gpu upgrade thread as well. There was a bit of troubleshooting and dialogue that may prove useful before you dive into vbios flashing