256MB ATI MobilityTM Radeon X1400 HyperMemory

What. A. Load. Of. Nonsense.

You expect people to believe you bought a desktop GPU, removed it from its PCB without damaging the connectors, then replaced your laptop GPU with it, despite the fact they do not run at the same voltage, with absolutely no fuss?

 

Why is it so hard to believe that I replaced my old X1400 with a newer X1600?

I dont know about dell making sockets where you cant do this upgrade (it must be differant in Canada) but I just slipped the X1600 in place of the X1400, and it works.

The only problem so far is im unsure wheter my laptop's cooling system can handle the new card?

The Bios did not reject the new card!!

All in all I am very happy with my new card

Now I can finally get down do some serious gaming

 

Hahahaha! You should do stand up.

Desktop cards run on higher voltages and power than laptop equivalents. Laptops GPUS are built on a different cores from their desktop counterparts in order to achieve this. To get it to work you'd have to do some serious work with a soldering iron, and a lot of capacitors and resistors.

Somehow your X1400 BIOS miraculously works with a completely different card, that has different pixel and vertex unit configurations, not to mention voltages, core speeds, memory speeds, heck even a different core! From personal experience here, you do know that even swapping the BIOS between two cards of the same model can mess up your card?

Good joke, you had some people nearly believing you, more fool them really, but really....

 

Before undergoing this operation I first sought the help of an expert.
I posed the following question to [email protected]: " I have an inspiron 6400 with an ATI RADEON X1400 video card. My question is, can u upgrade to an ATI RADEON x1600 or x1800 video card.
Is my system compatible with those higher end laptop cards?"

THe reply I got was:

Yes you should be able to upgrade to the newer cards if you have the X1400 or so. You need to double check the manufacture site but I would be pretty sure that it should work. Unless the newer card requires some special hook up. Check their site...

take care,

Christiaan

First of all Siony Boy, the card I installed (X1600) is a laptop video card not a desktop video card. The X1400 and X1600 look almost identical!!

Why would U assume I would put a desktop GPU in a laptop LOL

Funny though

I went to ATI's website and here is a comprehensive list of all their mobility cards from the x1300 al the way to the x1800!!

I simply switched from the x1400 to x1600 (both are laptop mobility cards)


http://www.ati.com/products/mobilityradeonx1k/index.html

 

You bought a mobility radeon in bestbuy? Realllllly.

 

Yeah i went to Bestbuy couldn't find it, spoke to the guy at tech support desk. Said they dont carry them:

He then put in an order directly with ATI

I waited like 1.5 weeks. He called me up and I picked it up

No wonder they dont sell these cards, people like you just wont believe they work lol

N prob

 

dell..

My only concern now would be HEAT! Gonna be interesting to see if your machine gets overly hot...but if there isn't much difference heatwise between the x1400 and x1600...you should be good to go. Have you fired up any games to see? I would install F.E.A.R. or the likes and push the card as hard as you can. Will be interesting.

 

I usually play battlefield 1942 and vietnam just becasue the games are not too taxing.

I have a copy of battlefield 2, but after trying it ounce on my X1400 card, I didnt ever want to play with such lag again!

I recently installed BF2 again and guess what!!

I put the setting on high and the games runs almost flawlessly!!!

The X1600 makes a huge differance!!

The ventilation and heat (thermal isues) are not a problem

At first the laptop made some noise but not so much anymore

 

Just thought Id point out that at no stage did Insipiron 6400 or whatever his name is, actually say he bought a desktop card. That was suggested by chaz on a previous page.

I think he also referred to his card as a chip which may have caused additional confusion.

 

No, but when someone says they went to bestbuy and bought a X1600, since the Mobility Radeons are only available to OEMs and not retail channels, its obvious to assume he is getting a desktop GPU.

Though he suddenly changed his mind, and decided he asked at bestbuy who put him in touch with ATI so he could get his hands on one. Its nonsense, why a mod hasn't closed it is beyond me.

 

Yes indeed I bought a ATI RADEON Mobility X1600 laptop graphics cards hence the mobility

I called it a chip because its so dang small, compared to desktop video cards

I never changed my mind...... what are u talking about?

I said from the start that i bought my chip at Bestbuy

Ok sorry ther I go again again,
calling it a chip

Correction: Video card

 

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/

As far as I know this is the only place to feasably get one, ATI and Nvidia only sell these OEM, so unless bestbuy managed to get one from ATI (and as far as I know bestbuy is not an OEM company) then I cant see how you managed it.

Just take a snapshot of the card, the site shows what it should look like.

I'd also imagine the x1400 and x1600 are on a different type of slot (I and II respectivly) so might be incompatable anyway.

 

All I know is that the guy at Bestbuy contacted ATI and got me the chip. I know nothing about this "OEM company" thing.

As for compatibility. The x1600 slipped into my dell easily.

If you people wont believe me, thats fine, I know the X1600 is working for me.
I dont really care if u think its incompatible, all I care about is that I can now play any game I want seamlessly

 

Well I'd love to see some pictures of you swapping out your graphics card.

 

Hey, believe me, we'd all LOVE to believe you. But until we see some pictures, we really can't, I'm sorry. This upgrade has never been done, so we would really love some in depth information.

 

How should I take the pictures?

Do you know I had to disassemble the whole laptop to get to the mother board?

I can't go and dissasemble everything all over again just to show you.

I wish I had taken pictures while in operation

 

That's the only way we're going to believe you. And while you're at it, you could write up a guide to installing the part so that the rest of us may try it.

 

Surely you can take a picture of the X1400 that you removed? That must be lying around somewhere, since you only removed it today according to your earlier posts....

 

Its easy, all you do is get to the mother board. Remove the little chip replace it with the other little chip. The hardest part is trying to remember where everything goes.

If i were you guys i would try and do what I did lol...I need the care and precision of a sergeon.

 

I means wouldnt try what i did...

 

DONT DO IT!!! I dont want some guy getting mad at me b/c he messed up his laptop trying to do what I did...It actually takes skill

 

Joke over. Just say now it never happened before some poor fool passes by and runs off to try and rip apart his machine and replace his video card.

 

Look, iI understand not everyone can do what I just did.....Infact, I will give u the satisfaction of admitting its impossible for the average person out there.

In fact, forget I ever mentioned that I replaced the chip
Its irrelevant becasue the risk/reward ratio is too great

I suppose its not feasable for most people out there

 

Of course it's impossible for the average person. Average person doesnt even know what GPU they have.

Though, show us some pictures, give us proof! Then I'LL go out, do the mod and write a guide lol.

 

Oh I see, you write the guide and take all the GLORY lol jk

Maybe we should start a petition asking manufacturers like Dell make mother boards where upgrading features like the video card is encouraged

I feel we as consumers have an obligation to do this

 

This is an upgrade that simply will not work for many reasons. Chaz outlines them very well below.

If the Inspiron 6400 would work with the x1600, why doesn't Dell sell it as an option? There are many buyers who would love to buy that system with a more powerful GPU and Dell could make a lot of money on it.

Can you provide some pictures of the GPU you bought and the device manager of your 6400? What you're claiming simply goes against basic laptop knowledge.

Yes it does.

The x1400 is the most powerful GPU available on the Inspiron 6400--don't understand what you mean there.

Upgrading a GPU in a laptop is taboo because a mobile system is restricted by power consumption, thermal design, cooling power, and most importantly space. Each system is only designed to handle the specs and requirements of certain GPUs. Trying to play around with that could upset the balance of the system and result in serious damage. The Inspiron 9400 accepts the go 7900 GS, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the Inspiron 6400 and its limitations.

The Inspiron 9400 and Inspiron 6400 are completely different systems. You will not be able to use 9400 GPUs on a 6400.

 

What I find amazing is earlier today he posted;

So in that amount of time he has gone from the level of not even knowing where his graphics chip is, to performing a replacement procedure which goes against everything we know about laptops. Quite amazing.


Edit: Anyone else noticed that this thread has had 26,031 views as of now....That's a tremendous amount, even more than some of the stickies we have. Has this thread been linked to on another forum, and people have been stopping by to giggle at this joke? I hope they aren't taking this thread seriously put it that way, otherwise they'll be a lot of busted laptops soon !

 

This thread just suddenly turned amazing LOL....

 

I upgraded my laptop from a Radeon x1400 mobility to a Radeon x1600 mobility.

This is all I have to say, if nobody wants to believe me

FINE!!

 

This thread is being closed because:
A) We can't believe you without proof, which you cannot provide. The whole thing sounds, quite frankly, like a joke.
B) The goal of this site is to help and not to misinform viewers. This is misinformation as far as I am concerned.

Private message me if you have issues with this thread's closing.