280m mxm 2.1 SLI vbios/driver hack with no cable (Area 51 M17x dual GTX280M project thread)

Did you try forcing them to install through device manager? "have disk" method.
You wont need a modded ini for that.

 

Ok gents back from the field. I got a replacement touch panel with new ribbon and I can now power on and off, thank God. No lights on the touch panel Ill have to re-install CC with the firmware to get the lights back but that’s not what we are here for.

Im starting back from square one to rule some things out. With the stock GTX280m 2.1 VBIOS I don’t have fans or SLI when both cards are in, however there is an option in the NVIDIA control panel to run one card dedicated to PHYSXS so I know the lappy is detecting and running both cards, but again with out fans. With a 9800m GT card in the slave slot and a GTX280 in the main and I got fans!!!!!! I played Fall out NV for a half an hour on Ultra settings with about an AVG of 50FPS when there is no action and Im just walking I get 60FPS, when there is heavy action (lots of building and enemy) the FPS dip to about 35 and the card went to just 71c!!!!!
Im at work for a bit, some more experimenting tonight!!!

 

Yeah I described in another thread that you replied to me on that I was able to get the fans running if I put one of the old cards back in. Here is another thing about that though, I don't know what the issue is behind the fans but it seems that sometimes if you remove the old card, in your case the 9800 GT, the fans will continue to run, so maybe you can play around with that and see if it works for you.

Also, you got the GTX280m to not go above 71c?? You have the same laptop as me correct, where the gpus are place side by side under the right speaker. Could you possibly tell me the model number of that heatsink/fan the that card is screwed to or take some pictures. I wonder if it is because I am using a fan/heatsink that came with my 8600M GT not a 9800 GT version. My card gets to over 100c and I can't sustain gameplay for more than 5-10 minutes. Thanks!

 

Ill check out your pics when I get home from my office and let you know. And yes sir the original M17x, ie Area 51 M17x. For my cards Ive applied artic silver and new thermal pads. There is also a mod you can perform. If you remove your touch pannel you will see there is a thin piece of black plastic covering up a vent directly above the master GPU fan. Remove that black thin piece of plastic and you'll have your fans pulling in nice room temp air.

 

I have arctic silver 5 on my card but i have the thermal pads from my 8600m, they aren't in the best condition. HOWEVER, that mod about taking that piece of plastic off the vent helped A LOT. The temps playing left 4 dead 2 never got over 83c by itself, and I took the fan out of a broken ps2 and modded it to get power from one of my usb slots. That lowered the temp all the way down to about 75c =D.

 

How did you get power from the USB? Can you post up pics, or email them to me.

 

After a night of experimenting and neglecting my girl I have some results. I flashed the cards back to as delivered so that I could rule out thermal damage as a reason for getting the “drivers recovered from stopping” error. The cards worked fine by themselves with out any errors during heavy gaming. I than proceeded to try every VBIOs I had starting with 9800 GTX VBIOS. I really want to get the 9800 GTX to work because they restore SLI, but when I run those VBIOS I get a Driver error upon the start up of any game. All other VBIOS that I tried flashed successfully and appeared to successfully load drivers, but upon attempting to run the Hawx II bench mark or any other game Id receive the driver error. Card VBIO’s tried: GTX 260m 2.1 MXM, GTX 260 3.0 MXM, GTX 280m 3.0 MXM, and 9800m GTX 2.1 MXM. An interesting thing happens when I flash GTX280m MXM 3.0 VBIOS, after the drivers are installed it is recognized as a FX 3700!!! It works, but not what I want or need as of course it wont have SLI enabled, Going to try GTX285. Weird issue because the GTX260m MXM 3.0 VBIOS worked but alas had the driver error.

I can game with about the same performance of 9800m GT in SLI with a GTX 280m in the master slot, and a 9800gt in the slave dedicated to phyx with fans completely operational.
Ive been in contact with Mumak and hopefully he can assist in getting the fans going.

Does anyone else have suggestions for ending the driver stopping error? Ive cleaned swept the drivers numerous times and even performed a CMOS battery pull with no luck. If you have them can you post up VBIOS of your GTX280m 3.0, GTX285 3.0, or 9800m GTX VBIOS, maybe we will find one that my cards are happy running.

 

Here is the way i powered the fan with usb

> https://dav-sth-se.diino.com/dav/gunner6999/Gunner6999/iPhone3GS/1146.JPG< If u strip any usb cable you should find a red and black wire, the rest u can just cut. This is a pretty temporary setup but I just used the usb cable to run power through this little battery holder that had the same connection type as the fan, both pieces came from the broken ps2.

Edit: you might have noticed my touch panel doesn't have any light to it either , some months ago i did something i shouldn't have and ended up frying off a wire or two from the ribbon cable that hooks into it, good thing the touchpad still works other than the lights. Which brings me to ask, where did you buy a replacement panel anyway.

 

Thanks Ill give it a shot as my last choice. Go here.

Ztronics

 

Thanks for the link, but $34 eh.. wish I could just get a new ribbon cable for it

 

Yeah, 34 dollars might be a little steep. But shipping is free. Mine arived only two days after I ordered it, and it cam from Cali to SC! Great company. They have 24 bare bones Area 51 M17x's. One I get this projecte sorted I might purcashe one, mine is getting a little beat up for being two years old, deployed to Iraq with me, and is undergoing this experiment.

 

A little update, flashed GTX285 bios and it worked, but again drivers crash. I tried the GTX285m because when I tried the gtx280m 3.0 MXM flash the card was recognized as a FX3700?!

Any ideas on how to stop the drivers from crashing?

 

Unfortunately I don't have any experience with flashing vbios and don't know any solutions for the problem you are having.

 

I'm sorry if you already tried this, but did you try underclocking/overvolting?

 

Nope, I have tried underclocking or undervolting yet. But will that even be an issue with the volts being under 1? I went back to the 9800m GTX BIOS last night, and downloaded clevo drivers as the card is labeled as a clevo when I flash it. The drivers installed with out a problem, no forcing in required. But again I received the driver error, ugh. I found some instructions, albeit lengthy that might bring an end to the errors. Ill have to wait until the weekend to try. Getting there slowly but surely.

Going to attemp to pul the blue and yellow wire from the fans to force them to run at 100%, but I need a pin puller. Does anyone know of where I can find one that small?

 

I always use a needle

 

WOW, didnt even think about that, raiding GF's sewing kit!

 

Just an FYI, I believe the Lenovo 3700m will work perfectly with 9800m GTX vbios. They have the same board ID, "P612":

for some reason the HP cards are different.
...so maybe you should get a pair of those lenovo cards

My m17x purchase has been delayed however I will do some tests soon.

 

God dang, still get drivers crashing error when running anything other than the GTX280m 2.1 MXM. How have others gotten round this? The GTX285M BIOS flashes flawlessly.

 

Well guys Im calling this project done for now. During this time I have successfully flashed GPU VBIOS to the GTX280m MXM 2.1 with 9800m GTX VBIOS, GTX285m MXM 3.0 VBIOS, and GTX260m 3.0 VBIO again that was done in search of restoring SLI, which all of those VBIOS did. When I flashed the GTX280m MXM 3.0 VBIOs the card was detected as a 3700!!! The issue is that after the drivers were successfully installed, the moment I began a benchmark or game Id receive the “Video driver stopped error”.

So right now I’m running stock GTX280m MXM 2.1 VBIOS that does not activate SLI. Why is it disabled and how can I enable it without a VBIOS flash from a different card eludes me. So as I type this the one card is dedicated to physx.

Ive got the fans running by pushing out the yellow and blue wire from the harness. They now spin at 100% all the time. The fans aren’t too loud, the cards Idle at 33c, and they are brushless so there should be no issue with them always being at 100%.

Ill report back this weekend with temps from gaming and various FPS from various games.

Any ideas on how to activate SLI via nibitor or some other program is welcome. Someone once mentioned that GTX280m MXM 2.1 was made with SLI. If so, can someone point me in the direction of those VBIOS.

 

When you use a VBIOS from one of the other cards (like 9800m GTX), do you still get the "video driver stopped error" if you disable SLI before you run a benchmark or game? I'm just speculating that the reason the GTX280M MXM 2.1 driver doesn't crash may be because it disables SLI, not just because it matches your hardware.

I'm very interested in your work as I'd like to upgrade my Area 51 m17x too.

 

^ Thats exactly what I was going to ask.

If he does, like I'm thinking, then that means the problem will be solved by using 2 lenovo cards and 9800m GTX vbios.

In case anyone reads this who hasn't heard me say this already, if you are looking for performance, forget the gtx 280m and the HP cards that you can flash...
Lenovo cards are VERY powerful. someone recently got one to 700mhz core.
The HP cards generally wont stay stable at 580mhz.

 

Fun weekend with the GTX280m!!!!! The highest my temps got were 60c after playing MOH Tier 1 multiplayer for an hour. Played Fall Out 3 Vegas for an hour with temps at 40c and 30 FPS at Ultra settings. If I use the deffault high settings that my SLI 9800m gt's used id get 60FPS. Crysis warhead ran at 35FPS on the highest settings, I think its called enthusiast cant remember. Utilizing the 2nd GTX280m soley for physx helps alot in physx heavy games like Crysis.

THe drivers will crash even if SLI is disabled, and if only one card is installed when running another systems VBIOS.

PS
The cards I have are labeled Clevo, well thats what the stock MXM 2.1 BIOS say anyway.

 

That's great news! As for drivers did you try the Dell drivers I pointed you the last time? Sorry if I missed that, just curious

Cheers

 

Yes, unfortunately these cards do not like being flashed with anything else other than GTX280m MXM 2.1 BIOS. There was a glimmer of hope with the Dell drivers and 9800m GTX bios but the darn thing crashed after 5 seconds of play!!!!

I dont want to be misleading, for ALL of the games that I currently play when time allows the new Star Wars greatly relies on SLI, with the same settings as my dual 9800m gt set up I saw a dip in FPS to almost half of my SLI set up with the one GTX280m

All other games I use to run with force rendering, and the GTX280m just laughs at the task.

However I too received a pitiful 3dmark score, although I dont put much stake in it.

The GTX280m slaughtered the HAWXE II demo with 133 max and minimum of 61 FPS

I flashed the GTX260m VBIOS MXM 3.0 with no crashing!!!!!!!!!! But the didn’t have SLI enabled. Can someone point me to a GTX260m VBIOS with SLI?

 

might want to ask in the M17x/M15x forum

 

I haven't used it myself, but the "NVIDIA Inspector" rev 1.9.5.5 program appears to allow you to modify more SLI settings on the fly than does the Nvidia Control Panel. The setting for "Number of GPU's to use on SLI rendering mode" may be promising. Unfortunately (for me anyway), the only documentation I found was in German. The settings are reached by clicking on the wrench icon to the right of the driver version display. I think it requires that you have Nvidia drivers in the 200+ series. The program appears to be well received, but I don't know if there's a risk to messing with those settings.

 

Mmmmmmmm, thanks JW, any lead is worth pursuing.

 

Well I tried the NVIDIA Inspector as recomended by JW. It does alow you to access options that arent listed in control pannel such as SLI!!!! However I do not know how to activate the options once selected. Anyone have an idea?

I tried GTX260m MXM 3.0 VBIOS with possibly good results. I say possible because there was no SLI option? Horible frame rate, how does 5 yes 5 sound in New Vegas??!!! But the video driver never crashed.

 

Thats really amazing that the 3.0 bios works.

What does GPUZ say the clocks are?

Maybe you should copy all the full throttle timings from the 3700m vBIOS into the lowest performance slot of the 260m vBIOS.

Also what would you think about moving this thread to the gaming/graphics cards section, and changing the title to "280m mxm 2.1 SLI vbios/driver hack with no cable"?
I think you would get A LOT more good comments on this.

 

The clocks read normal, Im heading out into the field again for a few days so I wont be able to try your ideas but I will when I get back.

 

The mods moved this for more exposure so I will give a quick summary of what I’ve done.

I’m trying to install the GTX280m MXM 2.1 in my Area 51 M17x. The GTX280m MXM 2.1 did not have a physical SLI connection. However I ran my dual 9800m GT's without the SLI bridge and SLI still functioned, with at the most a 5FPS lost in modern games like MOH, COD, and New Vegas.

So I surmised that I could do the same with the GTX280m MXM 2.1. The problem was that the cards didn’t have SLI enabled in their VBIOS. So I proceeded to flash VBIOS to the cards that I knew had SLI enabled: 9800m GTX, GTX280m MXM 3.0, GTX260 MXM 3.0, and GTX285. All of the flashes took and drivers were installed successfully. On the 9800m GTX and GTX285 SLI was enabled via the NIVIDIA control panel but the video drivers would crash with the dreaded "video driver recovered from a stop" message once a benchmark or game began. The GTX280m MXM 3.0 was recognized as a FX3700????? The GTX260m didn’t have SLI enabled but it didn’t crash during game play but the FPS were garbage. ALL cards indicated via GPZ that the clocks were running at factory settings.

So now I’m trying to enable SLI in the stock GTX280m MXM 2.1 VBIOS as its the most stable in the card. IDEAS????

 

I dont know why I didnt think of this earlier but I tried flashing stock 9800m gt VBIOS to the cards. Holly crap it worked!!! No driver error, SLI works, and just received 152FPS max in the HAWII demo. 20FPS more than my real 980m GT SLI set up. In GPUZ I have all 128 shaders and 1024 memory for each card!!! Dual GTX280m's in an Area 51 M17x is possible!!!

 

Whaat?! Finally! Good to hear it works!

 

great good job that's an awsome find

 

I must say Im pretty happy, with the dual GTX280m's running happily Ive achieved 35FPS on CRYSIS Warhead at Gamer settings 1280/780. New Vegas is played maxed out at native res of 1980/1200. The old girl is "Powerful", should be future proof until the new M18x is sorted out.

 

PS
To those of you wondering, one GTX280m runs happily and sees about a 10-15% decrease in performance with out its slave brother, or about equal to 9800m GT's in SLI. Why Dell/Alienware didnt do this is beyond me.

And again the dual cards are running WITH OUT a SLI bridge, the motherboard supports it with out the bride with about a 5% loss in performance from when the bridge is connected (as seen when I ran my 9800m GT's minus the bridge).

 

That's great news, congratulations!!! Did the change to 9800M GT VBIOS fix the fan issue too?

 

thatMs great that means the m17 could run them to if the bios is made to handle nvidia's cards wich would provide an alternative to ati for thoses that prefer them or can't get thier hands on 4850's

 

The M17 is a newer architecture, I forget the name but it is between the one from the Area 51 M17x and the Sandy Bridge. I believe it shares the same architecture as the Dell/Alienware M17x, the Santa Rosa.

But I digress, yes Nividia carsds should work in the M17.

 

actualy there were 3 generation of alienware between the area 51 m17x and the current m18x

area-51 m17x-R1
area-51 m17-R1
allpowerfull m17x-R1
allpowerrull m17x-r2
?Monstrous? m18x-R1

and the m17 use a pm45 chipset and use mxm2.1 slot
where the newer m17x use a nvidia chipset and has mxm3.0 slot

sadlyt rightnow for the users stuck with 3870's the m17 bios is locked to ati but if some one get it unlocked some one could use the vbios you have and make miracle

 

Thanks for straitening me out. Everything but the M18x was santa rosa correct?

 

area-51 m17x-R1
area-51 m17-R1 pm45, c2d c2q, mxm 2.1, 3870 - 4850
allpowerfull m17x-R1 nvidia something, c2d c2q, mxm3, 260m - 280m - 4870
allpowerrull m17x-r2 pm55, core I, 4870 - 285m - 5870
?Monstrous? m18x-R1 yet to see


the m17 and m17x-r1 were preatty similar machines

the m17x-r2 was an architectural jump to core i7
the m18x is a jump to sandy bridge

i don't recal what santa was it was a chipset but wich one

 

OK, just noticed something of interest. Right now with the GTX280m's running with a 9800mGT Im achieving performance in between a 9800mgt SLI setup and GTX280m SLI set up in the DELL/AW R1. Upon looking at GPUZ logs I see that my clocks are being limmited to 383mhz on both cards durring bench marks programs like 3D mark, HawxII, and games with SLI profiles such as Fall out New Vegas??? I have clocks set at 600mhz via Afterburner and neither programs are registering that the cards are achieving max clock speeds. Thats over 250mhz slower than max which I imagine is limiting me from achieving max performance. Ideas???

 

one of the cards refuse the clock and both get locked to the lower clock

 

Ooooooooooooo, Ill have to check that out. On the way to Disney, going to be gone for a few days. So the cards are reverting to lower clock settings. Should I use nibitor and set all the clocks ie 2d, 3d, and performance to max?

 

Use it and set them to what they should be, I guess.

 

When I look in CPU-Z on my 8800m GTX's I see that the 2nd "Perf Level" for "2D Desktop" shows Core = 383 MHz, Shaders = 767 MHz, and Memory = 301 MHz." Your 9800m GT bios is presumably the same. The system bios may be shifting down to this lower performance profile due to perceived thermal or even total power concerns?

Your new cards do draw a little more power even without overclocking than our original cards. If you do force the other profiles to the higher clock speeds, you might want to monitor the voltage levels to be sure it's not dropping.

 

what is the rating on the m17x psu?

 

Thats exactly whats going on!!!!!!!!!! The system is jumping down to the next level. Temps are at 45c!? Volts go from 1.0V to .85V. What's interesting is that when I modify the 2D clocks to the same 3D clocks the system then goes down to the next level!!!! If I try going down to the lowest level, the system crashes and a GPU re-flash is needed. Should I set each level of clocks to different levels, and trick the system by making the lowest clock my desired speed?