Clevo P150HM Upgrade Advice

Hi All,

I have been reading threads on this forum for a long time now, but thought I would sign up to see if I can get any advice about a problem I have with my Clevo P150HM (re-branded as a XMG P501).

It has a AMD 6990M GPU installed.

Earlier today I was gaming and the laptop froze, I was presented with a solid red screen. The machine was completely non-responsive (ctrl-alt-del) did nothing etc. I held down the power key to turn the machine off. When I rebooted, the XMG logo (which is normally on a black background) was displayed but there are now red lines all over the screen, the windows logo is then displayed, again with red lines on the screen and then the machine bluescreens and reboots before getting to the login screen.

If I enter the BIOS, this too has red lines all over the screen. The laptop will boot in to safe mode, however the colors are all strange (stranger than the normal 256 colors of safe mode), and again there are lines on the screen.

Now I am 90% sure this means the graphics card has failed? - I am always cautious about heat, I use the laptop raised from the desk, and never ever let dust build up within the fans/case. Before this occurred the GPU was at around 80 degrees on full load. (i.e it wasn't overheating). Also the GPU is not overclocked etc. That being said I am still pretty sure it is the GPU which is causing this issue. Does anyone know of anything else which could cause this? Im guessing Mobo or RAM?

I cant seem to locate another 6990M (looked on eBay etc). However it seems relativity easy to locate a 7970M upgrade kit.

Does anyone know if something like this is plug and play?

CLEVO P150HM/P151HM VGA UPGRADE KIT; HD7970M 2GB; MXM 3.0b; with ENDURO DISABLED | eBay

It says that you need BIOS 14 and EC12. My BIOS reports that I have BIOS: 1.01.14 and EC: 1.00.13.

Is this BIOS 14 and EC 13?

It says that it comes with 'enduro disabled' I know that the HM series does not support enduro, is this another way of saying that the card is pre-flashed to be plug and play?

Also, the card is available from the UK, but not within an upgrade kit: CLEVO AMD Radeon HD 7970M 2GB FOR P150EM P170EM P370EM upgrademonkey in stock | eBay

I know that this means I have to flash the VBIOS, but is there anything else I have to consider if getting this card?

I would be following the instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-7970m-modded-vbios-clevo-p1xxhm-laptops.html

Ideally, I would like to just swap the damaged 6990M for another but I cant locate one

I know that there are problems with using a card flashed for an Alienware machine etc, but would a card designed for a Clevo laptop but a different re-seller (e.g. Segar) work ok?

I really appreciate any help that anyone can offer me.

I am happy to purchase a new card, but really don't want to get stuck in the situation where I have purchased the card and still cant get the laptop to work!

Thanks in Advance!

 

Additional Info:

Here are some screenshots I have found from another person who is having the same problem (except his lines are blue instead of red)

http://s21.postimg.org/403ph89gn/C360_2013_06_19_15_17_51_285.jpg

http://s8.postimg.org/ielferp2t/C360_2013_06_18_21_21_26_588.jpg

 

Those cards have been dying for a while now. You would be better off going to the Sager/Clevo forum on here and the resellers and other owners can better help you.

 

My 6990M bit the dust rather soon as well. Replaced it myself with an Nvidia 680M and it's been fantastic and keeps at very low temperatures. My i7-2670QM runs hot now but that's a different matter...

 

The 69XX cards are fragile. Had the 6970m and had that replaced 5 times. One time had it replaced and it died right after getting the notebook back from the shop. They replaced it with a geforce 580 and been happy

What you are describing is pre-death of the card the red lines are from cracked GPU (core) solder point or crushed core. Some have used the oven trick (so have i) and it works but not for long. Also you might be able to get rid of the lines if you losen or tighten the heatsinck screws. I had the two lines with mt G73JH and if i pressed on the heatsink the lines whent away for a while...but yes it will get worse and worse untill you get a blank screen.

Should the endure set itself to off if the motherboard does not support it ? might be mistaken but if you have it as "not supported" then get the one with it turned of. It should be plug n play if the mobo does not have a whitelist of somesort.

 

Hi All,

Thanks for the advice. In case others have the same issue and are reading this. I replaced the 6990M with a 7970M from a Clevo P150EM and this fixed the issue. I used jaybee's blind flashing guide to disable Enduro on the card which worked perfectly!

So the problem was definitely the 6990M.

 

Any chance you could go into detail as to the steps you had to take to get the 680M working please?

Looking at some other sources I see you probably need to update the bios and flash the vbios or use a modified .inf file to get the drivers to install?

Also did your 680M come with the heatsinks etc or does it not need anything?

My 6990M died too and I'm looking for a replacement but having problems sourcing one in the UK. I found a 680M 2GB on ebay for a reasonably price I might go for if the process isn't too bad.

Cheers,
David

 

be careful the 680m 2gb is dell version and not compatible with clevo systems.
you need the clevo 680m with 4gb ram.

 

I got my GTX 680M from RJtech complete with the heatsink. Install as usual and then use one of the modded inf's with the corresponding Nvidia Driver from my sig, you don't need to do anything else although Prema is working on a Vbios so we will never need to use modified inf's again amongst other features. I used MXM3 paste with the line method. Pay attention to the order you remove / replace the GPU screws.

 

prema is also working on a 780m vbios for the hm series. you may want to wait a little for that.

 

^^^
We been waiting a while. I doubt it can be done.

 

hes been busy so its not totally impossible

 

https://biosmods.wordpress.com/gtx780m/

He has posted a P1x0EM & GTX780M 3DMark score here and previous updates show progress when he got it to boot etc. Score P7365 (Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor).