Dell 7970m into clevo laptop.

Hi guys I've recently sold a Dell HD 7970m which I removed from my m15x due to buying an Alienware 18. The card was working fine no problems. Guy who bought the gpu from me is now messaging me saying he installed it into his clevo and when he turns the laptop on he gets 6 beeps and the fans come on full and system shuts down. What could this be? It sounds to me like thermal shutdown. Then he messaged me saying system started up and he was able to install drivers and then it shut off again. Surely the gpu is fine or it wouldn't have turned on. I personally think he hasn't seated the heatsink properly and the gpu is heating up rapidly and causing a thermal shutdown. All input and advice appreciated in advance.

 

Does the machine recognize the card properly in BIOS?

 

it's probably a BIOS error. What clevo is it even?

Although, I'll say this is most likely not actually your fault O_O

 

two kind of vBIOS exist for 7970M: one with enduro and one without....wrong vBIOS will not allow system to POST.

 

I'd go with your first instinct. Badly seated heatsink or maybe it just needs reseating due to a poor connection?

If the fans ramped up before the shutdown then overheating is probable. He should have enough time to check the temp if he is lucky. Usually though there is a beep code before an overheat shutdown (in my experience). This Clevo just 'long beeps' three times then the power shuts off.

 

It is well known that Dell cards won't work on Clevo Machines! No matter which vBios you will flash on it....

Though I can't recall the exact specifica, it has to do with the temperature sensor from Dell cards which Clevos aren't able to read. That's why Clevo Machines spin up like crazy and shut down with the error beeping for temperature.

 

Thankyou all for your replies. Been in touch with buyer and now he's satisfied after doing a little research himself that the card is not the culprit. He's accepted the fact that this card isn't compatible with his system.

 

yep, thats correct. especially with older clevos, dell gpus are an absolute no go. according to @Prema, the thermal sensor is not properly recognized by the embedded controller (EC) of the clevo machine, thus it freaks out and does an emergency shut down, since it thinks that the gpu is dangerously overheating.

 

Incompatible.
The Dell bios has different thermal codes compared to clevo version of same card. This causes the clevo to have a fit as the owner has described.
How do I know?

I am running a clevo 7970m in my alienware as I type this.
In other words, only clevo 7970m with clevo machine and clevo and amd 7970m with alienware m17xr2.