A how-to on upgrading laptop gpu ? (560m medion)

how can i change my laptop gpu ??? i have a gtx 560m

 

I think you need to first determine if you have an upgradable laptop GPU. Most are permanent fixtures and cannot be upgraded. You need to list your laptop first.

 

my laptop is not very well known, thus i haven't found much info on it on the internet

it is a Medion Erazer x7813 (MD98091), it has a GTX 560M 1.5Gb version, gpu-z tells me its subvendor is MSI (1462) which makes me believe my laptop should be similar to the MSI GT780
My cpu is a intel i7 2670QM

i haven't opened it yet to see how it's made, because i don't have thermal paste for when i remove the heatsink,

-my bus interface is a PCI-e :x16 linked with/ x16 used, which is a good sign for upgadability
-almost all gtx 560m info on internet says it is MXM 3.0b (will need to know for sure by opening up the case)
-my laptop is pretty big, and has almost the same case as the MSI Gt780

On the other side, i was wondering if an upgrade was possible, if i had to change the PSU (higher end card use more power)
and also i i would need to do anything about the BIOS ?

i hope to upgrade to a 580m/670m or higher gen or version..

thanks for the help

 

@Krane : agreed.
Most laptops are not modable like desktops, although some- very few- laptops are.

You should contact the manufacturer, they can give you the information needed.

 

Alright, i will contact the manufacturer hoping they can inform me more on my laptop.
they do seem to offer repair services for the video card on my model, maybe this can be a good sign ?

 

You could probably upgrade to the 580M since it's still the same gen, but anything beyond that and your BIOS may not support the GPU. And even then you'll want to make sure it's an MSI card as I'm not sure whether Dell and Clevo cards would work in MSI machines. PSU should be fine, although you may want to find out if you need to upgrade the heatsink, although I don't recall MSI machines having heatsinks rated for different capacities.

Quite frankly, you're better off saving up for a new laptop, as paying several hundred dollars for 3 year old technology that is outclassed even by a mid-range 765M is just not worth it at all.

 

great ! but could you still tell me how you came to that deduction without the heatsink removed? what if the card is still soldered onto the motherboard?

let's say i can get a 780m for 400€, what if i find a way to flash the BIOS with a version that supports the new hardware, i don't really know how this works, but i would guess the only way is to "make" a unique custom bios that would support the combination of both gpu and cpu ?

if not possible of getting a higher gen, i would agree with you, i am running watchdogs on low-med so i got that going for me which is nice.. =p

 

You can see the MXM connector between the GPU heatsink and the fan, if you know what to look for, it's pretty easy to see, but if you don't, not so much.

 

You may want to watch this MSI GT70 disassembly video, and grab a copy of the service manual from this thread.

I'm almost certain you'll need a custom BIOS to support the 780M in your machine. The specifics of it are way beyond me, and unless you know an experienced BIOS modder, it's pretty much a no-go at this point. If you can get an 580M for cheap, then by all means go for it. But I would definitely not pay more than 150€ for a 580M at this point.

 

thank you for the video, will be quite useful =)

by the way, correct me if i'm wrong: is the vBIOS (GPU booting only) separated from the BIOS (all other hardware) ?
since the only component i wish to change is the GPU, only the vBIOS will have to be flashed (is that even how all this works ? xD)

because if i somehow found a compatible vBIOS, for example, the website techpowerup has been collecting vBIOS from users through the GPU-z program, and i have found some vBIOS for the 780m

 

That depends on the laptop, but if the GPU isn't soldered, then the vBIOS should be on the GPU and the BIOS on the motherboard. That being said, the BIOS on the motherboard might not play nice with all GPUs and you'd need a modified BIOS or if your laptop is known to support a given GPU and you buy that same GPU, but meant for another laptop model, then you may need to flash the vBIOS. It may not work at all regardless of which BIOS you flash (BIOS of vBIOS).

 

This is why alienware's are so awesome. Very upgradeable. I started with a radeon 6990m xfire and then upgraded to a gtx 680m sli. I could upgrade to gtx 780m/gtx 880m but the slight performance I would gain is not worth the 1000+ dollars I would spend so I've stuck with gtx 680m in sli until the m18x r4 is released with broadwell and maxwell. Then I will finally get a new laptop to take advantage of wireless ac and sata express which i wont be able to get just upgrading the gpu again in the r1. Port selection will be better too as well as battery life. Then it'll be time to do the same thing with the m18x r4 and upgrade the gpu 1 or 2 times staying on the gpu forefront

 

I get it now, with newer gen of GPU, new tech may not be recognized by the main BIOS,

i have done a scan search of bios/driver updates with biosagentplus but it's not free... and i'm still not sure of doing anything for the moment,
it does say that there is an update available for my AMI BIOS

do you know any database where i can check for an update myself ?
I have a AMI BIOS,
version E1761IM7V1.05
date 09/08/2011

my manufacturer's website (medion.shop) does not seem to provide any update for my model (the bios they suggest do not seem to be adequate for my laptop..) i used the number MSN : 30014128 for research

 

Since you have a rebranded MSI machine, your best bet would be to check the MSI website to see if any updates are available. But just be warned that haphazardly flashing the system BIOS could brick your machine.

 

This, if it's not been attempted before, I would be wary.

 

i agree, cpu-z clearly tells me that my motherboard is made by medion, so it has to be somehow modified. getting a bios from msi website is risky

also, this is insane, besides biosagentplus, i can't find any way on the internet to update the bios... !
(but i am however curious about how all this is made, if anyone has a good link to a more technical thread or another website...)

let's be more reasonable and stick to my current gen with a 580m,
would that mean that no BIOS, or VBIOS update would be needed? (is there a program that can "read" an extracted bios file ? and can i export my BIOS into a file ? [the same way i exported my vBIOS in GPU-z])

 

As for updating a BIOS, the manufacturer will put the update up on their website, you download it and follow their installation instructions. For my precision, it's an executable, download, run and that's it. For other laptops, you may hve to make a bootable flash drive to update the BIOS (the manufacturer will tell you how) or flash from within the BIOS (again, the manufacturer will give you instructions on their website).

 

they do not seem to offer a BIOS update for my laptop, guess the only way to find out if the upgrade actually works is to try our the card 580M,
however, i won't risk it by buying one, i have a friend who has a spare one, i'll try then and get some thermal paste.

so to sum up, if it put in the 580M without any update (BIOS or vBIOS) it should work ? what about the power supply?
max TDP for the 560M is 75W, for the 580M it is 100W

 

As your using a 2nd gen CPU i can tell you a nvidia gtx780m will not even post. How ever a Clevo GTX770M flashed with the right MSI vBios to save modding the Nvidia drivers .inf files will work like a dream, I am running that card in a MS-16F2 without issues.

But you will need a new Heatsink for it.

Also you have a barebone version of the GT70 so i wouldn't go flashing bioses directly downloaded from MSI's website, your best bet is to contact MSI support with your model and serial number as they might be able to help.

I can run my GTX770M without the need to unlock my main Laptop Bios without issues like so its just a case of getting a New HSF and GTX770M and place them in.

 

That's odd, both the 770M and 780M are Kepler, so assuming you flashed the MSI vBIOS I see no reason why the 780M wouldn't even POST yet the 770M works without a hitch.

 

but in the end, i still have a non-msi product, if i give them my serial/model number, wouldn't they just tell me to contact medion support?
would the vBios from techpowerup be good?

the card i can find, but the heatsink... are there any models number for easier searching ?

the 780m seems waaay superior to the 770M, with 192bit bus interface vs 256bit , maybe that's one reason?

 

In the end you have already been told that you have MSI GT780 product with rebranded name. Give me it and programmator and I make it tell that it is MSI. So you need to buy 770m, 7970m, 580m, possibly 670mx and flash it to MSI vBIOS if they are not already.

 

my best bet is the msi/clevo 770m then, (same TDP as my card !), i will have to open up my laptop to know what is the difference between my heatsink and the one for 770m.

 

hello everyone, sorry for the long time not responding.

i know have installed my new msi gtx 770m in my laptop, and following your advice, i have bought a new heatsink.

so far so good, the laptop is booting but now i can't seem to find a driver for it. windows update has installed default vga drivers but when i try to download a nvidia one on their website, they suggest me to "contact the manufacturer".

and any driver i download (medion, msi websites..) tell me that my hardware is not compatible.

is it a vbios problem ?
should i go for the flash ?

thanks !

(and here's what gpu-z tells me, importing the vbios makes the software crash btw)

update1: pretty sure i need to flash the vbios to the msi one, i compared the existing vbios is on : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?architecture=NVIDIA&manufacturer=&model=GTX+770M&interface=&memType=&memSize=
to the id gpu-z shows me and none match.

update 2: just found out i have a clevo card by using nvflash with the ckeck option, i have found the subsystem id which match the one of clevo

 

You need to install a driver with a modded INF.

 

please note that i am fairly new to all this, and i am learning the same time as i'm asking =p

i still don't know why is my card different from the ones that nvidia would accept but i have managed to install a custom driver with a modified INF, but i don't kow if i did it right


still, i really want my card to be a "normal/clevo one" showing in gpu-z, should i flash the msi vbios which might then be recognized ?

 

Thats a clevo card for sure as thats the same SubVendor ID i had before flashing mine with a MSI vBios!.

Now with mine being a barebone and yours being a barebone rebranded i would backup your stock vbios first then flash a MSI vBios which will then allow you to install the drivers without modding the .inf files.

But just as a safe trick i.e flashing doesn't go so well enable RDP on your laptop for Windows that way if you brick ya card and it still booted up you can restore your vBios from within windows!!!!!

 

thanks for the answer, however, after flashing over the clevo vbios from techpowerup, my card always seems weird...

for example, the boost core clock goes to 862MHz instead of the supposed 797MHz written in the vBios (thus getting some fps drops after long loads due to insufficient power distribution), and gpu-z won't allow me to save my bios with the "save to file" option, it says that nvflash.exe has stopped working, then BIOS reading not supported on this device...

I don't get it, shouldn't flashing the card get rid of all these abnormalities ?

 

GK106 vs GK104, GK104 has never really liked pre 3rd gen core series machines.

 

I'm in the same boat as OP at the moment, and have been fighting to achieve this for nearly a week now.

I'm on a Medion Erazer X7817, it's almost two years old. I bought a GeForce GTX 765M off eBay, spent a hefty £150 ($250) on it after my previous one, a 670M died from an accident involving compressed air. I was able to open up my laptop, remove the dead card and place the new one in. Applied the thermal pads + paste, closed up the laptop and started it up. I didn't consider buying a new heatsink because I didn't think that the heatsink did anything other than manage the temperature (And it seems fine anyway, laptop is cold thus far)

The graphics were 640x480 in 16-bit colours, and I went into Device Manager and saw that my Intel HD Graphics 4000 had reported a Code 12, and the new card I installed showed up as a Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. So I downloaded the latest driver from Nvidia, modified the .inf file and that (Though if flashing the vBIOS eliminates the need to edit the .ini files then that may seem more feasible), and installed it via Device Manager. When I started it up again I'd get stuck on the Starting Windows screen, but I could hear the startup tune and could even blindly login behind that frozen screen. Turned it off, started Windows in Safe Mode, uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled using the setup program. Same result.

I also tried installing older drivers and even a driver meant for a different model of Erazer with a 765M inside, but I got BSOD's caused by nvlddmkm.sys. I figured having Windows boot up behind a frozen logo would be better than having a BSOD, so I just installed the latest driver again and booted into Safe Mode.

I discovered that the card is somehow linked to a Xeon processor, so I disabled that and now I get 1920x1080 in true colours, at the cost of having the GPU not showing up in Device Manager.

Anything I could do at this point? I've tried sorting out the Intel HD Graphics at the same time, and I'm going to try and reset Windows to fix it, but I can't navigate through the in-built Recovery program since it boots into 640x480 16-bit regardless of what's disabled or not.

I've got a flash drive with Nvflash on it, and I have the option of either flashing a Dell or an Asus 765M bios over the new one. Only problem is that I have to force it with -4 -5 -6, which could render my new card unusable and throw $250 down the drain, so I'm reluctant to do so. I've backed up the vBIOS on the card though, but say you went ahead and force-flashed the Dell / Asus bios and it messed up somehow, would you be able to reverse it by flashing the backup BIOS?

Or maybe a general BIOS flash might help - learning in this thread that MSI bios'es work with Medion laptops is a breakthrough for me.

Motherboard is a X781X (so an MSI board like OPs with Medion slapped over it)
CPU is an Intel Core i7-3610QM @ 2.3GHZ.
16GB RAM.
118GB SSD.

And the new card's device ID
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11E1&SUBSYS_10071462&REV_A1\4&98655A7&0&0008

So like OP a complete how-to on how to upgrade an Erazer would be such a lifesaver, seeing how it causes the Intel HD Graphics to report Code 12.

 

i can't find this device id in the techpowerup vbios collection, (there is only dell and asus), what brand is it ? can you see it's subvendor/specs on gpu z ?

first of all, do not flash a Dell vBios over it, they are only meant for Alienware laptops.

second of all, what does this mean ?

i do not have an intel chipset in my laptop but problems may come from bad management between chipset and vga card

 

It's an Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M, 2GB vRAM. I don't know which laptop it's from but the subvendor is MSI as seen here:

Thanks for the warning. Gonna stick to MSI and MSI-only BIOSes and the like. Since the subvendor is MSI I guess there's no need to flash the vBIOS, just the system BIOS.

Apologies, I should've explained myself a bit further.

To put it simply, if I disable

Xeon(R) processor E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port - 0151

Then the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter disappears from Device Manager, and I am able to get 1920x1080 in true colors. If I enable it again, it will show the Graphics Adapter again but will go back to 640x480 in 16-bit colors.

If it helps, here's a snip of everything in my Device Manager bar the GPU:

 

I'm pretty sure you don't have a Xeon processor..
But somehow this device seems to be linked to the gpu, have you tried rolling back drivers/updating driver for this device (Xeon(R) processor E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port - 0151)?
or even uninstalling and let windows update find one for you ? (Careful with unistalling, I still don't know if the device is important/running when laptop is on)

 

I think I actually uninstalled the PCI bus once, it basically reinstalled itself + a few things on my system that were already there. Though if disabling that Xeon processor makes the graphics card disappear from the Device Manager, I bet uninstalling it would deliver the same result. Do Restore Points save drivers before you uninstall 'em? Because then I could test to see if it might work.

The Xeon processor, the PCI bus and the Intel HM77 Chipsets all share the same driver file - pci.sys. Perhaps that could be a clue?

But maybe at this point it would be best to try and find a suitable BIOS for my laptop and flash it over, seeing how the laptop / BIOS was built on the 25th May 2012 while the actual card was built on the 30th May 2013. It's just a matter of flashing the right one that will support the new GPU + all the other existing hardware, and Windows 7.

Are BIOS upgrades required for new laptop GPUs? That's something I'd really like to know right now, considering how much of a jump 765M is from 670M.

 

remember that i went from a 560m to a 770m while keeping my factory BIOS and the new gpu runs well,also i have an older medion model than yours,
plus, medion doens't provide any bios updates... (or they are hard to come by)

the intel i7 chipsets are actually modified version of the Xeon chipsets, so they are linked, yes.

do try to install the default drivers from medion support (chipset and stuff)

 

Well in that case, I'll see if I can organize a return and get a 770M instead.

Thanks for your help though.

 

I doubt getting another card would solve the problem, have you tried all I've suggested above ?

Maybe wait for an answer from a more experienced user..
I did my best though

 

There's certainly a better chance. I made a mistake buying the 765M since the seller stated they were for Clevo and Alienware laptops. When I looked at the 770M the same seller stated that they were compatible with MSI as well as Clevo / Alienware and other 1762 boards.

Plus you stating that you went from a 560M to a 770M while keeping your factory BIOS AND having an older model than mine was the icing on the cake for me. If yours can do it then so can mine.

I also had other forums telling me that no one had any problems running 770's or 680's in their laptops:

^ from the MSI forum


Also it was pretty easy to tell the incompatibilities. Any laptop with a 765M in it has a sleek, small sort of casing whereas the more bulky casings like mine (And one that is shared by many other GT70's and the like) have cards like the 670 or the 770.

Your 770M has 3GB of VRAM as well, right?

 

yup, it's a 3Gb version,

i'd be interested to know at what price and where you would get your hands on a 770m, these things are hard to come by...
hope you can get your refund,

the only problem i have now with my card is that when the game uses the gpu at 100% for too long, i get throttling for a few seconds, even though i'm at max 55°C, then it comes back...

 

upgrademonkey on eBay

 

By the way, what colour is your graphics card: green or blue?

 

The 560m was green (msi)
The 770m is blue (clevo)

 

Ah that's good then. I ordered a blue 770M since it was the most affordable option, and also because I had sources saying they got that card to work in MSI machines even though it was for Clevos.

And thus if it doesn't work first-hand, thankfully there's an MSI VBIOS I can try flashing. But for now, time to play the waiting game again.

 

God damnit.

I decided to cancel the order for the blue 770M because I saw a green one which was said to be compatible with MSI and Alienware (and was cheaper too) so I went ahead and bought that instead.

I installed the card in the laptop, but there isn't much difference. The fan doesn't spin rapidly after startup, which is good to say the lest, but the card isn't showing up in Device Manager and isn't being detected by NVflash.

Perhaps a BIOS update would be feasible, I might just need to find the right one.

 

whoops... wrong thread.

 

what does msinfo32.exe say about your bios version ?
mine is American Megatrends Inc. E1761IM7V1.05, 09/09/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.7

 

American Megatrends Inc. E1762IM7.107, 25/05/2012

 

then i don't get it why it won't work, your bios looks just like an updated version of mine,

just to be clear, i believe my card came directly out from the clevo factory in China, and i had some sort of custom chineses vbios... (the id wasn't listed in the vbios list on the techpower up list) anyway, i flashed over the clevo bios from techpowerup, and now i mod the inf file myself with each nvidia update

the card works just fine with some higher clocks i think
-gpu-z displays NVIDIA as subvendor,
-i can't export the vbios from gpu-z (it says nvflash has crashed) even though i have flashed a known clevo vbios over it.

my opinion is that, flashing with nvflash doesn't really wipe every data on the chip... or else i'm doing it wrong ^^

 

I'm really starting to doubt the people that sell the cards on eBay. See, ORIGINALLY I was going to get a blue 770M (thus Clevo branded) like yours, and I was planning to initially flash the MSI vBIOS over it to see if it would work (unless it worked anyway with whatever it came with, did it work when you put the card in at first? Did you have to flash the vBIOS to get it to function?) but then I saw a seller from my country selling a cheaper one, except it was green. And I've been told by the MSI forum that MSI cards are normally green, so I bought that.

But when I tried to buy the blue 770M, I was asked what my model of laptop was along with some other details (chipset, etc.). After telling them they said I couldn't use that card because it was the Clevo card. I asked them if it was compatible with MSI, and they said it was compatible with 16F4 and 1763.

Which I can now tell is a ruse, since judging from your stock BIOS you mentioned on page 2 your board is a 1761. Sorry if this sounds a bit personal, but where or who did you buy your card from? It's possible the ones being sold on eBay, even though they're the same colour/brand/source, they're somehow different.

If I can't find a BIOS that will flash over my current one normally, I may just have to force a GT70 BIOS onto it. Some people have achieved this it seems, but I'd really need to be sure so I don't brick my system.

Or maybe I could pursue a custom-made BIOS that would work with the 3610QM CPU and the 770M. The options just keep growing yet the problem still persists.

 

All is well - all it took was a BIOS / firmware flash, card showed up as a Standard VGA Adapter, installed drivers and it worked! No vBIOS flash required! Flawless!

Thanks for your help, and good luck!

EDIT: I also made a new guide, I thought of the topic title and thought I should make one

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ow-upgrading-graphics-card-medion-erazer.html