Dell Inspiron 1720 8400m to 8600m video card upgrade help needed

Hey all

Ive purchased the nvidia 8600m gt video card recently and tried installing it into my laptop but when i turn the computer back on, the screen just stays blank. am i missing a step here? ive downloaded the driver from the dell website which says it covers both the 8400 and 8600 cards (although when you install that driver, it doesn't say anything about the 8600) and the latest nvidia driver which again covers both cards. really annoying as im in the uk and purchased it from america. any help would be really welcome!
thanks
dan

 

Did you update your BIOS before doing it?

Maybe you got a faulty GPU?
The 8400m and 8600m are known faulty. There is a small chance you bought a faulty card.

 

I think so. me being stupid but is that simply downloading the latest BIOS from dell?

 

Yes I think it's just a setup file that you download and run.
Make sure you have the power cord plugged into the notebook while you do it.

Good luck.

 

BIOS can be obtained here:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/...typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=264348

From where did you buy this card from? If you ask me, the 1720 should support the 8600M GT out of the box. When it was first launched there is an option that came with it. Therefore I will not rule out the fact that you may have bought a lemon card.

Other factors can also attribute to not seating and properly securing the GPU to the slot carefully resulting to these consequences.

 

It came from an eBay shop. The sad thing is is that I'm putting the old card in the same way and it works fine. The 8600 did seem to work as the screen seem to activate then very dark grey lines appeared. Knowing my luck is a lemon! Is the latest bios AO9? As that's the one I've got

 

Grey lines would make me think faulty.

I hope you can get a refund and not buy from the bad seller any more.

 

Yep, A09 is the latest. You put back your old card and it worked? Since your 8400M GS worked, your 8600M is absolutely a lemon. Tell the seller that the one he sent is a dead card and ask for a replacement unit. Or else give a bad feedback.

 

thanks for your help everyone. It would seem that the card is faulty so ive opened up a paypal dispute with the seller.

is there a way of compensating for a lacking GPU? i.e. twice as much ram or better processor?

please be gentle! im a mechanical engineer so my knowledge of computers is limited!

 

You can't really make up for GPU by dumping in more RAM and upping your processor, at least for the most part. Games may see slightly better performance if you get a really good processor, but for the most part they're still GPU-bound.

 

Sorry, I have to be honest, I bet you fried it. Here are some things you should check:

1 - were you grounded?

2 - does the new card have a preloaded vBIOS?

3 - does the new card make contact with the thermal infrastructure?

4 - did you apply thermal paste?

See my sig for my GPU upgrade experience.

 

oh well! was planning on doing all this so i could play star trek online with decent graphics but ill ave to play it with it looking like space invaders lol. Thanks anyway everyone!

 

1. yes
2. god knows. it came from a dell 1720 so it should do
3+4. it has a built on thermal system

 

Mind you, this isn't an ordinary card - It isn't MXM and it comes preloaded with a heatsink.

The fact that he put back his 8400M and it worked. So basing by your logic, his 8400M GS would've been dead too by the user.

@ danjr1 - The 8600M GT is the highest you can get in a 1720. It's a decent upgrade over an 8400M and should be able to play your online games decently.
Hope you can settle your case with the seller. Good luck man. Keep us posted.

 

The strangest thing has happened. When i've put the old 8400m back in, i ran DXDiag and it came up with the 8400m memory being 844mb?! I've tried to "shake" the computer (i.e. restarting etc) but it keeps coming back to 844mb?

 

Is that good or bad?

 

Good I'm hoping! Lol but it's probably bad knowing my luck!

 

884MB as in, the total maximum GPU memory? I wouldn't bother if that is the case, the extra memory does not improve the performance of the card and the 8400M GS DDR2 is limited to just 256MB dedicated.

Try and run games that you always play on it. If you find it works and performs the same way as before then there is absolutely no need to worry. There is just too much myth about "the more the better" GPU memory hype these days.

 

So if and when I get my money back, is upgrading the CPU a good option? Also, will that be plug and play (I'd b going for the t7500 or t7700)?

 

What current CPU do you have and what applications do you run on your 1720?

Your 1720 has a GM965 chipset and is capable of running the 45nm T8100, T8300, T9300, T9500 & X9000 processors. Forget the older Merom series... Well I wouldn't consider them bad or anything like that so don't get me wrong, the 45nm 1st Gen Penryn processors as listed above consume less voltage at stressed loads and manufactured at 45nm fabrication thus running cooler and saving battery life.

 

T5450, usually the odd game (used to play warcraft etc mmorpgs).thanks again for the help, means a lot!

 

I think you should try to get another 8600m when you get your money back... its a way better upgrade than a new CPU... especially if you want to play games... after the GPU upgrade than get a CPU one perferably the T9300..cheap and high performance...

 

If i was to change the CPU, will it be a plug and play installation?

 

It would be a bit more involved than the GPU change you just did, but otherwise largely yes, depending on your exact definition of "plug and play". You need to remove the heatsink, clean off the heatsink and old CPU of thermal grease, thermal pad, or whatever they used to have in there (well, you don't necessarily have to clean off the old CPU, but it's probably a good idea if you ever plan to use it again, or sell it or something), unlock the old CPU, pull it off, drop in the new CPU, lock it, apply thermal grease, and then reapply the heatsink.

 

Another 1720 with a 2ghz CPU and the 8600m has appeared on eBay. The only problem being that it's power socket is broken. Cud I simply exchange the CPU, gpu and hard drive onto my motherboard? The chipset on the eBay 1720 is the intel p965, I'm guessing that's the same as mine?

 

Why would you want to exchange the motherboard?

EDIT: That will depend if the seller allows you to obtain just the CPU and GPU. The motherboard is the same - it's standard issue for the 1720s.

 

From what I remember (I might be wrong) the power socket is connected to the motherboard so if the power socket is broken, I could use my working motherboard?

The laptop is selling as broken so it's going cheap so I'd probably buy the whole thing!

 

Sounds like it should work. Apparently Inspirons might have come with both GM965 and PM965 chipsets, but hopefully that won't be an issue here.

 

How do I tell what chipset my 1720 is running? And if they are different, will I have issues with fitting and drivers?

 

I have mentioned this in my previous post in this thread. You are using a GM965 chipset for most cases. However there are certain I720s that are of PM965, but you shouldn't worry of its difference. You can check it via CPUID. http://www.cpuid.com/ Regardless whether they are PM/GM965 the motherboards of the 1720s are built equally; they're designed for the Dell proprietary 8400M/8600M, Merom and Penryn Gen.1 CPU inserts. Unless if you have an Intel GMA graphics, which isn't the case here.

 

So just to check, if the motherboards are different, I won't have a problem with drivers if I put the hard drive from 1 to the other? ( so that it contains all the drivers for the 8600m£

 

As suspected, my 1720 is running the GM motherboard and the ebay 1720 is PM. Will i have issues with drivers if i put the hard drive from the ebay 1720 into my 1720 with the GM motherboard

 

not to worry. The laptop became too expensive. Looking at a fairly cheap t7250 now! thanks again people