Firepro M6100 into AW 17?

I was browsing ebay when I saw this card for $55. Naturally, I couldn't refuse, and so I bought this and the 100w heatsink (it was $21 extra) to help out, and hopefully successfully install it. I will edit this post with various updates as I proceed.

Final Edit: It appears that you need a 240w PSU for this mod. The GPU itself is entirely plug in play. I would assume the 120HZ screen doesn't work, and I cannot confirm it. I was not able to flash a modded vBios on it, but that may be due to me having a later revision card

EDIT #1 It boots perfectly fine, the usual driver issue is there, I'm going to try to download the Precision M6700 drivers and see if that works, I'll update again when ready

EDIT #2 Yeah drivers are an issue, but other than that, it seems to be working fine

EDIT #3 The GPU is no longer showing up in windows (Code 45)

EDIT #4 Wow after a few restarts, everything is working fine! I'll post some benchmarks, but I doubt it'll be much different than my 765M. I don't know how the drivers managed to install, but it may have been me opening the driver.exe file, restarting the PC, and it installing while the GPU was still "recognized" by the system

 

Now I'm going to try and use the MUX (I/D GFX) button to see what happens lol

EDIT#5 I wonder if I am the first to do this lol

EDIT#6 No GPU native fan control, and it isn't spinning even with HWinfo64, and the temp is slowly going up. The MUX (I/D GFX) button didn't seem to work, oh well.

EDIT#7 Everything seems to work fine, but my PSU doesn't seem capable of handling it, odd, considering its "180w". As well the MUX switch works nicely, seems that it not working was a AW software issue. Going to try to flash with improved vBIOS

 

Have you tried running pre-adrenaline drivers on the consumer side?

I didnt need Firepro drivers when I was using the m5100, it would display as m200x but that wasnt an issue.

 

It already recognizes it as a 8950m and auto installed the Firepro Drivers

 

Got mine running and was able to get it working with the nvidia heatsink as well, with some tweaks.

The issue I have right now though is I cant get it running in PEG mode. Only seems to work in SG. Did you uninstall Intel HD graphics before going to PEG mode?

SG mode seems to knock performance down to m5100 levels it looks like. Unigine Valley seems to run similar FPS, well based on memory, could be wrong.

 

I dont remember exactly, but something along the lines of that. Also make sure you have the AW command center installed so you can use the I/D GFX mode if you need.

Thermals are much better after a repaste with the 100w, and I am currently using the 765m bracket with the back memory clip snapped off. I haven't been able to flash a new vBios on it yet, but I get back to my workstation today and I am going to try it. I dont know how it truly performs, as my 180w PSU seems to not want to handle it, and I'm selling this anyways, got a guy to pay $500 for the config in my sig without the SSDs

 

Yeah I tried the Fn key but had no change in behavior. I Uninstalled the Intel HD drivers and had a black screen upon reboot. Still trying to get it working without SG mode.

 

Odd. I get home in a few mins, so I'll try to back track, but as off now, it works perfect in mine (aside from PSU failure)

 

Would appreciate the insight, guess I'm lucky I caught you before you parted ways with the Ranger lol

Since this model shipped with the 780m it came with the 240w but it blew up the moment I used it. I already had a 240w for my m4600 but I ordered the 330w in tandem which is what I use now.

 

You'd probably figure it out eventually, I just did a bunch of random combinations of button mashing until I found the secret combo

I dont even know if I am or not, they guy Im selling it to is local, so probably a flak, and im mainly pushing for a P870DM

 

I hear it's a pretty good machine.

I Uninstalled the HD graphics and now I have a black screen. Was letting it sit for a bit and something got installed but still no dice. For the moment peg mode is a no go.

When you get back to your pad, could you get a screenshot of your vbios version? If I can get my screen back I want to be able to compare, see if it's something obvious like that.

Now I have a mouse cursor but still a black screen lol, probably means I need a reboot but the hdd led is buzzing quite a bit still. Probably just doom 2016 d/l

 

It better be, $1000 for a laptop is not something I can take lightly

Make sure that you have the M6100 drivers installed as well. I have honestly no idea what mode I run it in, but when switched to the dGPU through I/D GFX, its the only one in device manager (even with Intel drivers installed)
Black screen with cursor has happened to me before, I usually just wait it out for a minute (SSDs are nice!) or restart(7 second boot when it doesn't screw up!)

I'll do my best. IIRC its a later version M6100, the last few digits are .04933 or something. Whats weird is that I disabled and uninstalled the iGPU drivers and it just switched to the M6100. Also, mine shows up as an 8950 device manager, so that may be why, but the FirePro drivers install automatically, not the normal ones

 

Ah you used the firepro drivers? I installed the 8900m series drivers, definitely worth a trial and error.

It installed something as my 3rd monitor back light came on, rebooting now.

Yeah the ranger was my p870 for me. I plan to get the acer helios 500 AMD laptop at some point provided it works well.

 

Yea

Yeah, it automatically installed (I checked windows update in settings and there it was) if you want to do it manually, use the Dell M6800 drivers for the M6100, it recognizes it either way

 

Yep it was the Intel HD driver reinstalled. Back at my desktop now. Downloading specified drivers, thanks for the tip.

I had reinstalled command center before we started all this. There was no action taken when I used the Fn key as I had advised you. That may be because of the type of driver I used. Hopefully it doesn't get all janky with me when I use DDU to cleanly remove the driver.

 

I just spammed it a bunch and it came up eventually

 

That did the trick, consumer drivers didn't allow that function I guess. Now in PEG mode with my m6100.

Fps performance seems to be similar but now without a bunch of lag in valley.

Still downloading doom and will also test some games in dolphin emulator, both use Vulcan api

Going to look at the vbios mod next.

 

Just about to head into that, maybe I can finally lower the clocks so it doesn't fry itself

 

Fry? This card runs cooler than the 780m for me currently. Im hoping to juice it to the gills lol

 

I'm back to not being able to post again, yikes this is a moody card

 

It really is tbh

I sometimes forget to turn on the fans and it gets to 100c before shutting off

 

No fan control? I cut my pwm wire so the fan is full blast all the time since the EC doesn't allow my fan to actually go full speed.

Something else is going on in my system. It can't cold boot anymore. Maybe something is up with my cmos battery.

 

I'm too lazy to do that. I have fan control, but its not auto. As well, its not showing an image on screen anymore, Im going to leave it for a bit

 

Yours too? I just reset it but it doesn't want to boot peg. Guess I'll have to do SG then Fn switch and see if that jives

 

Yeah, this honestly is seeming less and less like a viable solution IMO. I'm going to try and see if I can flash it in an M17x R2 where it is the only GPU in the machine, because ATIflash is being r e a l l y weird

 

M6600 would also be viable since Enduro is not supported on it.

Booting SG works fine, peg seems to be the issue I guess for the moment

 

M17X R2 is the closest thing I have that can support it and has no iGPU

 

Welp, might have broken the card finally. Doesn't want to even POST anymore. Going to try to revert to iGPU and dGPU at the same time to see if thay fixes it

 

Pull the cmos battery and you'll get 5 beeps

Pull battery and AC power and drain leftover power. Plug AC with no battery and start while holding Fn key.

Hold key until post completes and will auto reboot, reconfigure bios and your back in business

 

that seemed to fix it

 

If the laptop gets screwy 5 beeps is the error you seek, basically the laptop telling you it's ready for reset and boot.

 

Its booting to a black screen, then a green one, and then it booted to windows! Odd..

 

That's with peg or are you back to SG?

I'm still on SG but only because I was busy, I reached a stopping point but going to shower and eat before I try it again.

I ran doom 2016 this morning. Mostly using auto detect settings (mostly low I think and some medium) with 1600x900 resolution 90% scale I get something like 75 to 130 fps. Depends on what's on screen, background or looking at a wall fps shoots up, to be expected and 85-90fps average.

I feel the input lag that SG generates though.

Haven't got to dolphin yet, still trying to get my mapped drive working. Shows up on my computer but can't access it. It's why I never got into networking aspect of IT support lol

 

I believe I am on SG (Hd 4600 and 8950)

This honestly does seem to be a nice alternative to my 765m, pulling a decent bit more FPS in DX11 and a alot more in DX12/Vulkan (Rise of the Tomb Raider and Wolfenstein 2)

When it works

 

Yeah I am still curious as to how to get PEG working more consistently. The 8950m would essentially be perfect at that point as a backup card under the LVDS panels. I suppose the 960m/965m might be the card of choice as a backup for eDP panels.

Im still cleaning up my ISO's and figuring out the network drive issue. Dont want to have to move 500GB of ISO's if I dont have to.

 

It seemed to work fine for me, my issue is I just couldn't flash it in this machine. Works fine now

That would be a shame

 

Were you able to get a screenshot of something like GPU-Z?

I was going to try and flash via DOS but thats when I saw that I could no longer post lol.

 

Oops haha I forgot to let me go do that real quick

I tried flashing through DOS, but "Adapter Not Found" was very persistant
EDIT: Here it is

Spoiler: GPU-Z

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1lyP0vSYHX1q5g_cLK-MOB1BuxeMHpfOs

 

Well now GPU-Z is failing to launch. curious, I guess ill try the portable version instead of installation.

Portable version fails as well. May well need to use DDU in safe mode and try reinstalling drivers to make sure my baseline is there.

 

Wow, everything is not going your way today

 

Its all trial and error to work out the kinks. Rather handle them now then under a time sensitive scenario.

That being said, makes me think about the W7170m quite a bit considering its reported to be plug and play lol, but would be less likely to work with my heatsink (larger die iirc). At some point I would like to get a second heatsink anyways and put this heatsink in the oven to separate the components and add them to the new heatsink.

 

Me too, it honestly seems like a viable upgrade, cheap enough, definitely plug and play (AW announced it for this specific model) and it works in Dell Precisions of the same generation, but that heatsink and the fact that there are NO custom Bios's for it turn me off a little from it

 

Yes, on all points. But there is always potential for someone more skilled in that domain to take a look, especially if commissioned/contracted.

I havent worked in a few years so my budget is particularly low (long story made short, got my BS-IT for a purpose and that purpose fell apart towards the end) and the w7170m + heatsink is significantly more than just the m6100, basically all it comes down to at the moment.

I could easily mod the AMD heatsink, put it in the oven at IIRC (dont quote) 210c for 8 minutes to separate the components then use thermal glue to expand the heat exchanger, then add multiple pipes to the VRM and vRAM.

I was also going to use the GPU heatsink to expand the CPU heatsink but I need to put more thought into that, it will be a fun little project in the future.

 

I mean, I could check out the M390x, but I honestly don't have the money, trying to save for a P870xxx,, and thats assuming the heatsink doesn't need any reworking.

Man, I am truly sorry to hear that, I hope you can find a way to get back on your feet

 

Well you have the 100w AMD heatsink? The one reference we have didnt mention any need for modification of the heatsink but we have no idea of the user level that performed the upgrade. So we just know that it works but without pictures etc etc there would of course be variables we cant account for at this time.

If the P870 is what your sights are set on then dont waste money on the Ranger, especially if you're still undecided on selling the Ranger.

I made an error in character judgement with my ex, it happens. I may be in the darkest pit I have been in my life up to this point, however that just means that life still has possibilities for me beyond what I had imagined. Regardless I did get my BS in IT, and am working on my ESL certificate. I may be stuck at 0 but in time ill be able to change that. Its why I got the m6100 instead of the W7170m, I can always get another GPU later

Got my mapped drive working. I officially hate Windows now but its working lol.

 

I have the 100w nVidia heatsink, same as you? It fitted the 8950m perfectly, even the 765m xBracket fitted perfectly (save for the back memory cooler, I ripped that off)

I actually made money buying the 8950m and 100w heatsink funnily enough ~$20 ish

I'm still trying to see if there is a way to keep this and buy a P870xxx, but ebay just canceld nearly all of my bids with 15 hours left in the auction, so basically all I have to sell in the meanwhile is a Ranger. After I get a P870xxx (if I do) I might try to go out and get another Ranger (maybe a viking) but I probably will just get a M6800 or something like it.

Yeah man, I feel you. Sorry life decided to crap all over you, but atleast you can only go up.
Right?

God, Windows can be so annoying, but I'm too lazy to learn the ins and outs of Ubuntu and I don't like the idea of buying any Mac

 

I have the aftermarket 100w heatsink, probably closer to 130w. The limitation is the heat exchanger, without more mass for the kinetic energy to dump to add more pipes than 5 is redundant. Thats why I am thinking about adding more mass, just need to extend the fan wires and place the fan in the ODD bay.

I would've made some cash too for sure, but the 780m is dead lol, not nearly worth as much.

They are certainly exemplar machines of their era. This Ranger is the best alienware had to offer and basically went down hill. They had performance improvements sure but QC issues made it a gamble and not an investment from my perspective. M6800 is a nice machine but M6700 has the same compatibility. Though some are looking to get he P5000(m?) working on the IPS panel iteration of the m6800. Havent kept up on that development.

It can still go down, life can always get worse. The key for me was to set an amicable goal again. Kept it simple, I want a dog and I also want to get into Game Dev. Now I can move forward, I was stuck for a while and the main issue was I just didnt have a feasible / meaningful goal in mind. 5 years of investment went down the tube and some medical issues had to be remedied. When it rains it pours lol

Yes Windows is pissing me off, my mapped drive wont work but I can access it via Network > PC > drive but not through a mapped drive. I never liked Windows networking, I focused more on application support when I worked in IT.

 

hmm now the m17x r2 is just rebooting

 

Wx7100 apparently can be had for 320 off of Taobao, that might be route I go after some time.

 

I would ve very careful purchasing off of there, but that seems a very good deal indeed