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    Toshiba L500 + GT230M Upgrade Possible?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by ameixoeiro, Aug 17, 2015.

  1. ameixoeiro

    ameixoeiro Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi guys! I'm having a situation here. More than a week a go my Aspire 5920G died with a burned Winbond IC when I was trying to install a GT230M into it. I have never been able to get it to work before this happened. I bought this mxm card online from a dead Toshiba P500 and it actually booted in a client's Toshiba L500. So I figured it was compatible all the way. As I was to buy another laptop I chose a Toshiba L500 so that I could upgrade it with all my components. The odd thing is that I cannot make this one boot with this GT230.
    It's sbios has the GT230m vbios so it's not a problem of a missing vbios.

    Does anyone know if there is some kind of hardware limitation that can render this unusable?

    Thanks to all!!
     
  2. ameixoeiro

    ameixoeiro Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, I've managed to get it to boot in another L500. With it's original sbios the display showed me the GT230M sign-on message but once I try installing vga driver I could'nt even get it to accept any driver.
    So I thought the problem was with the vbios, then I updated it with one I extracted from the original A500. No sign-on message on display now, but same problem resides. Cannot install any driver.

    Could this be a problem of missing mxm structure?

    Also, I cant edit this bios perf tables since the only info being showed are just a few numbers.

    I have the original model supplyed vga card, an HD4570 and I would like to upgrade it with this GT230M.

    Any idea of what I'm getting into?

    Thanks