MSI GT627 (1651), works with FX 3700m (full clocks).

I just tested an fx 2700m on my gx630 and it works
Pretty cool, I didn't expect it to because it was only ever released with the 9600m GT.

I posted a similar thread about it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/549852-msi-gx630-works-mxm-2-1-type-iii-cards-9800m-etc.html

Thats really cool you got your motherboard working BTW. I wouldn't have been able to do that!

 

But isn't the original 9800m GS a Type III? How can we plug a Type H then? In the ebay advert the guy says his GTX260m is a Type III

 

2.1 is the electrical interface and pinout. all 2.1 cards are technically the same structure.

type I, II, III, HE, and IV are board sizes

LOL this whole thread is sort of about a laptop that started with an MXM type II card and can be upgraded to a type III/HE card

 

the differenz between typ III and HE is the right edge on bottom of the pcb.the edge is only to provide more power to gpu.you can plug a type III card in HE socket and the other way round.but the HE card could not work probably in a typ III socket i guess.because their is not anough power for gpu.every gtx 260 for mxm 2.1 socket is a HE card.

 

You guess wrong Stangelator (don't mean this in a rude way)

The MSI gt627 only has a type III slot (no HE tab).

Both the 9800m GS and fx 3700m are HE cards.
You can see in my photos on page 2 of this thread that the HE tab hangs out and is not connected, yet the GPU works fine.

So MSI have done a good job.

 

That's what I was thinking, if the Type HE needs more power, how can it work in a III slot... but yeah, apparently it does :confused2:

 

so i guess not wrong!!!you can plug every mxm 2.1 card in every mxm 2.1 socket!but what i was thinking about is the power.a HE in a typ III socket could be problem i have written(bad english).but i think other laptops will shutdown with a HE card because the socket throuput of power i less than 75w.in your case all work probably.so you should be lucky.btw: nice pics.but your cooling looks like it was modded.right?

 

Yes you're right, I cut a piece of my heatsink off so that I could test an ATI 3870.

I also replaced the thermal pads with copper and thermal paste.


The cooling is not very good in this notebook, it really needs 2 fans.

 

my clevo has also only one fan.with that other fx3700 it runs pretty well.only the motherboard is very hot.but i will mod this^^.i never reaches temps over 85°C with the fx3700.

 

lol was just going to point out the above. apparently the m860tu and the gt627 actually have the same fan.
I think if you were able to mount one of these (cut in half) directly on top of the VGA heatsink and somehow get a little airflow going through it you would see a big drop in temps.
HP Pavilion dv4000 CPU Heatsink - eBay (item 170583009609 end time Feb-22-11 12:32:42 PST)
These are for pentium M which are about 25w TDP, so if you consider the gt627 originally released with the 9800m gs 60w, an added 25w potential for dissipation should have it cooling 75w easily.

 

the same fan,but not the same cooling system.

 

Yes, which goes to show it is generally the amount of copper which is causing the cooling capacity to be any different.

 

Well that is a good idea, only problem is that I can't find a cheap & thin blower fan.

BTW right now my screen just went green/pink, guess I have to get out my soldering iron again
Didn't even last a week...

 

what are you soldering in your laptop exactly?i'm interessted.please do some pics.always solder with pb hehe^^

 

Ok I will take some pics when I do it.

I'm just trying to heat up random components near the LCD cable connector.
Looks like some solder has oxidized or cracked or something.

EDIT: I'll take a photo of my screen also.

 

ohoh sounds like the lcd controller wants to go out of buisiness^^.heat up random components?is that they way a profi solders?

 

I'm an amateur.

A while ago my screen started turning green and pink, I had to flex the chassis of the notebook to get the screen back to normal. I used to pick the notebook up by one corner and everything would be fine for a while.

Then I just heated up things that were near the LCD connector, it worked fine for a little while. Today the problem came back.

I will try again.


I know it's not the GPU because I tried a 9600m. And everything works fine with an external monitor.


If the lcd controller was at fault, wouldn't an external screen not work?

 

sounds like cold soldering joint.i do not believe that the problem is a resistor or capacitor.i think a chip (lcd controller) went out of buisiness.but please check the cable if a wire is broken.my first tip before soldering^^

 

Well if it's a chip, I don't think I have much of a chance to repair it (I don't have any special tools).

I'll try to do what I can, if I can't sort it out then I will maybe get a new motherboard or look for a new notebook.

 

first check the cable.if you get a correct signal on external lcd.

 

External LCD works perfectly, cable also seems good.

 

it doesn't matter how it looks like or not!if a wire is broken you can do what ever you want.i repair notebooks since 2006.nothing looks like it should^^

 

No, its definitely the LCD controller if the external screen works because its probably the LVDS serializer. This is the same reason some cards wont work at all with built in displays, the actual card outputs a number of video types one of which is further serialized for the built in LCD where the others probably go almost directly from the MXM pins to the DVI and HDMI port because thats all built in and standardized.

Good to hear it still works on external displays. Evidently my problem with the gx630 was different because I had to force shutdown. I don't know if the chassis on these 2 laptops is really identical, but if they are I would never think of picking up that laptop with one hand. Its so ridiculously fragile that I tend to treat mine like an ultraportable.

As long as its not a BGA or a crack in the actual circuit tracks, it seems like you have a good chance of making a permanent repair to the motherboard...
BUT if you can't, I definitely wouldn't throw my notebook away. You should just get a DVI to LVDS converter board, wire it all up and fit it into your optical drive slot, thats what I would do.
One could even use a larger variety of LCDs by doing this, like a an 18.4" laptop screen you could dock into.

 

that was my first idea.the controller has faulty solder joints.i think this controllers are not bga.i thought they have pins.resoldering that chip should solve the problem

 

I think I know where the controller is, I will open the notebook today and try to fix it.

 

I could not find the controller (I googled the numbers on every chip that I could find).

So I just heated up random components again, this time also heated up the pins of the EC (just because it's right under the hot GPU).
Working well now, don't know for how long.


Screen not working:



Motherboard:

 

hi all,

i have a GT628 with GTS160M. need to ask here : if i upgrade (or change ?) to fx3700m, what actually will improve ? visually maybe ? performance ?

sorry if my question is silly...

 

Performance should improve. But the heat will go up a lot.

If you do something that works with CUDA, then it would be a great upgrade.
But for gaming, an overclocked 9800m GS is good enough (I think).

But it's a fun upgrade and you should be able to sell your 9800m gs for the same price that you can buy an fx 3700m.

 

It actually is. Few games I've tried it couldn't run them with all graphics settings maxed out, but most of them, it still can

 

i don't like to deal with heat issue.. i use this GTS 160M for gaming (not a hard core with extreme setting) and i think it decent. what interests me is i use it as HTPC often through HDMI out. i was thinking fx3700m will be able to bitstream HD audio (DD TrueHD or DTS HDMA) over HDMI to my receiver. i can only get PCM using GTS 160M.

any of you using this NB for HTPC as well ? and if you use fx3700m, how good is it for HTPC ?

 

The only Nvidia cards that will do bitstreaming are the 400 series.If you want bitstreaming you will have to switch to AMD HD4000+ series. As far as media decoding goes upgrading to a fx3700m just for that is overkill and not worth it.

 

Do youguys think the GTX260m is hotter than the 9800m GTS? Even if both are rated 75W and 55nm vs 65nm?

 

I think they should be about the same, for that reason you gave (65nm vs 55nm).

It might be the perfect GPU for this notebook. Cool and fast.

 

I think it will be hotter.
If the 9800m Gts really has a 75w tdp then it would run hotter than the 9800m GT which just doesnt make sense.
I think the 75w notebookcheck has published is for the 65nm version, and I'd bet you guys got the 55nm. but I don't really know.

 

I thought we had the 55nm, but when I asked in another thread a lot of people told me it was 65.

I also thought 65 was for the 512mb version and the 1gb version was 55nm, but I don't really know either.

 

The thing is we actually got the 9800m GS, which according to notebookcheck is rated 60W. Both, notebookcheck and GPU-Z show 65nm.
Mine is bios-overclocked even higher than the GTS, but I'm not sure if that means the TDP is about the same or since I haven't increased the voltages it still 60W...

 

notebookcheck and GPUz can't really be trusted, they have been wrong so many times.

When I flashed the 280m vbios onto my 3700m, GPUz told me the card was 55nm, so looks like GPUz just has a table or something that it checks. It can't read that info from the card.

As for notebookcheck, just look carefully at their ranking list...

 

Hmm.
With the 9600m you can tell because the core is c1 revision, or so I'm told.
I think the 3700m I flashed to a 280m showed as 65nm in hwinfo32, maybe you should try that.

These 64 shader cards are so weird. the 8800m GTS for example is way better than the 9800m GS and GTS just because its g92 based, it only has 50w tdp at almost 9800m gs clocks. The 2700m has 16 less shaders than the 9800m gs and is otherwise identical but supposedly it has the same TDP... if it was supported by nibitor I swear it would be overclockable to 700mhz

 

Well, trying is the only way... so if that GTX260m comes cheap (4 days left for the auction) I might give it a go and let you know if it works and how hot it runs

 

Funny thing, I was looking at my old 9800m GS vbios with nibitor and it says "G94 board - msi 55nm"

So looks like the card might be 55nm.

 

Same here....
BTW I asked the seller of that GTX260m and according to him the card is NOT compatible with our GT627. Then I checked that card in Nvidia's official site and it says Type III B. Shouldn't bid for it then?

 

The GTX 260m came in 2 forms, MXM 2.1 type III/HE and MXM 3.0 type b (AKA MXM III tybe b).

I would get the seller to clarify which one it is.
I think an easy way to tell would be by checking the vram clock. If the vram is 800mhz, most likely it's mxm 2.1 type III/HE.
If the vram is 950mhz, then it's mxm 3.0 type B.


Ask him to send you a photo of the actual GPU.

 

In the advert it says MXM 2.1 Type III, but in the specs he wrote it says 950Mhz for the memory... The card comes from a Clevo M860TU. Anyway, I'll try to contact him and clarify this.

 

god I get tired of the MXM mix ups, SO stupid (the types, not you it happens to everyone...) NO, its not MXM type III, its MXM version 3.0 type B, type III applies to MXM 2.1 only.
So both you and the seller are confused but no it is not compatible.

Thats funny, I remember that from when you gave me that vbios lol. it slipped my mind.

 

Ok no I get it. So, you say is not compatible either, is that because all GTX260m are MXM 3.0 B and he's mistaken saying is MXM 2.1 Type III? Does that Clevo use the MXM 3.0? I'm sorry but 1 day left for the auction and I want to be sure Thanks

 

Whoops, sorry you're right I missed you guys posts.
Hes wrong about the type b part then and he just copied the specs from a 3.0 card.

If its from the m860tu then it will definitely work 100% sure of it. No like MH said there are both 2.1 and 3.0 gtx 260m. It doesn't have 950mhz vram tho. Go ahead and buy it, then complain afterwards and ask for a partial refund

Do you have a link to the listing?

 

Spoiler

NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 - MXM 2.1 TYPE III (eBay item 110638771936 end time 01-Feb-11 05:30:08 AEDST) : Informatica e Palmari

Probably that.

 

Yeah that... He said he was wrong, he thought the GT627 had MXM 3.0 type, so yeah, it fits. BUT, look at the price guys, yesterday was 35€ and right now 232.... who the hell is paying such an amount of monye for that? I'm afraid I'll stick to my 9800 for now

 

Yeah that's way too high, would have liked to see how well one of those would work in the 627 though.

 

cause people think its their only option, I wouldn't be surprised if the 9800m gtx goes for even higher.

if you're looking for some kind of a weird maybe upgrade maybe not, ask this seller if they will ship worldwide:
NVidia G92 (8800M ?) 512MB MXM HE Laptop Video Card - eBay (item 370468410021 end time Feb-18-11 15:09:11 PST)