installing Compal 8600M GT in an Acer (or anything else)?

Hi,

is it possible to run a 8600M GT from a Compal FL90 in an Acer (or any other) laptop?

I figure I would need to flash the vBios of the card, but does it work, then?

Any experience/ideas?

Cheers

 

The card is not flashable because it doesn't have a BIOS chip. It is simply not going to work.

 

Thanks!

So the card from the Compal FL90 will only work in another Compal FL90, or in any other that provides its own vBIOS within its system BIOS (which then might need modding), right?

Thanks again!

 

You mean it doesn't have an EEPROM?

I'm very curious what your experience was. I tried to flash some cards that were proprietary MXM from HP 8710p, and they didn't display on external or internal display, but NVflash still was able to detect the correct model...
Just said the EEPROM was unsupported.

I also tried it with wfflash but it didn't work... I think there is probably some way to do it, if there really is an EEPROM and its just unsupported.

What does an eeprom look like?

 

Like a small chip with 8 legs normally (for a GPU).

 

wow.

So I have a broken 8700m GT, and several working but VBIOS locked NVS 320m cards which are g84 based. Maybe I should try to swap the EEPROM...

I realize this is off sort of off the subject, but the only thing stopping me from doing it really is the fact that there are several chips with 8 legs like that which all look the same...
How do I differentiate between the voltage regulators and the actual eeprom? no reason cards would have multiple eeproms is there?

 

I don't have my 8600m anymore but if you looked at the board you could see an empty emplacement. The IC that was supposed to be there was not yet the same IC was present on the C90 version of the card. And when I disassembled the bios of my ifl90, the vbios was embedded there as a bios module. NVFLASH and GPU-Z both failed at extracting the vbios. That's what allowed me to reach that conclusion.

 

Thanks!

Ayle, would you kindly clearify this for me ...

 

Yeah. That card will only work with another fl90 or ifl90. And the way the system is setup that configuration also prevents you from using another nvidia card in the fl90/ifl90. The bios tries to use the 8600m GT vbios when you install a 9600m in the system for example and that's why ATI is the only certain way to upgrade it.

Now in theory the card should work in another system that has a 8600m Gt 512MB GDDR2 embedded vbios but since Compal made it hard to upgrade the fl90 with another Nvidia card they might also have done something else to the card to make it completely unusable on a different model.

 

Thanks for your comment Ayle +1

It's just that I have three Compal 8600M GTs here, and I sold one on ebay. Of course it did not work. I told them where its from, and that bidding is their own risk. Well, I now take it back, as it's also my fault.

Thanks again!

P.S.: ... 8600M GT ... anyone

 

I can think of a reason to have at least 2 eeproms, 1 for the vbios and 1 for the SPD of the vram.

I'm pretty sure the only voltage regulators will be smaller chips with 16 pins, might be 2 or 3 of those (should be on the back of the card).

I guess you could google the numbers on each EEPROM and check the datasheet for those to see which one looks like it would have the bios on it.

 

OK, but how did you know it was the one that was supposed to be there? Which IC on the c90 are you talking about?

That could be true, but some cards have upwards of 3 identical 8 legged chips - except for the markings on only 1. And I looked one up that was definitely some kind of voltage regulator.
Also, nvflash always identifies only 1 eeprom when it flashes, and you can (supposedly) edit SPD with the BIOS that is written to that 1 eeprom.

In any case - I see no other explanation. I believe the board ID of graphics cards is a pretty unique model number, unlike the actual card model of course.
The BGA is g84 and the board ID is the same as the 8700m GT on these nvs 320m cards... I really need to find that broken 8700m GT now to really go over the differences. But I think this is going to work...

 

Off-Topic: Hello, I need one working 8600M GT video card for Compal JFL92
Mine suffer and from time to time need to be baked because no video signal is on output.

1st repair: after 2 years and 1 week (Waranty was exactly 2 years)
2nd repair: after 7 months
3rd repair: after 3 months
4rd repair: after 2 months (this will be repaired now)

I need 2nd video card fro replacement.
Sorry for off-topic again.

 

1st - do not double-post.

2nd - you might read the first post of this thread - it's all there you need to know.

Short version: get an ATI 3450/3470/3650/4650/4670, avoid any NVidia cards - they won't work as long it is not one from a Compal.

Good luck

 

Sorry, for double posting I not knowed that first try was allready posted because my browser was blocked so I restarted then post again but in another thread that's why I don't see first post.

@Dr. Colossos: I read previous that you have couple of 8600M GT video cards from Compal for sales. Do you still sale that cards?

 

Yes, I do - but mind you, they are repaired by hotair reflow.

They do work now, but the fault will return - because the cards have a design flaw - no matter hwo you repair them, the fault will return.

If you want a permanent solution, get an ATI card - otherwise, come back at me, with an offer - hint: I sell them on ebay for 60-90€ ...

Cheers & good luck