Clevo P150HM Upgrade Advice

Hi All,

I have been reading threads on this forum for a long time now, but thought I would sign up to see if I can get any advice about a problem I have with my Clevo P150HM (re-branded as a XMG P501).

It has a AMD 6990M GPU installed.

Earlier today I was gaming and the laptop froze, I was presented with a solid red screen. The machine was completely non-responsive (ctrl-alt-del) did nothing etc. I held down the power key to turn the machine off. When I rebooted, the XMG logo (which is normally on a black background) was displayed but there are now red lines all over the screen, the windows logo is then displayed, again with red lines on the screen and then the machine bluescreens and reboots before getting to the login screen.

If I enter the BIOS, this too has red lines all over the screen. The laptop will boot in to safe mode, however the colours are all strange (stranger than the normal 256 colours of safe mode), and again there are lines on the screen.

Now I am 90% sure this means the graphics card has failed? - I am always cautious about heat, I use the laptop raised from the desk, and never ever let dust build up within the fans/case. Before this occurred the GPU was at around 80 degrees on full load. (i.e it wasn't overheating). Also the GPU is not overclocked etc. That being said I am still pretty sure it is the GPU which is causing this issue. Does anyone know of anything else which could cause this? Im guessing Mobo or RAM?

I can’t seem to locate another 6990M (looked on eBay etc). However it seems relativity easy to locate a 7970M upgrade kit.

Does anyone know if something like this is plug and play?

CLEVO P150HM/P151HM VGA UPGRADE KIT; HD7970M 2GB; MXM 3.0b; with ENDURO DISABLED | eBay

It says that you need BIOS 14 and EC12. My BIOS reports that I have BIOS: 1.01.14 and EC: 1.00.13.

Is this BIOS 14 and EC 13?

It says that it comes with 'enduro disabled' I know that the HM series does not support enduro, is this another way of saying that the card is pre-flashed to be plug and play?

Also, the card is available from the UK, but not within an upgrade kit: CLEVO AMD Radeon HD 7970M 2GB FOR P150EM P170EM P370EM upgrademonkey in stock | eBay

I know that this means I have to flash the VBIOS, but is there anything else I have to consider if getting this card?

I would be following the instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-7970m-modded-vbios-clevo-p1xxhm-laptops.html

Ideally, I would like to just swap the damaged 6990M for another but I can’t locate one

I know that there are problems with using a card flashed for an Alienware machine etc, but would a card designed for a Clevo laptop but a different re-seller (e.g. Segar) work ok?

I really appreciate any help that anyone can offer me.

I am happy to purchase a new card, but really don't want to get stuck in the situation where I have purchased the card and still can’t get the laptop to work!

Thanks in Advance!



EDIT: here are some screenshots from another person on here who is having the same issue (except my lines are red, not blue)

http://s21.postimg.org/403ph89gn/C36..._17_51_285.jpg

http://s8.postimg.org/ielferp2t/C360..._21_26_588.jpg

 

Could a Mod please move this to the 'Clevo & Sager laptop' section, I have accidently put it in the owners lounge!

 

In case others have the same issue and are reading this. I replaced the 6990M with a 7970M from a Clevo P150EM and this fixed the issue. I used jaybee's blind flashing guide to disable Enduro on the card which worked perfectly!

So the problem was definitely the 6990M.