Clevo P170EM upgrade with 980M: Little Big Details

Hello,

I'm waiting for a 980M card to replace the original 7970M, which stopped working some days ago on my Clevo P170EM.

The card is coming from China, via ebay, since the price of the upgrade kits from specialized Resellers, coupled with shipping and European customs, is just the double, which is out of proportion (~800€).

Like a drunken gambler, I’m watching the wheel spinning, in the hope that the ball will stop, at some point, on the lucky Prema BIOS.

For now, no success in contacting the Boss and impossible to acquire the software from the official associated hardware resellers, without buying an entire new rig.

In the meantime, I’m preparing for the chirurgical intervention on the half blind Clevo, and for that I would like to dress and inventory, to be verified with the kind support of the community.

To install the 980M in place of the 7970M, I would need (please correct me if I’m wrong):

• The spacer, which is currently below the 7970M
  
  
• The video card, with the associated, specific NVIDIA X Bracket
  
  
• The 4 screws to fix the bracket and backplate to the 980M: are those specific or I can use those of the 7970M?
  
  
• The 2 Hex Nuts to fix the video card to the laptop, normally supplied with the laptop so not NVIDIA/ATI specific, correct?
  
  
• The thermal pads to be adapted to the 7970M heatsink
  
  • Either I’ll buy a kit of pre-cut one from Eurocom (40€ shipped)
    
    
  • or I’ll buy some arctic of 0.5 mm thickness and 1.5 thickness (14€ tot) and play with them, but it can be risky. Your opinion?
    
• The 7970M heatsink, in 2 parts
  
  
• The 3 black screws required to fix the memory cooler to the hex nuts and chassis, normally supplied with the laptop so not NVIDIA/ATI specific, correct? I shall pay attention not to damage those because apparently they are fragile.
  
  
• The 4 screws required to fix the GPU core cooler to the card:
  
  • are those specific or I can use the ATI ones?
    
    
  • If I cannot use the ATI ones, anybody knows which size is compatible with 980M and where to acquire them please?
    

• The thermal compound, which will be the humble Arctic Silver 5
  
  

I hope this list and thread may also help others to inventory the little details which matter.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Alright and already you made a big mistake. Never buy from china you will get inferior components on your hardware, it will likely die rather soon, we already had a person here who made the mistake and after just a couple of months he ended up with a dead card.

Just buy a P170SM heatsink from Ebay, it will save you a lot of hassle and it's better than your P170EM one. it will be plug and play.

Contact @woodzstack for proper hardware in the future. He offers excelent services and prices, would always recommend.

 

Everything is made IN China, good and bad, where do you think non-Chinese retailers/etailers get their stock from? Anyway it's already done, so that's not really much help to OP.

Yes SM heatsink is better, but not necessary. Good old AS5 may not be up to it though especially if you want to OC. The EM heatsink can do alright if you tape up / block (with foam chunks) all the air gaps between fan and differently shaped grille...

Reused:
core heatsink
vrm heatsink + hex nuts x2 + screws x3

Specific to new card:
X-bracket (but screws from old one will probably still fit)
Thermal pads (1mm for chokes and 2mm for memory/fets IIRC. Good fit is more important than the W/mK of the pads and they are very easy to cut yourself)

Spacers are unnecessary since the two hex nuts anchor the card to the mobo flat

None of the screws are particularly fragile, I have screwed and unscrewed my P370EM heatsinks a hundred times in the past half year (lots and LOTS of vBIOS flashing requiring disassembly each time) and I think *one* of them is looking a little bit stripped. The right fitting screw head is critically important, if untouched from the factory there may be blue threadlocker needing a bit of grunt to break. A $10 swappable head screwdriver set from china will do fine

 

I guess I could be more precise about it. Never buy from chinese seller on ebay then.

I just told him in case it will die and he needs to get new, because I'm certain he will likely need a new one anyways. Also I think SM heatsink is somewhat a must when you plan on running a GTX 980M, especially when doing OC, the whole 2 part heatsink really hurts the cooling.

 

Ok guys, first of all thanks for your quick feedback:

1. For the card, it will come from here:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/nVidia-GTX980M-8G-MXM-SLI-N16E-GX-A1-video-Graphics-card-for-notebook-laptop/132466360469?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

If you think that this is a potentially lower quality product I can send it back at arrival. The issue is that any purchase from Canada or US will be heavily affected by shipping and customs, so unless someone knows a shop in Europe or Asia which is reliable, the alternatives will not be many. I'll contact @woodzstack in any case for a quote, thanks

By the way, the Arctic Silver 5 is also from eBay, UK. Is this an issue?

2. For the heat sink, is this one from ebay below (pictures on the right and last one), originally from an ATI 8970M, significantly better than the one I’m supposed to find inside my laptop (picture on the left), due to the black plastic aiding to interface the fins to the heatsink and the more compact single file fins set? Is this the detail you’re pointing at?


VS



3. I’m procuring a serious set of magnetic screw driver with multiple heads, so that should be covered

 

It isn¨t about the plastic, it's about that the newer heatsinks have the VRM heatsink connected to the same heatsink as the GPU, meaning you have 1 part heatsink instead of a 2part heatsink you got more mass for the vrms and potentially GPU as well.

AS5 is outdated, there are way better ones out there, since I know the heatsink you're working with i strongly suggest ICDiamond. The heatsink fit of the clevo series is terrible so pastes like ICDiamond which are thicker perform significantly better. That was also the case when I had the same unmodded heatsink like you have.

Also that looks like refurbsihed cards on the screen. Important to note that those screenshots you're looking at are 2 different GTX 980M's.

 

Thanks again, so:

• I'll buy the heatsink shown above
• I'll wait for the 980M to arrive and in the meantime try to acquire alternative quotes. If I find a reasonable price, I'll send back the chinese one.
• I'll buy IC Diamond and send back AS5

Thank you for your help

 

If the card matches the picture (samsung ram, those inductors etc) it's likely ok in terms of component choice, post it up if there are differences.

 

You could use the AS5 for the CPU, since ICD is pretty bad for that one. The CPU fit is oddly enough very tight. Due to the high thickness it pressed more paste out of the system than I'd like it to have done.

 

Thanks, I'll post pictures upon arrival, that will maybe help everybody knowing if that specific eBay shop sells quality components or not.

Great, it is already in delivery so it will be a pain to send it back

 

Yo,
What were symptoms of your 7970 dying?

im in kinda same situation, most likely gonna have to upgrade gpu but gonna go 1060 path

 

The 1060 will require some heatsink modding.The GPU is lower than the other GPUs, so you'll need to do something about it so it has proper contact, also the mosfets are located at a different location which will require some thick thermal pads in order to reach them.

 

Hi, at the instant of launching of a video game, the screen has gone blue, with some error message, locking the computer. At restart, the opening windows 7 screen (the one with the user login) was full of horizontal black stripes, like dead pixels in raws. After that:

No more dead pixels

• Laptop locking with a black screen at start if there was any version of ATI drivers installed. Only way around: Safe mode.
• Even starting in safe mode shown a Microsoft .NET error appearing in a window on the desktop
• All attempts to change drivers version, repair and reinstall .Net Framework, perform windows updates has produced no change.
• No effect of windows repair routines
• No visible effect of updating all INTEL drivers
• No virus or other issue detected
• No HD failure detected
• No RAM failure detected

Finally, I've found peace installing the original, prehistoric Clevo P170EM drivers from here:
http://www.clevo.com/en/e-services/download/ftpOut.asp?Lmodel=P1xxEM&ltype=9&submit=+GO+

I think these:
AMD 7970M VGA card driver (9.1.0.0) for Windows 7.

After that, windows starts normally, no more .NET errors, the 7970M appears as failed and NON STARTING in the Device Manager and the laptop runs on the embedded video card even on video games, which is useless but at least do not generate any failure.

I'm currently investigating myself the possibility to move to a 1060, thanks to

 

P170EM can be upgraded to GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 too. We support both of these options. Check our Upgrade Section for details.

 

GTX 1060 doesn't require GPU heatsink modding - just need to redo thermal pads however GTX 1070 requires modding.

 

@Dutch76 did you manage to make it work? I thinking of doing the same as you.
My HD7970 also died a month ago and I've been using the HD4000 since if I install the drivers of the AMD it will hang on the driver thread and bsod.

Thing is I don't have the possibility to shell out upwards of 500€ to upgrade the laptop I really wish I did but... I've also found a gtx980m for about 300€ and am planning to buy it but AFAIK not only the laptop bios has to be from prema, also the GPU bios has to be from prema.

For some reason it seems I can't send him a message so I'm afraid I'll end up with an expensive paper weight...

 

He may have messages turned off or his inbox is full

 

And that means gg on me I guess...

 

Until they are listed again perhaps.

 

@Prema now that I suppose you're back from your trip might I get some help or feedback from you? I still can't send you a message and still have a deaded GPU and I'm still broke :<

 

This is a missconception. The GTX 980M is fuilly compatible with stock Bios and vBios. Infact I've done multiple upgrades on P1xx EM/SM/SM-A models to maxwell without installing premabios nor encountering issues.

Once you bought the card, let me know per prvt. msg I'll make you the proper modded drivers so it doesn't bug.

 

Hey guys!
My first post here then here we go.
My gtx680m died last week also in my clevo p170em......if change to gtx980m 8gb i dont need any mod in my bios?
I always tought this was so hard to do when i decides to change to gtx9xxm models never expect this could be so easy is that?
I will try to post a photo with my mb model and bios version.



Thx and best regards!

 

Nope it's just plug and play, remember to buy proper thermal pads as well and enjoy your system. You will need to mod your .inf files other than that no problems.

 

Nice im happy to know that, thx alot Danishblunt !
When i got my new card will send u a msg to see which .inf i need to change. And about my thermal pad i have original thermal from my 680m it says its for 100w isnt? U mean i will need to buy a new one?

 

Feel free to do so.

 

Is the stock p170em power supply enough to handle GTX 1070? I have a p170em with 3720qm. Am thinking about upgrading it to have a better spare computer for when friends stay with me. Also, what kind of modding for the 1070? Is there a link that details what is involved?

 

Given that the Gecube version is only 115WTDP (10W less than GTX 980M) I'd say your power supply shouldn't have any issues at all.

 

Mostly it would be power unlocking you would need to worry about but that's a bad idea on the Gecube cards anyway.

 

The Gecube 1070 is 90W from factory.
Some reseller just flash 115W vBIOS from other models to it before shipping.
The RMA rates are already through the roof with 115W, so I wouldn't recommend to go even higher.

 

Wow, I thought they were made for 115W not 90W. Welp....

 

The adventurous could get all the VRM chips removed and replaced with a higher quality pin compatible part. I would uprate the capacitors at the same time however.