Clevo x7200 with 680M does not boot

Hello,
I plied the threads for a while to ensure I'm not wasting people's time by repeating a 5 year old question, but I can't seem to find an answer to my dilemma:
I recently ebay'ed a 680M 4GB GPU card produced by MSI (specifically an N13E-GTX-A2) for use in my old x7200 laptop. The installation went well, the heat sink fit perfectly and all the holes lined up. But when I turned on the computer, I witnessed a brief flash from the power LEDs followed by another brief flash a quarter second later. I double checked my socket, and reinstalled my original 460M to ensure the mobo still works and I didn't inadvertently fry anything. The seller insists the card is good.
My questions are these:
What would cause the card to prevent the bios from even loading?
Do I need a BIOS update? I see others posting about running GTX 680M's on CLEVO x7200's all over the place. Any problems are usually with getting windows to recognize them at a driver level.
Is this card hopelessly incompatible with my CLEVO?

Thank you for your time.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

Can you make pictures of the card? Back and forth? Sounds weird.

 

Yes you need to update the BIOS. Technically, it should at least boot into BIOS and also DOS to let you flash the vbios if necessary, so not booting to BIOS is a sign of either old BIOS or a broken card. Assuming yours is in fact working, keep your old video card in and update the BIOS, then try again.

 

Thank you for the speedy responses!
I went ahead and updated my BIOS to 1.00.11 using this very website ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-bios-older-models.556299/) and am happy to report I didn't brick my CLEVO. The only BIOS more modern affects RAID, which I don't think will help.

The bad news is that there has been no change in the behavior of the 680M whatsoever - slight double flicker of the power lights and that's it.
I'm starting to think the card is defective.

Given my situation, how can I flash the vBIOS on the GPU? Is it even possible?

Cheers,
Jeff

(Note: I cleaned the green paste off the contacts in the picture below. Contacts are perfectly clean)

 

The flicker of lights indicates that the card is shorted. Do you have a multimeter?

Also what are you using for an x-bracket? You cannot use an AMD x-bracket. They are too wide and cover caps under the core.

 

Good catch, also what thermal pad arrangement are you using?

 

I use the same X bracket that was used by the 460M, including the black adhesive X shaped insulator. It is noteworthy that even with the absolute minimum install (no X bracket, heatsink, etc.) with just the card and two screws to hold it in place it still flickers as described.

I do have a multimeter.

But what would I check? I did look over the tiny contacts for any gunk or damage but nothing stands out.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers,

Jeff

 

The x bracket could have killed it potentially if the backing was damaged. Even if not it can damage passives on the back.

 

The adhesive backing film is actually wider than the metal, and doesn't seem to have any hole or tears. Besides I'm using it on my 460M right now and it's fine. I also wear a grounded ESD strap whenever handling electronics ( a lesson learned from a zapped Pentium II back in the day ) I am starting to feel like I got sold a bad card as I took every precaution and it is showing symptoms of a failure at the lowest hardware level.

I appreciate your time. I will try and get my money back. Perhaps a good deal on a Quadro?

Cheers,

Jeff

 

On the mxm connector check the resistance between two of the really big contacts on one side. It should be in the thousanda of ohms.

 

The meter reports 3.5 M Ω across the largest contacts.

 

In order to flash the VBIOS you need to get post BIOS, and boot from a USB stick which has DOS + the desired vbios on it (google for a DOS guide).

 

ok it is not shorted out then.

 

I wish I could! With the 680M GPU plugged in I reliably get nothing but two flickers of the power button's LED. I assume this is failing the POST. I have nvflash and what appears to be the most updated ROM, but I am stuck. Every tutorial I've read has me boot off a memory stick (which I used to update the CLEVO bios) but I can't boot ANYTHING. Am I missing something obvious?

Does not having the correct vBios even cause this POST failure issue?

BTW Sirana, I noticed you moved to a Quadro K4000M, compared to the nVidia 680M is it a better card?

I appreciate the help from this forum, I've certainly learned a lot.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

Usually it posts, though sometimes with a black screen.

 

Just recently got one of the x7200 laptops, has a failed gtx 485 sadly, in for options looking into a k4000m because its priced better than a k5000m not finding if it will work.

 

Really hope you make it work somehow Jeff. Unfortunately I have no idea how to help, but very interested in what you end up with.

I have an x7200 that I thought I wanted to give a little more life. Have ordered a i7-980x and 16 gigs of RAM on eBay, waiting for them to arrive. Last part is the GPU. Have two 460M and looking to replace them with one or two 680M but they are just so damn expensive (and extremely rare in the EU as well). Somebody even have a faulty 680M posted on eBay for 100 EUR

 

Yes, my good old 680M died after 5 years of heavy usage, RIP! I bought a used K5000M in 2016 (from an Alienware lol) and thought it would serve me at least until I finished writing my dissertation on it. Little did I know that it overclocks like a king and runs smooth as butter on techinferno's modded vbios (which sets default clocks exactly at 680M levels) PLUS it is still working now after 2 years, saving me from buying a new notebook! Clevo's are awesome, letting you swap parts like this. My x7200 is running a 500GB Evo 850 alongside 2 other HDDs, 24GB of RAM, the i7 980 and K5000M. I am playing Far Cry 5 on a notebook I bought in 2011, and only incrementally upgraded along the way! Hope you can get your hands on a K5000M. The performance is about the same as 680M, BUT you don't need to modify the Nvidia drivers for installation

 

Hello,
I wound up getting a full refund from eBay, so that freed up the funds to try this upgrade once again. I'm fairly certain that card was somehow defective. Sirana, I am curious about your K5000M. I'd like to follow in your footsteps exactly in order to avoid wasting cash I don't have. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your K5000M? What is reasonable? Who is the manufacturer?

I appreciate any info.

Cheers,

Jeff