D900F (pre-gtx480m) with radeon 5870?

Hello Notebookreviewers,

I have a D900F that came with a GTX 280M, with the older PSU (that will not support a GTX 480M) and attempted to upgrade to a Radeon 5870 mobility.
Before purchasing the card (I probably should have posted a 'can I upgrade to this?' question here first...) I had tried reading up as much as I could and was hopeful by those who have posted success stories... but one thing I could not find was the power requirements of the card it self...

Any way I bought the card from RJTech, and bought the heatsink upgrade kit from eBay, removed the old heatsinks and my old GTX 280M and installed all of the bits... while on battery and with the back cover removed to make sure the fans all spun on, I did a quick power on and the system posted and went to the Windows log in screen... happy with this I hurried up and back panel back on and placed my laptop on my desk and reattached my PSU, then all I saw was a white screen. I powered my system back off and tried several times to repower up, all I get is a blank screen, both on my laptops LCD and my external monitor with DVI. The system it self powers up and I get LEDS and the caps lock key reacts, but no display.

Doing a quick google I find similar stories to people with the desktop variant of the Radeon 5800 series, and most people seem to reply that its ether a dud video card or a inadequate PSU.

Any ideas folks?

 

I changed back to my gtx 280m, beginning to think my only upgrade option is the gtx 285m..

I think my problem with the radeon 5870 mobility is ether...

A) power supply won't support it, it seemed to run while on battery .. but it won't run on battery any more.

B) the heatsink isn't supporting the card properly, the card worked for a short while, maybe it over heated and fried it self..

C) or the card is just a dud, though I have nothing else to test it in, and rjtech won't accept returns.

 

What is the vbios of your 5870m?
x8100 version or w860cu version?

AFAIK, a 5870m from x8100 can't work proporly when installed in D900F.
Flashing to the vbios for 5870m of w860cu/w870cu/w880cu may solve some problems.

Besides, post a pic of your heatsink of the upgrade kit if possible.

 

Ill post some pics tonight when I get off work, I know some place on the package it gave a version number, I bought my 5870 off of rjtech, it was stated for the w860cu/w870cu systems.
I would try to flash vbios if I could, as of last attempt to run the card I got no display at all, no BIOS screen, no nothing, the only feed back I got from my system was the led lights blinking away, that told me the laptop it self was starting up, but no display at all.
The part that sucks with the d900f, is that it gives you only one video card slot, so I can't start my system with both the gtx 280m and the 5870 together...
So I'm kinda stuck here.

At least with my gtx 280m my system runs like normal

 

Ok, I am back and took some pics last night, uploading them now to imageshack.

The metal plate thingy it came with, that fits around the video card (my GTX 280M does not have one, so I do not know if it would make any difference in operating the card),
has several stickers on it referring to the card in different ways... some seem to be part numbers and another seems to be its serial number,
one says 'ATI BROADWAY V2.0 1G' another says 'VBIOS:TS35951.018'



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Didn't MXM-upgrade.com upgrade their D900F to a 6970M?

 

I'm sure they did, bit to help meet the power demand of the newer cards, Clevis had to upgrade the PSU on the D900F, but unfortunately it does not seem as easy changing the power brick, rjtech.com notified me that the motherboard would also have to be changed.
They still sell the newer motherboard and power brick, for a $600 upgrade.

 

I see, the pic you post is of the heatsink for 480m.
But with modification showed in your pic,it might be fit for 5870m.So heatsink is not a problem.

Does your 5870m have crossfire slot?
5870m for w8x0cu doesn't have that thing.
Here is a picture of a 5870m for w870cu put in d900F by SFVogt.

 

Without modification of the PSU connector, you won't be able to upgrade to a larger PSU.

Your D900F is the old version which has female DC in jack so it accepts male connector of the D900F/D901C 220W PSU.

The larger PSU is one 300W PSU for x7200 which has a female connector.
x7200 and later GTX480m version D900F have male DC in jack so they could share that PSU.

 

My card does not appear to have a crossfire connector, I can see where one on the side of the card would have been, but the connector was never attached.

So the D900F can use ether a 220 or 300 Watt PSU, and mine is the 220 Watt.

I would like to find out though, just how many Watts the radeon 5870 needs. I would like to compare the eletrical requirements between my GTX 280m and the Radeon 5870m.

Tried googling about a bit, all I can find is their TDP, the GTX 280M is 75watt, and the Radeon 5870m is 50. But thats how much heat they produce, not how much juice they need... if I could run this radeon with out upgrading PSUs I would love to do it, but if I cant then I may just sell my D900F.

I would hate to do that though, I love this portable desktop format.

 

Hi, i got the 5870m in the old D900F (Male in DC Adapter, Female in the D900F) => 220W = (20V * 11A).

It's works very well.

 

And by the way the GTX 480M doesn't require 300W PSU. In the other hand, it requires the 220W 19V 11.57A PSU and will not work with 220W 20V 11A one. this 220W 19V 11.57A PSU needs the new motherboard version with the new AC jack OR a simple adaptor between MB and PSU (6-43-D90F0-020). That's all.

 

Hi,

May I please kindly ask how did you managed to install the 5870 into your old D900F ???

Can you please provide step by step instructions ???

How much did you purchase the 5870m for ???

 

now i understand the difference between a new version of the motherboard with support for GTX480M

 

Check here
[User-Review] 17,1" Clevo D900F Gamer/Workstation Notebook - Forum de Luxx

 

And do you think that the D900F with the 19v or 20v PSU could accommodate the Clevo 6990M ?

 

As far as I know, 6970m(Eurocom version,cyan PCB) on D900F would lose fan control. MXM-upgrade made the test.

6990M may run into the same issue.

 

Did you know if they tried also a Clevo card?
Thank you

 

Their 6970m are Eurocom or Dell version and seem not to get hold of a clevo one.

So I've no ideas.

 

Hi, I know it's been a while since this post, but I just recently upgraded my Old Sager NP9280 (the 1st model with the male pins and female motherboard entry) with a gtx 480m. The problem I am having is that it will only boot on battery, and then I can plug the psu back in. I figure it's the amps missing from the 20v 11amp PSU that are not giving it enough power, but the battery somehow does give it the initial boost needed.

My question is this:

Is the 43-D90F0-020 here( 43-D90F0-020 (Notebook Netzteile original) - ipc-computer.de) what I need? Will this work with my computer, and is there any risk that it might cause damage to the motherboard?

Thank you for your help!

 

Confirmed, my PSU Toshiba 19V 9,5A works fine and starts without battery Xeon X5670 and 6990M (D900F 2st model with the male pins motherboard entry)