P170HM - P170EM Conversion

So as I have posted that my motherboard had died in my P170HM and I was trying to figure out a way to fix it... I ended up ordering a P170EM barebones from RJTECH.com, once I receive it I will be placing all of my components from the P170HM into the barebones and seeing how that goes. I figured I would make a post and follow up to let everyone know how it goes.

 

id say good decision in ur case should work without a hitch,keep us updated on ur progress!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Interesting solution, I hope it works out! About how much do the barebones 170ems cost?

 

I saw them for about 650 USD on RJTECH


Note: That is with a screen.

 

Not bad at all.

 

Yeah, I paid $800 dollars for the Barebones shipped which consisted of $110 shipping to Puerto Rico. The other options I had was $475 plus shipping on a motherboard, or getting a new system for around $2000 it just seemed that using my parts and spending $800 on a barebones with warranty would last me longer and allow me to spend $2000 down the road on an even better system once this one gets dated...

This should be an interesting project, I am keeping everything else stock from my original laptop which is in my signature so I am wondering how it will run. Sadly I never benchmarked my laptop so I wont have an exact comparison beside just the differences I notice. I will try to keep this updated once I get everything to let everyone know how it goes.

 

I think its better that you buy a new one, less work and more fun them

 

i wouldnt say that,especially if u like tinkering around (like me for example), this solution is definitely more fun besides,its way cheaper for him and if he decides to upgrade his gpu hell have the exact same perf of a brandnew system for like half the cost. in my opinion a good deal

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I love tinkering so this will be fun, I was going to just buy the power input port on my old motherboard as that is what is damaged but I couldn't find it anywhere and after talking to other people I was told that even if I did that correctly it probably still wouldn't even work. So yes buying a new one would have been "easier" but really my system is still pretty good for now so I didn't want to have to shell out an extra $1200 for a new one when this one will last me awhile yet.

 

OK! So I got my barebones in yesterday and assembled everything last night. I was going to take pictures but honestly everything fit together so nicely it just seemed like the came out of that system.... Everything is running now except... I am running off of the integrated video card as my Nvidia 485M is showing up as a generic card and I can't seem to get it to take drivers... I have tried the new driver disk, the old driver disk from my P170HM, downloading drivers from online, and they all say the same thing when I try to install them (No supported device found)

Any idea's on how to remedy this? I am going to try installing the drivers directly to the card via the device manager next but I am at a loss atm. I have seen that the first models of P170EM shipped out with this card or so some posts make it seem on these forums... So back to the drawing board.

 

hmmm....what OS are u using?

also,have u checked the bios? does the 485m show up correctly there?

maybe ull need to manually add the gpu device id into the driver .inf (as with the 680m on an hm machine).

otherwise glad to hear that everything went so smoothly!

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This post from this thread suggests that the 485M won't work in an Ivy Bridge laptop, and that the only reason you would have originally seen a 485M working in a P170EM is because initially Clevo shipped Sandy Bridge P170EMs, before they were able to switch to the Ivy Bridge motherboards.

You'll need an updated nVidia GPU, GTX 580M/570M/670M/675M, in order to work correctly in the P170EM. You could contact R&J and ask if they can send you the GTX 675M for the 195.00 you saved by removing the GPU from your order.

Good Luck..

 

He could always try flashing it to a 580m or a 675m. People have done that.

 

I didn't know the only difference was firmware. In that case, that would probably be the easiest solution.

Good Luck..

 

mmmmm nope. people have flashed a 580m to a 675m but theyve never reflashed a 485m since its a slightly different gpu core (GF104 vs. GF114 in the 580m/675m). motherboard revisions were always the same,just that IB mobos are able to handle SB cpus so initially clevo just shipped their machines with SB cpus but they were already using the 7 series chipsets. thats why i was asking if the gpu actually shows up in the bios and if manually adding its device id to the driver's .inf could possibly help him out

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Try to use a driver from laptopvideo2go.
I just got my 680m´s and put them in the X7200 where they are not officially supported, but with the drivers from them they installed the drivers.
For me that was not the solution, because SLI didn´t show up that way, but for a single card it should be working like charme.

 

The 485 does not support optimus which is what is causing the issue.

 

duh.makes sense

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I don't doubt that the problem is that basically the 485M won't work with this motherboard due to some kind of compatibility issue. I initially thought it's probably Optimus support but when I first looked up the specs for the GTX 485M, and compared them with the specs for the GTX 670M, they both state Optimus support, so I figured the problem lay elsewhwere. Perhaps not all Optimus support is created equal...

Still think that the only solution for the OP, is a newer nVidia GPU.

Good Luck..

 

hm true that again, i remember the SB alienwares already sporting optimus with the 485m... but that was an older version than the IB gen machines

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I just realized that I never came back and updated how the laptop was working. Using drivers with a modded inf from laptopvideo2go, I am able to utilize the graphics card for gaming. I am currently considering trying to locate a new card that works correctly with the p170em board just to get around the hassle of using modded drivers. It would seem that the cheapest new option I have is the amd 8970m for around $450 and all of the cards on the auction page are for dells. I am curious to know if any of the dell cards are compatible with the Clevo, or would the best option be to buy the new card. I am also tempted in buying a p170hm or p150hm with a optimus compatible card and swap my gpu into that one and then resell it... just trying to figure the best way to go.