P170hm graphic card upgrade freeze at sager logo 770m/680m

Hello,

I bought my sager p170hm to a supplier today and he tested six clevo version 680ms and one 770m on my laptop. All of them freezes at sager logo. Spamming f2 can't enter bios. He ran out of 675mx and tested a 670mx and it works just fine and the system recognizes the card. I left my laptop in his hand. He will try flashing the bios to the clevo version and try it out again. Does anyone experience similar issue and knows how to resolve it?

Thanks.

 

Freezing on the boot logo could be a few different things, memory could be one, so trying a single stick would be one easy thing to try.

 

He got it working ^^ flashed a few different bios, and did re-installthe memory as well. Great advice <3

However 770m still doesn't work. So I took the 680m. The card is so good. It is just so smooth running games. Well worth the extra money.

Btw it seems my 2760qm temps r quite high. Are these temps normal?

44-50 idle running bf3 80-85 degrees.

 

I'd say those idle temps are a little high, but under load those look high but within normal limits. The tmax for the 2670QM is 100deg C.

You might look into a repaste and making sure the vents are cleaned out.

 

bf3 multi is quite CPU stressful so seems fine to me.

 

The vents r cleaned when I replaced the gpu. It worried me too regarding those idle temps cuz it used to be around 36-40. i will continue to monitor those temps and have a mx4 rdy. I feel abit uncomfortable with the gpu temp about 10-20 degrees cooler than my CPU in idle. It looks so wrong..

 

Considering when the GPU is idle it's actually totally switched off that's not too surprising.

 

Depending on how many miles are on the laptop, it may very well need new paste anyway. But the temps are certainly safe as mentioned.

 

Hello Hovermet, I'm having the same issue with the 680m. Can you tell me who made it work or can anyone please share the bios that worked with me?

Or maybe his email, I'll be glad to PayPal the one that helps me with this. I have a p170hm and I'm traveling a lot, that's why I can't take the laptop to a service center.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Is it a clevo or dell 680m? Dell 680m's are incompatible with clevos.

Here's a good thread you should take a look at. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/735156-upgrading-p170hm-gtx-680m-step-step-help.html It contains a link to the stock vbios needed for a clevo 680m to work in a p170hm.

If you are having driver issues, here is another good thread in regards the changes you need in the .INF file. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/696403-p150hm-p170hm-non-3d-680m-windows-8-driver-installation-troubleshooting-thread.html

Don't worry about PayPal payment, there are a lot of helpful people on these forums. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to create a thread and ask. You should get a response within a few hours.

 

Thanks bro, is a 4GB sager 680M. So it should work I guess. But it doesn't it freezes at the sager logo when I turn the laptop on.

Oh I thought it was the laptop's bios. Well if it's the vbios, then I'm fried, I don't know of anyone near me that could have a compatible laptop to flash the vbios on it and then try it back on the p170hm. I'm in South America at the moment.

Any suggestions?

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Make sure you are running latest BIOS for Clevo P170HM for both bios and ec controller.

They can be found here
P170HM
Make sure you are running
System BIOS 1.01.10 for P170HM
and EC09

If these are installed and you still have the issue then the vbios of the 680m needs to be flashed via another notebook to 80.04.29.00.01. Only this vbios works with the clevo notebooks and the 680m 4GB clevo card.

Best of luck

 

Thanks! I'll try that and let you guys know when it works and how.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

tron2^: your inbox is full.

Do you leave the ram on the back exposed for the 680M? The dell x-bracket actually covers the ram on the back but it's not linked to the heatpipe so I dono if it does anything.

 

tron2^: your inbox is full.

Do you leave the ram on the back exposed for the 680M? The dell x-bracket actually covers the ram on the back but it's not linked to the heatpipe so I dono if it does anything.

 

Yes leave it exposed nothing to worry about.
My inbox should be ok now. Sorry for the delay.

 

Do you guys know about this compatibility problem, that p170hm is supposed to have, when changing from ati to nvidia?

I read something about it. I had a 6990m that suddenly stopped working. Now a bought a 680M and I'm looking for a compatible machine to flash the vbios to the version that works with my p170hm.

Do you know if this is true? That it is actually not possible to upgrade to a gtx from a radeon?

My notebook came with the latest BIOS and ec, stock.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Well....

My P170HM had no issues in going from ATi 6990m to the Nvidia 680m. However, I did request with the owner of the 680m to have the specified bios to be flashed onto it before I received it.
Once it arrived I put it in and bingo the card booted up bios screen was set to default and off I went into windows and installed the modified nvidia inf drivers for this card. Look around for these with google

Your issue is centralised around the vbios on the 680m not being compatible with your notebook. Once you have 80.04.29.00.01 on it then you are good to go. Aldus D, your best bet is to send it back to the original owner whose machine is compatible with this card and he can boot into windows with the card. Once this is done request him to flash the 80.04.29.00.01 vbios onto the card with atiwinflash. Then he can resend it back to you and you should be all ok.

Good luck

 

That or ask your original reseller if they can do it for you

 

Thanks tron2^ and Meaker for the help!

Yep. The story is a bit long, but making it short: Sager is very harsh when you don't buy everything from them. The stock 6990M in my laptop died, 2 months after the warranty ended. Bought it from Xoticpc. I talked to them and they asked Sager to give me some options to replace the card. They offered me a 560M por 450usd, a 6990M for 600usd and a 580M for 1000usd. Ok.

I found the 680M on ebay, the seller is a great guy and tried to help already, but he never did any flashing or so. So... and he is pretty far also. I bought the card because I know it is good, and got it for around 600usd, almost new.

I got the card. It didn't work. The laptop freezes at Sager logo. That's why I asked about it here. Wanted to make sure the card worked and it was another issue. Here's when tron2^ helped greatly.

Now, I'm in south america. Nowhere near ANY gaming laptop tech support place, or guys who own gaming laptops. So my only option is to send the card to a friend in Nashville, and find out WHERE he take the card to flash it to the vbios version that works, and then send it back to me.

And that's the story haha.

 

Have you asked if xotic will help you out if you pay shipping?

 

Yep. They basically "can't offer any support for 3rd party parts, thank you very much for contacting xotic support".

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Ouch, ok, I would look to see if there is someone who can de solder the BIOS chip and manually program it then, an emergency bios recovery service would do this.

 

You can buy a bios eeprom programmer for about $20 on ebay. Desoldering that chip is harder though, given how small it is. I would only do it if you are feeling adventurous.

 

Then again it may be easier to find a place that can desolder the chip for you and put it back on than somewhere that also has the programmer.

 

Thanks Meeker and godlyatheist! I'm still trying to find a store or notebooks tech support in Nashville to do the flashing for me. Haha the solution is so simple!

But it is hard to find one on Google. Anyways thanks guys I'll post here any news.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

I would search further out and be willing to ship it, the card is small so should not be too expensive to send out.

 

I could help out but have started work and too much work is happening. If you can't get help by Xmas pm me. The 680m will go into my alienware m17xr2 which should be able to work with that 680m regardless of vbios on it. I'll then flash you clevo vbios on it and send it back. Xotix pc shame on you not helping a clevo owner.
Dude try mythologic and if they say no try me but after Xmas.

 

Well, can't really blame Xoticpc for that. It's third party. If they are not successful due to physical damage to the card, who is liable? The card was not working in the first place.

 

You could always send it to svl6 or prema?

 

That's SVL7 btw

 

Thanks tron2! Where do you live?

Mighty_benduru yes I know. I don't blame them. But I believe that service is not that different from sending them the laptop for general manteinance and bios update and firmwares. But that's their policy. It's ok.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Hi Everyone,

I have a Clevo P170HM notebook and would like to upgrade the videocard. I bought a Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M. (originally i had GTX 560M, still using this)

So, i installed the new card, updated my clevos bios (EC 1.09 and BIOS 1.10) but got that freezing Clevo logo screen at startup.
I cant enter the bios, i can do nothing. The screen freezes and i can hear a "beep" sound. I think the problem is the same like the guy here had.

My new GTX 675M is from a Dell Alienware machine and think it has a Dell vBIOS.

From where can i get a "standard" GTX 675M video BIOS?

Hopefully i can find somebody locally who has a Alienware machine and we can do the flashing. I just need a correct bios for Clevo P170HM

Thanks your help!
Zoltan

 

Looks like this could turn into a big business with new users popping up by the day with incompatible vbios's.
At least the community is willing to help out. Wish sager/clevo had the appropriate tools to give to sager resellers to do this like chip programmers, etc.

But then again sager is only interested in selling the latest and greatest in one package.

 

Hey kutizoltan83, welcome down to the hole! Haha

Tron2 I even looked at the card with dark thoughts soaked in the word "desolder" haha.

Zoltan as soon as I find a safe solution I'll let you know.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

hahahah
I wish one day life would be easier for notebook users and upgradability. I can only hope

 

I dont think there would be a fast solution of this problem.
I need to find somebody with an Alienware notebook or somebody with a BIOS flash tool. Its not that easy.

I live in Ireland, Dublin. I have just moved here and dont know any experts in this city...
I have a friend in my original country who can help me, but i should sent him my videocard and he can flash it and sent it back. But it takes at least 2 weeks... I wanted to use my GTX 675M now...

Anyway thanks your help guys!
Zoltan

 

Two weeks sound fantastic to me! Go ahead!

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Flashing the vbios won't do anything since the EC controller is the problem

 

The EC problem is the shutdown and high fan RPM issue, as shown by your own system which shares the same motherboard, with the right vbios the card will run.

 

Hi,

I have already flashed the EC controller and the BIOS also. This was the fist step, but my Clevo still freezes at startup screen with the new GTX 675M. So thats why i would like to update the vBIOS.

I have the correct Clevo BIOS for my videocard. The problem is, i cant find anybody with a Dell Alienware machine nearby. I am from Ireland, Dublin...
BTW I have visited the local computer "experts" and repairs but when i explained my problem they were just looking at me with popping eyes... ...

So at the moment i am forced to my old GTX 560M.

Isnt here anybody from Ireland, or from the UK who is able to help me?

Thanks!
Zoltan

 

What about you Mr. Meaker?
Scotland is not too far from Ireland.

Are you able to help my problem?

Thanks!

 

Can you post a picture of the card?

If you need a quick service Grains BIOS Repair | BIOS Repair Services have always done the job well when I did not have my own means.

 

Do you know what vbios is on that card? If it is 70.24.44.00.06 then you most likely won't solve this issue by updating to a newer version.

 

Hi Everyone,

So, my Clevo P170HM vs. Dell Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M problem has been solved. A lots of thanks to Prema!
For those who having the same incompatibility problems here you are a "quick guide".

Originally i had a GTX 560M in my notebook above, but would like to speed up my machine a bit and bought a GTX 675M. (similar like GTX 580M)

My new card comes form a Dell machine. If you would like to install a Dell Nvidia GTX 675M (or 580M... or maybe 680M) but not in a Dell machine first you have to update the videocards BIOS.
Without vBIOS update my Clevo stopped booting. I couldnt enter the BIOS either, i could just see the startup screen and heard a beep sound.
Some experts said update EC controller and BIOS of my notebook. I did, but still had the same problem.

Then i got a tip: try to update the GTX 675M's BIOS. Since this card is form an Dell Alienware machine it had Dell BIOS on it. This was the hardest part, because my notebook doesnt recognized the card, so i had two options for BIOS flashing:
1a. try to find a computer expert who can update video bios with an special external device (desolder the bios chip from the card, update it with a special tool and solder it back - i dont really liked this idea... and by the way i couldn find anybody who was able to do this processs)
2. try to find somebody with a compatible Dell Alienware notebook. Install the card and do the BIOS update from DOS.

Fortunately i found a helpful guy nearby who had a Dell M17X R3 notebook. He took the machine to my home, we installed the card and i updated the vBIOS with NVFLASH program under DOS. (I think we could use windows version of this updater utility, but i prefer booting from a pendrive and do it under DOS)

The vBIOS update was successful with the ROM file what Prema (an expert guy from this forum) gave me. It took about 20 sec.
Then i removed the GTX 675M card from the Dell and installed it into my Clevo.
Surprisingly my notebook started booting with the new card and my Windows 7 loaded shortly.

BUT the device manager it showed just "standard VGA adapter" tho i reinstalled Nvida drivers, but it didnt change...
To solve this issue you have to install a modified .inf file containing Nvidia driver. There are some forums from where you can get these special drivers.
(basically its the driver plus an added *.inf file which you have to replace in the original driver's folder before run the setup.exe)
With the latest modded driver i could run Nvidia installer and completed it successfully.

So after 1 week hard work, seeking and investigation my cards works finally. It performs very well so i am quite happy and satisfied with the new GTX.

I hope i could help with this post to those people who having the same or similar notebook videocard upgrade programs.


Zoltan