Real Life Clevo MXM GPU Upgrade & Compatibility thread (testers wanted!)

EDIT: I don't own a Clevo anymore for obvious reasons, but I do own a lot of strange MXM cards that I didn't test in my w870cu. So, if anyone lives in the twin cities, MN area and owns a Clevo, feel free to PM me if you want to do some tests in the interest of research and information etc.

EDIT 2: A while after I posted this thread, resellers have told forum members that Clevo will no longer be supporting newer GPUs in older EOL laptops. The 6970m in the w870cu/w860cu was the last card to be supported beyond the cards the laptop was released with and cards of similar architectures.

At this point, its safe to assume you cannot upgrade your MXM 3.0 Clevo/Sager to any card your laptop was not released with.
Exceptions are the x7200, m980nu, d900f, and a few other laptops that have not been tested significantly. And, the w860/w870cu which works with the 6970m.

/EDIT

I've decided to start this thread because of a long running conception of Clevos that I believe is a now a total misconception. This is that Clevos are simply the best laptops for user upgradeability.

When I bought a Clevo w870cu, I bought it because I thought it was a better laptop than my MSI gx640. I was extremely disappointed to find how wrong I was. What it lacks in BIOS support for MXM cards it certainly does not make up for in build quality especially for someone like myself who tests a LOT of MXM cards.

Every card I tested worked flawlessly on the MSI gx640, and most I even tested to work on an Acer 7738g.

On the Clevo, after about 15 seconds the laptop beeped for about 30 more seconds and shut down. I have tried multiple BIOS versions and I'm sure the cards were not overheating.

So without further ado, I'd like to present the information I've gathered from these tests and humbly ask anyone who is capable to test cards on their Clevo that are not known to work.

The following cards and laptops have been tested to be NON functional with each other.

Clevo w870cu / Sager np8760 (non USB 3 motherboard):
-Dell GT 240m
-Dell Quadro 3000m
-Quadro FX 1800m
-ES GTX 460m (spontaneously started working after several re installations)
-HP 9600 g (gt 130m)

Clevo p170hm/p150hm / Sager np8150/np8170
-Dell 6990m (can probably be fixed with vBIOS flash)
-Clevo 7970m

...more to come.

Also, I should mention, Clevos do not seem to allow vBIOS flash or any recognition of GPU when booted to DOS. It seems ES/QS cards CAN be nonfunctional before being flashed with a standard vBIOS but there will have to be more tests to confirm.

Some may ask, why does this matter? Well, for one the misconception. But more importantly, the fact that cards of other brands aren't affected implies that only a specific, limited set of cards are supported for each laptop. This could very well mean that even Clevo branded Nvidia 600m series and AMD 7000m series will NOT be supported by the hm57 or even the latest hm67 gen laptops.

 

That's strange, my M570TU was tested and proven functional with a 9600M GT. I guess they are cutting support now.

 

"after about 15 seconds the laptop beeped for about 30 more seconds and shut down"
this is what happened putting dell oem 6970/6990m(not es one) into p15/170hm(bios:september)

 

When the HD7000M series comes out I intend to test so I shall be happy to let you know Niff.

For now here is my GPUz screenshot of my HD6970. Note the subvendor section.

 

Sorry to thread-hijack, but has there been any successful attempts at this?

I've just ordered a Dell OEM 6970m (from m18x) for my w860cu, so this has me worried

 

Have you ordered a 5870 heatsink for the W860CU/NP8690 it fits perfectly. The previous owner upgraded the laptop to the 6970 so I can't comment on whether a DELL OEM card will work or not. What colour is the PCB of the card. If it is blue then it will probably work. As myself and another user on here with the 6970 have that colour and not Black or another colour

 

@OP
The cards 15sec / 30 sec is there enough power for them.
As far as I know the other manufacturers make 1 generic bios the change a few small things in their laptop bios to customize it for each model so they leave the generic gpu list in there.

How Sager deals with this or only has a limited amount of gpu's listed could cause this or the specific way the bios interacts with the gpu's during boot process.

There is ways to rip open the firmware and see what is going on in there, not a expert so can not help on this.

Also check the cable from GPU to screen and the ?power strip? or waht is it called and if that is similar rating to the MSI / others.

Personally if Sager / any laptop manufacturer tells me I can only Nvidia to Nvidia or only limited amount of cards then they can go and Apple laptop themselves.

I buy Sager / Clevo because I can put any NV / AMD gpu in it, if not then I will stop buy from them and encourage everyone else to boycott Sager / Clevo as well. We don't need another Dell / Apple democratic humans rights atrocity laptop manufacturer that limits us and our choices.
I have no issues to buy minm. 30x 72** replacement laptops from any other manufacturer or not buy laptops at all.
Netflix lost 800 000 customers Sager / Clevo can loose all their customers if they are stupid.

 

Well put MadRocker! Unfortunately many are much like sheep and still love Dell and Apple to the point of worship Proprietry isn't the way forward but it is popular so it will continue on.

 

Something makes me think the dell 6970m would have worked eventually. Those can be flashed to Clevo BIOS... I'm not really too worried about the cards that they've already been released with.

Again if anyone has a Clevo with MXM 3.0, and MXM cards other than what they were released with, please test and report here.

Yes. 120w adapter with 35w MXM cards is plenty.

The BIOS of Clevos is EFI based. Part of why you can't detect MXM cards or flash vBIOS with DOS.
Its involved with the MXM structure, I'm fairly sure, the failure to work with simple cards makes me wonder if there is whitelisting going on.
Check this thread to give you an idea of how badly most MXM structures and vBIOSes are designed for compatibility:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/575866-possible-fix-acer-x920g-vs-geforce-9600m-gt-issue.html
All MXM 2.1. A lot has changed in 3.0 and the specification isn't available anywhere.

Haven't been able to compare power at the wall outlet, but in my situation things like CCFL vs LED backlit screens would be affecting things.

I agree completely, and I also fail to see why they don't feel the need to inform resellers about these things.

Although its worth mentioning, the Dell Alienwares are doing pretty well on MXM upgrades, at least the m17x with Core 2 is working with 5870s and booting up with other cards.

 

"On the Clevo, after about 15 seconds the laptop beeped for about 30 more seconds and shut down."
IMO, it may be too weak (or defectif) power supply or plug fault.
I had a similar problem with overly OC / OV.

 

and, with a faulty gpu.......last time i bga 480m but theres a little crack on its core, get the boot-beep-shutdown

and, with crappy vbios.......when edit 480m vbios lock its mc to single(64bit 512mb), get the boot-beep-shutdown

and, with desktop driver(nvidia) which installed with modded inf.....play 3d(no oc/ov) get black screen and the boot-beep-shutdown(some times)

 

Yea, that may be what the laptop thinks is going on, but its not. As I said, its totally impossible for the power consumption to exceed 120w with a gt 240m and i7 720qm.

 

Hey! I just installed a Dell OEM 6970m pulled from a m18x into my beautiful w860cu.

It works perfectly.

 

I had a similar problem when I first updated my np8690 with the 6970 card. It would start up then beep every other second and shutdown after about 30 seconds. I updated the BIOS and EC to the latest version and that fixed the problem. I think the EC manages the thermal sensors and if it may be thinking your machine is overheating and shutting down. What version are you running?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/556299-clevo-bios-older-models.html

 

I've got the model before yours... The M570U. It's limited to the m7950GTX card. From what I remember, that limitation is due to the chipset used.

The one I've noticed is the cooling solution seems to also be a limiting factor in upgrades. A m7950GTX from a Dell or Alienware won't fit into the Clevo. Modding one to work is a pita because the cooling plate used varying thickness thermal tape. I resorted to metal shims when I upgraded the cooling. KN actually cnc machined newer solutions to fit. It was far from a plug and play. At least I was able to upgrade the stock m7900GT to that GTX before the newer m570tu's hit the streets and they stopped supporting my model. That's what makes it sort of proprietary and limited where you are stuck. Zero aftermarket solutions.

 

so dous that meen that dell 6970/6990m cards dont work in clevos?

 

Bump, its been a while. Added some info. Any new tests (obviously, everyone would like to know about the 7970m)??

 

Hey Niff, add that HD 7970m doesnt work in HM models (p150/p170).

Source is Dan Ross from Eurocom itself and his team of techs.
Doesnt POST.

Gtx 675m works fine with current Bios. Under the bios general tab, the MXM slot shows as "empty" but beside that, it works. Its a rebadge as you know already but with different ID.

 

Well I think what many people were wondering about is whether it was a Clevo 7970m that was installed, as opposed to a Dell since the Dell ones came out sooner. But I will assume it was Clevo since its Eurocom.

I think its going to be funny when I try the 7970m in my Gateway nv78, but I understand if others don't share my sense of humor.

 

Well, I think I might have helped along in the misconception that Clevos are user upgradeable, and for that, I apologize. I thought I had done extensive research about this issue, but I'm learning new things everyday.

I think the fact of the matter is, user upgradeability is a volatile and uncertain process, dependent on too many factors, like new architecture, the design of cards, money, and many more.

Mr. Mysterious

 

This is kinda crap. I was hoping to upgrade my P150HM to 7970M at some point

 

Why is the memory bandwidth sitting on 19.2GB/s? Isn't that a bit low? Is the performance acting the same like GPU-Z reported? The perforance shown on the GPU-Z you posted is identical to a Mobility HD4650 except the GDDR5and 256bit interface Does the clocks get back up to 680/900 when gaming?

 

The bandwith is low because the clocks are low.

Here is stock clocks:


Here is 6850 stock clocks:


I ususally run my memory clocks at 750 Mhz which translates to 96 GB/s, as I don't see much difference in performance, and the card runs cooler (at a lower voltage).

 

GTX675M is 96GB/s too. By the way did you flash your dell card with a Clevo VBIOS? The subvender on GPU-Z is depending on the GPU BIOS and not the Mobo yea?

 

I use the Dell bios. I have flashed it to the Clevo vBios though, but I decided to stay with the original as the Clevo didn't make any difference. There was also one clevo vbios that didn't play nice IIRC.

The subvendor ID is filled in by the Mobo I guess.

 

I have a np8130 that I am trying to upgrade with a used 560m from a Toshiba notebook. There are a number of compatibility issues.

First, the x-clamp for the GPU uses different size screws. Luckily, the keyboard screws can be used instead while I do testing. The memory cooling plate does not fit and will need to be replaced or milled to fit.

The largest issue however is the card will not output to any of the laptop displays, either internal or external. I have read from other forum posts that most users are able to get output through HDMI when the internal LCD does not work. In my case the internal LCD, HDMI>DVI, and DVI>DVI don't get any output.

I have tried flashing the vBIOS but it's hard to say whether the flash took while working headless. I did not get any output trying to save the vBIOS using the following command from a DOS usb stick:
nvflash.exe -b orig560m.rom
Because I could not get a dump from the card I am concerned I will not be able to flash it to a CLEVO vBIOS. I have not been able to find a copy of the CLEVO 560m vBIOS online so I can't proceed until someone makes a dump for me.


I have contacted Sager tech support and they suggested the 560m could be defective.

 

i installed a 4870m into my np8690 and it looks glichy and the 30 secs with beep and shut down cap lock num lock and scroll lock blink as well...

 

You get the same beep and shutdown without any graphics card installed on the P150HM. I recommend re-seating the card, cleaning the contacts on it with a lint-free cloth and making sure heatsinks are aligned, have thermal pads in the right spots and are properly tightened.

Glitchy display is a result of inadequate cooling or a damaged graphics card, not a card incompatibility.



In my own case, reading the Alienware M15x 560m upgrade thread has helped put things in perspective. It appears there are at least 2 versions of the 560m available on ebay. One with a green PCB, another using a blue PCB. The card I ordered uses the blue PCB and came from a Toshiba notebook. It is suspected that while these cards have a MXM III type connector they use a non-standard pinout. Hence their incompatibility in Dell and Clevo notebooks which follow the MXM III spec.

I have ordered another 560m from another seller, this one using the green PCB. Upgraders on the Alienware forums report this card works so I do not expect any problems with the install. Will report more when it arrives in the next week or 2.

 

560m arrived today. Installed without issue. Hardest part was swapping over the x-clamp backplate that screws into the gpu die heatsink. Removing the x-clamp required a lot of pressure on the PCB.

 

OP update needed: Clevo HM series DO support the 7970M gpu after vBIOS mod

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