Sager NP8170 nvidia 485m to 680m

I have a Sager NP8170 with an nvidia 485M graphics card. I am thinking about upgrading it to a 680m along with changing a few other things (like adding another harddrive to the optical slot).

I've been reading through this forum for advice and I wanted to make sure that I understood everything correctly before dropping $750 on a graphics card.

So if I understand correctly, because Sager won't release an updated Bios, the graphics card is unrecognized. This means that the graphics card drivers won't install properly. I want to double check that I only need to modify the nvidia drivers, not the vBios, right? This thread here says that I need to make sure that the vBios is Clevo 80.04.29.00.01 or MSI 80.04.33.00.24. Is this standard for these cards or do I have to request something specific? I was planning to purchase it from R&J tech.

I found the modified INF from laptopnut here on this thread. He has the INF for the driver version 314.22.

I also found the 320.00 Beta modified INF here from Tonrac.

I also read that some people have trouble installing the drivers if they have an old Bios, and, according to this thread here, I should install Updated the BIOS to version 1.01.14 and the KBC/EC to 1.00.13 before installing the new card. There are instructions here. Problem is that you can possibly brick your laptop switching between CLEVO and SAGER bios. My laptop is around 2 years old and I think I may have upgraded the Bios at one point. How do you check whether you have the CLEVO or SAGER bios? When I look at the version number in msinfo32 I get "American Megatrends 4.6.4." I think I may be looking in the wrong place.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for your help!

 

u sound pretty well informed already, good job

as for the bios upgrade: check ur current version in ur system bios, entering it by repeatedly pressing f2 on boot.
u can switch between sager and clevo, just make sure u edit the .bat files included in the bios and EC flash packages with notepad, so as to remove the shutdown/reboot command in there. usually, u need to flash the ec first, then the bios.the stock .bat file would automatically reboot ur system after flashing the ec, so remove the included command in the .bat file, flash the bios right after the ec without reboot inbetween and u should be fine



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Thanks for the reply. I checked and I have Bios version 1.01.04 and KBC/EC version 1.00.03.

I looked in the Clevo Bios thread here, and the newest version I can find is EC/KBC V 1.00.09
and bios V 1.01.10.

I also just realized that JasonNH has a P150hm, which is why his bios version number is different. Do you know which Bios I would need to upgrade to for a p170hm? Is there any reason not to upgrade to the latest?

 

nope,no reason. bios 09 and ec 10 are the latest for the p170hm and u should go with those

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Awesome! Thanks for your help. My card is in the mail and on it's way. I was worried after reading all of the stories on here about people having issues updating their Bios, but it went very smooth.

 

Well, my card arrived in the mail today and I installed it. I turned on my computer and it wouldn't go past the boot screen. It beeped a couple of times and then the screen went black.

Turns out that my card arrived with vBios version 80.04.67.00.01 already installed, which, according to this thread is incompatible with the HM's. It seems like the issue was resolved, but there is nothing in the thread and

Has anyone else had any luck installing a 680m with this version of vBios or installing a different vBios version?

Thanks

 

hm looks like ud have to reflash the gpu to a compatible vbios version. unfortunately ull probably need a different machine for that. any chance ur seller might help u out there? or maybe even a fellow nbr member?

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