Dell Precision M4800 - Can GPU be upgraded?

Hi All,

If i was to purchase a HP 2200m which is vbios modded to dell , would it be a plug and play or still require further changes?

Thanks

 

It's probably going to be modded to new Precisions (7510 and further), so it will work with M4800, but since there's no official support for this model, you'll have to mod drivers.

I did that with my 970M on P150EM, but it's always different. Aaron said it was done before, so you can probably find how to if you search through this forum.

 

And some news about HP model of WX 4150:

1- Even buying from the same seller and being visually the same, it isn't. I got a second piece from the same seller (planning to use it in a future 7510/7520) and the bios was completely different, like it wasn't even recognized by Polaris Bios Editor, but I had no issues flashing the same vbios I configured for the first one.
2- Since I was already on the task, I tried to flash this RX 560 vbios. It worked flawlessly with external monitor support and Switchable Graphics off (eDP model) and yes, it's being identified as a RX 560. There are zero benefits of doing that, though, because performance it's not only about the same, it's exactly the same. If you edit this vbios with Polaris Bios Editor, the only differences between WX 4150 are Device ID and Sub ID.
3- Didn't try any kind of overclocking with this RX 560 vbios, but I'll definitely try soon.

 

The other advantage is being able to use radeon drivers and getting that control panel and tool set like the dynamic resolution thing and a few other things. That was what I was really after was the new control panel. The overclocking was also nice. I didn't have luck when I edited the wx4150 bios but did with the rx560 one

 

Bit of a horror-story situation but I'd really appreciate some advice.

Recently bought a WX4150 off of AliExpress to replace the FirePro M5100 on my Dell Precision M4800. The card arrived, serial numbers matched and I installed it into the laptop.
One problem though, the card isn't recognized on Gpu-Z nor Device Manager. Tried ticking off Switchable Graphics in the BIOS, which for some reason was automatically ticked back on after restart and attempting to install Dell's driver for the WX4150 ends up yielding an Error 173
.
The worst thing is that whilst looking up solutions the laptop suddenly died. Tried turning it back on again, the light on the power button lit up and then promptly faded. Any following attempts to power on the laptop have been even less fruitful. Touched the back of the unit and the air vent to see if they were in any way hot in case of overheating but temperature-wise everything seemed to be in order.

Have I bricked my laptop? Could the problem lie with the faulty card? M4800's have a problem with motherboards failing so could this just be a bad coincidence?
I will attempt to put the old card back again at some point to see if I can salvage anything but I'm not really holding my breath.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

sounds like, regrettably, you got either a fake gpu or a dead gpu. the error 173 means the software didn't detect a valid radeon card installed. the no boot could very likely be caused by the graphics card's on-mxm psu dying and shorting to ground. because mxm piped the 19+ volts straight into the gpu via some power pins its very easy to "kill" the whole computer making it not boot and causing the symptoms you saw. if you take the card out theres a 50-50 chance that when you turn the computer on it will automatically revert the dedicated gpu only setting you set and boot correctly. if not just pull the bios battery and it should ... in theory ... reset the option and boot correctly.

 

Unplugging the coin-cell battery should reset the BIOS settings to default, which would mean switchable graphics on.
I rather doubt that it is a "coincidence" that your motherboard would have failed at the same time that you tried to install a new GPU. If resetting the BIOS values to default doesn't get the system booting, you're probably looking at (at least) a new motherboard...

 

Maybe not 100% sure, but 99% about GPU being the culprit here.

Even with different bios, you are supposed to have this card working (I could install drivers without any issues with HP vbios, I was just not able to connect to external monitor or deactivating switchable graphics). So yeah, it's probably dead. Did you buy it on Aliexpress, if so, which seller? This could be a good information for which one NOT to buy.

 

Try running the machine with the original graphics card and see if it comes back to life as well. Do you also have a picture of the card you got?

 

I think your board is alive you just didnt go through hardware recognition cycle, of which I keep telling people

I would also clean the pins of your GPU with white distilled vinegar/weak acetone (nail polish remover) /alcohol (99%) mix, in order to remove the copper oxidation micro film on their contacts.

allot of sulphur around and tiny contacts get oxidation film, which gets removed by inserting into slot usually but sometimes they don't!

cards and ram are never "fresh" when you get them via post.

disconnect MXM GPU
remove small battery (coin cell)
press power button for 35 seconds holding it.

connect VGA cable to laptop + external screen (in case of 4k panel)

connect power cable button. start and see that your machine goes through turn on, turn off cycle by itself.

what I mean by that is;

M4800 has hardware check cycle, so DON'T panic just let it turn on and turn of several times! it goes through CPU,BOARD,RAM,GPU then finally screen will lit up. (if its 1080P)

(if your board is 9772p below does not apply)

if its on the other hand a 4k QHD+ unit, (9771P qhd only) VGA external screen will lit up instead, but! (ONLY IF YOU unscrew and DISCONNECT LCD FLEX FROM THE BOARD).



that's all, always double check contacts under bright light and always clean them before inserting ANY gpu. (same for ram really)

nail polish remover+ white vinegar+ methanol/ethanol/isopropyl alcohol equal measure, small amount on microfibre. youll see contacts brighten just wipe them clean and make sure all dry before reinserting.

I had dodgy card inserted into m4800 but it did not kill it, yet k2100m card just died itself slowly with hard to notice signs.

if there was no smoke, chances are you just wasnt patient enough and did not know about recognition cycle (especially with new card)

if the board got damaged... the board got damaged.