Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

The bad thing, on my machine even with unlocked Desc region I can't flash the BIOS to SPI... That's weird. Probably, need to solder sockets for BIOS chips and buy simple usb programmer.

UPD #1. Good news bros. I've just successfully managed to modify the sBIOS, flash it and boot the system up. Just need to wait for video cards. BTW, I have GT 240M laying in my table, but I'm bit lazy to check it coz just repasted the GPU xD
UPD #2. Hmm... GT 240M just worked fine with and without the mod.... Let's wait to try out something not so old

 

How many need to be purchased for the $450 price and did they give you a price on the 1060?

 

One for $450. Small bunch $450 per GPU. Big bunch (over 5k or 10k) $350 per GPU. 1060 is an MXM 3.0b GPU, so I'm not interested in buying it. But if you are, there are some of them on taobao from MSI systems.

Clearly, the best $ per performance MXM 3.0a solutions are GTX 965M and M1000M.

 

Got ya I thought you were getting these prices straight from the factory

 

I've got the prices strait from the manufacturer.

 

Which manufacturer did you reach out to? I want to see what their one off price is for a 1060 or 470 MXM(assuming they have them)

 

Sweet deal man thanks for taking the plunge! Will be watching earnestly on the results of your experiments

 

So I have a bit of an issue. I bought Lawlessness1221's M5100 for around $110 on Ebay, and I'm having the same problem he reported where nothing will display, even though my laptop came with an m5950 default and a 1366x768 display (which I believe is not IPS.) (Here's my laptop's default configuration: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/2XDHQW1/configuration)

Anyway, it won't display anything on the internal display with the GPU installed, but it will display stuff on an external display. Uninstalling the GPU allows it to use the internal display just fine with integrated graphics. I flashed the BIOS to A16 ahead of time. Any suggestions? Also, I noticed that this card was green, wheras most of the Dell M5100s were red. Could this issue be caused by an incompatible VBIOS or something of that sort? Finally, if nothing works (which seems a likely outcome), would I be entitled to a refund? I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with the card, or it's just incompatible, etc. so it's unclear if he sold me a faulty item or I just bought something that was incompatible. It's one of those things that's nobody's fault.

 

Sounds like the mxm module has a vbios that outputs video in the wrong format for your internal screen.
Assuming your screen is lvds your going to need an lvds vbios

 

OK so I tried to flash the VBIOS using the guide here but it threw a "subsystemIDs mismatch" error so after trying another M5100 BIOS I took a closer look at the specs in GPUZ and I think I actually have a W5170m here, not an M5100. Particularly the higher default clock and the fact that it's listed as Tropo-XT instead of Venus-XT in atiflash are what make me suspicious. (See attached screenshot.) Am I right to think so? If so, is there anything else I could try before throwing this one up on Ebay and getting a real M5100 (or 965m)? (For example, could I edit the BIOS so that it outputs the correct signal?)

Specs for quick reference:
W5170m Techpowerup Notebookcheck
M5100 Techpowerup Notebookcheck

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/vaN2ORy.png

VBIOS that came with the card, in case someone more competent than I wants to mess around with it: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4c2V7MuWnXWMVR2azFOOERpSkk