Possible GPU upgrade for Precision M4600

The card was not DOA, it was able to output video on an external monitor before. Now, it's not.

I doubt that DirectX 12 features are unlocked if it's flashed as an M5100, as it needs to be to work in any of the laptops that I have. I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing that the features need to be listed as supported in the BIOS.

 

I wouldnt be able to provide input on that, was just looking at their specs on NBC

here for W5170m

and here for m5100

So far DX12 never worked for me on BF1 with the m5100. Not that I am interested in it working, was just fiddling with the game since i picked it up for 20 bucks a while ago...

 

OK so they arrived today, and here's my experience with them:

No boot whatsoever when the graphics card is plugged in. I tried to boot from a DOS USB stick and run atiflash.exe -i > info.txt to see if it was at least being recognized, but the file doesn't appear on the flash drive afterwards. Also, I have to hold down the power button to get it to shut down, which I didn't when it was booting before. I tested with two different cards that they sent me, both had the same result.

I also tried using the test clip and USB programmer I got to read the BIOS chip, and it read as entirely blank. I'm not sure what's up with that. The EZP2010 programmer I'm using doesn't support the Winbond X2510CLNIG-1507 BIOS chip that I was reading from (it autodetected it as a chip with a similar name) so it's most likely an issue with that, because it just makes no sense that they'd send me a card with a blank BIOS.

Edit: Unless it's an HP card, and the manufacturer left the vBIOS chip blank. It's a blue PCB, and a quick search suggests that HP's W5170ms are blue. So the question is, what's the worst thing that could happen if I tried to flash an HP W5170m as a Dell M5100? How badly could anything break? Is there any reason I shouldn't?

Edit edit: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. No, it's not magically working. No, it still won't output info files to DOS, although you only have to press the power button briefly to shut it down now (or maybe I'm imagining things.) I wonder if the basic premise that a W5170m flashed to an M5100 will work in an M4600 is even sound. I think I'll try flashing this to a Dell W5170m and seeing if it can output to an external monitor.

Continued: Nope. This is weird. When I first load up the programming software, it says the ROM is blank. If I try to write something to ROM, all seems well. When I try to verify, it gives me an error and then it shows me what looks like a vBIOS for an HP card - it certainly wasn't the vBIOS that I tried to write. It won't show me what's on the chip before I try to verify, and it won't let me perform any actions after I try to verify. I think it's probably write protected somehow (although I'm really guessing here guys.) I wonder if I could take the IC from the broken Dell W5170m and solder it onto the HP W5170m and get it running that way.

I wonder if the guide in Valuxin's sig about using romless video cards applies to me? Something to explore in the morning.

 

Dang man, hopefully your next trial will be successful!

 

Yeah I don't think I'll continue at this point, probably going to return these cards then just buy a real M5100.

 

Thats a shame man, well better luck on the m5100 upgrade.

I had some issues with my installation but its basically working fine now, but for w/e reason I cant get the voltage part of the flash to stick. Though it hits 900c/1350m @ 1.025v just fine.

 

M2000M project failed - have no spare time and power to finish it. Decided to go with those dirt cheap W5170M boards (bought 3 for just $57). Mb my next project would be reconfiguring output module in vBIOS (for ex., adding LVDS capability).

Thanks you @fwip for pointing out this damn cheap FirePro's

 

Yeah, throughout the whole ordeal with the first card and again when I found the link above, I was thinking "This would be perfect for Valuxin, he doesn't need the internal display." There may be other compatibility issues, though - from what I recall it wasn't a plug-and-play to output external video. I did not try the romless video card fix in your sig, though.

 

Guess ill just move on to an m4800 then, 965m works in it and I could use the parts.

 

This guide is for Phoenix BIOS - we have AMI BIOS here and it's kinda bit sad. I wish I could contact with Dell BIOS Engineers directly, coz their support is so useless. M4600 is capable to run any MXM 3.0a/3.1a graphics on hardware level, but sadly the BIOS is not so good. If they wanted, they could even add switchable graphics support for AMD after a year of the initial release. But who cares

P.S. If there would be no luck with W5170M - I'll just sell them But I hope at least one external output will work