Upgrading the DGFF GPUs in the Precision 7530 & 7730

I have bought a heat sink for my RTX 4000 from this seller in @Ionising_Radiation link and I got it. I still haven't tried to do upgrade because I have been too busy and didn't want to take any risks before I finish my current project which I hope will be this week, but based on the pictures on this forum I think it is correct. I do suspect that this seller wasn't telling me all truth. A lot of time have passed and I asked if the package is sent, he told me that it is sent, but I suspect that it wasn't at that time. Asking for the tacking code resulted only in"I will give it later" answer. I might be wrong. It is only my speculation. It took so much time so that I was thinking maybe he actually buy those himself only after someone puts an order. Again I might be wrong. Anyway I am not in hurry so it doesn't really matter for me and i would say that the package when it arrived was packed extremely well!

 

Hi, first post here, found a ton of info that I should've searched before.

So I bought a 7740 and there was a misunderstanding with the seller and there was no dGPU... So I bought a used RTX300 on eBay and thought that would be easy swap.

Turns out I spent 2+ hours finding the right power cable, the right M2 x3 wafer head screws, buying thermal paste, and hopefully the right new heatsink (I am praying the 7730 nv-256 model is the same as 7740). Thanks to this website I am now pretty confident I'll be able to physically swap them.

I actually did all the steps to take apart and put the laptop back together to use it until everything delivers and everything works so I guess that will be ok.

Now should I expect the bios to "see" the new card or I'll be in driver and bios nightmare (seems complicated from reading the first post in this thread)? I am not very savvy in bios and off but I am pretty good at programming and fast learner.

Thanks for any pointers

 

In addition to the power cable, screws, and heatsink, you need the actual DGFF data connector things (metal bits that go under the screws that affix it and look sort of like a door hinge; these actually handle passing the PCIe data). Without a dGPU your system would only have one installed (to handle HDMI/mDP output through the pass-through card), but with a dGPU you need three.

If you get everything connected then it should "just work" once you power the system on.

 

I do have the 3 connectors they came with the card. It came with the GPU side screws but no Laptop side so using the 2 from the OEM plate I am still missing one.

I ordered 3 but it took me hours to find a US source with the wafer head.

P.s. for the ones like me searching to do the upgrade, the screws can be found here in the US: https://www.metricscrews.us/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_122_129_125&products_id=902

 

Quick question, do I remove the grey pads already there to put my thermal paste or I add thermal page on top?

Also, the pink ones are above other chips, Thermal paste or not?

 

Those are thermal pads for the VRMs, MOSFETs and the VRAM memory modules; do not remove those, unless you have other pads of equal thickness to replace them with.

The grey squares are the pre-applied thermal paste, which is likely to have dried through storage and shipping; consider scraping it off (gently) and applying a replacement to the chips. Suggested thermal pastes are Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, Phobya Nanogrease, Gelid GC Extreme.

 

Thanks! That's what I was thinking seeing the grey pads not "perfect".

I bought cooler master mastergel maker which was mentioned in this thread. Should that be ok?

I have everything now except the GPU power cable which arrives Monday, then it's open heart surgery again.

 

I would always recommend removing and reapplying the paste any time that you remove the heatsink. Isopropyl alcohol (and a q-tip) works well for getting the old paste off without "scraping". You can get it from the local pharmacy.

 

Good points both, but when I received my new heatsink, the paste had dried so much that even with 90% IPA, I had to use a plastic spudger to get the paste off, as it had practically adhered to the metal surface. No idea what Dell uses, it's some strong stuff.

That's what I'm using, but I do plan to change to Kryonaut the next time I open up the notebook, which is to get that shunt mod done.

Now that I have a programmer, I am also considering upping the power limit of the P3200 to 150 W to see if that works. Pity Turing cards can't be worked with as easily; the voltage curves on these Max-Q cards are really quite terrible.

 

So my first attempt is a fail.

Aside from two of the GPU screws on the cooling plate that are not aligned (I think it should still work fine), the laptop is not working anymore.

I don't know what I have done but no post, nothing.

When I plug in the power cord the front light turns on a second and then off (I think that is normal behavior for a fully charged battery). The power button seems to not work, I have checked multiple times the connector for it but all seems fine

I even put back to stock configuration /GPU and I can't find why nothing works. I am starting to think I screwed something bad enough that it's a $1600+ boat anchor

I will need to investigate more tomorrow. Really pissed at myself.