m18x R2 with NVidia 780M

I upgraded to that single video card about 8 months ago from a dead 660M gpu and had to do the Nvidia driver INF file customizations which went fine. The laptop has been working flawlessly until recently. After being on a while the screen goes pixelated color barf like the driver quit working then sometimes turns black and comes back or reboots. Powering up again typically works and it can run fine again. When it happens and rights itself without completely going black the device manager still shows the 780M video adapter and the driver appears to be working still.

I tried blowing the board by carefully tilting the laptop on its side so I can blow the bottom gpu fan and for a second it did that whole screen pixelation thing when the laptop tapped the desktop. That made me think it might be a loose connection or something. So I am planning on re-seating and adding new thermal paste to the board. Its such a pain to get to the gpu on this laptop!
EDIT: I actually got brave and after writing this post I tilted the laptop on its side again and banged (gently of course!) on the bottom where the gpu board is located and forced the board failure. Yeah I'm thinking its a loose connection (or a broken board trace, argh!)

I already tried re-installing the modified driver and it worked fine but didn't fix the problem.

I'm praying its not a bad board because it was over $300 and its not even a year old in my laptop yet. The only thing I can think of is the re-seating and cleaning the connector with alcohol.

Anyone see something like this before?

-Steve

 

bad GPU ...

 

Definitely your GPU is on it’s last legs.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Are you using the GPU in the primary slot? Have you tried installing it in the secondary slot?

I think as long as you're only using one GPU, it should be able to work in either slot as primary.

This should isolate any slot issues and point to the GPU as the issue.

 

Sounds very much like a failing GPU. I doubt its any loose connection.

 

It may be the board which would mean this board only lasted 8 months. Let me ask this question. If I remove the board completely will the laptop run on the Intel HD graphics alone? I ask because the HD graphics hardware isn't being detected and I read somewhere that if there is a GPU installed it will ignore or disable the onboard GPU. I'm not sure I want to risk buying another bad board.

Where I bought the board wasn't Ebay and they appear to have a 1 yr limited warranty. I'm pursuing a replacement. It states if the product fails within 365 days they will replace it. That might be my saving grace.

 

You can switch it by holding FN then hitting F7 + a reboot.

 

I know about that and that used to work when I had a 660M, the original board. After installing the new 780M last year the HD on-board graphics hardware was not detected. Its not even detected by the BIOS. I tried installing the Intel HD driver but it errors as well. I'm wondering if I pull the bad NVidia GPU will the BIOS detect the HD graphics at least.

 

If you have the unlocked BIOS you can just go into the BIOS and switch from PEG (dGPU only) to IGPU (intel HD graphics only) mode.

 

I just have the latest stock BIOS downloaded from Dell. Do you know where I can get the unlocked version?
If I cannot get a replacement board from the place where I got the board then I want to enable the HD graphics and maintain a non-gaming laptop until I can save up for a replacement card. I think I will go for the 980M if there aren't any temperature problems running it with this laptop. I have the 100W heat pipes already installed. I replaced the original one when I installed the 780M.

Cooling doesn't appear to be a problem. I monitor the temps and when it gets to 65 °C the fan kicks in and it drops to the 40s to 50s. I tested while running a GPU bench test. Usually stayed in the 50s during the bench test with fan.

 

Has it been proven that a single gpu can run in the secondary slot?

 

Looks like ur card is dead...but never sure
Have you checked the bios of the card? I would try by installing the genuine bios
Here is it...
You can import in your bios with nvflash, but save yours first with Kepplerbios tweaker
I have sli 780m , the rom came from my cards

 

I do not have a heatsink for the right side at the moment so that's mute for me anyway. But its a good question.

 

Thanks! I have not checked the card BIOS. That would be new turf for me but am willing to look. This "feels" like a hw issue since it was working flawlessly for at least 8 months. I have not pulled and cleaned the board yet but I will do that maybe tonight. But I am starting to think it may be more board related like cracked trace or loose chip. Banging the laptop where the board is definitely will make it fail.

 

I might give it a try and solve this myth lol ....

 

The parts people that sold me the board contacted me with an RMA so I think I'll go ahead and return it at this point since I have a warranty. They of course don't have a replacement board but said they will try other sources.
What am I looking for in a board if I go looking for one myself?

 

Just search on eBay the keyword “ GTX 780M “

 

Right, but the model isn't the issue. What I meant was is there a particular board (clevo, non-clevo, other), manufacturer or reseller I should stay clear from.

 

In the r1 that didn't work, after my primary 6990m (crossfire) was dead, I removed it and tested the system with only the slave card in, the card was recognized but system only ran on iGPU and didn't use the card at all.
Then transferred the slave card into master slot and it was used by the system.

I suppose as long as master slot is empty, system only runs on iGPU.

 

Good to know. I could button my laptop back up and test that now that the gpu board has been removed and will be sent back to the supplier for replacement.

 

Will the 980M work in this m18x R2 laptop running Win7 x64 using a single master slot? The supplier is asking if I want to go with that GFX instead if they cannot find a 780M from their source.
I can modify the NVidia driver like I did with the 780M but using the correct gpu mfg number.

EDIT: Doing a lot of reading of threads here to try to understand some of the lingo being used. PEG (PCI Express Graphics) and SG (Standard Graphics). If my machine only saw the 780M (before it died) then would that be PEG mode? The standard Dell BIOS has the iGPU grayed out which I am not sure why that is unless the modified NVidia driver that I made for the 780M took out the iGPU for whatever reason. I cannot switch to the iGPU using the soft switch or any selection. To be able to switch between iGPU and dGPU do I need the modified BIOS (not vBIOS but PC BIOS) A11? Do I need to flash the dGPU with vBIOS?
I'd like to be able to switch from dGPU to iGPU to save power and to save my dGPU from constantly running when im not gaming.

 

Yes it works perfectly fine, after you flash my custom BIOS. Make sure the 980M is a non-gsync model though. The dell cards are all non-gsync and work great with the clevo vBIOS flashed to them. nvidia natively supports the 980M on the m18x r2 now. Only thing is random throttle behavior after it is disconnected from AC power, which can be resolved by switching to igpu then back to dgpu.

 

I think I remember you encouraging me to get the 980M at the time you were helping me setting up the780M. What is the purpose of the modified BIOS? I am running Win7 x64 do I still need it? Reason I ask is the risk of potentially bricking my laptop. If the risk of installing your modded BIOS is the same as upgrading stock BIOS from Dell then that's probably not as issue. Where do I get it and where are the instructions for installing it? That includes any other tweaks or settings in the modded BIOS after installation. Do I have to re-install my OS before or after or ever?
Nice to know NVidia drivers for Win7 x64 cover the 980M now. Although modding the driver INF was no big deal.
I'm not too concerned about the random throttle issues because I pretty much never use the laptop unplugged. I do want the option to switch to iGPU which sounds like your modded BIOS handles.

 

You need my BIOS to run a 980M in dedicated mode in Windows 7. Many have flashed my BIOS without problem, just follow instructions.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/release-improved-m18x-r2-maxwell-legacy-bios.800447/

No need to reinstall OS, just be aware it defaults the GPU to intel after flashing since people needed to install UEFI only pascal cards that would otherwise cause them to tear down the whole system to do, this bypasses that step.

Enjoy, and if you feel like it, buy me a beer

 

The company where I got the board is replacing the 780M under warranty but I will look into getting a 980M anyway. I asked them to look for a 980M as well but they had already found the 780M. And they said their supplier wasn't sure how G-sync applied to the board. They thought it was for monitors only.
Thanks for the instructions and modded BIOS link. Regarding defaulting to iGPU does the software switch for iGPU and dGPU work with this BIOS? Or do I need to select in BIOS each time I want one or the other?

You got it!

 

Yes it works fine, but I always do the switch in the BIOS to make sure it toggles between PEG/IGFX and not IGFX/SG

You check if the card is Gsync by looking at the device ID. Non gsync is what you want, with device ID 13d7

Gsync ID is 1617, you do NOT want that card.

 

Given a physical graphics board how would you know what the device ID is? Yes you can plug the board in and examine the Device ID from the Device manager properties but that's after you have the board. I am looking at my bad 780M and cannot find the value marked or stickered.

 

You can’t, you have to plug in and use at the very least a bootable DOS utility to check device ID

 

UPDATE: The parts people company just responded after having my card for weeks and reported it tested as GOOD by their testing dept. They are sending my "bad" card back to me. Ok great, now what? I just talked with the Warranty Testing dept customer service person who said this should help me debug my laptop now that I know my graphics board has tested good.

I think what the real truth is is they couldn't find a replacement 780M so they are just sending mine back with some story that it was tested as passing. The original card (660M) shouldn't have died in the first place. I'm done with Alienware and probably Dell.
Watch out for Parts-People.com, a Dell replacement part dealer.

 

If you are in the US you could always send me the card to test in one of my systems

 

I was going to say the same. We are here to help each other. I have a few hardware to test the cards.