Making Area 51 m17x compatible with Fx2700M. Is it possible?

Hello

This is not so much an Alienware related thread, but a BIOS and vBIOS. So if I posted in the wrong section, please move it.

I have an Area 51 m17x. I bought it for experiments, I'm a big fan of these laptops, and I like to tweak them. It had two 256MB 8600M GTs. I have a few 512MB HP Quadro Fx2700Ms lying around wich should work as they are MXM 2.1, and they are about the same age. As I remember this laptop was offered with FX3600M, so I tought it would work.
So I took out the two 8600s and installed an FX2700M in the master slot. Turned on the laptop, lights and the fans came on but no display. Even the LCDs backlight didn't came on. I tried a couple of things, but the only way it starts is, if I have a 8600M GT in the masters's slot and the FX in the slave slot. I could even install drivers as long as the 8600 is there, and it says beautifully in Device Manager: Fx2700M, and "This device is working properly." So I disabled the 8600 in device manager, and the screen went black, only backlight. I shut off the laptop, and had to take out the battery for a few sec. to start again. So it starts, and in BIOS it says the vbios version of the 8600, but in Windows it looks like the FX2700 is running alone. But it looks ty, and cannot get any type of driver to install, even with modified infs. GPU-Z says GPU clock 0, memory clock 0. Made a screenshot of device manager and gpu-z.
My questions are:
1. Maybe the problem is that the BIOS doesn't recognize the FXs device ID, cause it was never supposed to. What if I change the FXs device id with NiBiTor to 9800M GT, or FX3600M? Is there a chance to work? This laptop worked with 9800M GT without any problems.
2. Is there a chance to modify the BIOS (AMI), insert the FXs device ID in the m17x-s BIOS?

Any kind of help and suggestions are welcome.

 

Don't the Quadro cards have special drivers that nvidia has for download? I would say the problem is most likely that the VBIOS of the FX2700M does not support your built-in display. Have you tried hooking up an external monitor.

When I was looking for cards to cram in my old M5750, I tried an mxm 4870 from another alienware. The laptop booted and I heard the windows start sound but no display. So I VNC's into my laptop from another pc and ran GPU-Z. Everything was running fine, it even detected the 4870 and was running at the correct clocks and reading it's temp. It was simply the card's VBIOS did not support my laptop. After much more searching I was able to grab another card off of ebay (4850M) and it's VBIOS did support the display.

 

Thank you for the response

I wanted to try with other vBIOS, but the only vBIOS available online for the FX2700M is the HP vBIOS that my cards have. I would appreciate if somebody would upload a vBIOS from a Clevo M860TU, Lenovo W700, or any kind of FX2700 vBIOS.

 

After fiddling with it for a few days I made it work. Now I have two FX2700Ms in the Area 51 m17x working perfectly. I realized that it was only the inverter which caused the trouble. After flashing the BIOS of the m17x, while there was an FX in it, it started to work. So if anybody wants Quadro FX in the m17x, it is possible. Also, I have a few of these cards for sale on ebay, PM me and I'll show you the link.

SLi is not working. Are these video cards SLi capable? Or is there a way to force them?

 

Hi, i have 2700M too and just have black screen with my m17x. What you mean that was something wrong with invertor? I'm using restarting trick. After boot just press ctrl + alt + del and after restart screen is working again(If you look closely screen is working always, but it is not backlited, restart fix that). Also if you have installed system and drivers the screen come up when it boots to windows.

To Sli:Try to flash 9800M GTS bios which is 100 % SLI Capable and reply results. If this work I'll definitely buy 2nd FX2700M, cause is really cheap and has nice overclock potencial.

Here is 9800M GTS bios: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/535361-unlock-3d-mode-9800m-gts-np5793.html#post6913969


This is your ebay card? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Nvidia-...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item35c3d2b7ab

 

The LCD inverter doesn't get the right signal from the video card, and doesn't light up, so there's no backlight. On my m17x after I flashed the bios with the quadro inside, it works sometimes, but it will always light up when booting to windows. I think it's because windows is controlling the backlight by then, and it is doing it's job well. And the screen brightness adjuster is working well too.
Also there is a setting in bios about screen power saving, and if you change that, next time the screen will light up at boot.

I'll definitely try to flash it with that. But the correct bios would be that of a 9700M GTS, cause it's the same card. But 9700M GTS was only in the Toshiba Quosmio x305, and it's impossible to find vbios.
I'm amazed, how cool these Quadro Fxs run.
That is my ebay listing.

 

I know that fx2700 is equivalent to 9700M GTS. But im not sure fi it is possible to find 9700M GTS bios. Both 9700M GTS and 9800M GTS are same core G94 so that should work. And I posted link to working 9800M GTS VBIOS.

Some guy in other topic flashed without any harm fx3700M which is 280M GTX with 9800M GT bios. And SLI started to work. http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...area-51-m17x-dual-gtx280m-project-thread.html

Also if you have 2x fx2700 you can always flash just one and if something goes wrong you can flash original VBIOS back.

 

I've read that GTX280M thread, learned a lot from it.
Flashed one of the fxs with the 9800M GTS bios above, and it solved the backlight problem, but the card was detected as FX1800M. The drivers installed fine, so now I have a better FX, but still no SLi. After that I got mad with flashing, and flashed a card with everything: 9700M GT, 9800M GTS from techPowerUp, 9800M GT from somwhere. With 9700M GT it is being recognized as an fx2700. With other 9800 bios it says G94, but when I install geforce driveres, windows strats with colored stripes and such so it is useless. GT240M bios temporarily bricked the card .
I think the problem comes from the piplines 48 vs 64. There is a bios that could help us, it is the 9700M GTS from Toshiba Qosmio.
Until then, I'll test it as FX1800M, and fiddle around with other bioss.

 

I have some good news. I'm 70 % sure my friend has that Toshiba laptop with 9700M GTS, but is offline on FB and ICQ. i will get that VBIOS ASAP.

 

It will not be easy. After a night of research I found out that Toshiba updates mobo and vga bios together. Here's what a Toshiba X305 bios looks like: https://mega.co.nz/#!qN0inBrQ!P_cD1WQhfN5rDDvA_VXlGG-o5Dhh261PNHKB4p9oVf4

But maybe it is possible to get the bios with gpu-z or nvflash. It's not mxm 2.1, but it may work, cause the fx1800m is mxm 3, and it still works.

 

y i read almost all Toshiba X305/300 lounge thread and vbios is stored in main bios and it can't be read with gpu-z.

EDIT: I guess the best chance is to find 9800M GTS bios which is recognized correctly, not like quadro. Also there are 2 versions of 9800M GTS, 55 nm 1024MB and 65 nm 512MB.

EDIT2: when i had MSI laptop i had inside quadro fx770 and changed device id that nvidia drivers thought that is 9600M GT also GPU-Z displayed 9600M GT. So maybe this software mod would bring some results . I'll try it when I come from work..

 

I tried changing the device ID, but I think I did it wrong, cause it was still an fx 1800. It would be great to have the same clocks, and be a GeForce. Maybe a 9700M GT device ID would help us. Or a 9800M GTS 65 nm, 512 MB ID, or BIOS.

 

I found 9800M GTS 65 nm bios if you dont mind to try it http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...-cards/407017-9800m-gs-512-a.html#post5181784, there are 2 in the file, try both pls

 

Hello, I tried them yesterday, they are not working. Device manager will say "G94", and after installing geforce drivers, the screen will go wild with colors.

 

Hello

Can anybody point me in the direction of a Lenovo W700 FX2700M vbios?

 

Have you also tried poking around the mxm upgrade site / their forum on laptopvideo2go? I was there a few days ago and though it is heavily outdated, I thought I read someplace that they were able to modify the Quadro 770 vBios to work with many picky alienware notebooks, perhaps they can help you with the 2700m? Sorry for being vague as I don't remember where exactly I read this.

 

Here You have all 4 vbioses extracted from main bios of X305:

 

Thank you very much. The last one works, and with a little inf modding the card will be a 9700M GTS Success. I hope this will enable SLi on the Area 51 M17x.
I will come back with a longer reply, but I'm very busy at the moment. I uploaded a screenshot: http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8440/pscrn9700gts1.png

Happy Easter everybody

 

I'm glad that I could help.

 

People are hunting for this firmware for years. You helped a whole lot .