Alienware upgrade gone wrong

Hi guys i think i killed my m15x.

my 260m died, so though i would upgrade it instead, so i bought a 6970 mxm card, and downloaded what i thought was the correct vbios, flashed it and borked my mahcine, wont boot now just a black screen.

Ordered a new bios chip flashed with the a09 bios on it, so hopefully replacing that should work. blind flash was just a no go.

Anyhow when i get this chip, and desolder the old one and solder this one in its place, theoreticly it will boot. Ive checked alot of the forums and i cant find alot on the 6970, cant help but think i made a bad choice in cards, the modded drivers were like 11. something. Which were up to like 15 now with ccc

How would i go about getting this card to work, with the correct bios and be able to use the latest drivers.

Thanks

 

Looks like you may have bricked your GPU with the wrong vbios. I don't think you did any damage to the motherboard. I could be wrong, but I don't think it's necessary to change the motherboard's BIOS chip. It's the video card that's the problem. If you can get access to another card, and the system boots, then your motherboard is fine.

 

well problem is the system just seems dead mate, like no charge lights, no boot up at all, not even a flickr, i havent tried taking the card out yet right enoght, but surly i could just boot to internal gpu,

Ill have a crack tomorrow morning when home from work hopefully. Is there any way to reflash the vbios of the gpu at all maybe command line or that

 

Try removing the battery, and unplugging the power cord, then hold down the power button for 30 seconds to clear the CMOS. Sometimes the system seems to just get stuck and does not respond until you do the previous steps. What do you mean by booting to the internal GPU? The M15X does not have integrated graphics if that's what you mean.

As far as unbricking the bad vbios card, maybe there's a way to do it on a system with two MXM slots where one slot has a working video card, or maybe a system with a single MXM slot and functioning integrated graphics. Not sure about this, hopefully someone will chime in with advice.

 

Your options are:
1. Desolder old bios chip, solder new bios chip in the 6970M
2. Find somebody with a M17x R3/R4 or M18x R1/R2 to reflash the vBIOS for you
3. Sell card, buy another one.

M15x does not have an integrated GPU.
I currently have a 6990M in my M15x and it never needed modded drivers...AMD Crimson Beta drivers worked just fine.

 

thanks very much for the much needed support guys.

Well kinda miffed abut bricking the gpu, it actually came from an alienware m18x which i presumed was plug and play but i seen so many things on forums saying it had to have a vbios flash, which now i know you only had to do if it was not a dell part number..... how reading a full article goes.

I just assumed it had onboard graphics my bad, ill try the cmos as soon as i get a chance, im hoping tomorrow but work have thrown me some overtime and just gotta take it, so no playing with it in the meantime.

Em... i dont suppose either of you gentlemen have a laptop with 2 mxm ports and could give reflashing a bash if i cant get the thing to go, or could recommend somone who could do it for me. My 260m that was in it is dead, and the 6970 cost me a small fortune to bugger it so soon

thanks very much in advance.

 

Maybe post in the M17X or M18X subforums. I am assuming you're somewhere in the UK (based on your lingo ). Maybe someone locally will be willing to help. You can also try a professional repair center, but they might charge you the same amount as buying a new card. Good luck.

 

I could help if you're in the USA, but you gotta find somebody else if you're elsewhere

 

Shame that! The M15x is just about the most compatible machine for all MXM cards! Vbios flashing only required to change the voltage. You might find sometimes that fan speed is affected when using a non dell part but that can also be manually controlled.

 

Yeah im from scotland mate , yeah i contacted a repair center, funny the fellow thought it might be the motherboard bios for some reason.

Im still hoping to get it fixed. Just a bad time of year for it to happen. All the places im trying to call are closed , and the ones that are open don't really specialise in this sort of stuff, most are basic repair stores, not motherboard repairs and stuff.

Ill post an update when i get a chance over the next few days to have a play with it. If you guys could follow the thread it would be much appreciated. And thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

Don't expect much help from repair centres. When I called one up and asked about laptop GPUs they laughed at me. Too specialist for them, so just learn to fix them yourself

I had a similar issue where everything was dead and it was my motherboard. I at least managed to get it to come to life only to fail POST by baking the motherboard. New motherboard fixed it. The M15x won't boot at all with no GPU connected so if your GPU is totally dead it won't even get to POST.

I have a spare 260M I can send you to determine if it is the GPU or the motherboard? I'll be back in UK on 13th.

 

right update fellas, need some advice on what to do next.

my dad bought an m15x (Score, test time)

So I take a ride down with mines and my tool kit. Here's

My cpu in dads m15x = working
My Hard drive in dads m15x = Working
My Memory in dads m15x = Working
My 260m in dads m15x = Surprisingly working (black screen on mine before buggering it)
1st 6970m In dads m15x = Complete black screen no boot
2nd 6970m In dads m15x = Machine boots but is glitch (green and black bars and flickering, possibly dead gpu)

Now everything out of my dads in mines = Nothing lol. No boot or nothing.

Sooooo now my dilemma. I presume both 6970s are damaged. And the 260m to be temp working, so I have the chip for the bios for the motherboard but. Local places even far out places for repair are quoting £25 - £40 to change it. And saying it might not fix the problem.

I Can order a board from aliexpress for just over £50 but need to wait a month for it , also for £50 I can get a firepro m6000 which I believe is play from what I read.

Any thoughts fellas ?

Id be happy to send the gpus to anyone in the uk who might be able to test better than I can

 

From what I understood, your m15x does not start at all, not flicker no lights no fans? Does it seem like there is no power? Because if that is the issue, I tend to say that the motherboard may be the culprit...and just replacing the bios chip seems unlikely to fix it.

 

coolio new board it is. Will this one do the trick buddy ?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/CN-0...62,searchweb201560_6,searchweb1451318400_6149

 

Yes that is right but might I recommend the seller below. I bought mine from him and I chatted to him a lot on instant message and can ensure you he's very helpful and friendly. He will recommend EMS shipping and will declare it as a $10 spare part to avoid customs charges. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Warr...62,searchweb201560_6,searchweb1451318400_6148
The motherboard was brand new factory sealed! Not a refurb or similar.

 

ah knew i was too quick mate. I ordred the one i linked. Well i ordered, payed and it still says awaiting payment but my bank confirmed they have took the money ...WTF ?

Ah can take up to 24 hours to change. I was impatient and picked dhl as well

 

ended up with this one http://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-...s-Physical-picture-brand-new/32296855685.html

 

And dispatched. Hope it comes quick im buzzing. Been looking at so many small upgrades, more ram, a new wifi card, slighly better cpu

 

It could aswell be the cable to the power panel got borked... These are a bit too short and tend to fail after some fiddling with the laptop insides :/
I'd reccomend you to swap that with your dad's m15x, and if it starts responding, voila

 

After me buying a motherboard best not be lol .Seems the power jack is attatched to the motherboard, so not sure what u mean mate ?, if u mean power adapter i tried my fathers on on this and nothing

 

Yeah, well but will atleast have a spare if anything happens in the future....
No, i mean the white cable connecting the Power button and motherboard, If that's faulty the laptop wont start or show charging light (except the alienhead on the back of the screen will glow if battery will be charging).
It's this wider little cable on the left.

 

That is a possibility. Swap with your dad's cable to see what happens. They told you a month waiting time for a mobo? I also just bought one and haven't been told to wait a month..

This happened to me actually. One day I just couldn't switch it on. Note the cable from the trackpad is the same. Switch the cables and try it. I don't like using my trackpad much anyway but have since replaced the cable.

 

already tried that one thanks guys, yeah i tried his in hopes that was the case whilst checking the gpus and such. Yeah the motherboard was a month from china, so i payed the dhl express for 3-7 days cost me an extra 40 quid nearly so 90 for the motherboard.


Should have been here yesterday but the darn dhl guys missed the times, so it should come today or tomorrw, but the gpu probably wont be here till early next week. But the 260m will need to do for now even tho it dont have the backplate, i just wont use it, just need to know its working

 

Mine also should be on it's way from China shortly ordered from Fatboys man!

Stephen you and me both are going to have fun fiddling with our M15x's

 

It seems many M15x boards are failing around now. Quite a few people are suffering issues and replacing the board.

It might be that the motherboard at 5/6 years old is reaching the end of it's life.

 

Ok dudes and dudettes (if there is any)

Update on the alienware. The motherboard came today finally no help to dhl, the dude was gonna drive away, he took it to the wrong house and i seen the van luckily, not a dhl one tho a rented one and a polish fellow doing the driving, anyhow shouted him over and got it. Nice

So to the fun part, i tore it all down and poped in the new mobo



And wola on it came, not i had the assumed borked 260m in there, which has no x bracket. So machine works and turns on however i cant hold the card in place.



Now the other fun part. I got to test the 2 6970m i have. One boots up fine and windows loads and such, but it is glitchy, like blocks and all pink. I assume on its way out, probably due to how it was stored cause both cards came from a working m17 or m18x i cant mind which.


So the second card, when its in and u switch on does....nothin. Black screen, everything sounds like its booting and that but no shabang, does hee haw. So i presume this card is borked also.


Thinking of trying to bake them, seen it in a few posts putting them in the oven, I did however hold the back heatsink on, altho they were screwed in it didnt seem to be making much if any contact with the die. Ive seen about grinding the pegs down or using longer screws and sometime even a shim.

Anyhow glitchy card on the right and black screen on the right




So now i just have to wait for the m6000 to come which should at this rate be tuesday, once that appears ill be able to grab a shim or get screws or whatever and hopefully from what i read just plug and play.

 

Good news. Glad to see you are up and running again. I had success in the past with baking cards, but unfortunately they don't last that long usually.

Be careful with the m6000. Mine died and so did Gofspar's. Gofspar's die cracked and mine just suddenly died but I suspect I went too far tightening the new screws I put in the heatsink. I couldn't see a visible crack, but it was probably damaged anyway.

 

yeah i read that in a thread mate, so any suggestions for prep before mines comes, i have some nice tx4 thermal paste here, i was maybe gonna pick up a shim but not sure what shim maybe 0.3mm to go under the heatsink ?, and for thermal pads i wasnt gonna buy any was hoping the ones on there will work fine if i use the shim

I was thinking about this, what size u recommend ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262196336...me=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

ok small edit i baked one of the 6970s and it seemed to work, however half way through install it cuts out.

 

but i presume thats due to poor contact

 

Not sure if that shim thickness will be okay or not. Maybe pickup a couple more sizes like .5mm and 1mm to see what fits best. In hindsight I think the best method is to file down the x-bracket posts in VERY SMALL increments until proper contact is made. This means the original screws and c-clips from the heatsink will still be used, but they will be able to press the heatsink further down, eliminating the gap. Of course you need to be very careful doing this. I also think a shim can potentially cause damage to the die if it is too thick so you need to be careful using that route.

If you do use a shim, make sure to apply paste on both sides of the shim. Years ago I did a shim mod on my MSI GX640 and I decided to use Arctic Silver Thermal adhesive on the side of the shim that attaches to the heatsink. This way it is on there permanently and makes repasting easier in the future. Of course this method may pose a problem if you decide to use a card that doesn't require a shim.

The baking method is hit or miss. Sometimes the solder gets reflowed and the card works fine for a while but other times there may be internal damage to the processor that cannot be fixed by reflowing the BGA solder joints.

EDIT: My bad, I thought those shims were 1.5mm in thickness, but realized they come in various sizes.

 

Nope nope nope. Guys you DO NOT need shims of any kind for the M15x.

I have run the 6970M,6990M and 7970M, 680M and now 980M in the M15x since owning one. I never killed a single one nor used any shims on them.

Simply use the correct backplate and you are good to go. No grinding or cutting or shimming is required. Ignore this at your own peril.

I hadn't owned the M6000 so I didn't comment but most probably a shim wasn't needed there either and could have contributed to the pressure that cracked your die. I speak up now and this is advice that has been given before.

 

yeah ive read that before mate. Ive ordered a 0.3mm one, i dont have the original bracket from the 260m unfortunatly so i cant use that, and i dont fancy filing down the pegs to make it fit, so i think the shim would be the best way to go, hopefully 0.3mm is enough to make a nice tight fit without cracking the die

 

What you need to do is simply order the correct one from ebay.

Often cards come with their own backplate too.

You should never use an amd backplate on a nvidia card and vice versa.

Remember 2 cards have already been crushed. Take heed and dont make it a third

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

Problem is mate I can't seem to find it anywhere

 

The Firepro m6000 uses this style x-bracket:

This size:

The 6990 uses a different backplate with different dimensions. This one:



Notice the difference. The second design was made specifically for the 6900/7900/8900 series MXM cards.

 

The first x bracket is the same I have from my 680M and also fits the 980M.

Try to look at nvidia x brackets

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

so would the bracket on it be ok then, yeah i could not find the red pcb amd one anywhere, i found the bracket, but if i want it here in like 5 days it will cost me nearly £30 for a bracket.

Im actually thinking, ill use the shim on the 6970m which looks like its currently working, then ill order the bracket on standard china mail and wait the 30 days, and use the m6000 with the new bracket when it comes, provided i dont wreck it removing the one that will be on it.

Still hasnt been dispatched from china yet, so much for paying for 5 days delivery

 

Not sure what bracket you mean. The 6970 uses a different bracket than the m6000 (see above pics). The bracket will still fit but it will end up pressing against components like capacitors, resistors, etc. This can be dangerous because the bracket is metal. It does have the tape which will act as an insulator, but if the tape tears and something shorts then you may have a problem.

 

right looking at brackets.

Is this bracket which is the right one. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GPU-...chweb1451318400_6149,searchweb1451318411_6448

the same as this one ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GPU-Sprea...928917?hash=item2ca6cbb495:g:cYkAAOSwwPhWjivP

Big price diff and big wait time diff

 

Visually, they both seem to be the same dimensions so I'd say go for the cheaper one. When you mount it on the m6000 just confirm that it is not making any contact with any components before inserting the card in the laptop and powering it up, but I think you should be fine. Looks like the same size bracket the m6000 uses.

 

hmm well it should be here wednesday so ill try it in the laptop see how it looks and feels and go from there i think before i order anything, i have another shim on the way for the 6970 to be used the now anyhow , do not want to wreck this card

 

Well done. Patience is always king. 30 pounds for a bracket is worth it when the alternative is to break a card worth much more!

Looks like m6000 xbracket is the same as nvidia xbrackets (for 680M-980M)

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

heres hoping mate. Save me money and waiting

im rather impatient

 

UPDATE:

Well guys update for ya. My m6000 was delivered today



And fitted. The bracket was a little chunkier so the card required some pressure to go down , the screws done it fine but theres a little flex with it. Anyhow the bracket looked ok, so i went so , didnt over tighten. And installed the gpu



And it booted and i installed the drivers.




and the info gpuz shows


temps at idle


so i ran haven and valley and the results (haven wouldnt upload, however rerunning it)

So yeah, the gpu came, its installed, it fitted pretty snug, and its been benched a little, hopefully i can game on it a little later break it in a little.

Didnt get a pic of the temps on load, but gpu usage was about 95 percent when benching and the gpu sat at about 60 degreed on load which i was real happy about

Thanks for everyones help on this one, Always love the support in the forums

 

Your GPU fan is different to mine! Does it say what the cfm of the fan is on the sticker?

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

 

That's a lot of thermal paste you're using. Are you using a shim at the moment?

EDIT: Just saw your temps. Not bad at all.

 

cfm mate ?

I had the heatsink on and off to make sure i had enough on, mx5 is pretty tacky so i just spread it as even as i could seemed to work with only a tad

Only done the benchmarks haven't actually sat down to play a game im hoping for some time tomorrow to give it a proper break in test.

Planning my future upgrades currently, spare ssd i have goes in it today, have to order my 8 gb of ram, new wifi chip, some nice wifi ac is what im after and i had a look at the cpus. Whilst the 920 and 940 seems a tad expensive here in the uk , im thinking a 840qm, seems about on par with a 920, i take it i could overclock it slightly to match maybe.

As for gpu this one will do me for a good while, thinking when i want to enjoy a game with all the nice graphics and stuff ill just use the steam game stream feature.

 

cfm is 7.7. I have the same one. Have to say though I cannot for the life of me find a 7.8cfm replacement for the cpu fan.

Only rubbish 5 cfm fans for sale on ebay. Can someone source one?

 

Hey Stephen, let me know what AC card you get. I'm thinking of upgrading my network too.

Go for the 920xm instead of the 840qm. You can get one for around 100 quid (using your Brit lingo ) and it will be faster out of the box than the 840qm and more easily overclocked, and it will increase your resale value in the future.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/i7-840qm-how-far-is-a-safe-overclock.611734/

 

Try Mouser ( http://eu.mouser.com) They might have compatible fans.

EDIT: Found it based on the part number in Stephen's pic:

http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/88-70034-15514/Dell-Alienware-M15x-Cooling-Fan-.html

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free...5x-Cooling-Fan-KSB06305HA-SM01/702117683.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-ALIENW...361075?hash=item27d28fc173:g:TmAAAOxyqKVRh9-o

http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Dell-Al...049957?hash=item280bd2b465:g:t4EAAOSwDFNWE9vx