Back in the M15x game

I picked up a busted m15x (overpaid....i'm sure I did...). Bad battery, busted power jack on the board. Had to buy a new battery (ouch) and resolder a new jack on the board, which I screwed up and is now a really snug fit (not comfortable with that, but it works now). Anyhow, i swapped the HD+ screen to FHD, new palm rest (old one was bent...wtf), new arabic/english keyboard since the old one was missing keys, and a good cleaning, stuffed a 920XM, and still have the stock 5850M in there. PO was a serious idiot, it was caked in dust on the inside. Surprised it still runs for the crap it was in there. I forgot how hot the 920XM runs even with liquid ultra.....jesus christ. I have been spoiled by sandy and ivy bridge. 3.4ghz is where it tops out without BSOD. I have a 512GB M600 SSD in there. Thinking of going either Firepro M6100 or GTX 970M, not sure yet. I thought it would be nice to keep one around as a museum piece.

 

mine holds up 3.6 with kryonaut just fine, though you'll have to use it in a cool room

 

Deadsmiley had an m6100 but he had some trouble with it. It is now dead so you may want to message him and ask him before investing in one. Otherwise, the 970m is probably the fastest/coolest atm for the M15X but still kind of expensive. I plan on getting one eventually when prices drop. Happy enough with my m6000 right now.

 

I know, I'm in possession of his dead M6100, I verified it for him it was indeed damaged (damaged core). The appeal of a mini 7970M is super though...and the 970M is too expensive at this time. Maybe GTX 965M is a good way to go?

 

lol...it's a small world after all.

 

I would say wait. I know things don-t look good at the moment but then again we are still during this period of uncertainty.

I plan to wait still and I only have a 260M haha. 5850M is way better!

 

gtx 770m isnt to bad imo. i got mine for 150.

 

Funny you should mention this because GTX 9xx is the end of the road for M15x owners.

Pascal: What do we know? Discussion, Latest News & Updates: 1000M Series GPU's

 

It's dead Jim. I have the 8970M and it works pretty well except fan control needs HWInfo64.

@Raidriar The other thing I found is that the CPU (920/940) really *needs* to be overclocked to get the most out of the 8970M.

Edit: By the time I fiddled around (and killed) a M6000, M6100 and bought the 8970M I could have just have gotten a 970M and been done with it. Bite the bullet dude!

 

It's inevitable that one day the tech behind the M15X will be too old (it's already there for most people). I dread the day when the M15X subforum will be merged with the Alienware legacy systems.

 

how do we know its the end? ids edp and LVDS the screen technology or something? i remember reading LVDS next to the screen ribbon under the keyboard.

 

According to Prema, Pascal no longer supports LVDS screen models. That is the cable that we have on the M15x.

Maybe AMD will have something we can use?

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M15x has edp port. Just need to solder a edp connector in place and should work!

Never underestimate this machine! Just took this from my spare mobo.

 

Something like this: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/250m..._1&btsid=6557d850-85d4-41b8-922d-4821a5f8dbd5

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/30pi..._1&btsid=7cb9e136-1c0b-43e1-8547-b2333cb7724e

Just measured the pin out length at just under 2cm this matches the 30 pin edp connector linked above. So if this gets soldered in place would it not be possible to mount a screen compatible with eDP? I guess we are limited to around 3k considering the DP port on the M15x is verson 1.0. So no 4k but still.

This might be a fun project!

 

dear god. this thing is the gift that keeps on giving! see what i mean? what CANT this thing do? (or in this case potentially do)

also screw them if they are going to take out LVDS support.

 

if edp is linked to the display port correctly. what is LVDS linked too?

 

Vga I guess. M15x features both vga and displayport out.

Seriously though this would be a fairly expensive and difficult/time consuming project. Edp connector is inexpensive but would need to find someone with skills to solder it in place.

Then need to source a 30pin eDP screen. Probably 1080p and make sure it is of good quality. Same skilled person above would need to help get the screen power cable spliced to make it compatible with M15x mobo (unless this a generic power connector design?)

All that plus the fact that the screen is the hardest part of the whole laptop to take apart (the one part that is not user friendly) or rather I should say put back together in one piece.

Then perhaps it works?! Lol

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Looks like 970M is the last and the best card which will work fine on M15x.

 

Well lets wait and see. AMD may or may not bring something to the table. Plus eDP may also be a possibility on the M15x. Someone just needs to do all the hard work and then post a guide ...and yes I haven't decided whether that someone will be me yet!

 

It usually is not as simple as soldering a port. If something is left not implemented, they don't put the accompanying resistors/capacitors and etc. Cost savings, but on a large scale it adds-up pretty quickly. I've seen quite a handful MoBos with missing stuff, that you'll have to do all the required work, which is not just port soldering. Good luck!

EDIT: Took a quick look into the schematics (defiant w670di schematics), and yes there are a handful of components that I can bet are not there* on your MoBo and you'll have to source them. Want to be sure, get your faulty MoBo and inspect it (remove the black tape) and compare what is there and what not from the eDP related components (p27). Another thing - you have two lane eDP implemented, so no 4K. The good news is that the third and forth have test points (which is good), but the connector is only 2 lane, so if you want 4K, wider connector and a lot of custom work would be required.

*Since there are a few revisions, the final revision says "Change mount to NA" which directly translates to - not there. On previous revisions there are different suggestions for resistors, which probably means that it might not have been ironed, so you are in for quite the ride.

 

Not ironed? Not familiar with this term lol. Implementing eDP is quite the pipe dream. However I shall peel back the tape on my spare (not faulty ) mobo and post a photo here.

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If anyone needs a faulty mobo for whatever reason let me know. I have one without the CPU mounting bracket (faulty for other reasons).

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Tried to find schematic but all cost money!

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Yeah, they usually do. There was a place with a handful of free schematics, but it seems gone now. It shouldn't be hard to find schematics for the device you have, one must be able to repair his device if he has the means and wants to do so. But it's all part of the consumer society - buy, fry, throw, repeat.

Anyway, there seems to be none of the related stuff around, maybe they are behind the LVDS or even on the flip side. It's quite likely that you'll have to strip the board I PMd you some help

Maybe there is some interference, or something like that i.e. not working properly. So I hope that they've fixed (ironed) whatever the issue was.

That's awesome, it's just that I'm a bit far away.

 

the other issue...custom PCB design is now the way forward for pascal, since nvidia dropped reference designs. The PCBs are now significantly bloated.

As for AMD, I have a Clevo rep that confirmed to me they will not be manufacturing any Polaris on MXM. Alienware quit the MXM game almost 2 years ago now, and MSI has yet to release anything with AMD MXM since R9 M290X, so don't get your hopes up.

regardless, the M15x has had the most incredible lifespan of any laptop in existence, which is why I bought one (museum piece)

 

so thats it? the mxm standard is dead?

 

Yes, pretty much.

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wtf... why? why did they do this?

 

please tell me its not true ;(

 

MXM 3.0B ends with the GTX 970M and GTX 980M for nVidia, AMD ends with R9 M290X/8970M. MXM 3.0A ends with the GTX 965M for nVidia and with the FirePro W5170M for AMD

Slowly but surely, modular portable computing is fading away.

 

There is also the elusive quadro K5500 mxm 3.0B card (980 mobile) and M295x card. The quadro wont work due to consuming more power than the 130W M15x can provide while M295x would but leaving zero room for tweaks.

But yeah otherwise pretty much dead.

We are still early days (1 week) so lets see but yes it doesnt look great.

MSI 1060 is MXM 3.0B but costs an arm and a leg currently and there is the no LVDS support problem to contend with.

With time I guess someone will test this. Only real hope is for a new firepro card from AMD....

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Well if it's the end of the line. (Sheds tear) then let's hope eBay sellers take a LONG while to spike their prices on the 980m they finally came down to an acceptable level. And I use the phrase acceptable very loosely lol.

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Soon all the ignorant will be right. The ignorant being people who day you can't upgrade laptops.

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Looks like AMD may be coming to town with a polaris mxm part.

Should be a decent upgrade from 970M and the final upgrade for us

This according to Prema. Lets keep our eyes/ears peeled!

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I am looking at doing an MXM swap-o-rama real soon now.

980M goes from M17x R4 to P170SM-A
8970M goes from M15x to M17x R4
880M goes to M15x (severely downclocked)
M18x R2 stays 680M SLI

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Me too. 260M is killing me!

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Updated my posting...

You can play Half Life, Quake 1/2/3, Counter Strike: Source, etc. I did it with a 240M. Overclocking the crap out of it really helps the old geezer.

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How does the 8970M fare vs the 880M these days?

Your feedback?

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Don't know. The M15x with 940XM doesn't have the same CPU grunt as my P170SM-A with a 4810MQ.

I suppose I should record some baseline benchmark numbers before I remove the 8970M and install the 880M.

I know the 880M will run much hotter than the 8970M.

My gut tells me that the AMD card likes a faster CPU to run well.

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I don't suppose you'd be interested in a 660m? I have a spare one floating around.

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W7170M, although ridiculously expensive. Also, as @King of Interns mentioned, there's hope coming from Clevo.

 

Really? Somehow doubt Clevo coming to the rescue lol after those abomination 1070 and 1080 cards.

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Well, we'll see where the topic/poll would go.

 

There is speculation that an MSI GTX 1060 might work.

Edit:
1060 in the M15x is not likely due to lack of LVDS support.

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Hey folks ... not to jump in over my head but it's pretty clear a lot of you are running older rigs ... I Just bought anew m15x with gtx 970m ... are you telling get me it's already at end of life as I won't be able to upgrade to a 1070 or 1080 ? Any experience running them through graphics amplifier???

 

@Shaden The newer AW 15 is not the same as the M15x. What year was yours made?

The reason why the 10xx cards won't work in M15x is stated above, lack of LVDS support. Not sure about the architecture of the newer 15's. Are the GPUs replaceable?

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Your machine doesn't belong on this board, it goes with the rest of the 2015 13/15/17 systems that are 100% soldered. There is no internal graphics card upgrade for your machine, but you can use the Graphics Amp should you choose for more horsepower (though it will be bottlenecked)

 

Thanks for answering this question.

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