M15x & 6970M / 6990M - What you need to know - upgrading, problems, solutions

did you repaste the cpu side ?

 

Nope, didn't repaste the CPU side...no issues with CPU temps though.

 

Ninefingers, did your ATT just install and run smoothly? Mine has been saying "Can not connect to low level driver. Please reinstall ATI Tray Tools under administration rights with UAC disabled"

 

Yeah it seems to run fine, AVG tries to remove it though, it thinks it is malware :O

 

I think my Norton is blocking it..

Nope, still not working. I keep getting that low level driver/UAC message x.x

 

Tried a few different settings, nothing working. Bugger.

Going to have to put my 260m back in just to play games!

 

I don't want to do that...haha >.< BF3 is the only thing causing my computer to crash..

 

sorry i didn't reply your last post kumquat, but i have never encountered those problem before so i'm not sure what solutions i can give you. Did you try googling for results yet ?

 

Even though I have an MSI GX660R, this thread and all posts within helped me upgrade to a 6990M. Thanks

 

Yeah, I've googled for pretty much everything. TriXX and afterburner won't let me adjust voltages, and ATI Tray Tools just doesn't load because of a low level driver/UAC error

 

Copied from the other thread, since i don't want to type again lol.

ok, since i had some free time, i'm going to list the things that you can do. (from the person who also had shutdowns)

1) VBios -> Newest from dell is the most stable so far (for me at least). Use the 2nd post of svl7 (6970m - what you need to know thread)
2) Thermal pads on the back of the GPU. -> paste on the 4 points. What stands out in the back just put a pad on it
3) Thermal Pads on the ram, yeah the ram 4gb 1333 things
4) Heatsink mod also by svl7 -> Check other threads on the picture
5) Undervolting -> So far 1V is stable enough for 3-4 hours of gaming. (Still shutdowns though, lower than 1V for me causing crashes and such, more than 1v fasten the shutdown)
6) Repaste, i mean it could be heat issue, but for me it's not the case. Get this shutdowns at around 80C.
7) PSU, some people had too much powerdraws (also not my case, the ring didn't turn off for me)
8) Other drivers, 11.10 seems to crash a lot. (11.8 is the best, for me again)
9) ram conflict, some said taking one out leaving only 1 ram helped some people.

This is all i did, helps extending the gameplay, but still shutdowns. Oh well i'm also still waiting for more solutions from the forum.

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Hm, do you mean vbios like A09? That's what I have right now. My temps max out around 80, so that's about the same and I've done the heatsink mod. My PSU is fine.

I'll try using 11.8 drivers since I'm on 11.10 right now, but I really have no clue how to undervolt, if anyone could give me a decent tutorial/guide Thanks for the suggestions though Hel20eS!

 

2nd post of this thread. a guide by the revelator should help you out. not that hard, you just need a usb flash drive.

 

will this one work? ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B | eBay

 

just got my 6990m today and installed it no problem

now im just wondering about the temps. its currently idling from mid 50s to 60C

is this normal?

also are there any programs i can use to monitor temps while in game with this card?? i used to use evga precision with my 460m because it showed me fps and temp while playing in the upper left corner of the screen but it doesnt seem to support this card

update: Repasted and now im idling at 50c which is a huge improvement. but now im worried about gaming. i opened up skyrim and i left it at the menu for a little bit then exited out and noticed that my temps went all the way to 83c. anybody else getting these kind of temps?

 

83 is good, normal for me is high 90's

 

Hey Guys I've been reading this thread for a few weeks now--a lot of great thoughts. I'm still a little confused about which 6970m to purchase. I'm buying from ebay (upgradeyourlaptop) and the seller is giving me a pretty good deal, but the issue with the soldering posts is a little confusing to me. The seller is going to give me the same price for both cards, so which one do I purchase? I thought i needed the soldered posts attached to the card at the time of purchase, but this thread has led me to question this. Help.

Here are the two potential buys:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B w/ Soldered Posts | eBay

ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B | eBay

 

I currently have an M15x with gtx260m

 

This one: ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B | eBay

Ask him whether he has a backplate for it, if not - use your current backplate.

 

sv17 thanks! Just a question though. The seller said he would include the 'x-plate' with the purchase....so do the screws from the heatsink attach directly to the 'x-plate' behind the card?

 

Yeah, they do. But on second thought, I'm not 100% sure whether the screws of your alienware heatsink will fit the clevo backplate... but you'll see. If they don't fit you can still use your current backplate.

 

while gaming?? i noticed that while gaming my temps go to a max of 103. this is on high settings with bf 3. i tried doing ultra and it shutdown on me after 1 min lol

 

kurupt, from what I've learned 80s is what you should aim for, 103C is way too hot. As I was told, try repasting your GPU

 

ive repasted 5 times and still goin all the way up to 103 each time. possible it could be somethin else??

 

Yeah, check out that the coils on the cards aren't touching the heatpipes, this might result in a gap between heatsink and die.
There's a post somewhere in this thread here by widezu with a pic.

 

thanks svl ill look into it right now. i got the original 6990m retention bracket is it possible that could be the problem??

 

Yeah, totally, that's the problem! Or at least the biggest part of it... I will post some pics of an easy mod to solve this, just done this a couple of days ago. Hope I can do it today, else I'll post the pics tomorrow.

 

lol i knew i should have mentioned the retention bracket in my first post.

thx again man and i will be looking forward to your next post

 

yeah i also kept the 6990m x-plate and the way i got it working was by using e-clips on the top part of the heatsink screw to create pressure and it works very well

 

i gotta give that a try. is there a certain size e clip that you used??

 

im in the US so i went to lowes hardware and the smallest size i found was 5/32" and they worked i could of used smaller but those worked fine

 

sounds good man. im also in the US so i know exactly where Lowes is at. prob find them at Home Depot too. thanks alot bro im gonna give this a try and if not then ill just wait for svl7's mod

 

Wait... what? Using the backplate for the 6990m causes problems?

 

Svl7 should I have the seller flash the 6970m for me? Or would you just do it yourself?

 

the 6990m backplate stands sit alot higher the the 5850m so if you use the 6990m backplate and tighten up the screws the heatsink does not make proper contact with the die

 

Well, it will mainly cause higher temps... razor16190 already pointed this out a while ago with some really good pics. (See here for the original post)

Anyway, the "screw holes" of the plate are simply too high (just compare it to the backplate which came with your M15x), this will result in very few pressure getting applied from the heatsink to the GPU die.
Razor16190 already thought of possible solutions and posted them.

I got a 6990m a couple of weeks ago and this time also with a proper backplate, thus I encountered this problem as well (completely forgot about this since I always used the backplate from the 260m)
I used a different approach than razor, it's in the nature of a copper shim mod to be not very efficient (thermally) and I didn't have other screws. And I like the screws with the clips, it's easier to mount a heatsink when the screws are already in place.

Anyway, what I've done is this: I simply grinded down the "screw holes" a little bit, just a couple of millimeters.
This will allow you to use the same screws but also applies enough pressure on the die.
If you cut off too much, you will have to be careful when mounting the heatsink, since you could theoretically crack the die when there's too much pressure.

Here some pics:


Left pic: Two proper 69XXm heatsinks, one modded and the other unaltered.
Right pic: Modded plate mounted on the GPU.


To keep it simple, I recommend to only make it the same height as the original M15x plate, this way you won't have to worry about too much pressure.



For those who are confident enough to use enough care when fixing the screws can grind down the plate a bit more, this will result in more pressure and can (if necessary combined with widezu69s "hammer the heatpipe" mod) bring down the temps even more.
It has a similar effect as the well-known "retention clip mod" in the M17x r2. Just be careful...


About the heatpipe and widezus mod... ( here) this can indeed help, it depends on the heatsink and card, for some people it won't make a huge difference, and for some it can be crucial. The heatsinks are not always 100% identical and there are different 6970m manufacturers... and a difference of 0.5 - 1mm can already be enough to save your from this problem - or lead to it.

When I recently put the 6990m in my system I took a closer look at the complete heatsink/GPU situation and realized, that applying this "hammer mod" really makes a slight difference, at least in my case.
I'd say take a look at your heatsink and GPU and decide whether it's necessary or not. And if you grab a hammer just be careful, you don't want to dent it more than necessary, heatpipes aren't really meant to be treated like this, lol.

 

thanks svl7. +rep if i could give you some

gonna try this out tomoro and hopefully it makes a difference

 

Hi everybody,
To the people who has shutdown problems, i would recommend to put 4mm compressible thermal pads on every little chipsets (MOFSETS i think) on the card's GPU side. In fact, when the MOFSET's temp rises, less current is available for the GPU and so the laptop shuts down. I've bought two 6970 (waresphere and MXM UPGRADE) and had shutdown with both although my temps were very good (80 max while gaming). Since i put the pads, no more problems, you should really try this!!

 

a picture would be great on where you paste it, anyways thanks for the heads up flo

 

Look at the post number 1216.
The 4mm pads should be placed here:
View attachment thermal pads.zip

 

Here's another picture

 

wow how did i miss that! never paste there before, gonna get myself a new pad there. thanks flo +rep

 

@flo6813: That's not entirely correct, what you marked in your picture are mainly capacitors, no need for cooling them.

If you have severe troubles with the cards, cooling the mosfets and coils may help, but most of the time it's due to other issues, e.g. bad pasting job or not enough pressure on the die, as described a couple of posts ago.
I never run into issues with the mosfets uncooled, at least not at stock voltage.

Anyway, here's a pic where I marked the mosfets (green) and coils (pink).





Where did you get the soft 4mm pads?

 

@svl7:Amazon
Phobya - Pad Thermique - 30x30x4mm - 5 W/mk: Amazon.fr: Informatique
You're right, i've padded the green zone (and the capacitors too)

 

so i just got done reinstalling my gpu after filing the retention bracket screws down for my 6990m and i am now idling at 46C which is a huge improvement. ima test it some more with battlefield 3

thank you svl7. your mod helped out alot.

 

so it's not that factor too? i feel down again haha, anyways i'm still going to pad those Mosfet and see what happens,

by the way kurupt, get some results from gaming, hope to hear some good news.

 

thx bro. played battlefield 3 for 10 mins cuz i had to go play basketball with some friends but it only got as high as 74c where as before it would have gone to 103 in 5 min

 

yup, seems that bracket is the problem for some. i use the 260m bracket though, so mine is not that

 

sorry to hear that man. you try the heatsink mod svl mentioned??

 

yup tried that, helps with temp, not shutdown