M15x + ATI 5870 (MOD)

Well all you have to do is change your voltage to 1.05v from 1.15v and.....oh wait I forgot about what happened to your card, never mind.

 

hahahha thanks anyways.lol

 

Try the FN+B combo trick.....otherwise bite the bullet and get a new card.

 

Try baking the card.

 

I tried the microwave and the 4th of July came early.

 

gonna try to flash it with M17x tomorrow, but judging from what you said, it looks unlikey. i'll try the fn+b combo later. but yeah it looks like a new card is most likely, doh'

 

Haha! No, really though! Some people have had success baking their video cards at "low" temps. If the card is fried due to voltage changes and such, then I doubt it would do anything. If the card is messed up due to an actual issue with the hardware on the PCB, then a baking wouldn't hurt if he has decided to buy one anyway!

 

I already told babyhemi to send me another even though I have the Dell cards. I still think the Clevo cards are better but if the 5850 bios works on it that might be just as good.

 

If the card was old I can see that happening. It literally had 5 hours or so of use. It must have happened from me handling it. Eventually I'll try it if nothing else works.

 

its a bad bios flash, so baking won't do anything. i'm pretty sure with the right setup i can right the card back to life, but its gonna be too much trouble.

 

man do you own a gold mine or something,lol. would love to be in your shoes, my wife would kill me if she saw me buying another card. hahah

 

I ain't telling my wife...lol! I setup a "slush fund" if the money comes from there I don't get bugged too much about it.

 

You guys can send me those " messed " up 5870 cards. I'll take it off your hand and fix it for myself.

 

No problem. I still have your paypal address. I'll send you the $300 invoice.

 

Won't it be better if I just add another bill , so I can get a new one?

 

whoa whoa whoa, you can fry the cards by UNDER volting them?! My 260M idles at ~56C so having a 5870 @ 40-45C would be a great improvement. My i7 820qm doesn't even idle anywhere near that high 40's.

How hard is it to mod the 260m HSF to fit the 5870 and do I need to buy any more thermal pads?

 

Hey just trying to save you some $$$.

Existing pads are fine but if you do this type of work you should always have extra laying around. The only thing you will definitely need is thermal paste/grease.

 

I have some IC24 Diamond paste and a couple of pads from a broken VGA heatsink somewhere. The pads don't go bad do they?

 

You need some very thin pads to get good contact with the GPU ...

In my case i actually stretched out the stock pads to make them even thinner for better contact with the GPU to the heatsink ...

 

I just pulled off the HSF from the 260m and compared to to the ones I have, I have some super thick ones that would go on the voltage regulators on a video card and the same pads that look to be exactly the same when placed next to the 260m pads so I should be good. Really wish I could get my hands on a 5850 though.

 

Tried the baking the GPU method today, no go.

 

^^^^Broiling is better...

 

How about the barbaque or microwave? Pinch of salt, pepper and oil and it's all good. GPU feast!

 

The dentist also suggested that as dinner, maybe he wants to make easy money? Already tried to bake it in oil?

I still have no solution for my badly flashed 5870 . I didn't tried the FN+B trick yet. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

 

The baking is to repair microfractures in the solder of the pcb

these occur after chronic heating and cooling from use of an extended period of time - this solution does not fit the problems you are all seeing with the 5870s though....

 

I know but mine wasn't from a bad flash so it was worth trying.

 

Sorry it didn't work

Bricked hardware is a sad thing

 

That's ok Ren will still buy it from me for $300.

 

Can anyone who has a 5870 installed in an M15X take pictures of the "mod" you have to do to the Heatsink? I'm a little concerned and don't want to be ripping things apart.

Thanks!

 

There isn't a mod. You can use the existing one as is. We where just playing around with the Clevo heatsink because it covers the whole card.

 

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up. What happened to your card Mandrake?

 

Stopped working with no warning

 

wow very odd. where did you get the card from?

Also you're Mandrake from the Dell XPS STUDIO 16 forum where they refused to replace your throttling POS with something of equal value right?

 

Nope, have a link to that?

 

umm sure Drake !!! I might as well buy a new m17x and part it out....lol... Thats what I do when I am that bored. lke ke kekek

 

I can't remember where i had asked this but is there a huge difference to using Overdrive to OC and just using AMD GPU clock tool?

Should i bother trying to get overdrive or is GPU Clock just fine?

 

Tried finding it, can't seem to happened on a different forum, dude spent 2950$ on a 1640 with T9900 processor and the works. It kept throttling due to heat / power issues and Dell kept refusing to replace it with something of equal or better value.


Just bought a Video card off Babyhemi, can't wait for it.

 

I've had my 5870 installed for a few days. Initially the only issue was heat, but even the heat wasn't really an issue. I did a vbios flash to 1.05v, and that was fine. I played with it for hours on end without any issues, and the next day when using it I was constantly getting blue screens. After trying different drivers, with and without CCC, I eventually resorted to taking one memory module out. I haven't had any issue since.

Thanks for the bad memory Dell! lol.

What site do you guys buy your thermal pads from? I really messed mine up (still functional, just not ideal), and have one from the Clevo heatsink, and one original right now.

 

here dude

they are out of stock but just call the number and they can send you one as they only need to cut one out of a larger sheet to send you.

 

I haven't used overdrive myself but judging by the looks it does the same thing. I'm really happy with clock tools very easy to use plus you can monitor temps at same time.

Same ones I use but be ready to spend some money its pricey and shipping is high also but its some really good stuff plus a sheet goes a very long way.

 

For those of you who undervolted your 5870s, what voltages have you reached stable? There's a chance that mine may not even be able to reach 1.05v at 700/1000. I've concluded now that the memory wasn't the issue, since both modules were tested individually, and both each time it crashed eventually. The confusing part was that it happened almost instantly with one of the dimms, and literally took hours with the other. But the fact that it did eventually happen with the other one means it's likely my gpu voltage. I have 10.5 driver without CCC installed right now, and at stock voltages the highest temperature I've seen has been 83 Celsius on the vram. I'm aware that that's a safe temperate, but other games may be more stressful than what I've played so far.

I'm also wondering if it's possible/worthwhile to flash a Dell vbios to a Clevo card.

 

Does any one have the link to where you can buy the 5870 moblity ati card?

 

See if baby hemi has any, and if he doesn't get it here.

 

much thanks, Iv been at it at mmorpg forums about laptops and gaming here. Im eycel over there...

 

anyone ever get display port and sound through it to work on this mod? I want to do it but a fully functioning display port is very important to me.

 

I was supposed to test it with my Alienware 5870 card but haven't yet. I'm assuming if it works with the 5850 it will work with the 5870. You may want to get the upgrade through Dell if it doesn't work with the Clevo card.

 

I see you guys been using the 5870 for quite some time now. Is there any serious problem besides the heat problem? It PERFECTLY fit the system isn't it?

Mandrake, AW ATI 5870?

 

Yes fits fine. My Alienware ATI 5870 was purchased from Dell.

 

Dell got sell it separately? and about the heatsink, Is the 5850's heatsink suitable for 5870?

 

Thanks. I've been trying to do that but they keep telling me it's out of stock, lol. I'll probably go with Babyhemi but I was hoping to get a fully functioning display port. If you test yours, Let me know. Thanks.