M15x + ATI 5870 (MOD)

thats odd... where did you get the card? That shouldnt happen with a brand new card... update to 10.5 or 10.6 ... and if it ever happens again return the card.

 

I got it off sleey0. From what I've read he's very trustworthy, the only reason he sold the 5870 was because he needed cash. I'll try updating to 10.6 and see if it happens again.

 

I'm not using a battery if that means anything.

 

I am using A06 bios, not getting BSOD but it says driver stopped working and youtube video goes all green, but it hapend once

 

Having two trouble, one is keyboard gettign too hot, but gpu temp is 60-63, another problem is cooling fans are in fulll speed always, making noise. And stealth mode doesnt work on 5870?? What to do?

 

So Jeehan you got a BSOD once? What were you doing when it happened and what clocks were you at? And as for your problems I will need backup on this but I believe stealth mode doesn't work with 5870 however you can clock down the card using AMD GPU clock tool which should also solve you fan problem. If you set the clocks to say 200/300 when your not doing anything too intensive, it should calm the fan down. Then just turn it up when you want to do gaming etc.

 

I was watching youtube when it went black screen, but it was not BSOD, screen went all black and in few seconds it returned normal. Clock was 700

 

Oh I see. I'm note sure why mine did that. Sleey0 said it was very stable with him and my alienware ia almost new. At the moment I'm putting it down to driver issues. I'm going to update to 10.6 and see if it happens again. It hasn't happened since and I haven't changed anything.

 

Sleey0 is legit don't worry bout it he wouldn't sell you a faulty card.

Could be due to many reasons...i'd think it's the dirvers... i wouldn't worry unless it happens again... my laptop has done some weird things too.. but as long as theyre not recurring... i wouldn't worry too much

 

Thanks Jstarnino, needed some reasurrance, I almost died inside when it happened, everything was working so well. Anyway it seems to be working fine. I'll still update to 10.6 and if it happens again I'll come back on the forum. Also I know it's going a bit off topic but how did you get your i7-720 OC'd to 3.2Ghz?

 

No problem bro, anytime

and yea OC'ing the i7's is all very recent, thanks to Mr. Pras and Abo. be sure to rep them if you do

there's a whole thread for that. Might be a good idea to subscribe to it here's the link

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/499768-m15x-fsb-overclocking-not-only-920xm.html

 

Thanks. I will do.

 

Dude at one point early on my 5870 was doing the jiggles on the screen like you know when a card is about to get fried... It never happened again. The key is to keep it at low clocks when not necessary (and in my particular case I think I had applied thermal pads poorly to the memory chips)...Some people might argue why is that necessary to manually downclock the card but if you want the card to last then do it. It's not like Dell has recommended this upgrade

 

I have been trying to keep the card downclocked when not gaming or doing anything intensive. However I had the card clocked to 200/300 again and played a youtube video, worked fine. A bit later I played another youtube video and BSOD. I think it's to do with the downclocking. When I have the standard clocks it handles the video fine. Anyway I managed to get some information this time. Please if anyone can shed a little light on what exactly this means I would be very grateful.

On Sat 17/07/2010 01:26:38 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: atikmpag.sys
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800ADBA010, 0xFFFFF88002E8BC48, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\071710-13618-01.dmp
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmpag.sys
product: AMD driver
company: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
description: AMD multi-vendor Miniport Driver

 

If I install a 5850/5870, I have to manually downclock the cards with AMD Clock tools? The drivers themselves won't take care of that?

 

I think the 5850 has power play and it would downclock when not gaming. This issue is with the clevo 5870 the bios doesn't have powerplay. But its not really a big deal. Normally for everyday use I flash my card to 200/300 and oc to stock when I play games. But that's just me I do wired things,lol.

Mandrake has an msi 5870 bios that has powerplay and overdrive enabled, if you wish to try that out Andre. but I really suggest you update the driver to 10.6 there is a fix for the YouTube crashes in that version.

 

@andre56

Had the same issue before.. Don't have it anymore...

You can resolve this in two ways...

1. Disable Hardware Acceleration(Settings Flash Player)

or

2. Flash the card... BIOS @1.05v... and then if u downclock ur card to 200/300 it won't give u BSOD.

 

For you guys who have done the conversion, how do you find it in relation to gaming, graphics and frame-rates ?

I just want to be sure its worth doing it.

 

the Dell 5870m also has powerplay and throttles down to 100/150 when on the desktop.

 

Works the same at the AW 5870 but it also allows me to do 120hz to and external monitor....the only problem is I've had two die on me already.

 

I'm on 10.6, I already updated.

Thank you so much whitewizard, good to hear from someone who's had the same problem. I've disabled hardware acceleration, how do I flash the card? and does this mean my BIOS is at 1.05v?

 

Thank you Jstarnino, great guide. I will be sure to get the card flashed and see if it solves the problem.

 

Got my replacement card from Babyhemi, everything is well packaged but I've yet to complete the install. I followed this guide, but I circled 2 areas in green, are these areas supposed to be empty?

 

i slapped on thermal pads there too and so far i get idle temps of 45*C which is VERY GOOD... so you be the judge

 

what thickness of thermal pads??? and if is ok to stack multiple pads to achieve a certain thickness?

 

on the card i use .5mm for the ram. i find the thinner the better it will be for other parts its not really needed.

 

I have all the pads on the card, the only thing missing is the thermal paste, can't decide between Arctic Cooling MX3 or Noctua NT-H1

Here's a shot I took of it installed, any changed/recommendations?

 

yup, thats about hwo mine looks and i would go with ocz freeze... same if not better than mx-3, and alot cheaper.

 

get ocz freeze pretty much the same as mx-3 but spread better and is much cheaper around $7 instead of $20 for mx-3. your pads look good, after alot of trial and error i found only putting thermal pads on the ram will have effect, the other parts will have little to no effect on temps.


dam you j wrote all this for nothing, hahahhaha

 

Get some TIC 4000 paste.....

.5cc for $25

 

Yea its hard to find, and not well known, but i heard it performs the best in the industry. Unless im mistaken with another brand?

 

Ah not going to grab OCZ freeze, had a big problem with their paste on my last laptop. I grabbed a MX3 + Noctua 4gram for 4$CAD each from NCIX on sale I'll apply the MX3 as it seems to cool a tiny bit better.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

yea i used to use mx-3 till i found out about ocz freeze. Good choice non the less, just a little pricey

 

How about the 3 black chips (bottom right)?

On a side note, where can you find thermal pads (green) as shown on photo?

 

Very hard. I inquired about it and they said it's a 5 week lead time. They must only do custom orders.

There's really no difference between the two. Even if you see reviews of all the different pastes there are too many variables to be 100% accurate. How it's applied and the condition of the heat sink plays a much bigger role.

 

Ok I installed the card, put everything like I do with every other card I've used, I get the same red screen I took off some pads to see if there was a change. added some pads to see if there's some sort of thickness issue, everything seems to be making contact, when I remove the Heatsink the ram pads come off with it as do some of the others.

Any idea what could be happening? Do I need a bigger PSU?

 

try to pull the card out alittle bit, don't push the card all the way back.

 

Thermal Tape/Pads | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com  

i'd get this one though ( Actually i did get this one, Thx to inap )

EK Thermal Pad Sheet - 160mm x 155mm x 0.5mm - FrozenCPU.com

good value since you'd have enough for a while.

 

inap! that solved the red screen issue! Thank you! Now I'm having another problem, computer isn't posting properly...

The initial boot after reseating the card it went paste the alienhead logo then to a blinking cursor and didn't go any further. So I decide to power down and boot up again. Nothing on screen. I discharged the system and tried to boot again, half of the alienware logo came up and it stuck there, the alien power button eye LEDs were solid.

 

when you discharged did you disconnect the cmos battery?

 

No, should I every time I discharge?

 

i would try to reseat again if its not posting right.

 

When changing hardware I would.

 

my gpu went in no problem with a simple discharge, and booted up fine?

It was a Dell 5870m though... Is it common for the Clevos to behave like that?

 

No it's common for Alienware systems.

 

Lol you can say that again

Although Dell came through for me and made me a happy customer with a bit of work that is... So i can't complain

 

I can't get this card working, not going to ask babyhemi for a replacement/refund as it's definitely not DOA and he's already been helpful as it is.

I called up alienware we troubleshot the non post trying to see if we could get it to work and we could not, I've got a motherboard coming in that will hopefully solve this issue. Just to note that sometimes I'd power up the system from a cold boot, the LEDs would turn on, the fans start spinning, then the power would cut off, go dead for a couple of seconds then turn on again and just stay on lol.

Anyone ever have a problem with the touchstrip LED's not turning on? The Power button lights up but everything else on that piece is dark.

 

i really suggest reseating the card again.

 

I've reseated the card, 4 times, the only thing that changed was when I pulled it out a bit further and the red screen went away. Since then I've moved around the card with no solution to the no posting problem.

Maybe there is a problem with the motherboard. I've had 2 replacements thus far (first one was the video card but they replaced the MB with a new one), the second replacement was obviously a refurb from the way it was packaged.

 

i had this problem on my new card. if not seated perfectly it would either not post or it would show a red screen.