M15x GPU upgrade questions

Hello all,

I am new to this forum so this will be my first post. Please bear with me if I sound clueless about certain things
I am currently trying to upgrade my GTX 260m to ATI Mobility 5850 for my Alienware M15x. I have finally decided to upgrade my GPU because about a month ago my GTX 260m hovers around 90-100 degree celsius while playing WoW at medium settings and it does this consistently. Next thing that happens is my laptop would not power on what so ever. I found out the GPU is probably fried since the computer powers on when I remove the GPU. Now I have a couple of questions regarding this upgrade.

1. Since the GTX 260m overheats that much, will the ATI have the same problem or worse? Esp since I know the ATI card is much more powerful than the GTX card. If overheating might be an issue, will it be a good investment for me to buy a laptop cooler? If so, which one would you recommend?

2. Is there any guide as to how I can remove the Nvidia driver completely and install the ATI driver? Also, is there any cleaning software that can help me finish this step more efficiently?

3. Which ATI driver would you suggest I install when I have the new card installed?

Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome to the forums
I can, for a start, direct you to the most recent notebook cooler thread, below,
and know others will help with the other issues soon.
Since I havent upgraded mine yet im not going to guesstimate.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/487512-notebook-cooler-m15x.html

 

Thank you for the reply, hub1100. Unfortunately that thread doesn't provide much help to me since everyone are suggesting many different things heh

 

Welcome Kenny,

The 260m shouldnt overheat like that.
I had mine on max settings on WoW when I used to play (ultra I think) notebook ran really cool. Bear in mind, I dont use a notebook cooler.

Upgrading from the 260 to the 5850 would be a good upgrade, in terms of cooling - seems like your notebook may have some cooling/heating issues you may need to clean out your cpu/gpu fans at the back or apply more thermal compound.

M15x should almost always run cool.

There's a driver sweeper program you can use to remove your nvidia drivers completely.
Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

For your ATI drivers use Catalyst Software Suite which contains all the software/drivers you need to run your ati card efficiently. ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

There's a link just incase

Hope this helps bro

 

Yeah driver sweeper is good.
Have you cleaned the fans inside you laptop recently? dust could be causing the high temps but if not i had similar temps with my 5850m i re applied the thermal paste and i don't ever go above 80c in games and thats over clocked at 800/1050.
You will have to re do the thermal paste when you change your GPU anyway and i think this will probably fix the problem if its not fixed already after cleaning the fans but it sounds like your card was just faulty i'm pretty sure the system will shut down before it gets too hot to do any damage 110c i think :S heat issues aside upgrading to the 5850m will bring you much much more gaming power :O and i heard laptop coolers will only drop temps about 5c not sure though i'v never used one

 

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Unfortunately Dell has recently delayed my order once again for about the 6th time within a month period and this is probably the 4th order I have placed for a graphic card (gtx 460m and 5850m).

I am unable to test out the gtx 260m anymore since I believe it's fried and my computer won't power on with it on board :[

Also, I have decided to go with one of the zalman cooler - I hope it'll work out when I installed my new card.

 

How do you even get dell to send you the GPU in the first place? I called them and said I want to get a 5850m for my m15x to replace my 240m and they said they have one but on their site there is only 1 and its for a desktop. When I asked if they can confirm its for my laptop they couldn't..

I call alienware directly and they are conveniently always out of stock lol

 

Call dell spare parts. Tell them you want an ATI Mobility 5850. For Mx15. The price is 279.99 US. Plus tax and shipping.

I talked to about three reps trying to get them to come down on the price a bit before I ordered mine. I managed to get them to give me free shipping. Otherwise the price is firm.

 

I got them to come down to 262 including tax and shipping for the 5850
However I got the board today and it didn't come with a fan or heatsink.


Subtotal : $229.99
Shipping and Handling : $10.99
Sales Tax : $21.08
Total : $262.06
Total Price : $262.06

This the guy from tech support who did the order for me (per my invoice) so maybe he can give you the same discount.. according to the invoice it says 50 dollar discount. All I did was ask if he could bring the price down further... and he just said let me talk to the manager and did it.

Sales Professional: Fainer Esquivel
1-800-289-3355 x 7243784

 

Man that is awesome, I called several times and chatted with sales a few times, trying to get them to come down on the price and they wouldn't budge for anything. The only thing I managed was free shipping and my total was like 300 so you got me by like 40.00.

 

check my sig man, pretty good temp

 

I finally got my 5850 delivered yesterday and I installed it using the the ati driver found on dell website for m15x. Now I'm having a few problems ...

The most noticeable problem is that when I connect to my HDTV (37 inch LG) I see black borders all around the image. It used to be able to fill my HDTV in full screen. Does anyone know how to fix this? (btw, I do have sound coming out since it's a dell card)

The 2nd is that when I start HWMonitor, it does not display my GPU temp, only the voltage .. does anyone know how to fix this or is there a better software to monitor my temp?

 

I used to get the black boarders from Dell drivers i used to open the ccc and the close it again this fixed the problem for me anyway.Using the drivers from the ATI site fixed this problem permanently for me BUT now if i plug my laptop into the tv and its already booted up i get no sound through HDMI so i have to plug it into the TV before i boot the laptop to get sound.
I use AMD GPU clock tools to measure my temps

 

Have you tried GPU-Z (Sensors tab) ( techPowerUp! :: Downloads) and HWiNFO32 (Sensors) HWiNFO & HWiNFO32 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools?

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The Black borders when you connect your laptop to the TV is easly fixed and its primarlly down to ATI being idiots.

If you go into the CCC there is a option (you will forgive me I dont remember where) called "Overscan" it will currently be set to -10% Underscan by default.

If you set this to 0% your display will be the correct size and full-screen