Maxware79

Most people opt for something like the GTX 1070 as it's usually a pretty simple upgrade, if you get the standard MXM format card. The MSI 1070 PCB is designed a little differently and usually requires some chassis modifications. A few guys have also had good results with the Quadro RTX 3000. This will be superior to the 1070 but also more expensive. I'm not sure if they have tested this card in the M17x R4 but it has been well tested in the M18x R2 and 18 so there is no reason why it wouldn't work. You need to run a modified Nvidia driver in any Nvidia upgrade you go for. AMD cards don't require this. You can use NVCleanInstall to help with the driver. I've heard it's way easy than the way we used to do it by manually modifying the driver inf. The old Notebookreview forum archive can be found on this site if you want to spend a few hours digging through old posts. If you're happy with something from the same era then the GTX680M is the best upgrade that doesn't require driver modification as that card was released with the laptop. The 780M was much better than the 680M but then you need the driver mod. I'd stay away from the 880M but then the 980M is a great card, if you can get one for a decent price.

I can confirm, I had no luck in one of my 17's when I tried a few years ago. I thought it would be the same in all machines so I never tried an M17x or M18x. Wish I had now.

Windows will use the Intel graphics until you boot up a game, I don't think you can get around this as the 1070 needs the Intel graphics to run. If you force the 1070 to run for everything then you are basically running the system in PEG mode, which it cannot do with the 1070. If you find that you are getting really bad performance when you try to run a game then you are getting the weird power throttling issue that most (or all) of us had with the 1070. You can reboot into the BIOS and switch to iGFX mode, then reboot back into the BIOS to select SG mode again. This usually gets the card running properly. You may find that you have to do this every time you turn the laptop on to play a game. It's annoying but it only takes a minute or so.

Have you tried booting with the HDD/SSD and dedicated GPU removed?

So there is no need to use SG mode in the R1 or R2 these days if you have a compatible card in the primary slot? Unless you want to use an NVMe adapter of course.

The 460M was released with the R3 so you will have to run a modded Nvidia driver to get that card to work. AMD cards don't have this issue so they are much more PnP than Nvidia. Since you already have the ATI card, the heatsink bracket you already have should work fine with the 8970M. If you switch to Nvidia you will have to find the Nvidia bracket for the R1/R2. From memory, the standoffs are shorter than those for the R3/R4 and later.

Great job and thanks! I'm sure he will understand.

Hopefully @ssj92 can assist you with this. You seem to have got further than other people with the 10 series cards so I wish you luck getting it working properly.

The 675M will work but it's not plug and play. You will require a modified Nvidia driver to get the card to work. It's not overly difficult and there are plenty of guides out here on how to do it.

Lot's of people have tried bypassing the UEFI issue but unfortunately with no success so far. The 880M's are the best Nvidia cards. The AMD R9 M290x is also an option and doesn't require modifying the display driver like the Nvidia cards.

Awesome! I'm glad another board has been resurrected! If only Dell released the information on how to fix this issue 15 years ago!

I just used an old 4-pin fan cable so you should be good with anything that matches up.

I have never worked on an R1 before, I have one but the board is dead. I've worked on a few R2's though. I was under the impression that the 600M series worked in the R1 but I'd have to do some research before I'm sure. The old NBR archive is available and it will have plenty of information that can help you.

That's what I found as well. I know it works in a Dell M6800 as I guy here on eBay was selling them with the Tesla. He wouldn't tell me how he got the card to work though.

I tried an m6 in one of my 60hz Rangers and it wasn't detected no matter what I tried. Maybe I just got a defective card though.

Yes I believe that is the port but it's been a while since I did it. Yes, the wiring is exactly the same as for the M15x. If you follow the wiring guide you shouldn't have an issue. I have done this fix on the M15x and M17x R1/R2. Let me know if you have any issues when you get to try it.

Yeah, it usually always costs way more to refurbish these old laptops than you think it will. Once you have to start replacing GPUs, the costs can really add up. It's more for the fun of it though, like you say. Keep in mind that these laptops will usually not boot if everything isn't hooked up properly, including the keyboard. It was a weird design idea which they scrapped from the R3 onwards. You'd think that the system was completely dead until you realised that the keyboard ribbon cable wasn't seated properly. Good luck with the refurb!

Not sure about that program you mentioned, never used it. Very interesting that it let you change the colours once and then stopped working. You can definitely try reflashing the chip though. I had originally written this guide just for the M15x but then I came across an M17x with the same issue so I added the information for that one once I fixed it but didn't post a photo of the service port location. I'll have to pull out an old M17x board and see if I can locate it for you. Even if the wiring connection is loose, it should still recognise the AlienFX chip so it shouldn't say there are no devices detected.

Damn man! That custom heatsink is something else! I've always wanted to use the spare second heatsink slot as an extension of the primary slot. Awesome to see someone actually doing it!

Short answer - Yes! Long answer - Yes, you definitely should try this!

Thanks mate.

The ports from the R3 are completely different to the R1 so you won't be able to just slip in the updated board. The R3 was definitely released with the i7-2657M.

You should be able to use Intel XTU to do all the overclocking you need on XM chips. You may need an older version of XTU for these 3rd gen processors, I remember having some issues a few years back when trying to use a more recent version. It's been along time since I've messed with it though.

I used to run my 3920XM at 4.2. That wasn't with any change to the voltage so they can go much higher if you want to play with them more than I did.

That's excellent information @Mashcar! I have a number of MXM cards that have this short issue and I've never known how to test them. I have recently bought a hot air station (still a noob and using it) and I'll definitely give this a try! Nothing to lose.