Precision M6800 questions and upgrades

[DynamiteZerg]

On 8/7/2025 at 9:59 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

I'm actually not sure about Turing, but I know that there are some Ampere cards that look pretty normal like this one or this one. (No idea how to source it.)

Looks like the HP cards are a good fit too! There's even RTX 4000 and RTX 5000 cards but the dimensions are a bit longer on the right side of the card where the memory modules are and not sure if it will be a problem fitting (I remembered this was discussed in NBR but could not remember the conclusion). And also it draws 110W versus 100W max for our MXM 3.0B slot. My P5000 mobile works fine but not sure if RTX4000 or RTX5000 will fry the slot.

 

Maybe RTX 3000 is the maximum we can fit for the M6800 due to the dimensions and power consumption? Found a version of the RTX 3000 that is the same dimensions and size as the P5000 Mobile / GTX980M. That one would definitely work I reckon!

[Aaron44126]

14 hours ago, DynamiteZerg said:

Looks like the HP cards are a good fit too!

 

Got to watch out for the higher-end HP cards. The dimensions are a little different and it might not be a big deal if part of the MXM card sticks out a little bit... but the main thing is that the GPU chip itself isn't in quite the same place, so the screw holes aren't quite in the same place and won't line up with the positions of the screws in the GPU heatsink. Thus a heatsink mod being required.

[DynamiteZerg]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Got to watch out for the higher-end HP cards. The dimensions are a little different and it might not be a big deal if part of the MXM card sticks out a little bit... but the main thing is that the GPU chip itself isn't in quite the same place, so the screw holes aren't quite in the same place and won't line up with the positions of the holes in the GPU heatsink. Thus a heatsink mod being required.

Yeah noticed it too. Just doesn't really align up.

 

Only that generic RTX 3000 that I found fits the bill because it is the same size and physical screw holes are in the same place as my P5000 mobile. However, it's performance is lower than my P5000 mobile so really no point.

[Nowan]

These hp turing mxm gpus, are the last gpus with edp support?

[gluon]

On 8/20/2025 at 9:52 PM, Nowan said:

These hp turing mxm gpus, are the last gpus with edp support?

The RTX Turing cards are the latest with seemingly consistent eDP support, yes.

@SuperMG has done lots of testing on eDP with the Ada gen, see this thread for instance: 
 

 

[SuperMG]

28 minutes ago, gluon said:

The RTX Turing cards are the latest with seemingly consistent eDP support, yes.

@SuperMG has done lots of testing on eDP with the Ada gen, see this thread for instance: 
 

 

Hello. The ZRT and X-VSION cards are lacking something than the other pascal and Turing cards don't... Backlight support.

 

When I start my laptop, the backlight doesn't trigger once, which makes the display off and doesn't display anything beside having video signals on DP_D.

 

The Ampère cards on sale don't have eDP on DP_D, they have DP instead but could be transformed back to eDP if you mod.

 

DP and eDP have the same signals on MXM, DP_D_L lines, AUX and HPD.

Manufacturers for the Ada, they tested eDP signals with a DP out to an external monitor...

 

I contacted Developer79 and sent my 4070 MXM to him. We'll see if he can simple jump the pin 23 and 25 and make this GPU display on his Clevo P870 (which has the same MXM connector signals as mine).

[DynamiteZerg]

Anyone tried a Quadro P5200 in the M6800? Does it need an Engineering vBIOS to work as well?

[SuperMG]

35 minutes ago, DynamiteZerg said:

Anyone tried a Quadro P5200 in the M6800? Does it need an Engineering vBIOS to work as well?

No, can work normally 

[DynamiteZerg]

21 hours ago, SuperMG said:

No, can work normally 

Thanks! I might give it shot for the fun of it! 😆

[AaronD]

On 8/8/2025 at 2:53 AM, DynamiteZerg said:

I still have the P5000 working in my M6800

 

I tried another P5000, Version 86.04.3A.00.25:

 

With Switchable Graphics turned off, this one appears as "Unknown video card", whereas the previous attempt didn't even get that far:

 

Regardless of the Switchable Graphics setting, Ubuntu stalls as soon as it gets control:

• The first try had a black screen with no drive activity and no response from anything, so I pushed the power button.  Still nothing, so I held it until it powered off.
• All subsequent tries had a GRUB menu, I guess because it didn't have a clean shutdown and so the other menu entries might be useful, like memory checks and so on, or even a different OS if it were configured for one, which this one is not.  GRUB works normally, but Ubuntu still stalls with the same behavior, except it has the partially dismantled remains of the GRUB menu instead of all black.

Never got an Ubuntu splash screen, until I swapped back to the old K5100M.  Then everything works as it did.  I only got one system log from all that, which I've also attached here as debug.log.  (normally, there's one for each boot)  Not entirely sure what I'm looking for in there, or if it says anything useful anyway.

 

Is there something I'm still missing?

 

Not asking @DynamiteZerg to take a working machine apart to get *that* picture, but could you possibly post a BIOS shot of how a working one appears there?

debug.log

[AaronD]

BIOS Version A23:

 

I also have a Firmware Updater app that came with this flavor of Ubuntu, that seems to say that there isn't an automatic one available:

And of course, there's still the BIOS's own update utility that I would guess requires a USB flash drive with a file on it.

[sliderfra]

On 8/27/2025 at 5:31 AM, DynamiteZerg said:

Anyone tried a Quadro P5200 in the M6800? Does it need an Engineering vBIOS to work as well?

hi,

Pascal quadros are the best if you have EDP screen on your m6800.

If you have LVDS (optimus), you may try RTX 3000 from ADLINK that works nicely. That one is standard mxm layout.

[DynamiteZerg]

4 hours ago, AaronD said:

 

I tried another P5000, Version 86.04.3A.00.25:

 

With Switchable Graphics turned off, this one appears as "Unknown video card", whereas the previous attempt didn't even get that far:

 

Regardless of the Switchable Graphics setting, Ubuntu stalls as soon as it gets control:

• The first try had a black screen with no drive activity and no response from anything, so I pushed the power button.  Still nothing, so I held it until it powered off.
• All subsequent tries had a GRUB menu, I guess because it didn't have a clean shutdown and so the other menu entries might be useful, like memory checks and so on, or even a different OS if it were configured for one, which this one is not.  GRUB works normally, but Ubuntu still stalls with the same behavior, except it has the partially dismantled remains of the GRUB menu instead of all black.

Never got an Ubuntu splash screen, until I swapped back to the old K5100M.  Then everything works as it did.  I only got one system log from all that, which I've also attached here as debug.log.  (normally, there's one for each boot)  Not entirely sure what I'm looking for in there, or if it says anything useful anyway.

 

Is there something I'm still missing?

 

Not asking @DynamiteZerg to take a working machine apart to get *that* picture, but could you possibly post a BIOS shot of how a working one appears there?

debug.log 1004.23 kB · 0 downloads

Gimmie a minute to boot up the M6800 to get to the BIOS shot for you.

[DynamiteZerg]

I have switchable graphics enabled though. You want me to try and turn switchable graphics off?

[Aaron44126]

“Unknown video card” is exactly what it should say. You might only get this with switchable graphics off.

 

I’m going to suggest that you pull an old version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint, whatever was current when @DynamiteZerg did his vBIOS flash, and try using that to flash on the ES vBIOS. I vaguely remember having an issue when I tried a newer one. Do it with switchable graphics on.

[AaronD]

8 hours ago, DynamiteZerg said:

I have switchable graphics enabled though. You want me to try and turn switchable graphics off?

If it's not too much trouble.  Thanks!  Just want to see if a known working configuration reports itself the same as mine.

 

6 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

“Unknown video card” is exactly what it should say. You might only get this with switchable graphics off.

 

I’m going to suggest that you pull an old version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint, whatever was current when @DynamiteZerg did his vBIOS flash, and try using that to flash on the ES vBIOS. I vaguely remember having an issue when I tried a newer one. Do it with switchable graphics on.

I'll have to wait until after the weekend to do that, but it does sound promising...

 

I also found an A26 version of the BIOS on Dell's website, compared to my A23, and downloaded it.  Haven't installed yet.  Any risk to that?  Or possible benefit?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=nr58c