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Upgrading video card on Amilo m3438g


Niroy

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I guess it is time to start a new topic, cause other concerning m3438g upgrade is quite old.

So... I am willing to upgrade my notebook video card cause i've already had my stock video (6800 go) burned. I heated it with oven, but i dont consider it as a permanent solution, only temporary. Of course i need a quite powerful video card cause it's not only I-net browsing, listening to the music and video watching that i'm going to do on my laptop. I would not refuse to play games on this notebook sometimes, so i dont see any sence in buying such videocards as 8400 GS, X700 e t.c. I'm speaking about HD 3650 and 9600GT (and 8600 GT i guess). But as i understood from some topics on this forum, people with m3438g (and other laptops) faced some difficulties while installing any of video cards i've mentioned.

I would like to know, has anybody upgraded his m3438g video card to any other, especially from the list above. Did you succeed? What else did you do with your video card to make it work on this laptop (i dont mean dremel, but flashing video bios, undervolting e t.c.).

Any information is useful. Please, those who have any experience in this aspect - dont go by, share your achievents or failures.

Thanks for you replies...

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Hi,

You have actually a large panel for upgrade on this lappy: from 6800go to 9700m GT

I created here a while ago a topic on the amilo Pi1556 with 9600m gt DDR3 upgrade. (all Amilos with MXM should accomodate the same cards)

It works fine but there is a 30" countdown with loud bios beep on startup. But after that issue everything works nicely (I have about 5500pts at 3d mark2006)

HD3650 works too but is slightly slower than 9600m GT, but on the other hand does not have the boot issue.

In any case you will have to mod your heatsink to fit the cards (do not worry, nothing a dremel can't do)

I also tried a HD3850 with ASUS vbios but it did not post at all. Tried to flash it with Arima vbios but fried it...

Some advices:

If possible choose cards with acer vbios: they are very likely to work on Amilos.

Stay away from all HP MXM cards as they are bios locked and will only works with HP laptops. The only way to get them to work is to put them first in an HP

notebook and flash the vbios with a compatible one.

And don't try clevo MXM III HE or MXM IV (232pins) cards like 8800m/9800m/gtx260m... as Amilos are only MXM III (230pins). It simply won't work.

You may get Alienware/OCZ ATI HD3870 to works on your laptop but they are incredibly hard to find...

So take your pick and good luck!

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Hi,

You have actually a large panel for upgrade on this lappy: from 6800go to 9700m GT

I created here a while ago a topic on the amilo Pi1556 with 9600m gt DDR3 upgrade. (all Amilos with MXM should accomodate the same cards)

It works fine but there is a 30" countdown with loud bios beep on startup. But after that issue everything works nicely (I have about 5500pts at 3d mark2006)

HD3650 works too but is slightly slower than 9600m GT, but on the other hand does not have the boot issue.

In any case you will have to mod your heatsink to fit the cards (do not worry, nothing a dremel can't do)

I also tried a HD3850 with ASUS vbios but it did not post at all. Tried to flash it with Arima vbios but fried it...

Some advices:

If possible choose cards with acer vbios: they are very likely to work on Amilos.

Stay away from all HP MXM cards as they are bios locked and will only works with HP laptops. The only way to get them to work is to put them first in an HP

notebook and flash the vbios with a compatible one.

And don't try clevo MXM III HE or MXM IV (232pins) cards like 8800m/9800m/gtx260m... as Amilos are only MXM III (230pins). It simply won't work.

You may get Alienware/OCZ ATI HD3870 to works on your laptop but they are incredibly hard to find...

So take your pick and good luck!

Thanks for the answer! Actually, i was inspired by you topics and was glad that i can put even 9600GT in my laptop, but i was not sure. So, i see now, that 9600gt is possible, but in pi 1556. Do you know any people having m3438g and HD 3650/9600GT working fine (exept beep issue) on their laptops? Cause my and you laptop have different chipsets, so 9600gt or hd 3650 can be not compatible with my notebook.

I know about dremel scenario and fan also, but... Doesnt your 9600gt heat much? I know that you've deeply cut your heatsink and your memory modules on video card are not cooled anymore, right? How long is your video card working in that way? Dont you worry your memory modules will burn? So as i understand at a first time you only dremelled you heatsink for the coils and the temperature was still high, so you deeply cut your heatsink (so coolong only gpu) and the temperatures are less?

Any more suggestions for cooling, exept heatsink modification, fan control and coolpad (though i dont have one)?

So, if i'm going to buy 9600gt, how can i understand it has acer bios? Only by the words of the seller? If so, there is a high risk to be bullsh**ed.

Do you have problems with 512 ram of video card and you laptop ram? Did you tried to put 4 gb with a newer bios?

What about 9700gt? Did you tried it?

Why are you using xp sp2, not sp3? I feel that os with sp3 is working a bit faster than sp2.

By the way, do you know anyone, selling xi 1546 motherboard? :)

Edited by Niroy
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Hi,

my 9600m GT is quite cool actually: I have about 50°C in idle and 80°C max in burn/3D games with a notebook cooler.

It's cooler than my HD3650 on the M1437G (about 90° in games).

I have also an M1437G and one M3438G and all the cards work on these models too (9600m GT included).

Cutting is mandatory because of the large capaciter/coils on the card, they are not at the same place than your Go6800 or any other card...

It's a 10min job with a dremel.

At first temps were high but now I use MX2 thermal paste instead of crappy thermal pads... And I gained 15°C minimum.

I also installed an ACPI script for NHC to force the fan at full speed when gaming.

I don't know about the 4Gb of RAM issue, I only have 2Gb and intend to keep it that way as long as I still use 32bit OS...

9700m GT should work too as long as it's acer/MSI branded and standard MXMIII (non HE).

Nope I dunno anyone who is willing to sell a Xi1546 mobo...Sorry.

++

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Hi,

my 9600m GT is quite cool actually: I have about 50°C in idle and 80°C max in burn/3D games with a notebook cooler.

It's cooler than my HD3650 on the M1437G (about 90° in games).

I have also an M1437G and one M3438G and all the cards work on these models too (9600m GT included).

Cutting is mandatory because of the large capaciter/coils on the card, they are not at the same place than your Go6800 or any other card...

It's a 10min job with a dremel.

At first temps were high but now I use MX2 thermal paste instead of crappy thermal pads... And I gained 15°C minimum.

I also installed an ACPI script for NHC to force the fan at full speed when gaming.

I don't know about the 4Gb of RAM issue, I only have 2Gb and intend to keep it that way as long as I still use 32bit OS...

9700m GT should work too as long as it's acer/MSI branded and standard MXMIII (non HE).

Nope I dunno anyone who is willing to sell a Xi1546 mobo...Sorry.

++

Ok. Now i believe, that 9600GT can really work on m3438g, thank you :)

Some more questions:

1) Cooling. How do you modified your heatsink? The way you showed on pic in one of your topic (cutting a half of heatsink) or just doing some "hole" in the heatsink? What is the "coldest" way? (i mean lower temperatures)

2) How do you use thermal paste instead of thermal pads, cause there is some distance between the gpu, memory chips and coils and the heatsink?

3) Where did you get this thermal paste? E-bay? mxm-upgrade? How is it called? Arctic Cooling MX-2?

4) Still, why dont you use XP Service Pack 3? You think Service Pack 2 is better? I found SP 3 is quite "faster" for me, no bugs.

5) 9700 GT is surely better, but the consumption is 45 Watt instead of 23 Watt in 9600 GT.

6) Your 9600 GT is cooler now than 6800 go? Approximately.

7)Do you have an ICQ or MSN? If yes, could you give me your number? I think it would be much better, even if i have some additional questions.

I would probably buy a new video card (more likely it to be a 9600 GT one) but... The "official" sellers want about 400$ for Amilo 1546 motherboard and this are a big money. Without that mothermoard i dont think a new video card is useful, cause Intel P 750 (1,86 MGz) is not really powerful. I guess i couldnt run even Left4dead (i tried and didnt succeed. thought it is my video card). Moreover, HD movies and trailers are very laggy on that CPU. I dont think P 780 (2,26 CPU (the best for that chipset)) would improve much that situation. What do you think about it? I guess T7600 is much better, than P 780.

=)

Edited by Niroy
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1) I did cut my heatsink (I guess you've seen my pic already...). It is mandatory if you want to have a good contact between the GPU core and the heatsink.

2) with that cut they will be in contact

3) yeah Artcic Cooling MX2, I bought it in a computer shop for 5€

4) I could not install SP3 on my XP Home... System hung up when installing.

5) I think it's 9700m GTS that draws 45W (it's shrunk G92 core, same as 9800m GT), 9700m GT is just an "overclocked" 9600m GT...nothing more.

6) I had a 7600Go on my Pi 1556 and it's roughly the same now... I got my M3438 with a defective 6800 so can't tell about this one.

7) Used to but I don't have time any more to use them. My job is sucking most of the time I got.

Wow 400$ is not worth it. But take a look on ebay and type in "mxm" and you should find what you're looking for.

T7600 won't work on your laptop as it's core2duo. 3438G is centrino based so M780 should be the top notch.

Best thing to do with your laptop is to buy a M745 (1.8Ghz 100Mhz fsb) and do a pin mod to make it work at 2.4Ghz. That's what I did with mine.

Cheers

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1) I did cut my heatsink (I guess you've seen my pic already...). It is mandatory if you want to have a good contact between the GPU core and the heatsink.

2) with that cut they will be in contact

3) yeah Artcic Cooling MX2, I bought it in a computer shop for 5€

4) I could not install SP3 on my XP Home... System hung up when installing.

5) I think it's 9700m GTS that draws 45W (it's shrunk G92 core, same as 9800m GT), 9700m GT is just an "overclocked" 9600m GT...nothing more.

6) I had a 7600Go on my Pi 1556 and it's roughly the same now... I got my M3438 with a defective 6800 so can't tell about this one.

7) Used to but I don't have time any more to use them. My job is sucking most of the time I got.

Wow 400$ is not worth it. But take a look on ebay and type in "mxm" and you should find what you're looking for.

T7600 won't work on your laptop as it's core2duo. 3438G is centrino based so M780 should be the top notch.

Best thing to do with your laptop is to buy a M745 (1.8Ghz 100Mhz fsb) and do a pin mod to make it work at 2.4Ghz. That's what I did with mine.

Cheers

1) I told 1 guy (who works with mobile video cards) about you deep heatsink cut and he said you'll soon have your card working not properly, cause half of card is not cooled. What do you think? How long do you have your 9600gt working with that heatsink mod? Any bugs?

2) If you have a licence S/N of win xp home edition on your laptop and an external FDD - you can download official MDSN Win xp sp 3 image and install with the help of FDD and needed files for you SATA to be identified.

3) I mean if i buy a motherboard of xi 1546 (it is the only one, that fits perfectly, with all ports e t.c.) i can use T7600 (quite powerful) and if not - only 780 max, or 750 as i have now.

About doing a pin mod - is your CPU now working the same frequency e t.c as the 533 Dothan CPU (740-780)? As so, wouldn't it be better to buy M765 (i guess the fastest with 400 MHz bus) and pin it? What happens after "pinning"? Bus becomes 533 instead of 400? Finally, how to pin? You mean this pinning?

How much did you payed for M745? You bought a new one? On the e-bay?

Edited by Niroy
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1) Only the ram chips are not cooled. Not half the card... Anyway GDDR3 chips don't heat that much, only the core overheats. But you can cut it while leaving the aluminium covering the ram chips...

2) May try that when I have time, anyway my SP2 is working fine right now.

3) You should buy an entire Xi1546/1526/1554 system with a defective vid card rather than only a motherboard.

problem is the T7600 is way too expensive: you can't find one under 200€, even a used one... For a 2 year-CPU it's insane!

Yeah that's the right link, check this one out as well:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3226&article=pin+mod

This one too (it's in french but you have a lot of schematics on pin and volt mod)

http://www.extremepc.fr/modpentiumm/index.php?id=pin

You just have to insert a small piece of copper wire into the socket for pinmod or voltmod

My PM735 1.7Ghz is working fine at 2.26Ghz with the pin mod and a little volt mod.

My PM725 1.6 is working at 2.13Ghz rock stable w/o volt mod.

Problem is that PM higher than 745 are very unlikely to be pinmodded or will work but with a high volt mod only...

I bought them used on ebay for about 15$ each.

Edited by JohnBRoot
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1) Only the ram chips are not cooled. Not half the card... Anyway GDDR3 chips don't heat that much, only the core overheats. But you can cut it while leaving the aluminium covering the ram chips...

2) May try that when I have time, anyway my SP2 is working fine right now.

3) You should buy an entire Xi1546/1526/1554 system with a defective vid card rather than only a motherboard.

problem is the T7600 is way too expensive: you can't find one under 200€, even a used one... For a 2 year-CPU it's insane!

Yeah that's the right link, check this one out as well:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3226&article=pin+mod

This one too (it's in french but you have a lot of schematics on pin and volt mod)

http://www.extremepc.fr/modpentiumm/index.php?id=pin

You just have to insert a small piece of copper wire into the socket for pinmod or voltmod

My PM735 1.7Ghz is working fine at 2.26Ghz with the pin mod and a little volt mod.

My PM725 1.6 is working at 2.13Ghz rock stable w/o volt mod.

Problem is that PM higher than 745 are very unlikely to be pinmodded or will work but with a high volt mod only...

I bought them used on ebay for about 15$ each.

Well.

1) Concerning you heatsink modification i can say that you've cut it deeply enough and arent there more thing exept ram chips that are cooled with the normal heatsink? Coils, no?

2) Yeah, i didnt notice that 2 more notebook notherboards are completely similar to the 3438 one. I'll try to search the entire 1546, 1526, 1554 but i think their price will be not less than the price of a new motherboard, maybe even bigger. However, there are other spare parts i can use/sell. Thanks for the advice!

3) I searched only 745 CPU so didnt find it on e-bay (only 1-2 high-priced offers) and i guess that is so cause many people want the highest stable overclock on their 915 chipsets. Maybe i'll buy 735 if i didnt find a motherboard/laptop. Anyway, thx for the pin mod sites.

However, 1 guy said that he took a 9600GT from his pal's Acer notebook and put it in his 3438 (however, he didnt do the heatsink modifications). Unfortunately, it didnt want to boot? Why do you think that happened? Maybe not all 9600gt acer cards have acer video bios? I guess it's his stock card, not that he bought to upgrade.

:)

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1) anyway coils were not cooled either with the non cut heatsink as there was no thermal interface between the two.

2) M3438G, A3667G, Xi1526/1546/1554 share the same chassis. I think it would be easier for you to get a plain system than only a mobo as dissasembly is quite a pain in the arse.

3) Yeah you can get a 735 an pin mod it to 2.26Ghz, you'll see the improvement already!

No I dunno, normally all Acer 9600m should boot on Amilo notebook, even w/o the heatsink mod.

I think it may have been a short circuit so it did not boot (always have thermal interface between any part of the card and the heatsink or you risk short circuit)

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Ok. Thanks for all you advices, they were really useful. I have no questions left now but i hope if i have some you'll answer :)

Again thanks for you help, mate! :P :)

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You're welcome.

I'm always there to help if I can be useful.

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Guest DR remix

i have amilo m3438g and i was wondering if ati 2600 hd would work on it?

and im really confused about the Vbios of video cards as some come with acer asus hp and others come with ati vbios

is that really the case ?

finally what is the best compatible card with my amilo ? from your experience with forums

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

my 9600m GT is quite cool actually: I have about 50°C in idle and 80°C max in burn/3D games with a notebook cooler.

It's cooler than my HD3650 on the M1437G (about 90° in games).

I have also an M1437G and one M3438G and all the cards work on these models too (9600m GT included).

Cutting is mandatory because of the large capaciter/coils on the card, they are not at the same place than your Go6800 or any other card...

It's a 10min job with a dremel.

At first temps were high but now I use MX2 thermal paste instead of crappy thermal pads... And I gained 15°C minimum.

I also installed an ACPI script for NHC to force the fan at full speed when gaming.

I don't know about the 4Gb of RAM issue, I only have 2Gb and intend to keep it that way as long as I still use 32bit OS...

9700m GT should work too as long as it's acer/MSI branded and standard MXMIII (non HE).

Nope I dunno anyone who is willing to sell a Xi1546 mobo...Sorry.

++

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Guest fly7720g

I guess it is time to start a new topic, cause other concerning m3438g upgrade is quite old.

So... I am willing to upgrade my notebook video card cause i've already had my stock video (6800 go) burned. I heated it with oven, but i dont consider it as a permanent solution, only temporary. Of course i need a quite powerful video card cause it's not only I-net browsing, listening to the music and video watching that i'm going to do on my laptop. I would not refuse to play games on this notebook sometimes, so i dont see any sence in buying such videocards as 8400 GS, X700 e t.c. I'm speaking about HD 3650 and 9600GT (and 8600 GT i guess). But as i understood from some topics on this forum, people with m3438g (and other laptops) faced some difficulties while installing any of video cards i've mentioned.

I would like to know, has anybody upgraded his m3438g video card to any other, especially from the list above. Did you succeed? What else did you do with your video card to make it work on this laptop (i dont mean dremel, but flashing video bios, undervolting e t.c.).

Any information is useful. Please, those who have any experience in this aspect - dont go by, share your achievents or failures.

Thanks for you replies...

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Guest fly7720g

I have an Acer 7720g i am upgrading to run with a 9600m gt. The acer driver wont recognize the card. I tried the driver from Nvidia, it installed just fine. Should I be concerned about flashing the bios on the card to Acer? or just run with Nvidia drivers? How would I flash bios?

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  • 1 month later...
Guest amilatio

I put a Go 9600M GT into my M4438g, and it is working fine. Only I m not getting any performance1

On the Benchmark3D_2005 I'm getting 3471 points! This is almost the same reading then with the original Go 6800.

Should I use the drivers from Guru3D? I don't want to overclock at this point.

Also one oc-Prog says there is a problem with the configuration.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Gerry

Mauritius

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Guest jAVIcASTE

Hi, as mi old 6600GO died, i've bought a graphic card - 8600M for my amilo M3438G notebook.

i readed that it was compatible so i bought it thinking that it was going to work...

i've installed it, and fixed the problem with heating, because the heatsink didn't fix at all.

finally i made the temperature fine to work with it, but when i turn off my laptop, it turns off after 30 seconds, sometimes less...

i've discarded the posibility of the heating security turn off, by aplying a cooler base that keeps the laptop really cool.

so i thought it could be a problem with bios or something, but fujitsu-siemens does not have any update since 3 years ago.

I've readed something about a videoBios update, but i'd never heard about it and i don't know what it is.

I've noticed too that it's not an O.S. trouble, cause it turns off even if you are at the bios config.

My laptop config is:

Amilo M3438G

1Gb Ram

80 Gb Hd ide

the new video card is nVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT G84M 600 512MB MXM II VGA Card

17'' LCD Screen

Windows Xp Home

If anyone could help it would be really great.

anything you would want to ask, just do it.

Thank you all.

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  • 3 years later...

does ati x700 works on amilo m3438g????

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As Amilo 1437 (with the same Uniwill p71en0 motherboard) is equipped with x700 by default, the answer is a very probable yes.

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  • 4 years later...

I have an excellent work of 8400m gs from acer 5520g, but I needed a modification of the cooling system. Initially, gpu was not adjacent to cooling.:12_slight_smile:

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