Acer Aspire 5520-7416 MXM II 8600GT?

[muppet]

I got the screws from an old Alpine car stereo..

not sure on the size..

You need 4 x M2.5 bolts - about [edit] 6mm shaft length if you are reusing the springs from the Acer M2.0 bolts.

Also on my upgrade to the 8600m, I had to dremel the heatsink as it had an additional nub sticking out (where the ASUS heatsink had open air).

Edited February 10, 2008 by muppet

[A Civilized Man]

You need 4 x M2.5 bolts - about 10mm in length if you are reusing the springs from the Acer M2.0 bolts.

Also on my upgrade to the 8600m, I had to dremel the heatsink as it had an additional nub sticking out (where the ASUS heatsink had open air).

Would this be alright ? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M2-5-x-10-Stainless-...7QQcmdZViewItem

[muppet]

Would this be alright ? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M2-5-x-10-Stainless-...7QQcmdZViewItem

Sorry - ammended length in original post (was referencing total length, not thread length).

I just pulled the ones I used and they are actually 8mm total length and 5mm thread length.

However the bolts from the existing card are around 7mm total, but actually have 6mm shaft length (including some un-threaded area and thread itself).

I had to pre-compress the springs from the Acer bolts a bit (so as to not press too hard when installing the bolts) as the 5mm thread of the bolts I used was short by 1mm that the springs were originally designed for.

Ideally go for 6mm shaft/thread (I think this would be a "M2.5x6"). The depth of the heat sink would at least allow for 3 or 4mm for the head.

Oh -

Before you do anything - run some hardware tests (e.g. memtest, prime95, 3dmark06 etc) and check your event logs (including Machine Check logs) for any errors that are warranty issues - as you'll be kissing the remainder of your warranty goodbye once you do the below.

Read the mxm-upgrade guide.

I recommend an anti-static mat and wrist strap to keep the laptop and yourself at the same potential whilst you are doing this.

Make sure you have some thermal compound (e.g. a 3.5gam tube of Artic Silver 5 or whatever everyone is using now) on hand and a thermal compound remover (I used the two step Arcticlean thermal remover/prep to remove the existing compound - which looked like the person that originally applied it got paid by how much of the stuff they used).

Basically you remove the fan (I left it plugged in though), unscrew the CPU heatsink, pull the heat pipe/heatsink gently towards the cpu direction whilst pulling up gently on the heatsink to remove it from the cpu and MCP67. Once that's out, you do similar for GPU. No need to break the bond between the heatpipe and heatsink. The GPU comes out pretty easily - again gentle is the keyword. Also clean up the existing thermal compound on the existing GPU if you are storing it.

Clean the heatsinks and cpu and mcp67 up - taking care to not smudge the thermal compound onto anything.

Check the heatsink for fit against the new card - you'll soon see if you need to remove anything with a dremel, though try a test boot with the card before taking to the heatsink.

I then replaced the thermal compound with a small amount of AS5 (less than grain of rice sized) for each chip surface and a fine plastic knife to spread the compound. Don't smear this stuff on anything but the shiny chip surface that you removed the other compound from - some people use tape to ensure this. Whilst many thermal compounds are based on non-conducting metal oxides, I understand that they can still mess with things they come into contact with (resistance).

I moved the heat sink around a little to make sure of good contact and removed, finding good coverage on the heatsink. Be careful screwing the heatsink in - don't force it and don't go too far as there is still laptop underneath the card...

Note compounds such as AS5 take 200 hours of usage to fully work - I wouldn't run prolonged stress tests straight away and make sure that you are running using the "High Performance" power plan - it actually lowers the temperature at which the fans kick in.

Finally - my thermal mats were not a perfect fit and were a bit messed up. You might want to look at grabbing some of the mats mxm-upgrade.com have.

Edited February 14, 2008 by muppet

[A Civilized Man]

It doesnt pass POST :) went back to my 8400m GS and works fine

[muppet]

It doesnt pass POST :) went back to my 8400m GS and works fine

Is it (1) failing POST and halting/rebooting (2)Showing a POST error then going blank screen (i.e. possibly trying to loading OS - does the hard drive light flash etc?) or (3) has a POST error then failing trying to load the OS?

If it's 2 it may be possible to blind flash the card - presumably following instructions for the 5520g just working out how to do it without keyboard confirmation, say with autoexec.bat.

If it's 3, follow instructions on how the 5520g was flashed.

Assuming it's 1:

I wonder if the card doesn't run in reduced mode (enough for a flash from DOS) due to your 7720g model having a 17" display panel whereas the ASUS C90 the card is designed for has 15.4" (as does the 5520g with MXM) :) Presumably it is finding this info from the EDID eeprom for the display and the reduced mode only works with a certain range of configs.

I don't think connecting an external monitor would be of any help getting past POST - however can't be sure until you try it.

As I understand it, the card needs to pass POST in some form to facilitate flashing itself - therefore hot swapping cards once you've booted to DOS (aside from the obvious ESD issues etc) wouldn't do much good, nor will booting with say USB vga adapter or expresscard slot (e.g. ASUS XG station).

In this instance I guess someone local with an ASUS C90 (with warranty which presumably allows installation of such parts), or an Acer Aspire 5520g/mxm (who doesn't worry about the warranty), could flash the card for you so you can continue trying to see if this will work out.

Edited February 14, 2008 by muppet

[A Civilized Man]

Is it (1) failing POST and halting/rebooting (2)Showing a POST error then going blank screen (i.e. possibly trying to loading OS - does the hard drive light flash etc?) or (3) has a POST error then failing trying to load the OS?

If it's 2 it may be possible to blind flash the card - presumably following instructions for the 5520g just working out how to do it without keyboard confirmation, say with autoexec.bat.

If it's 3, follow instructions on how the 5520g was flashed.

Assuming it's 1:

I wonder if the card doesn't run in reduced mode (enough for a flash from DOS) due to your 7720g model having a 17" display panel whereas the ASUS C90 the card is designed for has 15.4" (as does the 5520g with MXM) :) Presumably it is finding this info from the EDID eeprom for the display and the reduced mode only works with a certain range of configs.

I don't think connecting an external monitor would be of any help getting past POST - however can't be sure until you try it.

As I understand it, the card needs to pass POST in some form to facilitate flashing itself - therefore hot swapping cards once you've booted to DOS (aside from the obvious ESD issues etc) wouldn't do much good, nor will booting with say USB vga adapter or expresscard slot (e.g. ASUS XG station).

In this instance I guess someone local with an ASUS C90 (with warranty which presumably allows installation of such parts), or an Acer Aspire 5520g/mxm (who doesn't worry about the warranty), could flash the card for you so you can continue trying to see if this will work out.

From when the power botton is pressed i can hear it doing the checks i.e the cd drive spins once harddrive light flashes twice the back light comes on then 2 loud beeps then 1 beep every 1 second. when i press anything nothing happens but after a certain amount of key strokes it starts to beeps twice.

[tvone2]

Hello,

I missed something..

what did you do so far??

Oh..7720..

Trailblazin'!

Tony

Edited February 14, 2008 by tvone2

[muppet]

From when the power botton is pressed i can hear it doing the checks i.e the cd drive spins once harddrive light flashes twice the back light comes on then 2 loud beeps then 1 beep every 1 second. when i press anything nothing happens but after a certain amount of key strokes it starts to beeps twice.

For me, on first boot after installation the card did a 30 sec countdown on screen after it indicated that it would be running in reduced mode - none of the keys I pressed got it to cancel its countdown (I can't remember if this beeped whilst doing so). After this, POST completed and the machine attempted to load Vista but failed. However I did see hdd activity when Vista tried to load.

Some things to explore: 1) the beeps you are hearing are BIOS error beep codes, or 2) the ASUS card is beeping during the count down described above as it knows you cannot see it's on screen output and then your machine continues to try and boot Vista but fails.

1) I'd note down the beep codes and check that it's not a bios beep code indicating it can't access video ram or something. Confirm the type of bios you have on boot (I think it's Phoenix from looking around) to help determine what the codes mean.

2) I'd try and load a DOS thumbdrive (confirm the following first though using the 8400m when you can see).

Presumably you have a DOS thumbdrive prepared and have changed the boot order in your BIOS to boot the thumbdrive first...

Boot up the thumbdrive.

After say a minute to allow for the 30 sec countdown, other POST activity and loading the thumbdrive, I'd first hit CTRL B and hit enter (DOS smiley - LOL tell the machine we come in peace) and make sure it doesn't beep. Then I'd type CTRL G and hit enter (DOS beep) and see if it beeps only after hitting enter (confirm this works on your machine with the 8400m first).

Pretty crude - but if you can confirm you can boot a DOS thumb drive, you can look at flashing the card.

[A Civilized Man]

For me, on first boot after installation the card did a 30 sec countdown on screen after it indicated that it would be running in reduced mode - none of the keys I pressed got it to cancel its countdown (I can't remember if this beeped whilst doing so). After this, POST completed and the machine attempted to load Vista but failed. However I did see hdd activity when Vista tried to load.

Some things to explore: 1) the beeps you are hearing are BIOS error beep codes, or 2) the ASUS card is beeping during the count down described above as it knows you cannot see it's on screen output and then your machine continues to try and boot Vista but fails.

1) I'd note down the beep codes and check that it's not a bios beep code indicating it can't access video ram or something. Confirm the type of bios you have on boot (I think it's Phoenix from looking around) to help determine what the codes mean.

2) I'd try and load a DOS thumbdrive (confirm the following first though using the 8400m when you can see).

Presumably you have a DOS thumbdrive prepared and have changed the boot order in your BIOS to boot the thumbdrive first...

Boot up the thumbdrive.

After say a minute to allow for the 30 sec countdown, other POST activity and loading the thumbdrive, I'd first hit CTRL B and hit enter (DOS smiley - LOL tell the machine we come in peace) and make sure it doesn't beep. Then I'd type CTRL G and hit enter (DOS beep) and see if it beeps only after hitting enter (confirm this works on your machine with the 8400m first).

Pretty crude - but if you can confirm you can boot a DOS thumb drive, you can look at flashing the card.

It did boot into DOS on my 8400 so i tried again with the 8600 and after about 30 secs the beeping stops and it boots into DOS (i can tell as the light on my USB stick starts blinking) but when i try to flash it i hear 2 small blips than nothing. when i restart it does the 30 second thing again :) (the whole time the screen stays blank with the back light on)

Edited February 15, 2008 by A Civilized Man

[muppet]

It did boot into DOS on my 8400 so i tried again with the 8600 and after about 30 secs the beeping stops and it boots into DOS (i can tell as the light on my USB stick starts blinking) but when i try to flash it i hear 2 small blips than nothing. when i restart it does the 30 second thing again :) (the whole time the screen stays blank with the back light on)

That sounds positive - as nvflash waits for user input by default and, from memory, it beeped at this point and on completion.

I believe you need to use the -A (auto) option in this instance to run without user input and the -y (reboot) option to make it reboot after flashing. I think the command would be:

nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y newrom.rom

Note the case is important (notably -A).

I note that http://www.notebookforums.com/thread181387.html indicates you need an earlier version of nvflash for the automated execution - however nvflash 5.57 has these commands (except -4 for some reason - yet I used this option myself when flashing using this version) documented in it's help.

The above string presumes that nvflash and the newrom.rom is in the root of your thumbdrive - which from memory loaded as C:

If you do use the autoexec.bat option - don't leave it unattended as it will just keep flashing and rebooting...

Good luck

Edited February 15, 2008 by muppet

[A Civilized Man]

That sounds positive - as nvflash waits for user input by default and, from memory, it beeped at this point and on completion.

I believe you need to use the -A (auto) option in this instance to run without user input and the -y (reboot) option to make it reboot after flashing. I think the command would be:

nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y newrom.rom

Note the case is important (notably -A).

I note that http://www.notebookforums.com/thread181387.html indicates you need an earlier version of nvflash for the automated execution - however nvflash 5.57 has these commands (except -4 for some reason - yet I used this option myself when flashing using this version) documented in it's help.

The above string presumes that nvflash and the newrom.rom is in the root of your thumbdrive - which from memory loaded as C:

If you do use the autoexec.bat option - don't leave it unattended as it will just keep flashing and rebooting...

Good luck

:)

It works

Thanks for all your help you've been amazing

[muppet]

:)

It works

Thanks for all your help you've been amazing

OMG well done!!

[tvone2]

Good Job!

:)

[Guest Ranger]

Good Job!

:)

Hi all just wondering how much one of you who have done this would charge me to do this to my Acer 5520. I could probubly do it myself but would rather pay someone who really knows what they are doing. Please let me know if one that has done this would be interested and what you would charge. TIA.

[SteveO]

Hi all just wondering how much one of you who have done this would charge me to do this to my Acer 5520. I could probubly do it myself but would rather pay someone who really knows what they are doing. Please let me know if one that has done this would be interested and what you would charge. TIA.

Above post is me i went regi. Please let me know if anyone has an Asus 8600m 512 gt for sale or if i find one can anyone get it to the point where i just have to put the card in? I just dont wana mess things up. TIA

Steve

[reiluke]

i just ordered 8600m gt for my acer 4520G with 8400M G, opened under the hood and indeed its mxm, dont know about what type, the heatsink seems smaller than your 5520, could be type 1 but what the hell ill will try it, if it doesnt work then its pretty easy to sell it here

[tvone2]

Looks good..

I think it will fit.

[reiluke]

update

i received the card and installed it in my acer 4520G, the card fit with the old heatsink even the screws matched

upon powering the laptop there is no display, it tries to read the cdrom for 8sec

from my desktop i created a bootable usb flash drive, with nvflash.exe and the acer 8600GT bios, created an autoxec file

autoexec.bat

dir > out1.txt

nvflash --list > out2.txt

nvflash -r > out3.txt

nvflash -c > out4.txt

nvflash -b diag.rom

nvflash -k diag.rom > out5.txt

nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y bios.rom > out6.txt

booted with the card, the usb blinks so as the cdrom for 8sec then it restarts, it keeps on doing this till i press the power

i checked the usb contents in my desktop if it created output text files, none, it did not bootup in the usb

i removed the 8600 card and tried to boot without it, it did not read the usb and cdrom

there were no beeps at all

hmmm

my mobo chipset is NVIDIA nForce® 610M (MCP67-MV) taht seems the same with 5520 except for the 15incher screen

i wont give up yet, i could hotflash it but thats too dangerous

[reiluke]

update

after googling i found that pressing FN + ESC then pressing the power the laptop will read the flash drive, the flash drive flash 3 times then keeps on flashing slowly, ti did not restart, the usb keeps on blinking

waited for a 5minutes and it did not do anything

the FN + ESC key is for bios crisi recovery, i thought it might work since it will be reading the crisis.bat files and executing nvflash instead of plash bios program

[muppet]

update

i received the card and installed it in my acer 4520G, the card fit with the old heatsink even the screws matched

upon powering the laptop there is no display, it tries to read the cdrom for 8sec

from my desktop i created a bootable usb flash drive, with nvflash.exe and the acer 8600GT bios, created an autoxec file

autoexec.bat

booted with the card, the usb blinks so as the cdrom for 8sec then it restarts, it keeps on doing this till i press the power

i checked the usb contents in my desktop if it created output text files, none, it did not bootup in the usb

i removed the 8600 card and tried to boot without it, it did not read the usb and cdrom

there were no beeps at all

hmmm

my mobo chipset is NVIDIA nForce® 610M (MCP67-MV) taht seems the same with 5520 except for the 15incher screen

i wont give up yet, i could hotflash it but thats too dangerous

This doesn't sound like the issue you are seeing - however I note that you have "nvflash -b" in your batch file - when I tried this on the ASUS card (before I flashed with the Acer vbios) it simply rebooted - it wouldn't let me back it up until I'd flashed it with a working bios...

[tvone2]

does the flash drive boot to DOS properly with the OLD card in place???

did you check it???

[Kinsky]

@reiluke

I don't understand your problem, actually. Burn a bootable CD, boot from it, run: "nvflash -4 -5 -6" That's pretty it!!!

Why should you try to back up an ASUS vbios?????Have you promised it to somebody?????

I wouldn't invest more than 3 minutes in the flashing thing, otherwise it's not worth it.

[dayamos]

Booting in DOS prompt works if the notebook reaches post, but in reiluke's case, I think he mentioned that it never reaches that point (where the big "Acer" logo appears).

We both have the same model notebooks and I tried booting to DOS with a flash drive, with the stock 8400M G still installed.

Boot was successful, but only AFTER the post screen appeared, I even managed to back-up the stock Acer 8400M G vbios.

Is it possible that the board itself doesn't recognize the card that's why it doesn't reach post? Maybe our board is stricly MXM Type 1 only, is there such a thing? :)

[tvone2]

I am running TypeII card now..no problem.

I had no post problems to speak of.. I did have some errors before it posted though..(check my thread 5520 upgrades)

I went ASUS>ACER..

Felix is trying LG>ACER..

We need more information..

[Felix_1990]

Yes,if my LG card will work it will be cool.Then i will need take off card bracket to place it on new card with screws