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MXM Upgrade problem. ATI x700 -> HD3650


Jimbob

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The wife's Amilo M 1437 G display is broken with, at best, lines over the screen, at worst, completely unreadable. So, my mission here is to avoid wasting money by throwing it away and buying a new laptop. I've since learnt an awful lot about MXM etc due to reading everything I could find, especially mxm-upgrade.com and this forum. I'm very grateful for all that info. So, I chose to "upgrade" to HD3650 as that was one of the case studies on mxm-upgrade.com (http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/1437.html and http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Fujitsu.html). I even have my thermal paste ready to go.

I just want to fix the display, not stress the graphics playing games or anything like that. I'd have bought another x700 for an easy replacement job if I could find one :-(

So, I bought this (allegedly New condition, off ebay):

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 MXM II Graphics Card 512MB

(although I now note it claims 512MB compared to the 256MB example on mxm-upgrade).

BEFORE hacking the heatsink to make a perfect mechanical fit, I have tried unsuccessfully to get the computer to boot - I figured if it booted OK I'd switch it off quick before things overheated then go about modifying the heatsink. Hitting F2 and watching the boot progress, it doesn't get very far through the boot sequence. Alas, the text flashes up on the screen so fast I am unable to note down where it gets to. NB: If I put back the old card (ATI x700) the computer boots fine (albeit still with a faulty display) so I am happy there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the rest of the machine.

I have some specific questions but any general help/suggestions would be much appreciated:

1) Although mxm-upgrade indicates the M1437G has a Type2 slot (and presumably therefore that the HD3650 will be a successful upgrade) I am convinced mine has a Type1 slot because the x700 card has "type1" stamped on it and page 2 of the M1437G data sheet(http://be.fujitsu.com/Resources/19/321597266.pdf) says it too. Could this MXM Type mismatch be the cause of the boot failure?

2) Since I have bought a Type2 card am I doomed to failure or can the situation be rescued by a BIOS change or some other black magic to make this HD3650 card work in my Type 1 slot?

3) Is my reluctance to modify the heatsink (just yet) the cause of the boot failure? Does it know the heatsink is not properly fitted? NB: I have put the heatsink back in place and connected the wiring plug but I concede its surface is not in contact with the GPU.

4) Are there any other places to purchase Type1 cards from as mxm-upgrade charges a premium?! Can't find any others on the whole internet.

Other points:

a) Once or twice I have managed to get a perfect display with the old card (hurray!) but have been unable to repeat the success (booo). Does this suggest the old card is NOT burnt out and there's some other problem somewhere? I have tried everything I can think of software-wise (removing drivers, formatting HD and re-installing XP, booting in safe mode, etc, etc).

Any help much appreciated. I have spent hours trawling through sites and this forum trying to find the answers before resorting to posting this new topic.

Edited by Jimbob
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MXM1 has been put into MXM2 slot even by notebook manufacturers, so no problem.

Your X700 might be repairable by baking method - google and look also at these:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385857

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/dead-8800-gtx-scienced-to-undeath-by-oven-mad-owner

http://www.amilo-forum.com/

http://www.amilo-forum.de/

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Thanks for the response zipper.

Am nervous of the baking method mainly because if it totally knackers the x700 I would have a totally non-functioning laptop. Might have to resort to it though I suppose.

The MXM thing is more the other way around in so much as I suspect I have a Type1 slot (and the x700 is a Type1 card) but the HD3650 is a Type2. The compatability charts suggest you can't put a higher Type card in a lower Type slot; but you can do the other way around.

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http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Fujitsu.html clearly shows you have several options, but most of them require heatsink modification. Without proper cooling the GFX chip may overheat in seconds. Principally at least X700, go6600, go6800, 7900GS (Arima special), X1800, X1900, 8400GS, 8600GS, 8600GT, HD3650 (256MB!) have been running on 1437/9. 6800, 7900, X1800 and X1900 are even MXM3.
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Thanks zipper. I have a progress update, some success...

I bit the bullet and modded the heatsink, slapped on plenty thermal paste and carefully placed the heatpads. Hurrah, it booted up fine, loaded XP and looked great, no artifacts. Success! Then after maybe a minute or two it switched off abruptly.

After a bit of trial and error I can get the laptop to stay on...with it standing on it's edge, bottom panel removed and blowing cool air over the heatsink with a hairdrier. If I switch off the hairdrier, the computer remains on for maybe 1 min before swithcing off. At no point does the internal heatsink fan kick in.

I suspected a faulty fan so to test this I put the old x700 card back in, booted up and started XP in safe mode (still displaying the artifacts) and left it running. After maybe 10 mins the fan did indeed start up, ran for only a few seconds and stopped. Another 10mins or so later, same again. So, there doesn't seem to be anything mechanically wrong with the fan.

Now that I have proved I have a working HD3650 card I may try the baking method on the x700 card but I've come this far with the HD3650 I'd like to get it working fully.

I've read about using NHC and ACPI to manipulate temperatures so that the fan runs continually so I'm now off to investigate all that stuff.

Any suggestions/help/moral support welcomed.

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I've read about using NHC and ACPI to manipulate temperatures so that the fan runs continually so I'm now off to investigate all that stuff.

Any suggestions/help/moral support welcomed.

I think that's the next thing to do - check the Amilo forums, they have discussion about NHC and ACPI scripts.

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The x700 is alive! The baking method worked, hurrah. I'm surprised but delighted. I now wish I'd done that in the first place, would've saved hours of research.

Anyway, I'm giving up on the HD3650 as the NHC and ACPI route is well complicated - mainly because NHC does not have C# classes for the Amilo M1437 and whilst I was a programmer in a former life the whole matter of extracting the DSDT and ACPI programming in general was a bit beyond me (see http://www.pbus-167.com/nhc/nhc_advanced.htm#anchor_acpi_programming for further info).

So, I shall be selling the nearly new HD3650 on Ebay in due course.

Thanks for responding along the way zipper.

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