Alienware m9700/9750 with nVidia 9700m GT

[waveguru 0]

Hi everyone.

Several years ago I bought an Alienware m9700/9750 which was a great machine (still is).
Now my gpu went bad. It was a nVidia 7950 GTX. I bought a new one from ebay (nVidia 9700m GT).
Problem is that I have a 30 second beep screen (MXM structure not found or invalid...). After that OS boots up and works OK but with low performance. After restart I have no screen and have to wait for a while to get the 30s screen delay back. I tried to install the driver but windows don't recognize the card. In gpu-z clock is on 0, memory on 0. Default clock @ 575, memory 800, shader 1450.

Bios version 62.94.3C00.06

 

PLEASE HELP.

G96 M.bin

[waveguru 0]

Please please please help me out. The beep is really getting on my nerves. I know there are people here who done this before. I am an idiot for buying an broken laptop. Also an idiot for buiyng a new card that needs a custom bios. Now I've lost a lot of money and still have a laptop that I can't use in full potencial.

I'm desperate... please help... anyone!

[quipster_respawn 0]

Sorry for keeping people waiting, I lost all my forum account information, and had to register again

 

Find your modded BIOS here:

wave96.rom

 

Full clocks, no start up delay. As always, flash at your own risk.

[waveguru 0]

Thanks man. You're a lifesaver. I will try it tonight. God bless you.

One more thing. Is it normal that I can't install the graphics driver? I've downloaded the driver from nVidia site. I used "Auto-detect your GPU" and found the same driver that I've already downloaded.

Do I have to flash the vbios first? I saw from the begginig of this thread there was a guy with same laptop and same gpu that I have but he used a windows update and installed gpu's driver.

I ran windows update several times and nothing. I use WIndows7 Ultimate x64.

[quipster_respawn 0]

Installing the graphics driver should be possible irrespective of the modded Bios.

Have you tried using a driver version with a modified inf available for it?

Haven't updated my GPU driver in over a year or more, so I don't know how

never versions fare with older cards. I'd just browse the forum for any older driver

version with a modified inf, and then replace the original and run the setup.

[waveguru 0]

I've tried dozen of inf moded drivers and always come up with the same massage... Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software... NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT... The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows...

I don't get it. That is my card, that is the driver dor the card. I've done Let me pick from a list of device... method...

What to do now?

[quipster_respawn 0]

have you tried the various suggestions from this thread?

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/549384/nvidia-installer-failed-320-49/?offset=20

 

Never had those problems when installing a driver...

[waveguru 0]

I've flashed the vbios. But I have another problem and now I have to wait.

Did anyone ever hear or see - when the laptop shuts down or restarts it doesn't post image. After a while (15-20min) it works ok again. It works without any problems in Windows for many hours.

[waveguru 0]

F**K, it works. I don't know how to thank you. You saved me!!! If you ever come to Croatia please email me. I'm taking you out to dinner or beer or anything.

New bios works great, flash went smooth. I found the moded inf here: http://www.komeil.com/blog/nvidia-driver-windows-7-laptop-modded-inf

One thing that bothers me is the performance of the card. I tried playing a simple 720p video (Avatar) on BSPlayer, MP classic and VLC. Video is running very slow.

I have attached you my new clocks. Just check if everything is ok.

 

new clocks.bin

[quipster_respawn 0]

Thanks for your offer, Croatia surely is a beautiful country, I should start packing

my stuff right now :D  

 

Can you check with GPU-Z if the GPU is clocking up under load?

If not maybe powermizer is stuck on low 2dclocks.

If that's the probplem, you could force the clocks manually with powermizer manager:
http://nvidia-powermizer-manager.software.informer.com/download/

Edited March 19, 2014 by quipster_respawn

[waveguru 0]

Start packing, what are you waiting for?

I don't know how but after installing a game to try it out(and directx) everything works perfectly. Skyrim works great on medium details @1920x1200.

Have you ever encountered with a power up-black screen problem? When I boot up my laptop for the first time everything works ok. If  I have to restart or shutdown/power-up laptop boots with black screen. I hear the Windows welcome screen sound but no picture.  If I wait for 15-30 minutes it boots up normally again.

[quipster_respawn 0]

Nope, never had any issues with my upgraded machines other than the MXM error and the clocks.

 

To shorten the duration for waiting, you could try doing a hardware reset (take out the battery, unplug the power supply) by pressing the

on/off button for approx 30 seconds (or less). This should resolve any hardware detection problems.

[waveguru 0]

Pressing or holding?

[quipster_respawn 0]

Yeah, holding down, not pressing repeatedly.