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MXM Beta testers wanted!


Ice-Tea

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Hello all,

As some of you may remember, I have been trying to break open the MXM market, and I am happy to report that I have ordered two MXM samples.

1 x 6600 128MB Type I

1 x 6600 256MB Type II

I am looking for a person to test them. So this is a call to a arms for someone who...

* Has a x600SE or 6200, MXM based laptop

* Is well respected in this community (feedback from other members appreciated)

* Is knowledgeable over a wide range of computer topics.

* Who isn't scared to play around with different settings/drivers/bioses.

* Who is handy enough to open and close his laptop.

* WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT HE IS ACTING ON HIS OWN RESPONSABILITY.

Such a person can drop me a line at xxx

The deal that I propose is the following...

* I send the MXM card of his choice, free of charge.

* At his own risk, the person installs the card in his laptop.

* The person documents the entire process, both verbally and with pictures, every step he takes, be it software, mechanical, ... 3Dmark scores before and after.All picture should be transferred to me and will be used as I please.

* If no immediate succes is booked, the person is willing to work together with me to find an answer and solution.

Upon completion of this task, the tester is left with two options: return the card or buy it. In case you buy it, the price will be 100?, which will burn a hughe hole in my pocket. To compensate, the original card is returned to me.

Any takers?

Please be kind enough to post your application in this thread, so your peers may review it.

Kind regards,

Ice-Tea

MXM Upgrade

Edited by Ice-Tea
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The Type I card has been promised.

The Type II card is still available (or at least when I get it myself) but is no longer offered under evaluation. In case someone wants to test it according to the above described procedure: I am willing to offer a sharp price, but this time as a purchase, not as an evaluation with purchase option.

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Guest perlsite

I've just bought a Toshiba Tecra S3 with Go 6600 (with 128 mb). I don't know which type it is, but I hope you guys will succeed with test and we could see in future a lot of MxM cards on reasonable prices :) :)

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I've just bought a Toshiba Tecra S3 with Go 6600 (with 128 mb). I don't know which type it is, but I hope you guys will succeed with test and we could see in future a lot of MxM cards on reasonable prices :) :)

Hi Perlsite,

I went to CEBIT Tuesday, and I was told by the nice people at the Toshiba boot that the S3 is not MXM. In fact, according to him, there are no MXM 's in Toshiba's product range.

Sorry.

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what notebooks currently offer mxm?

You can find the table right here. It's been updated with CEBIT info.

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Guest Guest

Just want to give my support to this awesome thread! I have an amilo3438g so im looking forward to updating the graphics card soon (this isnt an app cos no way do i fulfil the requirements :) )

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Just want to give my support to this awesome thread! I have an amilo3438g so im looking forward to updating the graphics card soon (this isnt an app cos no way do i fulfil the requirements :) )

Well, FSC has announced a x1800, so one day...

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Guest perlsite

Hm.. before week I had Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO M1437G, but I'm not sure that it is MXM compatible. I didn't had chance to verify it, because it has some defects (that's why I returned and bought Toshiba Tecra). But I have a copy of my FSC BIOS.. so I can take a look on it for any signs...

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Hm.. before week I had Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO M1437G, but I'm not sure that it is MXM compatible. I didn't had chance to verify it, because it has some defects (that's why I returned and bought Toshiba Tecra). But I have a copy of my FSC BIOS.. so I can take a look on it for any signs...

I have the vbios of a 1439. It says MXM. The 14391437 should also be MXM.

Edited by ®®®
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Guest perlsite

I've checked my copy of BIOS, but I wasn't able to find anything related to MXM.

Please send me a copy of your BIOS with MXM.. I would to check some things...!

perlsite ^at^ mail.bg

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I've checked my copy of BIOS, but I wasn't able to find anything related to MXM.

Please send me a copy of your BIOS with MXM.. I would to check some things...!

perlsite ^at^ mail.bg

Emailed.

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Guest Guest

Thank's for the e-mail. This Video BIOS is very interesting :) :P

Here is what I found in .rom file when I've searched for some binary data:

0000d413h: 66 60 32 D2 E8 BE DB 72 16 80 E1 03 80 F9 03 75

0000d423h: 0E B8 80 5F B3 01 CD 15

If I use one of my favourite tools :)

D:\WINDOWS>debug

-a

0B96:0100 db 66,60,32,D2,E8,BE,DB,72,16,80,E1,03,80,F9,03,75

0B96:0110 db 0E,B8,80,5F,B3,01,CD,15

0B96:0118

-u 100

0B96:0100 66 DB 66

0B96:0101 60 DB 60

0B96:0102 32D2 XOR DL,DL

0B96:0104 E8BEDB CALL DCC5

0B96:0107 7216 JB 011F

0B96:0109 80E103 AND CL,03

0B96:010C 80F903 CMP CL,03

0B96:010F 750E JNZ 011F

0B96:0111 B8805F MOV AX,5F80

0B96:0114 B301 MOV BL,01

0B96:0116 CD15 INT 15

I.e. above machine code can be converted into assembler code... and guess what :(

..it contain calling to MXM function 1:

Function 1 ? Return a Pointer to the MXM Structure

This function will return a pointer to the MXM structure, which is stored in the

system BIOS ROM area or some other memory location which is accessible in real

mode during video POST.

Entry:

AX = 5F80h

BL = 01h

Return:

AX = 005Fh to indicate that the system bios supports this function

ES:DI = Pointer to the MXM structure in real mode memory (< 1MB)

This is definetely MXM video BIOS :( and we can be sure that we can detect MXM using for example this MXM function!

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Anything about function 0?

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Guest perlsite

Yes :) Look at this sample:

0000afe0h: 0F B8 80 5F B3 00 CD 15 83 F8 5F 75 03 F8 EB 01

D:\WINDOWS>debug

-a

0B96:0100 db 0F,B8,80,5F,B3,00,CD,15,83,F8,5F,75,03,F8,EB,01

0B96:0110

-u

0B96:0100 0F DB 0F

0B96:0101 B8805F MOV AX,5F80

0B96:0104 B300 MOV BL,00

0B96:0106 CD15 INT 15

Of course we can't search directly for binary match because this code can look different on different VBIOS manufatures, but we can check for MXM using 15h interrup.. at least this will work 100% under pure DOS.

To run this directly under Windows we will need VXD-like driver... and I don't know which will write such thing :)

So unless it will work under DOS..

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Nice, I've never really explored debug. This is interesting :)

0F            DB      0F
B8805F        MOV     AX,5F80
B300          MOV     BL,00
CD15          INT     15
83F85F        CMP     AX,+5F
7503          JNZ     0110
F8            CLC
EB01          JMP     0111
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
0000          ADD     [bX+SI],AL
3400          XOR     AL,00
96            XCHG    SI,AX
1300          ADC     AX,[bX+SI]

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Of course we can't search directly for binary match because this code can look different on different VBIOS manufatures, but we can check for MXM using 15h interrup.. at least this will work 100% under pure DOS.

To run this directly under Windows we will need VXD-like driver... and I don't know which will write such thing :)

So unless it will work under DOS..

:) Yay!

But it would work when booting from a DOS disk/key, right?

Also: got a ATI bios here, too. Any takers?

Edited by Ice-Tea
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Mavke was able to correctly dump VideoBIOS without need of booting to DOS, maybe he can help out. Don't know if he's able to code a .SYS (VXD was used in Win 95/98 times)

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Mavke does have a sys. Though it was the ATITool guy that helped him get the BIOS. :) I don't know about SYS files either.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The reps at cebit dont have a clue as to what types of mxm modules are in a notebook, or for that atter, anything beyond what they have been briefed on, in 80% of cases.

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howdy! i currently have an MXM 6600 128MB in my particular KN1-PM. I'd be more than happy to help you out as I would LOVE a breakout company in the MXM market!

email me at pzimmerman@tng-boi.com if i can help at all.

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I have a MXM Type-II in my Alienware Area-51 m5500. I'd love to be able to upgrade to a Generic 256mb 6600 MXM sometime. You open a market here in the states and you'll get a lot of customers including me.

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Hi There,

Tanks a lot for the kind words!

We have decided not to ship a 6600 256MB for a rather trivial upgrade such as 128MB -> 256MB We'd prefer x600 -> 6600 or 6200 ->6600.

That said: no worries, your time will come. The new gen cards have been announced and I should be getting them relatively soon. That gives me a bit time to set up a way to ship to the US.

Small warning in advance: if and when I ship to the US it won't be cheap. You guys are pretty pampered with your HW prices, the dollar is pretty low and shipping costs an enormous amount of money.

But stay tuned :)

Ice-Tea

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ill pay whatever is needed to help mxm's get into the consumer market more than the curent state of them. it sickens me that they tout it as an upgradable interface and then make it so impossible for us to utilize them.

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