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Tecra S3 Upgrade


mattman

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Ok.. I've been having thoughts, and I realise likely noone will be able to answer 100%.. but here we go anyway.

Toshiba use their own proprietary interface for GPU's at the moment, as seen with my internal pics of the S3. It's NOT MXM, but, it's logical that they would use the same interface etc across the range perhaps?

I may be able to get some service info on a notebook with a 7*00 GPU in it.. see if we can get some internal shots..

Now.. IF it fits (i can source the cards no worries at all), is it likely that the VBIOS would be on the card? Or possibly somewhere on the mobo? If in the card, logic follows that an upgrade may still be possible, just that you would have to use a Toshiba card..

Any ideas?

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Here's another thought...

They may have 'borrowed' the MXM intefacing specification and they came up with a different heatink solution to be 'different'.

There are some interconnection you can try, and if you want to take that shot i'll supply you with an MXM :)

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For free? lol... of course I'll give that a try :)

Funds a bit tight to be playing with computer bits at the moment... S3 paid off in 2 weeks but then it's going straight back into a new car... agh.. it never ends!

On another note.. when looking through parts listings.. I did notice some 512mb g73 options for the P100! Not used in any current model but seems to be an option for future use... cheap too... mmmmm... can't garantee anything but for P100 users in Aus i could supply a toshiba spares part number...

Edited by mattman
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For free? lol... of course I'll give that a try :)

Funds a bit tight to be playing with computer bits at the moment... S3 paid off in 2 weeks but then it's going straight back into a new car... agh.. it never ends!

On another note.. when looking through parts listings.. I did notice some 512mb g73 options for the P100! Not used in any current model but seems to be an option for future use... cheap too... mmmmm... can't garantee anything but for P100 users in Aus i could supply a toshiba spares part number...

Actually, yeah, for free. I have a 6600 256MB around here that's doing nothing. So the test would be for free. If you wanna keep it, it's a different story altogether. :)

There's some stuff you can test before I ship. First, dimensions obviously. from the connector, card, mounting holes, GPU position, everything. Secondly, if you have a multimeter, you could check some of the pins of the connector. If you check the resistance between pins listed in the MXM spec as GND and any grounded part of the MoBo, you should have zero resistance. nvid spec here.

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Awesome stuff..

We MAY have an S3 needing to be opened up at work for a CPU upgrade (if it's been done already there's likely to be a batch of them needed in the next couple of weeks).

Since the machine needs to be fully opened up to get to both the CPU and GPU I might see if they'll let me have a quick play while it's out. Save pulling mine to parts, warranty is no issue but i'd rather not do anything silly to it also...

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Awesome stuff..

We MAY have an S3 needing to be opened up at work for a CPU upgrade (if it's been done already there's likely to be a batch of them needed in the next couple of weeks).

Since the machine needs to be fully opened up to get to both the CPU and GPU I might see if they'll let me have a quick play while it's out. Save pulling mine to parts, warranty is no issue but i'd rather not do anything silly to it also...

Cool!

I would love nothing better than to disclose a laptop manu that is willingly screwing costumers over.

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Only thing that has me worried at the moment is obviously the 3 screw HS mount, and the card in the Tosh seems to be very slightly wider than MXM spec (on the end without the cutout in the connector, the S3 GPU looks to extend about 2-3mm further than it should, the PCB falls back around the connector and continues on, mxm spec ends with the connector end), although the connector looks exactly the same (even the same cutout near one end). Memory sites etc look the same, one side of the HS mount looks like it may even fit an mxm spec heat pipe.

But if the card fits and works, you could likely even have the HS screw-in-bits manufactured to fit.. you could snip one side and manufacture and join a part to make it fit... oh the possibilities!

Eh.. hope that makes some sense.. lol

Edited by mattman
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Only thing that has me worried at the moment is obviously the 3 screw HS mount, and the card in the Tosh seems to be very slightly wider than MXM spec (on the end without the cutout in the connector, the S3 GPU looks to extend about 2-3mm further than it should, the PCB falls back around the connector and continues on, mxm spec ends with the connector end), although the connector looks exactly the same (even the same cutout near one end). Memory sites etc look the same, one side of the HS mount looks like it may even fit an mxm spec heat pipe.

But if the card fits and works, you could likely even have the HS screw-in-bits manufactured to fit.. you could snip one side and manufacture and join a part to make it fit... oh the possibilities!

Eh.. hope that makes some sense.. lol

I'm not too worried about the heatsink part. Maybe we can re-use two of the screws, made I'll have to mill an adapter plate, no biggie. It's the electrical part that's hard. That's why I'd like you to measure around a bit if you get the chance. Check grounds, count pins, take pictures...

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S3 is opening up this afternoon, will see what i can do.

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  • 4 weeks later...
S3 is opening up this afternoon, will see what i can do.

Still alive Mattman? :)

The 6800's that I have come on the 'Arima Special'. You might have room for that. Check the site for a few details :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

speaking of Toshiba I wonder if the M4 has an MXM-able vid card. It's almost perfect for me expect it is hideously expensive. If it were able to get a better video card I'd bu one though. Do you know of anyway of finding out? ATM it has a 6600TEgo 128mb.

Mike Check

Edited by Mike_Check
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  • 8 months later...

Wow, how old is this :/

We never got around to opening it AFAIK, customer who WAS going to be upgrading all these notebooks decided against it. And now am at a new job with no relationship with a service centre :)

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