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Alienware m18xr2 video card upgrade to 970m


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Hello guys, as u can see from the title i have an alienware m18xr2 that had 2 gtx680m that as to the teck guy words are fried( one is easly fixable other i think needs more parts to fix). the price i was offered to fix the one card was so high that i can buy same card but new. i decided to order a card from ebay. i ordered the gtx 970m 6gb cuz it was cheap and good.

 

i want to give ssome contex to what happen that led me to the gpu upgrade. i played overwatch and my alienware just shuted off completly( never happened to me) and didnt turn on. first i though the battery at fault but that tech guy that i payed to test the laptop said that the video cards are the problem and they doing electric surge on the system( i must have spelled the word wrong but i hope u get it), he said without cards laptop starts fine, he said i am lucky nothing else wasnt broken like motherboard.

 

today i got the card and i have installed it myself(with a friend) . i never ever opened up a laptop and especially this kind, but i educated myelf and watch loads of teardowns( i have a backround with computers and such so i know what im doing), i want to add that i did an amazing job tearing it up and installing new one9 proud of myself). the thing is the windows nor the bios detect the card, i reflashed bios(stock i dont have unlocked) and it didnt help. im on win10 and i boot uifi and some legacy option tured on dont remember the name.

i removed the secont fault card and heatsink cuz i only have 1 card now, i chose to install on the right side where there are 2 cooling fans cuz i think it is bettter slot to not overheat the card.

 

i dont know what to do, the ebay listing says its tested card, should i ask refund? is there a possibility that the card is not good?(got it from china)

is it possible that 1 pci express slot in the motherboard is also damaged? maybe i should teardown the laptop again and install it on the other slot? or maybe the whole motherboard is not good and then im fucked( too much money spent)?

i didnt install any custom nvidia drivers maybe it can help but i doubt it.

also i did run the diagnostics on the boot up it says video card passed and that it checked its vram aswell, i suspect it checked the integrated graphics and not the card, or maybe it was the card?

 

please guys advise a lose soul that went too deep with all that alienware hardware.

 

p.s i have a12 bios as far as i know.

Edited by Yuval Vilensky
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UPDATE:

i teared the the laptop 2 times since, tried on the other pci slot i got 8 peeps and system couldt post ( just cuz i put the card on that other slot where there is 1 fan) , so its turned out that 1 slot system doesnt detect the card at all, other dont let me post with 8 beeps. without the cards the laptop boots regularly.

 

is it possible the motherboard is damaged?( my 2 sli 680m i think overheated and burned thats why i bought the 970m)

 if its a mother board it cant be all of it is damaged cuz i still can use the laptop, maybe the pci slots somehow damaged?

or is there maybe some other explanation.

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I don't think the motherboard is damaged i had almost the same issue when I installed a 980m on mine, try to boot in the integrated graphics, and install windows 8.1, supposedly windows 10 is incompatible with this card if you aren't using a custom Bios, so i would recommend that, also try installing the custom drivers form Eurocom following their instructions.

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Yuval Vilensky

  I think the single card should be on the left where the single fan is and you need the proper heat sink. My alienware m18x r2 came with a single 660m and it was on the left. I hope this helps. Also the m18r2 is not supposed to have the a12 bios but the a11 is the last bios for it.

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