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Time to revive this thread a bit:

 

First of all I would like to thank all of you for your (mostly :P) helpful contributions. :)

 

I'm now myself working with this topic. My graphics card broke down in my M17 R4 and I bought me a new GTX 870M.

 

After studying what's written here and in other forums I'm now going to flash my BIOS to the standard A11 version. After that I will let you know how it worked out and tell you something about my next steps...

 

Thesen

Edited by Thesen
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I have a m17x R4 that has thermal problem.  Its never been mistreated and started shutting down randomly a month after warranty expiration.

 

Removed, cleaned and re-applied thermal compound with Arctic Silver. Cleaned fans and tested - All ok.  

 

It shuts off almost immediately after powering up at room temperature. If I take it outside during cold weather (5 degrees C or colder) for 30 minutes it will run fine. Temperatures reported are never over 40C so clearly it is the thermals that are miscalibrated. 

 

I would like to try an unlocked BIOS on it so I can remove / increase the thermal shutdown parameters. But the links to these BIOS files/ PRR tool are broken. Any chance of reviving the links or reposting them?

 

Right now I have a very expensive brick. 

 

 

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Whooeee, just finished downgrading my bios from A12 to A10 and then flashing the modded bios. Many thanks to the OP and other users posting updated file dir's etc. I did this primarily to disable hyperthreading, but now realize I have access to a whole suite of advanced options to potentially tweak. Can anyone point me to a discussion here or elsewhere that would serve as a good starting place for optimizing/tweaking an M17x R4 with a modded bios? I'm probably not an 'advanced' user, but this is not my first modding rodeo, I know how to take proper precautions and can follow instructions to the T. Primarily looking to get the most out of my gaming experience. Thx, and love the forum.

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On 1/26/2016 at 4:27 PM, matchbox said:

I have a m17x R4 that has thermal problem.  Its never been mistreated and started shutting down randomly a month after warranty expiration.

 

Removed, cleaned and re-applied thermal compound with Arctic Silver. Cleaned fans and tested - All ok.  

 

It shuts off almost immediately after powering up at room temperature. If I take it outside during cold weather (5 degrees C or colder) for 30 minutes it will run fine. Temperatures reported are never over 40C so clearly it is the thermals that are miscalibrated. 

 

I would like to try an unlocked BIOS on it so I can remove / increase the thermal shutdown parameters. But the links to these BIOS files/ PRR tool are broken. Any chance of reviving the links or reposting them?

 

Right now I have a very expensive brick. 

 

 

 

I really would advise against going down that route for now, ideally I think you should look into why it's not being calibrated correctly. Is the heatsink making proper contact with the GPU/CPU die? Did you knock one of the thermal pads when removing the GPU? if the thermal pad is hitting off something it may be raising one side which again will give the incorrect temperatures. I would say check thermal paste but you'd have to be doing a catastrophic job at applying it to make it shut off that fast. Can you verify all of those things first? 

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On 1/23/2016 at 8:48 AM, Thesen said:

Time to revive this thread a bit:

 

First of all I would like to thank all of you for your (mostly :P) helpful contributions. :)

 

I'm now myself working with this topic. My graphics card broke down in my M17 R4 and I bought me a new GTX 870M.

 

After studying what's written here and in other forums I'm now going to flash my BIOS to the standard A11 version. After that I will let you know how it worked out and tell you something about my next steps...

 

Thesen

 

I got a new GTX 860M for my M17 R4 and I've spent the past 3-4 weeks trying to get it installed properly on my machine.

 

VjcKR5C.png

 

I wasn't able to download any modded INF files from the custom INF thread.

 

So, I modded the INF files myself and I think I did it right.  I've attached them if you want to try them:

 

I modified lines 405 & 14157.  Rename the file by removing the line number in the name:  nvdmi_405-14157.zip

 

Then replace this file:  ListDevices.zip

 

The driver installed just fine but none of my apps are seeing the GPU.  I may have done it wrong, I was just trying to figure out how to do it from all the threads I've read.

 

I think the missing piece to get the Nvidia working in my machine is a custom BIOS.  I've tried a sh*t ton of other stuff and they all have failed. :(

 

 

Edited by TechPanda
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On 1/30/2016 at 10:58 AM, MrSweet1991 said:

 

 

 

I really would advise against going down that route for now, ideally I think you should look into why it's not being calibrated correctly. Is the heatsink making proper contact with the GPU/CPU die? Did you knock one of the thermal pads when removing the GPU? if the thermal pad is hitting off something it may be raising one side which again will give the incorrect temperatures. I would say check thermal paste but you'd have to be doing a catastrophic job at applying it to make it shut off that fast. Can you verify all of those things first? 

Hey thanks for the reply MrSweet...

 

I have re-done the paste on both GPU and CPU twice now. Upon dis-assembly I inspected my work and it was good - full spread of the paste to the block with a slight amount of extrusion on the sides. All four block screws tightened in proper sequence and torqued nicely.  I was very careful to reapply the gel-pads that keep the boards from contacting each other in the right places.

 

But, actually I have removed the GPU card completely and running on the on-board video. It doesn't make a difference. From my observations I would say that either the thermals are wrong or the shut-off table is messed up. Strangely HWiNFO64 thermal readings show ~30oc for CPU thermals. Only the PCH reading shows 47oC at startup but that has never changed. I have read a bit on this measure and I think it is the bottom end of the scale for this thermal sensor. None of the readings ever warranted an overheat event. Even the fans do not turn on at this point, although I have manually set them both to full using the HWiNFO control and they work great.

Still shuts down though - Fans or no fans.

 

 

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On 2/1/2016 at 5:16 PM, matchbox said:

Hey thanks for the reply MrSweet...

 

I have re-done the paste on both GPU and CPU twice now. Upon dis-assembly I inspected my work and it was good - full spread of the paste to the block with a slight amount of extrusion on the sides. All four block screws tightened in proper sequence and torqued nicely.  I was very careful to reapply the gel-pads that keep the boards from contacting each other in the right places.

 

But, actually I have removed the GPU card completely and running on the on-board video. It doesn't make a difference. From my observations I would say that either the thermals are wrong or the shut-off table is messed up. Strangely HWiNFO64 thermal readings show ~30oc for CPU thermals. Only the PCH reading shows 47oC at startup but that has never changed. I have read a bit on this measure and I think it is the bottom end of the scale for this thermal sensor. None of the readings ever warranted an overheat event. Even the fans do not turn on at this point, although I have manually set them both to full using the HWiNFO control and they work great.

Still shuts down though - Fans or no fans.

 

 

Ahh fair enough so you have done a realtively good amount of testing beforehand. I just didn't want you to bypass something that's trying to save you :) Anyhow, your issue is very odd indeed, I'm not sure if you have tried but what happens if you leave your laptop on the BIOS screen? The idea being to eliminate any OS/Software problems? If however it still shuts off I'd say re-flash the BIOS? 

As I wrote the above, I had sort of a light bulb moment, are you sure it's not a power issue? You'd have the same issues as you have stating and that would also explain why your readings are all normal, maybe they are? Then again when you went outside, ironically it seemed to stay on for longer.. but yes, at the moment if that was my laptop that's the thought process I'd be going through :)

Edited by MrSweet1991
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Guys, if you would help....   what do i need to do if i have an r4 and have it on dell's a12 bios?    I put a 970m in the computer but the discrete graphics won't run because of the intell 4000 graphics, but the computer recognizes the 970m and the installation went smoothly.      I came here because booting in PEG i believe is the option i must take, but i do not see an A12 unlocked bios for the r4 in order to do that.   Any suggestions?

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Ah sry my fault, i think i switched the internal off by using Fn+F7.

I'm also running Windows 10 with UEFI install.

 

 

i made a little how to (in german) in a different forum and just had a look. so yes i switched the internal off by using Fn+F7.

Edited by Zoldago
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9 minutes ago, Zoldago said:

Ah sry my fault, i think i switched the internal off by using Fn+F7.

I'm also running Windows 10 with UEFI install.

fn+f7 pressing at same time do nothing for me.... so I need to simply install the a13 bios update and reboot with f2, and choose uefi correct?   It's probably because i haven't booted in PEG because the BIOS i have A11, doesn't give me that option

 

Edited by ServusFidelis
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if you choose uefi you have to reinstall windows and your harddrive must be in gpt format.

 "Load Legacy Option Rom" must be "Disabled", "Secure Boot" must be "Disabled" and "Windows 8 Fast Boot"  must be  "Disabled".

after complete reinstall switch the internal of, reboot and install the nvidia driver again (i had to remod the driver inf because the id of my 980M has changed)

 

i think thats all

 

edit: and if your headphone Jacks are not working on Windows 10 you just need the correct driver

Edited by Zoldago
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1 minute ago, Zoldago said:

if you choose uefi you have to reinstall windows and your harddrive must be in gpt format.

 "Load Legacy Option Rom" must be "Disabled", "Secure Boot" must be "Disabled" and "Windows 8 Fast Boot"  must be  "Disabled".

after complete reinstall switch the internal of, reboot and install the nvidia driver again (i had to remod the driver inf because the id of my 980M has changed)

 

i think thats all

Thanks Zoldago... I'm going to reinstall windows then.  From what i have gathered i need to install Windows 8 by formatting a usb driver in UEFI, then format my laptop HDD in GPT, then Install Windows 8.1.... then Disable Legacy Rom in the bios and the other stuff in the bios.    Thanks man!

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i never used win 8 or 8.1 for this.

i just upgraded from win 7 to 10 and after that i made a clean win 10 install.

think i used a 2. pc to change my ssd to gpt, not really sure, it's so long ago

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12 minutes ago, Zoldago said:

i never used win 8 or 8.1 for this.

i just upgraded from win 7 to 10 and after that i made a clean win 10 install.

think i used a 2. pc to change my ssd to gpt, not really sure, it's so long ago

I was hoping for just plug and play and modified Inf.... that worked but then the first game i installed (planetside 2) it was super choppy and slow using the onboard video rather than the 970m (though the 970m shows in device manager).  I tried to tell Optimus to always use the GTX 970, and even though it is selected i could still tell the game was using on-board video.    As a result of this my next go was to try to boot in PEG mode, but my bios doesn't give me an option for PEG mode.   So the last resort is to do all these steps you are talking about.....  Looks like the GPT thing might be a bit more difficult than i thought.  I assumed i could just click on 'reformat HDD' from the windows install menu and choose GPT.        

 

So I have to somehow use a second pc to change my HDD to GPT?    

Edited by ServusFidelis
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i had the same problem with optimus, the 980M runs in a idle mode all the time and that's it.

to use a 2. pc is not the only way to change your hdd to gpt. if I am not wrong in win 7 is a way to use diskpart before install Windows, maybe that works in win 10 also.

think you can ask google how to make it

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1 hour ago, Zoldago said:

i had the same problem with optimus, the 980M runs in a idle mode all the time and that's it.

to use a 2. pc is not the only way to change your hdd to gpt. if I am not wrong in win 7 is a way to use diskpart before install Windows, maybe that works in win 10 also.

think you can ask google how to make it

well I installed windows on a gpt hdd.....     still the same problem with optimus....  However.... i know there is a way to boot PEG... I still am running bios A11 unmodified....  Will A13 give me the PEG option in the BIOS menu?

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