MS 16F3 - 970M Upgrade *Almost successful*

[djdblaster]

As title says, 16F3 laptop here with 970M. Updated motherboard BIOS to support latest GPU's - success. Modded 670M heatsink to fit 970M - success.

Card is MSI 970M 3GB. I can install drivers directly from Nvidia website, but there is a slight problem. I cannot make 970M run any 3D stuff. 970M draws 75W just like 670M.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit updated to May 2015. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Bloetschkopf]

Hello

Maybe this is a Problem of the Vbios.

Here ist the 84.04.22.00.08,maybe this is another Vbios than yours.

N16E-GT_3GB_84.04.22.00.08.zip

[djdblaster]

My VBIOS is: 84.04.35.00.16. GPU is MSI version.

Edit: Did Windows 8.1 reinstall. I'm currently downloading drivers as well as Nvidia driver from their Nvidia official website. Will post how it went.

[djdblaster]

After installing all drivers and latest Nvidia driver 355.60, I cannot get to desktop after restarting laptop. It shows mouse cursor and flashes WiFi icon in bottom left corner.

Running NVflash tool in DOS mode shows there is no Nvidia adapter. Could it be that my 970M is too new? Can I flash it in Windows to older MSI VBIOS and maybe get it to work correctly?

[Bugii]

After installing all drivers and latest Nvidia driver 355.60, I cannot get to desktop after restarting laptop. It shows mouse cursor and flashes WiFi icon in bottom left corner.

Running NVflash tool in DOS mode shows there is no Nvidia adapter. Could it be that my 970M is too new? Can I flash it in Windows to older MSI VBIOS and maybe get it to work correctly?

Try to boot in safe mode.

To me it sounds like dead GPU. If it was "too new" or not compatible, it wouldnt POST or you'd have black screen.

Had similar issue with Radeon "video card" *cough*, only worked in safe mode, otherwise it was crashing or screen was black. Card was dead.

power consumption shouldnt matter while not under heavy load.

I was able to run GTX580 (100W) as replacement for GTX560M without issues on 60W AC Adapter. Under heavy load it switched to battery mode though.

[djdblaster]

Update 1!

The GPU is not dead since the laptop fan doesn't run 100% speed. I can read the GPU in Device Manager and install drivers without a problem.

I flashed the GPU from the link above. Went nice and smooth. The version is now 84.04.22.00.08. All good there.

However, I might suspect on one thing... There were 2 things that one has to do in order to get 9xxM series work: modify heatsink and update BIOS. I modded heatsink and updated BIOS to 51x version, but I never updated EC.

So could old EC be a problem? I see people writing something like T18.

My EC: 16F3EG61 Ver.4.08

EC date: 06/04/2012

Update 2!

Tried updating EC to T18 and got this message:

ENE Flash Utility V0.30, Aug 15 2011, 15:22:53 LCK*

Target board FileName is different !

EC is 16F3EMS1.T18

[djdblaster]

Force flashed the EC using '-e' command in batch file. 970M fully working now with Nvidia 355.73.

I do hit high temperatures like 88 C, but that is another problem.

Note for other users! Laptop is MSI whitebook MS 16F3. I don't know if generic EC will work on models from other retailers.

Admin: please mark thread as solved! Thanks!