MattyB

Hey mate, I see that you're in Australia, where about's are you? It will be hard to find a 1070 for a decent price. I have been tossing up whether I sell the one in my M18x though. There are also a few different types with the MSI GTX 1070 having a slightly different PCB layout and some case modification is required to get it to physically fit. All the other upgrades will be pretty easy. You just need to find a spare 120hz display and eDP display cables, you can't use the 60hz cables. I just happen to be parting out an R4 right now though. I have sold the motherboard, blue-ray drive and a few other pieces but I still have the 120hz display. It's almost impossible to remove the plexiglass to get to the panel so you really just need to get the whole display assembly, minus the soft-touch lid. If your lid is sticky then I can help you with that too. The spare lid I have is in decent condition. If your palmrest is the bit that is sticky then yeah you can just use a wrap or you can do a respray, which I have done a few times on the M17x and M18x palmrests. It's time consuming but it looks pretty good if done right. Here's an image on a white M17x I've done If you want to replace the palmrest then I'll see how good the spare one I have is. I was planning on putting all the parts I have on ebay soon. You have two 2.5" storage bays and also an mSata SSD slot. MSY has good prices on 2.5" SSD's but you'll have to go to eBay if you want to find an mSATA SSD.

If you remove the driver then you should be able to see the details on GPU-Z. I replied to the Dell post before seeing this one. Most likely the card is faulty but it's remotely possible that a vBIOS flash could fix it. If you start doing this then you may not be able to return the card though.

It's possible. I see a lot of people who have issues with the 980M. Just make sure that you have the BIOS set to UEFI with Load Legacy ROM and Secure Boot both disabled. Switching to UEFI means you have to reinstall Windows

Hey mate. Did you make a post on the Dell community forum? I'm at work and I can't download/install programs on my work computer which means I can't mod a driver for you right now but I can help walk you through it. You can also read through this guide which should help out https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php First thing to do is use DDU in safe mode to completely remove any trace of an old driver Then download and attempt to install the latest Nvidia driver from their website Keep the failed installer open and go to your C: drive and find the NVIDIA folder Copy and paste this folder in the same C: drive directory. It will auto-name itself NVIDIA - Copy Close the installer and the original NVIDIA folder should disappear Go into the NVIDIA - Copy folder and navigate into the Display.Driver folder Scroll down and find the nvdmi.inf and open it up Scroll down and find the list of ID's and scroll down to the last one that starts with %NVIDIA_DEV.13D7 Make an empty space under this and paste this line in %NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0550.1028% = Section045, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05501028 Scroll right down to the bottom of the .inf and find the list of Strings and find the last one that starts with NVIDIA_DEV.13D7 Make an empty space under this and paste this line in NVIDIA_DEV.13D7.0550.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M" Save the .inf and exit and close the NVIDIA - Copy folder Hold SHIFT while clicking on Restart Once it restarts go to; Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Startup Settings - hit restart on the screen Select Option 7 to Disable Driver Signature Enforcement Once it restarts go to the NVIDIA - Copy folder and go into the International folder. Scroll down and double click on the Setup.exe and the driver will start installing If it works then you'll be greeted with a warning. Accept it and you're good to go!

Just physically pull the bad card from the laptop and it will automatically run on the iGFX

Yes make sure the BIOS is set to pure UEFI which means switching from Legacy to UEFI and then disabling the Legacy Option ROM and Secure Boot. If you were set to Legacy before then the card shouldn't even work at all so maybe you have UEFI but not a few of the other options disabled. and yes, you will need to mod the .inf for newer drivers. Here is a guide that I originally used to learn how to do it. https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php One extra thing you need to do is first run the installer from Nvidia and let it fail. DO NOT close the failed installer but instead go to your C: drive and find the NVIDIA folder. Copy this and paste it in the same C: drive. It will auto-name itself NVIDIA - Copy. Now close the installer and the original NVIDIA folder should disappear and you'll be left with the copied folder that you can modify. Once you've learned how to do the modification to the .inf then do don't forget to disable driver signature enforcement directly before attempting to install the modified driver or it will fail again. Hold SHIFT and click Restart. Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Startup Settings Click Restart Press option 7 to restart with Driver Signature Enforcement disabled Go to the International folder of the NVIDIA - Copy folder and double click on the Setup.exe

It is Swick's version. Yes, it works fine with Windows 10.

I always loved the little M111x keyboard. Let's not forget that these laptops are 10+ years old now

Unlocked BIOS gives driver support for the 900 series cards so no modded driver is required.

6 beeps indicates a failed GPU. If you have the original card then try that again to see if the system works. If it does then the 1070 is probably faulty.

Awesome! Good choice of card. AMD seem to be much easier to install in the older laptops

They are getting harder to find. Usually the easiest option is to find a donor laptop that has the display you want and then you have more spare parts if you need them. You could also try the NotebookReview forum marketplace. You can post a Wanted to Buy thread and hopefully someone has some old parts for sale.

Hello, You will also need the eDP cable that goes with the 120Hz panel as the cable that is for the 60hz panel is different. It would be easier to find a complete assembly that includes the panel and cable. Removing the front plexiglass panel to access the panel is also incredibly difficult and you will probably crack it while trying to remove it. It is glued to the frame that holds the panel. Here is the part number you will need https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=20087 Cable only https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=14231

Yeah they must have swapped the bottom cover over at some stage or deliberately swapped it to trick the buyer into thinking it was an R2 which is a big shame. While they look exactly the same, the R2 is far superior as it can take significantly better GPU's and also has an mSata port and an additional 2.5" HDD/SSD slot. If you BIOS service tag says it's an R1 then it's an R1.

Hello, The R1 cannot run the 900 series cards as the R1 only has the option for Legacy mode in the BIOS while the 900 series cards need UEFI (unless it's the M15x). The 880M is the highest Nvidia card that the R1 can take. The M290x (8970M) is the best AMD card that I've heard works. If your laptop came with the 675M from factory then it's an R2. Did it originally come with a 400 or 500 series card?

Are you using SG mode in the BIOS or PEG? I have no experience with the non-M GTX 980 but the 10 series cards have to run in SG mode on the M18x which causes power throttling. If you're on SG then try this and see if you get different results. Jump into the BIOS and switch back to iGFX, restart and switch back to SG. This sorts out the power issue on my 1070 but I pretty much have to do it on every restart. Just be carful though as I don't know what effect switching video modes will have with your 980. If it has to run in PEG then switching to SG may cause an 8-beep error and you'll have to reset the CMOS.

Hope you're staying dry!

It's a great laptop. The M18x R2 and M17x R4 are the pinnacle of what Alienware stood for after Dell took over. The 17 R1 and 18 are still great laptops but the quality (and looks) went downhill and once they started soldering parts on the 17 R2 then they were dead to me. Good luck with the upgrade and if you haven't already, check out the NotebookReview forum. What State are you in?

Is it the one listed on ebay for $750AUD? I'm pretty sure that the only one that will work with your heatsink is the vary rare Zotac version. If you compare the two you'll see that the GPU die is more towards the right side of the MSI card while on the Zotac (and other MXM cards) the die is more towards the left. There could be a way to get it to work but there may be some work involved. The card is also wider than a standard MXM 3.0b card so you may have to cut the chassis to make it fit. I'd be very interested to see how you go though. I have been thinking about selling my 1070 for around $650 but if you can get the 1080 to work then it would be pretty awesome.

Damn, that was a lot of information but good job! How much did you find the HDD cable for? They can be expensive. I still need to teach myself how to use the EEProm programmer. I got myself one but I have no idea how to use it. The M18x R2 is still one of the greatest laptops ever created. Yeah, they are falling behind with the power of modern laptops but they are still fantastic machines. The only letdown is the incredibly fragile HDD ribbon cable. Good luck with your upgrades! EDIT: You need to get yourself an MXM to NVMe adapter.....

I believe that's what it's for. How were you going to power it? Is this from the Zotac 1080? I believe it's the only one that has the die in the correct place for the heatsink.

You need to modify the nvdmi inf. This is the Dell one. The big list of Hardware ID's should all end in 1028 which is the Dell code. A basic description of how to do this is; 1. Download the latest driver from Nvidia 2. Start the Installer and let it fail 3. Do not close the installer but instead go to your C: drive. Find the NVIDIA folder and Copy and paste it in the C: drive. It will auto name itself as NVIDIA - Copy 4. Close the Installer 5. Go to Device Manager - Display Adapters - right click on Microsoft Basic Display Adapter - Properties - Details - Select Hardware ID from the dropdown. 6. Copy and paste the second line onto Notepad. This ID contains your GPU, Laptop Model and Manufacturer ID. For Example 1BA1 (GPU).....055A (Laptop).....1028 (Dell) 7: Open the NVIDIA - Copy folder and go into the Display.Driver folder and find the nvdmi inf 8. Scroll down to the long list of Hardware ID's. Find the last ID that shares your 4 digit GPU ID. (For my 1070 it is 1BA1) 9. Make a spare line below this ID. Copy and Paste this line into the spare line. 10. Change the 4 digit Laptop Model ID in the two spots it is listed to your Laptop Model ID that you pulled from Device Manager. This ID is the first 4 digits of the 8 digit number at the end of the line, before the 4 digit Dell ID (1028). 11. Scroll almost to the bottom of the inf and find the Strings. Find the last String that shares your GPU ID. 12. Make a line below this and Copy and Paste this line into the empty line. Change the 4 digit laptop code to your code like previously. 13. Save and close the inf and NVIDIA - Copy folder Now you need to restart the laptop and Disable Driver Signature Enforcement before being able to install the driver. If you don't disable this then you cannot install the modded driver.

Does the installer fail and say it couldn't find compatible hardware? If so, you'll need to mod the nvdmi .inf in the display.driver folder. Here is a good guide that should walk you through it. It may seen hard but it's quite simple once you do it a few times. https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php

It's odd that it shows it as a basic display adapter in one box but as the 770M in the others. Can you post the hardware ID of the 770M and also the line you inserted into the .inf of the driver? Can you also post the string line? Also just make sure that you inserted your modded ID line into all the hardware ID groups in the inf. There should be 3 groups of hardware ID's, one for Win7, Win8 and Win10. It's best to just put the line in each group to make sure you get the right one.

That is a little strange. If you did the .inf mod correctly then you should be able to change your settings. What is displayed under Display Adapters in your Device Manager? I'm assuming you have the 60hz panel so you should see the Intel 4000 and 770M listed. Also install GPU-Z and see if your 770M is shown correctly there with all the device information (vBIOS version. driver version, etc) When you inserted the hardware ID line into the .inf did you also add the String for the 770M and the bottom of the .inf file?