Michel Beaulieu

@Loundlim, not sure, I've never done it. Not sure what the problems would be....

Update #5: We have a winner!! Ok, I got things figured out and working - supper fast...... First, the 580m was the issue. replaced it with a GTX-780m. Problem is fixed. I also fixed the sound for my card. Had to reboot without the GTX-780m, used the internal card. Removed the audio drivers that Windows had installed and installed the original IDT (dell) drivers. tested the sound, and it worked. Put the NVidia GTX-780m back in and rebooted, turned the sound card back on (in the bios) and booted into Windows. Sound Card works with no issues. Video Card works with no issues. I also update/swapped out the my i7-2720qm for a i7-2960xm!! Wow, it's like having a new PC!! Here's the 3dMark11 numbers!! 3d Mark11 Score P7664 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M(1x) and Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor Graphics Score7922 Physics Score7306 Combined Score6551

@Brian Thanks for the info/input. from what I can tell, my panel is the 60hz and not 3d. The original card was a 460m, trying to upgrade to 580m. I had bought 2 gtx 580m as I have a couple of M17xR3 that I'd like to update/upgrade, in order to extend their life....So I've put one of the other GTX 580m in. Windows/Pc boots with no issues. Windows see the video card as MS generic vga. I then go to install the NVidia drivers and it fails to find a NVidia card and therefore won't install the drivers....??

Update #4: No Luck. Got a new x Bracket from Eurocom. New Pads, New Artci Silver Céramique 2, re-flashed the A12 bios - no luck....Seems like I have 2 issues and I'm thinking both are related to a defective Video Card now.....What I find is that even if it's in the 57 to 60deg range (hot for me not doing anything), the Video Card might still crash...Here's what I mean....I'm working away, everything works fine. I power off for the day, go home. then in the evening, have to do a little bit of work, so I turn on the laptop and it won't boot, just click, click, click sound when I try to turn it on....The only way for me to get the laptop working is to take everything apart, remove the video card and the bios battery and reset the bios. Then I can boot (without the gtx580m) as the laptop is running with just the built-in Video. Once in Windows, shut everything down. Put the GTX 580m back in, boot up, change bios to PEG and disable the SG and usually I'm back up and running..But it has happened a few times that it still won't boot. Now my old GTX 460m runs a bit hot also, between 57 to 60deg and if I do a 3d benchmark to push the card, the temp goes up as high as 64deg, but it's never crashed on my. The new gtx 580m would never make it to 64deg, it crashes around 62deg?? Anyone have a clue as to the possible issues here?? I would appreciated any feedback!! Thanks.

Update #3: I got some Artic Silver Céramique 2 and new thermal pads. Cleaned all the fans. Everything worked really well for a couple of days. The 580m was getting a passmark of more than 2600 (performance test). However, now I have a new problem and need some help. The Card started heating up again after a few days..... As I'm typing this post, with nothing else running in the background, the temp of the GPU is at 58/59 deg. Doesn't make any sense. Why would it work fine for a few days and then start to heat up??? One person (from a different forum) responded that it might be the X Bracket on the back of the 580m card. When I bought the 580m, it did not have the X Bracket, so I used the one from my 460m card. The user on the other forum said the X bracket from my 460m card is most likely a rev A00 and that for the 580m I need a rev A01 or higher!! It's a stupid metal bracket, does that make any sense?? Help, info, anything? Anyone?

Update #2: I've now updated the video Bios of my GTX 580m. Things got a bit better, but still not performing as it should be. I checked a couple of Videos online about upgrading a 460m to 580m and on fellow said you should/have to remove the black trim around the copper heatsink, that sits on top of the GPU - in order to get a bigger cooling footprint. So I did. I cleaned the glue that was there as well. I also reseated the Thermo pads on the memory chips as well. However, had to use the older ones as I could not find pads in this part of the world....I'll have to order some new ones online.....Things are starting to work better. The 580m can actually run the Direct X9 Simple test from Passmark/Benchmark at full speed now. However, if I try to run the full suite of benchmarks, the Video Card crashes (overheats). So it looks like it's a heating/cooling issue. I'm also gonna order some new/better thermo past and see if that helps. I'll keep you posted.

Update: I got a copy of the A12 unlock bios. Did the upgrade. No change on the performance. Also, I used guru3d ddu to Uninstall/remove all of the nvidia drivers. To do so, I went into the bios an enabled the sg video and then booted into safe mode,. Ran ddu to remove all nvidia files. Rebooted, into setup, enabled peg, booted into windows. Device manager said Microsoft vga driver. Installed latest nvidia drivers for gtx 580m and then rebooted. Ran performance test, same issue. Anyone know what'S going on?

Hi folks, new to this forum. I'm running an M17x R3. Since i've bought it, i've upgrade to 20g of ram and also replaced drive with a 1tb ssd. Machine has been running extremely well. Love my Alien. But i've just received an upgraded rendering software that is based on gpu rendering. Previous version worked fine on my 460m, new version of software, not so much. So after lots of reading on video card upgrades, I bought a 580m on ebay (not the eurocom, saw that one to late). Based on passmark benchmark, it should be close to double the original 460m speed. Should be good enough for me for now - or until the next rendering software upgrade. However, I seem to be having an issue.....I did the swap of the 460m to the 580m and for most part, things went well. I upgraded the bios to A12 (not unlock). Upgraded the 460m drivers to the latest version, shares drivers with the 580m. Then swapped the cards (without removing the drivers). Powered back up and it found and recognizedo the 580m with now issues. Very easy upgrade. The problem i'm having is performance. When I run the pass mark benchmark on the system, the performance of the 580m is like 500% less of the original 460m! Passmark numbers for 460m was around 1300, passmark numbers for 580m is currently around 300 and should be around 2600. I did go into the A12 bios and changed the video to peg. No difference.... Elsewhere in this post and other forums, users are saying that they used an unlocked A12 bios. Could that be my issue? Any help you can provide would greatly be appreciated. Thanks. M