Help with SAGER NP9170 / CLEVO P170EM

[sonik 0]

Hi,

I have a sager NP9170 with a nvidia card (675m?).

Years ago the notebook started to beep and crash. I think it's a gpu problem.
On linux it crash just after booting into desktop.
On windows I've got to disable it on Device Manager and it works with the onboard intel gpu. I also got it to work on windows using an external gtx1060 via pci-e adapter.

The real question is: It's safe to just remove the mxm gpu?
Or it would require a modified bios?
If it requires a card to work, I could just grab a cheap one from china? even an mxm2 card would work?
I don't need "gaming performance". But as it's currently, I can't even use it.

Edit:
I might have access to a ATI FirePro M6000. Would it work?

Edited February 7 by sonik

[TheSin 0]

Removing MXM GPU will lead to beeping and emergency shutdown after a minute or two. The problem is in firmware of EC controller, which periodically requests temperature of discrete GPU. If MXM card is not installed, EC can't get data from SMBus thermal sensor and enables 'emergency mode'. To fix this problem you need to flash a specially patched BIOS. This BIOS is based on the latest Eurocom one, if you prefer Sager BIOS - please PM me with your firmware, I'll apply patch to it.

[sonik 0]

5 hours ago, TheSin said:

Removing MXM GPU will lead to beeping and emergency shutdown after a minute or two. The problem is in firmware of EC controller, which periodically requests temperature of discrete GPU. If MXM card is not installed, EC can't get data from SMBus thermal sensor and enables 'emergency mode'. To fix this problem you need to flash a specially patched BIOS. This BIOS is based on the latest Eurocom one, if you prefer Sager BIOS - please PM me with your firmware, I'll apply patch to it.

Grabbed the file. Thank you!
I don't have any bios preference. Just want to "revive" this pc.

It's a normal procedure to swap the card with a random one? Or must use some specific models?
It's super hard to find a mxm card where I live but I've managed to find an ATI FirePro M6000 near that I can grab. There's chance of it working?

[TheSin 0]

In case of AMD cards, you can easily get problems with beeping because different vendors use different thermal sensors. For example, AMD cards from Dell are not compatible with Clevo laptops. Of course, this also can be patched in the firmware, but it's better to use Nvidia cards instead.

But if you don't need a discrete GPU, just flash the BIOS from the previous post and enjoy. Less power consumption, less heat, more battery life and no problems with card incompatibility . Create a bootable DOS flash drive (for example, using Rufus), copy the files from the link to the root of flash and boot. Execute "step1.exe", notebook should reboot with activating full speed of fans. Don't worry, in this mode boot from the flash drive once again and execute 'step2.bat', then press any key to start flashing. After the 1st stage of flashing you will be asked about your keyboard type. So, if you have a keyboard with Win key in the left - enter L and press Enter. If your keyboard has right Win key - enter R and press enter. After flashing is completed, the notebook will turn off. Disconnect power adapter, remove the battery, wait 30 seconds - and turn the notebook on.

[sonik 0]

1 hour ago, TheSin said:

In case of AMD cards, you can easily get problems with beeping because different vendors use different thermal sensors. For example, AMD cards from Dell are not compatible with Clevo laptops. Of course, this also can be patched in the firmware, but it's better to use Nvidia cards instead.

But if you don't need a discrete GPU, just flash the BIOS from the previous post and enjoy. Less power consumption, less heat, more battery life and no problems with card incompatibility . Create a bootable DOS flash drive (for example, using Rufus), copy the files from the link to the root of flash and boot. Execute "step1.exe", notebook should reboot with activating full speed of fans. Don't worry, in this mode boot from the flash drive once again and execute 'step2.bat', then press any key to start flashing. After the 1st stage of flashing you will be asked about your keyboard type. So, if you have a keyboard with Win key in the left - enter L and press Enter. If your keyboard has right Win key - enter R and press enter. After flashing is completed, the notebook will turn off. Disconnect power adapter, remove the battery, wait 30 seconds - and turn the notebook on.

Oh, the amd card I can get is from dell. So it won't work, right?

I don't really need a discrete gpu. But would be nice to at least try one and diagnose what's wrong with this notebook. If the current gpu is dying, or there's any other problem.

[TheSin 0]

"Oh, the amd card I can get is from dell. So it won't work, right?" - yes, your laptop will start beeping after power on. Also you will probably need to flash the correct Clevo vbios to make the card work in Windows, but I don't know if such vbios exists for this card. So, for diagnosis I recommend you to find nvidia MXM card. Perhaps you should contact the other owners of P1xxEM in your location to temporarily insert a 100% working card into your laptop.

[sonik 0]

Ok.
I'm in Brazil and will be hard to find a compatible card.

This weekend I'm going to flash the bios and test it without the discrete card.
I might get a cheap nvidia gpu from aliexpress. Will have better performance than the intel integrated gpu.

Again, thanks for the help!

[JohnMT 0]

On 2/7/2023 at 11:24 PM, TheSin said:

Removing MXM GPU will lead to beeping and emergency shutdown after a minute or two. The problem is in firmware of EC controller, which periodically requests temperature of discrete GPU. If MXM card is not installed, EC can't get data from SMBus thermal sensor and enables 'emergency mode'. To fix this problem you need to flash a specially patched BIOS. This BIOS is based on the latest Eurocom one, if you prefer Sager BIOS - please PM me with your firmware, I'll apply patch to it.

 

Sorry to jump into a month old thread, but would that BIOS work for a Sager NP9170 that came with an AMD card instead of an NVidia?  Been having a lot of trouble with the radeon 8970m.  First one died (or so I thought), so I got a replacement but it's having the same issues.   I can use the laptop with the integrated graphics but as soon as anything in Windows fires up the Radeon it's got about 30-40 seconds before it either beeps like crazy or just turns off, even if the radeon was only in use for 1 second.   It seems to act like even if the radeon isn't in use anymore the temp is still rising (slowly) then its overheating & shuts it all down, even if the radeon isn't in use and the temp is fine.

 

If that bios will work so I can just remove the radeon entirely for a while until I can figure out why my laptop is thinking the GPU is overheating when it's not,  that'd be awesome.