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Can anyone help with a bricked 7970m?


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Hi,

 

I think i've bricked my 7970m trying to install an undervolted vbios. I'm running an m15x with a i7 920xm and 7970m and reading through threads on here i decided to try undervolting to get around throttling problems with next gen games. 

On paper my m15x should compete with PS4/Xbox One but the throttling has been really bugging me so i thought i'd give undervolting a go. Obviously somethings gone wrong because after resetting during the installation i now get a blank screen and the CAPS and SCROLL lights are blinking.

 

I've heard it can be fixed with an m18x but i don't know anyone with one. I've also tried sending a PM to svl7 but he cant receive them (i'm guessing mailbox is full).

 

Anyone have any ideas? I'm happy to pay for help

 

This forum rocks by the way. Its kept my old laptop going strong for years!

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The way you solve throttling is to remove the centre pin from the PSU to remove the power limit but this will stop it recharging the battery. Some of us bought more powerful PSUs just to game on with no intention of needing them to charge the battery. You can also buy an L-adapter and remove centre pin on that. 

 

What vbios did you try to flash and how did you try to flash it? Were you using atiflash running off a bootable usb? I have a broken 7970M that you might be able to steal the bios chip from if you possess the necessary skill. 

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Hi Fatboyslimerr, thanks for the reply. 

I've already got the more powerful psu and I don't use the battery anyway (long dead).  I thought that the limitation is with the m15x motherboard not being able to carry enough power to both processors (when the cpu is being greedy) rather than the draw from the psu. I'll definitely try pulling the pin if I can get the gpu up and running again. 

 

Tacks for the offer of the broken card. I'm not bad at soldering so I could give it a go. Stupid question: which chip is the bios chip?

 

Thanks again

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Pulling the centre pin will not allow your laptop to boot. The two flashing lights you saw were to indicate the system has failed POST due to the video card. 

You may have soft-bricked your video card. No idea which the BIOS chip is and if you aren't sure either then I wouldn't advise you attempt to replace it. You need a certain competency with soldering to complete such a job. Do you have another graphics card you can try? 

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Oh I know the psu won't have anything to do with booting up. I'll was just saying I might try it IF I can get the gpu fixed first. 

 

I've done some soldering in printed circuit boards before and I'm fairly sure I can make the switch. I'll just need to do some research and be sure I know which is the correct chip to change. 

 

Unless there are any other solutions anyone can think of? 

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On Saturday, January 09, 2016 at 11:30 AM, Blackyhimself said:


 

which chip is the bios chip?


 

Spoiler

imageproxy.php?img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pich

 

There's a dot 'depression' on the eeprom and an arrow or 'dented' rectangle on the pcb, these identify pin #1 and, thus, indicate the correct orientation of the chip. Both are present in the image; bottom-left corner of the eeprom. Remember to use use a multimeter after re-soldering in order to verify all pins have a proper connection.

 

Edited by H658tu
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14 hours ago, H658tu said:


 

  Reveal hidden contents

imageproxy.php?img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pich

 

There's a dot 'depression' on the eeprom and an arrow or 'dented' rectangle on the pcb, these identify pin #1 and, thus, indicate the correct orientation of the chip. Both are present in the image; bottom-left corner of the eeprom. Remember to use use a multimeter after re-soldering in order to verify all pins have a proper connection.

 

Thanks H658tu, 

 

Just to clarify, I was booting with ATIFlash from a bootable USB using VBIOS: Dell7970m-uv-1000v by sv17. I backed up the original vbios, checked the checksum was good (5800) and all went fine until i was prompted to reboot. Pressed Ctrl Alt Del and the laptop reboots but i just get a black screen and blining Caps Num and Scroll lights. 

 

I'm pretty sure i can do the solder and I've got a multimeter. I just wonder if there is anything else i should try before first (I'm sure the problem is the video card and not the motherboard etc.)

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Right, there's two alternatives:

1. Flash on an SLI/CF (m18x, say) or optimus/enduro system. Since the vbios should be fine aside from the undervolt, then either system will boot without problems; one on the other gpu and the optimus/enduro using the igpu.

2. Force flash. Chance of success is small, considering the blinking leds; most likely indicating failure in the power-up sequence. Anyway, copy this in the root and replace newrom.rom with your own: autoflash ati.

It's just a few simple switches in the autoexec.bat, plus a very useful beep.bat which, of course, makes the procedure beep at the right time, indicating 'booted from usb' and 'flash finished'.
 

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I've started a thread asking if anyone with an M18 can spare some time to re-flash for me. I don't know anyone near me with one unfortunately.

Tried the autoflash (thank you). No luck i'm afraid. Worth a shot but I don't think the system is booting anything and i suspect the power-up sequence is the problem.

 

I've seen that 7970m bios chips sometimes pop up on eBay (none at the moment). Does anyone know anywhere else i can get one?

 

I do have a broken 6990m knocking about somewhere. I wonder if the vbios chip from that would work? Probably a stupid idea!

 

fatboyslimerr I'll PM you about your offer of your broken 7970m. 

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No need buy a pre-flashed eeprom for $25; the one in your 7970m is fine, it just needs the right vbios flashed to it. Either get a programmer or send me the de-soldered chip, will flash the vbios you want and ship it back. Should be no more than $3 for envelope shipping both ways.

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