Anyone get post-WK40 HARDMOD for MR9800 to work? - Page 2

Found a sweet 0429AA sitting in my XPS

Ok, I've opened the GPU and found a sweet 0429AA (think this is a 16 piper) ready for modding. Done the 16 Pipe-unlock Mod and copper heat mod at the same time. Took me about 4 hours. Had all the copper around so just had to saw the right sizes. Also, AS5ed the CPU.

Put a square copper shim on the ATI CHIP and 2 rectangular shims on the MEMORY CHIPS (each one covered two chips).

TIP: Once I screwed the GPU together and inserted it in the system, I had to add some EXTRA COPPER PIECES on top of the aluminum cover (directly over the point where the rectangular shims sit but below the Keyboard brace). This forced the shims to sit down (tightly) on the memory chips. Apparently, the flimsy aluminum GPU cover does not allow the shims to sit snuggly on the chips. Don't know what other have done, but it looks like it'll work for me. Small bulge on the keyboard, which I don't care since I us the cordless keyboard and never move the lappy.

Will wait 8 hours before I flip the switch.

whooo thats so lucky , I would buy the card of you !

Ok, now how to I confirm I've got 16 pipes smoking?

Here's the ATI Tray Sys info and it says Active Rendering Pipelines 8

Am I checking right?

General
Display adapter Unknown 4A4E
Core Name M18
SubVendor Unknown 1028
SubDevice 5106
BUS 1
Device 0
Function 0
Base Address 0 E0000008
Base Address 1 0000C001
Base Address 2 FCFF0000
Base Address 3 00000000
Catalyst Registry Path
System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{73F90DAD-3D0B-4C80-B190-FAC755417FB8}\0000

______________________________
Clock Information
BIOS VPU 350.00
Current VPU 351.00
BIOS MEM 299.25
Current MEM 297.00

______________________________
Radeon PCI configuration space
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 02 10 4E 4A 27 01 B0 02 00 00 00 03 08 20 00 00
10 08 00 00 E0 01 C0 00 00 00 00 FF FC 00 00 00 00
20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 10 06 51
30 00 00 00 80 58 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 01 08 00
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 10 06 51
50 01 00 02 06 00 00 00 00 02 50 30 00 1B 02 00 FF
60 02 43 00 1F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
70 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
80 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

______________________________
Hardware Information
Installed memory 256 Mb
Memory Type GDDR3
Memory Width 256 bit
Active Rendering Pipelines 8

______________________________
ASIC details
Family 57
Emulated Revision 2
Gfx Engine ID 3

______________________________
Radeon Registers
RADEON_BIOS_0_SCRATCH 00000004
RADEON_BIOS_1_SCRATCH 0100C000
RADEON_X_MPLL_REF_FB_DIV 02345804
RADEON_XCLK_CNTL 00207FFA
RADEON_MCLK_CNTL 00032323
GB_TILE_CONFIG 00010017
MC_TIMING_CNTL 65668344
MC_SDRAM_MODE_REG 10230000

______________________________
Video BIOS Information
Version 008.017M.192.03
Part Number BK-ATI VER008.017M.192.038
Date 2004/10/13 13:45

______________________________
Controller Configurations
Controller 0
Active Connections:
-LCD Panel (Laptop) (0) 1920x1200x60
Controller 1
Active Connections:
No Active Connections

______________________________
Displays supported by adapter
0 (1) Monitor (CRT1)
1 (2) Second Monitor (CRT2)
2 (4) Component Video Output
3 (8) LCD Panel (Laptop)
4 (16) TV
5 (32) Digital Flat Panel

Make sure you have the latest ATI tool. I remember something about it not reporting 16 pipes...

Using ATI Tray Tools v1.0.5.824. I think this is the latest version.

It looks like your mod didn't work for some reason. ATI also disables the pipes on the die as well, but this wasn't a common practice until later in the run ( why cards > week 40 are usually not successful. )

Scraping the wax coating off the "dots" is pretty tricky unless you have a REALLY SMALL screwdriver and a 15x loupe. Remove the mod ( conductive paint? ) and make sure that the copper dots are shiney under light. There are other traces near the dots, so make sure that any conductive paint doesn't get on those if you accidently exposed them while scraping.

Thanks, I see what you mean. I didn't take care about any of the things you mentioned. Hadn't removed the wax (dots were not shiney, cause I was too careful). Furthermore, I had a gaint dot covering the other exposed area (that i exposed by scraping). So redid it and put a thin line going down the two shiney dots. Do I still have to wait another 8 hours? (I'm itching to test the system).

Thanks


Edit: Shucks.. I didn't shake the conductive pen at all. No wonder I was getting some sort of whitish-gray liquid oozing out of it. Anyway, will try once more (after shaking it well) if it doesn't work this time.

Yes. Those pens are really not meant for very fine work. If it is not too late, try putting some of the "paint" on the tip of a needle for very fine application. You might have to apply a couple of layers when using a needle. Just let the previous layers dry for 10 to 20 minutes before putting more on.

After shaking up the pen, I made sure that I got a good supply of metal-laden paint by dabbing the tip on a paper tower first then tapped the tip with the needle to get some on it. When my mod. didn't work even after all these steps, I went back and actually soldered mine as I saw that it wouldn't matter anyway. If your mod. works then you MIGHT want to consider a more "permanent" bridge.

If you can manage it ( it is very fine work -- loupe and tweezers a must here ), try putting some masking tape around the area to keep stray paint from getting on the other traces. I didn't do this since I didn't expose any other leads close to the dots. You'll need to pull up the tape as soon as you are done applying the paint.

I think an hour of open-air drying is enough, but a lot of people wait the 8 hours because it seems to work. It won't hurt to put the card back together and install it after some open-air curing time then power up long enough to check it. If the mod. worked, then power it down and let it sit overnight to finish curing.

About scraping ... Even the smallest flat-head screwdriver from one of those six-piece precision kits looks HUGE next to those dots under a loupe. I used a screwdriver that is in a watchmaker's kit.

This is probably WAYYY! too much that you want to pay for a screwdriver set, but this is the set I have ... http://cgi.ebay.com/Bergeon-Screwdri...QQcmdZViewItem

These ( http://cgi.ebay.com/7-Pc-Super-Preci...QQcmdZViewItem ) might be OK, but I don't know what the blades look like under a loupe.

I also have loupes like these ... http://cgi.ebay.com/5X-10X-15X-20X-3...QQcmdZViewItem

The 5x, 10x, 15x combo loupe is cheap plastic but does the job. The 10x - 20x is a decent metal one but the viewing area is pretty small. The 30x is a little overkill but it will clip onto a Helping Hands tool for hands-free magnifying.

YEHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Got it to 16 pipeline. Thanks dude. I owe you one!! . Boy, after doing the masking tape trick; when I lifted the tape, I thought no one could have done a better job then I did. So I've now ATI TRAY TOOL says:

ACTIVE RENDERING PIPELINES 16

I tried 4 times and the pin and masking tape trick really does do the job (esp for someone like me who scraped a big hole in the pcb to expose a whole bunch of copper).

Thanks, jevans64@!!

Glad to hear those tips worked for someone. I tried with a week 34 and week 50 card with no success.

I would run the ATItool or ATI Tray Tool artifact test at stock speeds to make sure those extra 8 pipes are good. They probably are if your desktop, etc. has no artifacts on it.

You did the copper mods, so you are probably good for a 400/400 overclock easily with a 432/432 possible.

You can make a post in the Ultimate MR9800 Unlocking Guide so Karoloydi can update the success list.

After the Mods here's my scores and MAX temps without OCing.

3DM01 18824 Temp (CPU=67 GPU=66)
3DM03 8448 Temp (CPU=67 GPU=66)
3DM05 3661 Temp (CPU=67 GPU=67)
3DM06 1147 Temp (CPU=69 GPU=62)
AquaM 55,274 Temp (CPU=66 GPU=62)

FARCRY BM (HDR 7, AF=16X, noAA, 1600X1200)
Temp(CPU=66, GPU=64_
34.75 Fps

ATITool 18 min check for Artifacts (no errors) Temp (CPU=66 GPU=62)

I try out FEAR later on today.

jevans64, You mentioned to OC at 432/432. Which tools should I overclock? I have Radlinker and ATI TRAY TOOL installed.

DO you know if anyone found a possible undervolt (Pin-mod) for the XPS 3.4 GHZ Processor?

Thanks

I bought my xps with the 9800 a year ago today what are the chances 0% that its a moddable card, im not even gonna bother unless theres a chance to check

Nice one. Don't overclock at 432/432 all the time. You will fry your card. This setting is only for benchmarks to see how far you can get it. And before doing that you should put your fans at high for about ten minutes and be in a cold room and possibly lift the laptop so that it can ventilate better.
The safest overclocking is 400 core/350 memory. These are the stock speeds for an x800, and that's what our cards practically are (ours are a bit faster). If you want to get some more performance and still be quite safe, then 400/400 is the highest to go for.
This is a rare card, so take good care of it.

Best tools for overclocking radeon are either Radlinker or ATI Tool.

Tool for overclocking CPU is CPUFSB. Choose ASUS and P4C800 in the settings and then go to Fine tuning and press + or +10 until you get the frequency you want.

I've been running 460/400 for a good while on a non-unlocked card without any problems. Would unlocking cause issues?

Yes. More pipes = more heat.

nkhan ... I didn't mean for you to overclock all of the time. Just for benchmarks. Seeing that your temps are so high, I probably wouldn't overclock at all. I just meant to state that I ran mine for short strides at 400/400 and the occasional 432/432 for quick benchmarks -- but this is with 8 pipes. 99% of the time my card stays at 350/300 stock.

You can use ATI Tray Tools to find your high points and have IK9FanGUI up to monitor temps. These cards don't get a whole lot of voltage, so it will probably just shut off like mine did at around 445 core. I think it was lack-of-volts/quality of components since my GPU temp was only 44C, and I saw no artifacts before shutdown.

BTW. I am working on a replacement copper shield ( from 21 ga. stock ) for the RAM to replace that aweful thin aluminum one. My idea was to bend a section of the sheet down to touch the RAM chips ... then make a 180 bend back above the RAM and cut slots in it to vent heat. The only problem is I don't know how much internal airflow there is around that area.

Good Idea. I've already made a hybrid copper cooling model for the 7800GTX in the GEN2 lappy. Basically I used 1 silver shim over the core, 2 rectangular copper shims on top of the RAMS and then on the bottom I added 4 fins (thanks to K6 who initially did this). The 4 fins were basically copper squares that sat flat on (the bottom side of) each RAM and then had a part prodruded out the sides (which I cut into fins for max heat removal).

Problem with the XPS GPU is that Dell gave is a very small bottom plate which does not allow one to sandwich something btw the plate the RAMS (because it the plate does not cover the bottom part of the RAMS).

If I understand your idea; you want to use 4 copper pieces, one for each of the 4 RAM Chips. You'll start by folding one end so that the double ended part sits on top of the RAM. Then, you'll create 180 bend around and under the RAMS so the same copper touches the bottom side (of the RAM)also. If you create a longer 180 bend (that stick out the sides about an inch) you can cut some fins on either sides.

Yes, air flow must be ascertained for this to be a good mod, but we'll never know unless we try it.

Let me know if I've caught on right to your idea? A simple MSPaint pic would help.

I can do better than MSPaint. I am about 75% done on the ACTUAL plate but I made the 180° bends a little too thick and had to rebend them in order for the plate to fit nicely over the GPU. The plate will look almost identical to the origional plate except that I'll have a part that bends down to touch the RAM chips then bend back over itself with about 0.25" space between the upper part and lower part. The top part will have fins on it.

I haven't posted pictures here yet. I guess I have to store them locally and create a link to them?

EDIT. I finished the ramsink. It looks a little rough but it fits really good on the GPU w/o making the keyboard bulge up. I took thi pic in macro mode, so there is barrel distortion on the edges making it look warped.

When I game on mine, I have it clocked at 500/434 non-unlocked and runs perfect for ours. Never had any trouble.

3dmark05 - 4184 with Catalyst 5.12 (still need to update to 6.2's)
3dmark03 - 9006 with Catalyst 5.12 (still need to update to 6.2's)

Holy Molly!!! How did you manage that!! That'll be one hell-of-a-mod.. Can't wait to see you GPU temps.

If I understand right. The fins a bent up and around and no part of the copper plate touches the bottom side of the memory chips?

What guage copper (or how thick is the copper in inches) did u used?

That's the coolest thing ever! Can't wait to hear your results!