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HOW-TO: Upgrade your 9400/E1705 with the 512MB 7900 GTX "Photo Guide" - Page 17

post #321 of 349
5/15/08 at 2:31pm
I'd always stick to original Dell AC adapters, 3rd party or unofficial ones may actually be a little dodgy and unstable, just pay the extra and get an official one. It Isn't worth taking a risk with electricity involved.
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post #322 of 349
9/1/08 at 10:49am
Hello I`ve got a nother problem!
I want to upgrade my 9400 with a Quadro FX 1600M!
What should I do, that it works?!?
Thx!
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post #323 of 349
5/14/10 at 8:47am
holly thread revival...

i just bought brand new 7900gtx for my 9400 since old go7800 got fried and after installing it the computer doesn't power on. it powers on for like a second (without display) and then shuts down straight away. If i put in old broken 7800 the laptop powers on, but without display... btw, i do have a01 bios version...
im surprised since everyone else seems to be successful with upgrading to 7900gtx

thanx for any help
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post #324 of 349
5/14/10 at 9:05am
When I installed my 7950GTX, I simply broke the piece of the case out illustrated in my picture. That's all I did. Maybe you should try re-seating the GPU? Pull the AC adapter, pull the CMOS battery, hold the power button down for a good 30 seconds, and reinstall the CMOS battery. Also, with as old as these cards are, they obviously don't make them anymore. You may have a bum card. Let us know how it goes.
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post #325 of 349
5/14/10 at 9:22am
thanx for quick response...

i know they dont make them anymore, but there seems to be plenty of old stock lying around and i got it from a legit store... by bum i assume you mean refurb? it seems new since it came with packaging, clearly i cant be 100% sure, but even with second hand card i'd expect computer to at least do something

however, speaking of cmos battery... i haven't been using 9400 for like 8 months now (which is when old graphic card died) and it's just been sitting in my closet in pieces with cmos battery unplugged... do you reckon there is a chance i need new bios? i know usually bios can survive without power for much longer, but could it be just a possibility?
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post #326 of 349
5/14/10 at 9:32am
The BIOS is flashed to the chip. It doesn't get erased when you remove all sources of power, like RAM does for instance. If your BIOS was wiped, your computer would be a brick.

And regarding your GPU, refurbs are fine. I was talking about the card being completely bad.
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post #327 of 349
5/14/10 at 9:55am
well it's apparently brand new and tested so i would find it hard to believe that it's broken, but i'll still get back to the seller.

also usually when graphic card is broken computer still powers up, just with no display. i tried turning laptop on with no graphic card or display in at all and it still turned on (obviously without picture), but when i put 7900gtx in it powers on for a second and immediately shuts down. i've never seen laptop do that before so im pretty lost about what to do.

i am still running 90w power supply tho, but laptop should still turn on judging from other people. don't wanna throw out even more money for a 130w power supply unless im absolutely sure that is the reason
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post #328 of 349
5/14/10 at 11:46am
im suspecting the main board may have died around same time as graphic card... will probably have to look for cheap s/h board
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post #329 of 349
5/15/10 at 6:49am
Ummmmmmm
If your using a newer card, the bios has to support it for dell machines.

Make sure you have the A10 bios.
You should be good to go with that. If you can't boot, I suggest baking your old card so that it works for a little while in order to complete the flash.

I really don't know how this isn't common knowledge for these forums, do searches guys.

And yes, you'll need a 130W power supply, I'm getting a 200W one myself.
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post #330 of 349
5/15/10 at 11:11am
He wasn't necessarily asking how to fix his old card, matchbox. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try this just to make sure the BIOS is current though. If your current BIOS is A01, and the newest is A10, you're way behind. The newest BIOS will add all the compatibility you're going to get, and will probably solve your problem Rocky. There's a motherboard on eBay for $70 shipped if all else fails.
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post #331 of 349
5/15/10 at 3:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurbodTalon View Post
He wasn't necessarily asking how to fix his old card, matchbox. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try this just to make sure the BIOS is current though. If your current BIOS is A01, and the newest is A10, you're way behind. The newest BIOS will add all the compatibility you're going to get, and will probably solve your problem Rocky. There's a motherboard on eBay for $70 shipped if all else fails.
You won't be able to boot nor flash without a working gfx card. The other won't work without a new bios. Circle goes round. I think the only workaround to that is having a bootable usb floppy with dell's flash program or at least an autoexec telling it what to do to flash the bios by means of accessing the pre-boot portion of the bios by holding the 'end' key and then plugging in the laptop while you have no battery. By the way how much was your amazing laptop in your sig?
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post #332 of 349
5/15/10 at 4:44pm
You are correct. As I mentioned earlier, he should follow your advice and bake the card. If it doesn't work, he's no worse off. I've seen many success stories from baking them. The heat fuses solder that has broken from heat expansion/contraction. There's always option B. Part out the laptop, sell the card, and invest the money in a new laptop.

I bought the laptop for $3,500 with a 3 year complete care warranty.
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post #333 of 349
5/15/10 at 11:56pm
yea, i wish i had updated bios to a10 before old graphic card died... tried baking it but didn't help so i guess my only option is getting a replacement board from ebay, preferably with latest bios version. will still be cheaper than buying a new laptop considering after 4 years it still has pretty decent configuration and im pretty broke...

thanx for help anyways, ill let you know how i go
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post #334 of 349
5/17/10 at 12:45am
That may be your cheapest bet because even the lowest-end card that the E1705 would accept is an arm and a leg on eBay. A board is ~$75. You could turn around and sell the old board and probably make your money back. That is an excellent configuration. I ran through Crysis several times on medium settings at native res on mine. The 7900GTX is every bit as good as the 7950GTX. Good luck, and keep us updated.
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post #335 of 349
9/11/10 at 2:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurbodTalon View Post
That may be your cheapest bet because even the lowest-end card that the E1705 would accept is an arm and a leg on eBay. A board is ~$75. You could turn around and sell the old board and probably make your money back. That is an excellent configuration. I ran through Crysis several times on medium settings at native res on mine. The 7900GTX is every bit as good as the 7950GTX. Good luck, and keep us updated.

You are still alive!!!
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post #336 of 349
9/27/10 at 6:06pm
I have a e1705 and thinking about updating vs buying a new One? Have installed 4g ram and bios a10. Processor: x86family6 model 14 stepping8 genuineintel~1997mhz, system type: x86 system mode:l mp061. Would like any tips here. Also would like to know about switching OS?
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post #337 of 349
9/28/10 at 2:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by speops38 View Post
I have a e1705 and thinking about updating vs buying a new One? Have installed 4g ram and bios a10. Processor: x86family6 model 14 stepping8 genuineintel~1997mhz, system type: x86 system mode:l mp061. Would like any tips here. Also would like to know about switching OS?

You might want to look into a faster drive per example. What is the exact the CPU model you have? How I love those "x86 family x model y stepping z" description

Download Speccy and it will tell you what you got.

OS - where are you? where do you want to go?

cheers ...
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post #338 of 349
9/28/10 at 3:30pm
My gut says on paper you have "enough" to be current "enough". The problem is it is still an old computer and you are comparing to new stuff. I say if money is the same then enjoy it and get the most value out of it...
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post #339 of 349
9/28/10 at 9:54pm

OS

Currently running OS Windows Multimedia would like up grade vista or 7 but it looks like a driver issue? You right running my current config its fine. But a upgrade on OS I hear I may need more power.
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post #340 of 349
9/29/10 at 5:18am
4GB ram and (almost) 2GHz processor speed is plenty to run Windows 7. As far as drivers, Windows 7 should have everything for your model.

cheers ...
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