NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Home (Inspiron, XPS, Studio) › XPS Gen2/M170 + 7900 GO/GTX It Fits With A Simple Mod But...
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

XPS Gen2/M170 + 7900 GO/GTX It Fits With A Simple Mod But... - Page 6

post #101 of 382
6/8/06 at 2:48pm
Thread Starter 
Well I got another PM from Hazridi.

He said he has not had a chance to get to this yet due to some personal things...

I asked if he would supply the bios dump software for Dell that would allow me to modify the bios myself....I'm waiting for a reply.

If anyone knows of a bios manipulation software like those used to modify award bioses for Dells let me know.
Reply
Reply
post #102 of 382
6/8/06 at 4:08pm
Keep up the good work, i have always followed these posts. My first post ever here, but i make it a habit to check on every day.
Reply
Reply
post #103 of 382
6/8/06 at 9:07pm
I tried looking around on the internet for some stuff to work on the bios. I was unsuccessful though. A hex editor will not show you the original bios code, I'm afraid. The problem is, Dell's bios is an executable.
Reply
Reply
post #104 of 382
6/8/06 at 9:16pm
is it hopeless? any possibility?
or i should just get a 7800GTX for my Gen2 ?
which i dont really like the 256MB VR
Reply
Reply
post #105 of 382
6/8/06 at 9:24pm
Before anything else, don't forget the 7800 GTX is a straight drop-in. Also, don't be concerned w/ 3DMark scores all that much. The 7900 is great, but consider this: you'll still be able to run all the newest games at high resolutions with smooth framerates, and your pain at installing the card is considerably less.
Reply
Reply
post #106 of 382
6/9/06 at 7:17am
in many games 7900GTX is about 20-30% faster than
7800GTX this is significant improvement and also the
the 512MB VR looks more worthy to upgrade from my
6800Ultra 256MB = ( bigger VR helps when setting
high quality and high res
sigh ~
Reply
Reply
post #107 of 382
6/9/06 at 8:17am
Come on we got this guys.... So close
Reply
Reply
post #108 of 382
6/9/06 at 12:20pm
Thread Starter 
I seem to have found a possible solution to getting either bios tools to do this or getting a bios modder to do it for us.

I went to this thread in a bios forum: Modifying Dell laptop bios for another video card

Borg Number One may be able to help. So if we collectively petetion him he may pay more attention to our request. Also he may want donations but between all of us if he can help I think it is worth it.
Reply
Reply
post #109 of 382
6/9/06 at 1:21pm
Hey Cornholio, you have my support. Lets get this puppy put to rest. Thanks a million for all the effort you put in.
Reply
Reply
post #110 of 382
6/9/06 at 1:40pm
Thread Starter 
Look at this recent post from him and my reply from the forum above:

Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borg Number One
Hi.

Because the low number of donations, I had to discontinue the project.

Also the BNOBTC (BIOS Tool collection) will completely discontinue and BNOBTCv6 will never be published, if no donations will be made in future.


http://bnobtc.pix-art.com/donation


Well that is not good...

Let me say this if you can help those of us in this thread here:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=154441

I'm sure you would get some donations. But may I remind you donations means giving for something you feel has value.

If you can provide this valued service you would get donations. However asking for money upfront is not a good strategy...

I think I speak for the majority of folks on the thread above when I say we would be glad to contribute when we see something from you....
Reply
Reply
post #111 of 382
6/9/06 at 2:09pm
Yeah, I would be happy to drop 10 or 20 on this. Especially if I can drop a DX10 Card in my 9300 when DX10 cards arrive...
Reply
Reply
post #112 of 382
6/9/06 at 3:21pm
I would happily contribute to "the cause" as well.

And I'd also love it if the device ID of the Gigabyte WI0 1HT was added as well... not that it doesn't work now, is just for the sake of completeness ^^.

Once you know the methodology I don't think it should be very difficult to add more device Id's
Reply
Reply
post #113 of 382
6/9/06 at 3:30pm
id also be down to contribute.
Reply
Reply
post #114 of 382
6/9/06 at 5:53pm
Let's try something else. Is there any way that we can change the ID on the card itself? That is, make the computer think that it is a 7800 GTX? We can modify the card bios with nibitor at the moment.
Reply
Reply
post #115 of 382
6/9/06 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 
Interesting thought. I wonder if that would screw that card up in anyway?

I'm trying to obtain a 7900GTX as we speak...
Reply
Reply
post #116 of 382
6/9/06 at 6:53pm
OK here we go, progress. It's really easy to change the actual board ID and make the card think that it is a 7800 when it is a 7900. So, you open nibitor, and click the advanced info tab. Now, you can see under "Device ID" a code for your card. I think it's as simple as selecting from the device dropdown box a 7800 Go or Go GTX ID and go from there.

Here's my logic: this shouldn't screw up the board, just simply make it think that it's a different card. In worst case, I believe you can still blind flash it back to the original bios. We're not really changing any memory, clock, or voltage settings. All we're doing is trying to get under the XPS2/M170 bios radar.

So to recap:

Nibitor --> load card bios info for 7900 Go --> Advanced info tab --> select 7800 Go from drop down box outside of tabs (my suggestion, to make sure we don't fry the card or something) --> save bios --> flash bios of pseudo-7800. Again, I really, really doubt it will hurt the card itself... on the other hand, I'm not sure how nVidia drivers will handle this. I still think it's worth a shot.
Reply
Reply
post #117 of 382
6/9/06 at 7:35pm
Thread Starter 
Sounds workable. However there is one issue:

You would need a 7900 GTX in an XPS 1710 to use this method. Then it would have to transferred to the M170.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ciVick_EX
OK here we go, progress. It's really easy to change the actual board ID and make the card think that it is a 7800 when it is a 7900. So, you open nibitor, and click the advanced info tab. Now, you can see under "Device ID" a code for your card. I think it's as simple as selecting from the device dropdown box a 7800 Go or Go GTX ID and go from there.

Here's my logic: this shouldn't screw up the board, just simply make it think that it's a different card. In worst case, I believe you can still blind flash it back to the original bios. We're not really changing any memory, clock, or voltage settings. All we're doing is trying to get under the XPS2/M170 bios radar.

So to recap:

Nibitor --> load card bios info for 7900 Go --> Advanced info tab --> select 7800 Go from drop down box outside of tabs (my suggestion, to make sure we don't fry the card or something) --> save bios --> flash bios of pseudo-7800. Again, I really, really doubt it will hurt the card itself... on the other hand, I'm not sure how nVidia drivers will handle this. I still think it's worth a shot.
Reply
Reply
post #118 of 382
6/9/06 at 8:11pm
Nibitor only needs a bios dump to start working. Just grab a 7900 GTX bios, there's a bunch floating around in people's overclocking threads Nibitor can load it right up.
Reply
Reply
post #119 of 382
6/9/06 at 8:27pm
But the 9300/xps 2 will not start with one of these cards in? Will it
Reply
Reply
post #120 of 382
6/9/06 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 
Yes but that is only the first part...You need to be able to flash the 7900 GTX with the modded bios and you still need the M1710 platform to do it.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ciVick_EX
Nibitor only needs a bios dump to start working. Just grab a 7900 GTX bios, there's a bunch floating around in people's overclocking threads Nibitor can load it right up.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Home (Inspiron, XPS, Studio) › XPS Gen2/M170 + 7900 GO/GTX It Fits With A Simple Mod But...