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XPS Gen2/M170 + 7900 GO/GTX It Fits With A Simple Mod But... - Page 10

post #181 of 382
6/26/06 at 1:51am
Good news man !
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post #182 of 382
6/26/06 at 1:04pm
Good good Cornholio ^^

For my part I've asked a guy who's writen (and kept updated) an opensource decoder for both Ami and Phoenix (4.x/6/IBM/Compaq) bioses.

Problem is, as usual, he's a very busy person and this challenge might not float his boat.
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post #183 of 382
6/26/06 at 2:54pm

Bios

Since I remember we used a XPS bios to make the 7800's work in our 9300s, has anyone tried a 9400 bios on a 9300?

I may have been a fool and bid on a 7900gs not being 100% on its functionality. I have high interest in this project, but sadly no bios modding skills.

Since both the Core solo accepts DDR2 533/677 memory speeds, maybe it will think we have a core solo??

Just an idea if someone is brave

Edit: Started thinking about this.. dont do it! Unlike desktops that can hot flashed, I don't know how a laptop would handle needing this.
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post #184 of 382
6/28/06 at 3:00pm
Dont let this die
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post #185 of 382
6/28/06 at 10:11pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, finally tomorrow I will have a 7900 GTX to play with in my Gen2/M170. I'll see if there is any luck with it working with the 7900 GTX since the earlier card that I tried was a new form factor (just like the 7900 series cards) 7800 Go.

Maybe we will get lucky and the bios will recognize the 7900 GTX!

If not i will try some video card ID bios mods....

Wish me luck for the sake of all those here wanting to do this.
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post #186 of 382
6/28/06 at 11:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cornholio
Ok, finally tomorrow I will have a 7900 GTX to play with in my Gen2/M170. I'll see if there is any luck with it working with the 7900 GTX since the earlier card that I tried was a new form factor (just like the 7900 series cards) 7800 Go.

Maybe we will get lucky and the bios will recognize the 7900 GTX!

If not i will try some video card ID bios mods....

Wish me luck for the sake of all those here wanting to do this.


WOW good news !
Best wishes for u from Canada !! Man !!
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post #187 of 382
6/29/06 at 5:30am

Sweet

Hell yeah....I'm really interested to see how this turns out. Where theres a will theres a way I guess. This could def extend the life of all of our 9300's... Wish I knew something about writing BIOS stuff...... Good luck!!!!!
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post #188 of 382
6/29/06 at 10:54am
Good luck cornholio.
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post #189 of 382
6/29/06 at 6:31pm
Dude, if you can pull this off I'll mention you in my prayers e-v-e-r-y day.

(that is, once I get religious and actually start praying)
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post #190 of 382
6/29/06 at 8:37pm
hah hah, right ~
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post #191 of 382
6/30/06 at 3:37pm
Good luck! I hope it works out for the sake of myself and everyone else waiting on this.
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post #192 of 382
6/30/06 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 
Ok Folks......

Here is an update!

Read carefully because this is potentially favorable news..

I took my 7800 GTX from my Gen2/M170 and installed it in an XPS M1710 and it.....

BOOTS! and the XPS M1710 recognizes the 7800 GTX in the Bios!!!!!!!!!!!
Booted to Windows and everything was peachy. So what does this mean? It means that the cards are compatable!

Ok now for the next step in the process....

I installed the 7900 GTX in the Gen2/M170 and......
No Joy! It has the same boot issue as I posted in the begining of the this thread.

HOWEVER........

The fact that the 7800 GTX works and is recognized by the M1710 is an indication that we just need a little bios hacking!

Picture proof:





This is good news indeed.

I will now try to change the 7900 GTX Bios IDs to emulate a 7800 GTX card.
Lets see what happens.....

More to come....
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post #193 of 382
6/30/06 at 8:07pm
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post #194 of 382
6/30/06 at 8:10pm
Great work! Lets hope all we need is a bios mod!
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post #195 of 382
6/30/06 at 8:57pm
I wonder if this means that it is a possibility that a G80 (i know realy realy early to be thinking this) will be able to fit and with a BIOS hack we can get it to work. So everyone wont have to buy a new laptop for DX10?

I thinking about getting an M170 from someone on this forum, but i still am worried that if i get it, i wont be able to upgrade to DX10.

What advise would you guys suggest for me?
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post #196 of 382
6/30/06 at 9:51pm
Thread Starter 
Pictures added. Bump
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post #197 of 382
6/30/06 at 10:26pm
Wow I think I just peed myself. So we can maybe get by just a little bit longer with our old Gen2's..
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post #198 of 382
7/1/06 at 5:47am
The person I contacted about Dell BIOS decompression answered me a couple of days ago.

He managed to "unpack" the dell BIOS update program np:

Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepThroat
I have looked into the files. The executable itself is
just a gzip-packed file with an dell header. for
the next level of compression, i have to look (more time)

He also pointed out a problem with this... after decompressing the different modules that form the BIOS image, finding the data we need to patch (the best way to do this I'd think is comparing the BIOS of the laptop that supports "natively" the card and our bios and see where and how the ID's are stored, and then export the relevant entry to ur notebook's bios) we still have to "build" it again and in a way that the supplied flasher will accept it.

BTW, if someone has contacts in the University of Florida this is the right time to use them, check the Projects 2003-2004 page and tell me what can you see there...

Having access to the people that were involved in this project would be the key that unlocks these BIOSes...

Bear in mind that kidnapping and torturing them is illegal in most countries (why did I suggest that? silly me...).
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post #199 of 382
7/1/06 at 12:17pm
Thread Starter 
EXCELLENT!

It looks like the Dell M170 bios WILL need to be modified in order for the 7900 GTX to run.

I tried flashing the 7900 GTX with the Bios IDs of the 7800 GTX and ended up getting a blank screen on boot. So that trick about fooling the M170 bios into thinking the 7900 GTX is a 7800 GTX will not work. I had to blind flash the 7900 GTX back to get it working again.

Can this person send me the uncompressed bios so we can have few eyes working on it?



Quote:
Originally Posted by MrToad
The person I contacted about Dell BIOS decompression answered me a couple of days ago.

He managed to "unpack" the dell BIOS update program np:



He also pointed out a problem with this... after decompressing the different modules that form the BIOS image, finding the data we need to patch (the best way to do this I'd think is comparing the BIOS of the laptop that supports "natively" the card and our bios and see where and how the ID's are stored, and then export the relevant entry to ur notebook's bios) we still have to "build" it again and in a way that the supplied flasher will accept it.

BTW, if someone has contacts in the University of Florida this is the right time to use them, check the Projects 2003-2004 page and tell me what can you see there...

Having access to the people that were involved in this project would be the key that unlocks these BIOSes...

Bear in mind that kidnapping and torturing them is illegal in most countries (why did I suggest that? silly me...).
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post #200 of 382
7/1/06 at 12:27pm
I think we are really getting somewhere
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