Dell M90 or M1710 bios in a E1705/9400 motherboard, its possible?

Unless something has changed recently, it is not possible to upgrade an integrated graphics motherboard with any graphics card.

However, if you did have the ability to do this upgrade, you could put the 7900 GTX into the 1705/9400 without having to touch the system bios.

I sent pictures of the 2 boards (one with integrated video and one with dedicated) recently as a proof that some components are missing from the board (resistors, etc) and therefore, integrated cannot be upgraded.

http://www.notebookforums.com/post24...ml#post2440158

Ok, I'm sorry for restarting an old thread. . . BUT, does anyone know IF it IS possible to flash an XPS bios on a 9400/1705? The reason I would like to know is so I can use all of my 4GBs of ram. 3.3 is the max for me even with a 64bit OS. . . Aparently the m1710, which I believe is the closest XPS to the e1705 supports all 4GBs.

Thanks in advance!

flashing the BIOS will not work, and it would make no difference to the Memory asnthe chipset is limited to 4 GB max. of which only about 3.25 GB is free for Windows as the remainder of the memory is allocated to system resources which you cannot access or change

Thanks for the reply. What would be an example of 'system resources'? Is it windows controlled?

System resources hes talking about are essentially hardware such as GPU's. This hardware is memory mapped and hence uses the upper portion of memory as ports to facilitate data transfer with the PC.

What about flashing the bios for the sole purpose of using a nextgen video card?

You would most likely end up bricking your laptop

But the issue of GPU compatibility also extends to the LCD display, and the Inverter as well.

You can't flash other bios in normal ways.
For this kind of laptops,I9400 E1705 M1710 M90 is almost same vbios inside bios.
So it's useless to do so.
On mine E1705 some time ago I reprogrammed my bios chip (using some external programmers) to M1710 and M90 bios.
As the result:
-I have in bios some settings for dock (which is also useless becouse I don't have dock)
-I have some settings in bios for leds but useless too.
Integrated network card was not working in one case and on other was recognised as a unknown device.

I'd just like to restate the all reasons for bios flashing in posts 1 and 4 are invalid. Next gen video support however is a valid reason.

The thing is, all a bios hacker would have to do (hopefully) is identify the list of supported cards on a "nextgen" laptop's system BIOS and replace this list in the BIOS of the "oldgen" computer. Obviously, the nextgen and oldgen laptops would have to have a similar internal layout to fit the same video card in both machines. Anyway, I'm not a bios hacker but the mod sounds simple enough. The hardest part is identifying where those listed cards lie in the BIOS. Speaking specifically on using a Quadro FX3600M in a M1710, E1705/9400, or M90, its most likely a BIOS issue (as opposed to a physical issue) since the M6300 had the same symptoms (I think) before the BIOS update to allow the FX3600M.

I have both the Precision M6300 (with FX3600M GPU) and the M1710 (with 7950 GTX GPU) but I don't have BIOS hacking tools. Plus, I'm not sure it would be worth it to me to risk breaking my M1710 by pioneering this effort. From what I've seen, the FX3600M is not leaps and bounds better than the 7950 GTX. I still need to put the 7950 GTX into the M6300 to confirm this observation.

I agree with zzpulp. As a programmer I am sure we can hexedit the bios or something to that effect to make sure the LCD controls on the 3600M get read by the E1705. Add the fact that you can add the string in the bios for the detection of the newer card I think it would all work out and everyone would be happy. I just wish I had experience in such hacking because I would have done it already.

Would love to know for sure if the issue is even worth pursuing, aka if it were twice as good as the 7950gtx. And don't you think dell should update the m1710 bios since they did it for the e1705 bios recently? I believe theres discussion that the 3600m could work on an e1705 now.

Where is this thread??? cuz if it works I will buy one right now... Just did the bios update.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread214624.html i really wish i could put a 3600m in my m1710 alot cheaper then buying a whole laptop and would prevent me from spending some money on those crappy refurbished 7950 ounce mine dies totally.

From what I have seen the upgrade would not be worth your time. But this is mostly in simulated benchmarks. The 3600M might actually be a bit better in games. I can't really compare my two machines 1 to 1 since the M1710 has a better processor. Reformat time is coming up soon so I can try to run benchmarks of my M6300 with the 3600M in it and later with the 7950GTX in it. I just need access to some newer games. I'll ask some friends.

aWESOME! Thanks mate!

Where is the bios chipped located on the E1705. I bought a MB (vid card needed) off ebay but forgot to check if it had intergrated vid card. If i can swap bios chip I'll be fine. Thanks.

If it has an on board GPU you will see the Video connector for the LCD display there,

Near the top of the Mobo and to the right if I recall.

You can not use a descrete GPU on a mobo with a built in GPU, nothing to do with the BIOS, there is mssing SMT componants on the board itself

or just check the Part Number if you can find it