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Experience with graphics cards from ebay - Page 2

post #21 of 31
6/20/10 at 9:14pm
Thread Starter 
Alright, my go 7900 GTX is finally installed and working. Here's my experience so far:

Card is refurbished (but I knew that). I was gonna apply some AS5 for improved cooling prior to installing it, but when I took the heat assembly apart, I found that some previous owner had applied a LOT of some viscous gray paste, along with a small copper plate, just above the GPU. It really is a lot of that stuff. I don't know if it's some kind of macGyver fix to solve overheating problems, but I didn't like it. Nonetheless, I decided to leave it as it was, and install the card and test it.

So far, the card has worked great for 4 days. Temps are about 59 to 61 idling and about 71 peak, running BioShock in high settings.

A weird thing about this card: Win7 recognizes it as a Quadro NVS 510M. The only way I found to have the system recognize it for what it really is, was to install the official Dell drivers for the XPS M1710. With laptopvideo2go drivers (february 2009) and with pretty much every other driver I tried, it gets recognized as the 510M.

I ran benchmarks with both card "names" and all the drivers, and they are all pretty much the same thing, but I decided to keep the original Dell ones. The reason is that RivaTuner, and other overclocking tools, don't seem to be able to handle the 510M. It's such a poorly documented card model that it isn't even in their databases.

So... So far so good. Let's hope this thing doesn't die on me. If someone has any clue as to why someone did that weird job to the heat sink, and if you recommend me to just clean everything off and apply AS5, please do tell me, because I'm clueless.

Cheers!
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post #22 of 31
6/20/10 at 11:46pm
lol watch as i finally install my fx2500m, a guide will show up on how to do something even cooler. oh well good luck with the tinkerings
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post #23 of 31
6/21/10 at 10:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eoy4 View Post
Alright, my go 7900 GTX is finally installed and working. Here's my experience so far:

Card is refurbished (but I knew that). I was gonna apply some AS5 for improved cooling prior to installing it, but when I took the heat assembly apart, I found that some previous owner had applied a LOT of some viscous gray paste, along with a small copper plate, just above the GPU. It really is a lot of that stuff. I don't know if it's some kind of macGyver fix to solve overheating problems, but I didn't like it. Nonetheless, I decided to leave it as it was, and install the card and test it.

So far, the card has worked great for 4 days. Temps are about 59 to 61 idling and about 71 peak, running BioShock in high settings.

A weird thing about this card: Win7 recognizes it as a Quadro NVS 510M. The only way I found to have the system recognize it for what it really is, was to install the official Dell drivers for the XPS M1710. With laptopvideo2go drivers (february 2009) and with pretty much every other driver I tried, it gets recognized as the 510M.

I ran benchmarks with both card "names" and all the drivers, and they are all pretty much the same thing, but I decided to keep the original Dell ones. The reason is that RivaTuner, and other overclocking tools, don't seem to be able to handle the 510M. It's such a poorly documented card model that it isn't even in their databases.

So... So far so good. Let's hope this thing doesn't die on me. If someone has any clue as to why someone did that weird job to the heat sink, and if you recommend me to just clean everything off and apply AS5, please do tell me, because I'm clueless.

Cheers!
Its a spacer to help with the heat. If theres a bit of a gap which I think there is, it actually would help. A lot of AS5 to cover a gap ends up not working well at all as opposed to having copper as an interface to "extend" the heatsink as close to the gpu as doable, AS5 is just for mating the heat sinks, not for gaps.
I want one too :P
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post #24 of 31
6/22/10 at 12:53am
And if not copper, the correct thickness of thermal pad.
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post #25 of 31
7/18/10 at 4:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eoy4 View Post
Alright, my go 7900 GTX is finally installed and working. Here's my experience so far:

Card is refurbished (but I knew that). I was gonna apply some AS5 for improved cooling prior to installing it, but when I took the heat assembly apart, I found that some previous owner had applied a LOT of some viscous gray paste, along with a small copper plate, just above the GPU. It really is a lot of that stuff. I don't know if it's some kind of macGyver fix to solve overheating problems, but I didn't like it. Nonetheless, I decided to leave it as it was, and install the card and test it.

So far, the card has worked great for 4 days. Temps are about 59 to 61 idling and about 71 peak, running BioShock in high settings.

A weird thing about this card: Win7 recognizes it as a Quadro NVS 510M. The only way I found to have the system recognize it for what it really is, was to install the official Dell drivers for the XPS M1710. With laptopvideo2go drivers (february 2009) and with pretty much every other driver I tried, it gets recognized as the 510M.

I ran benchmarks with both card "names" and all the drivers, and they are all pretty much the same thing, but I decided to keep the original Dell ones. The reason is that RivaTuner, and other overclocking tools, don't seem to be able to handle the 510M. It's such a poorly documented card model that it isn't even in their databases.

So... So far so good. Let's hope this thing doesn't die on me. If someone has any clue as to why someone did that weird job to the heat sink, and if you recommend me to just clean everything off and apply AS5, please do tell me, because I'm clueless.

Cheers!
It appears that Nvidia is playing games again remarking/renaming old video card designs again to try to fool the masses. That's one of their new favorite tricks these days. I did a quick Google on the NVS 510 and this "7" series card is available with 1 GB memory, which would be great if the ancient Dell BIOS would allow it.

One problem, though. Your idle temps are way too high. My equivalent Quadro FX2500m idles around 46~50 degrees C here in Thailand, but will creep up to 52~53 degrees C on those really hot days. Your 71 degree peak is OK, though. Have to say that's a mystery why idle temps would be so high when your max temp is certainly reasonable.

How thick is the copper shim? I'm guessing the previous owner put that in there because originally it had a thermal interface pad, which was probably around 1/32"~1/16" thick. Without the shim the GPU chip may not make contact with the heatsink, which as you know would be disastrous. I would disassemble the whole thing again and remove all the previous muck. Thoroughly clean and examine both sides of the copper shim and the mating surface on the heatsink to make sure they are all very smooth, and flat. Polish those surfaces if they're not absolutely smooth. Apply AS5 as they recommend, i.e., not liberally. A very thin even coat is all you need. Just follow the AS5 instructions.

A question just occurred to me about your temps mystery. Since you're obviously monitoring your temps, when do you have your cooling fans set to come on?
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post #26 of 31
7/18/10 at 5:02am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Obmij View Post
A question just occurred to me about your temps mystery. Since you're obviously monitoring your temps, when do you have your cooling fans set to come on?
Well, I monitor my temps but not fiddle with when they come on or off. One thing I noticed, I recently flashed my bios to the A10 revision. I started noticing that fans came on much more often, so I did some googling, and apparently Dell modified the temperature tables for the Nvidia cards in this bios rev.

I recently installed 64-bit Windows 7 because I bought a T7200 cpu. It seems that i8fangui (damn that's a hard name to remember...) has troubles installing in 64-bit windows, so I have since stopped monitoring temps. But I do believe that they have lowered since I posted last time.

The problem was that I installed the new CPU back then as well, and applied CS5 to it. It does say in the AS5 instructions to expect some weird temps the first 200 hours. The CPU was idling at like 56C (which is a frikin lot), but it has since dropped to like 35~37C. So I'm thinking probably the GPU's idle temps have lowered too, since the main heat pipe from the GPU shares a vent and a fan with the CPU. I do notice that fans come on much less often while gaming, and less often while idling too.

And just an afterthought, here in Costa Rica the room temperature during the day varies from 25C to 30C, and like 20C to 22C at night.
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post #27 of 31
7/18/10 at 5:52am
A10 bios does wonders. Use Speedfan to monitor temps. Its what I use, and my FX2500 had crappy paste on it. it took a good week of use to get reliable temperatures. Same with my CPU.

The new bios totally seems to be just so we stop bitching about our roasted and toasted gpu's. I'm not complaining about the fans kicking on and staying on longer when the temps to get higher. May i also suggest some elevation to help circulate more air ? I use just cardboard squares under the corners not near the vents to help get some lift.
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post #28 of 31
7/18/10 at 6:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eoy4 View Post
I recently installed 64-bit Windows 7 because I bought a T7200 cpu. It seems that i8fangui (damn that's a hard name to remember...) has troubles installing in 64-bit windows, so I have since stopped monitoring temps...
...And just an afterthought, here in Costa Rica the room temperature during the day varies from 25C to 30C, and like 20C to 22C at night.
I had also installed W7 64 bit (beta) way back, since my T7600G is also a 64 bit compatible CPU, but the m/b chipset is only 32 bit so it still couldn't see all of my 4 GB ram. I decided to go back to 32 bit for compatibility and it's been great, so far.

Since you're also in the tropics, I would definitely take the effort to clean and check the GPU system and start fresh with AS5. My biggest worry running an old laptop is having to replace the video card, like you did. I can get all the other parts fairly easily and at reasonable cost, including a new m/b, but the GPU is the one component that can kill the whole thing. I'm not going to take a chance and pay $300~$400 for a well-used old graphics card that may die tomorrow.

Here's one last tip. You can lay your palm on top of the keyboard/power button area at the base of the LCD and have a reasonable guestimation of your GPU temp. My M1710 gets plenty warm, almost hot, to the touch when playing a game when ambient temps are high. If yours is only hitting 71 degrees C, then that area shouldn't be hot to the touch when gaming. Mine right now as I'm typing this is reading GPU 47 degrees C, and placing my palm on that area feels like it's not even turned on. You can also slide your hand to the left side where the CPU is and check it as well.


Good luck!

Obmij
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post #29 of 31
7/18/10 at 7:52am
post experiences.... mine have been quite pleasant
i bought a faulty go 7950gtx from overseas
the fault was it only worked on low resolutions;
got it 'repaired' locally and it works great

the gfx card has really made the e1705 a new machine; hence overall a plesant experience

on ebay (as with any online purchase) doing some research on the seller (including asking a question or two) will assist in making an informed decsion
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post #30 of 31
7/18/10 at 9:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dexster View Post
post experiences.... mine have been quite pleasant
i bought a faulty go 7950gtx from overseas
the fault was it only worked on low resolutions;
got it 'repaired' locally and it works great

the gfx card has really made the e1705 a new machine; hence overall a plesant experience

on ebay (as with any online purchase) doing some research on the seller (including asking a question or two) will assist in making an informed decsion
Dexster, I've had some pretty good experiences buying from eBay also as I built my M1710 mostly from parts scrounged on eBay over 3 years ago. I've also had some bad experiences building, and later trying to upgrade. Many sellers, even with great feedback, have no idea what they're selling. There are so many misrepresented Dell laptop parts on Ebay, it is horrible. I actually bought two supposed Quadro FX3500m video cards (at different times) from sellers that had excellent feedback. This was around 3 years ago. The first one was completely defective and wouldn't fire up at all. Luckily I was able to send it back. The second one, was not only defective, it was actually an FX1500m. It had artifacts, but luckily it worked well enough to find out the truth in the bios.

One thing to keep in mind is this was when these graphics cards were still fairly new. Today's cards are probably 3~4 years old and can't have too much life left in them no matter what. I have seen a guy from the UK selling new ones, but for exorbitant prices.

You're right that upgrading one of these older generation Dell laptops still provides a nice experience. That's why I still use my M1710. It's still a powerful laptop and handles most everything I throw at it including 3D modeling in Solidworks, although 512MB graphics memory just isn't enough anymore. That said, my biggest gripe is that Dell doesn't support their products with driver and BIOS upgrades after the first couple of years. I started with a brand new XPS Gen 2 laptop and one reason for that was the MXM "standard" laptop graphics card format had arrived on the scene and I thought 'great', I'll be able to upgrade. Well, Dell made sure that wasn't going to happen by not adhering to the standard and by not upgrading the BIOS. When I moved to the M1710 it still suffers from the same problem. Otherwise, we could have upgraded to 8700/8800 or later series cards long ago. They're also "MXM" mobile form factor graphics cards, but you know, like I do, that they won't work properly in our older series laptops. And recently I've seen several of these, supposedly new, but not Dell versions, and they won't work.

The same intentional lack of support for older models prevents you from replacing the old CPU and RAM with newer smaller die process faster components. It would drastically improve battery life and cut down on heat. You can also add in LED backlit LCD screens to that wishlist.

I know from painful experience that Dell does everything under the sun to keep you from upgrading your laptop. I initially went through the completely frustrating exercise of trying to upgrade my XPS Gen2/M170 to an M1710. After all, the damn things look nearly identical, but Dell made sure almost none of the parts were interchangeable. Some examples are the bottom base has mounting holes/bosses slightly relocated, the touchpad has a different connector, the power button/hinge strip has more buttons so the connector is also different, the keyboard has a different connector, the same resolution LCD has a different inverter, and on and on and on. The only interchangeable parts are the battery, the power brick, the DVD drive, the LCD bezel, and maybe the back of the LCD, but Dell actually changed the LCD mounting hinges. I ended up just putting the Gen2 back together and selling it on eBay and building the M1710 from scrounged parts, some new, some used.

I'll probably not buy another Dell when my M1710 is done. The M1730 was an abortion, and Dell hasn't produced anything since then that interests me. The M2010 was unique, but had crappy low performing innards.

Anyway, sorry to get so verbose, but I know whereof I speak when it comes to these old Dell laptops. Here's my sticky for overcoming heating problems:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread224718.html

Here's my exercise in futility trying to upgrade my Gen2/M170:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread195139.html


Cheers,

Obmij
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post #31 of 31
7/18/10 at 2:51pm
The thread fn+z isn't bad for aiding in temp woes. Be sure to use AS5 and cleaned heatsinks obviously as well.
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