I have no idea if this has been mentioned yet, but I was reading about one user claiming that his video card worked with the A05 BIOS for the 9300. I figured I would check it out for myself, so I reverted back to the A02 BIOS on the BIOS hack disc. To my surprise, even with the A02 BIOS for the 9300, the video card was identified and even ran at full clock speeds. So I upgraded to the A05 and the card still works perfectly.

Is this true in all cases? Is the hacked XPS BIOS really even needed?

This is great news to be because my XPS BIOS was having a conflict with my SATA HDD and I had to run a thorough POST to get it to identify the HDD, causing extremely slow boot up times. Now, I can revert back to a quick POST with the 9300 BIOS.

EDIT: I just searched this thread and saw that a couple users had figured out that a XPS BIOS isn't needed.

Yes, it worked for me BUT it the card would only run full speed with one of my 130W power supplies; I guess for whatever reason the 9300 bios is pickier about the power supply that is used? Not sure but if the 9300 bios works for you then keep it!

The XPS BIOS did the same thing if I used a 90W power adapter. The CPU dropped to 1.8 GHz and the card wouldn't come out of 2D clock speeds.

Or do you mean that you could only use a specific 130W adapter? What Rev. is yours? Mine is Rev. 05.

I had 2 130W power supplies; only 1 would let the GPU run at full clock speeds, the other would relegate it to low power mode. I don't have either anymore so I can't tell you the revisions that work

Ok, so I'd say using the 9300 BIOS is experimental as of now. As in, it may work for some but not for others.

I know it's good for me because no more thorough POST on startup.

Alright so I'm planning on doing this mod somewhat soon, and I understand pretty much everything that I have to do, but my only concern is the ac adapter, so as long as I plug it in after I boot off of battery power it should work? That is considering that my ac adapter wouldn't be recognized seeing as it happens to alot of people and my luck isn't that great. Whether I get an REV 00-05 if It isnt recognized just boot off battery power let it load then plug it in? Thanks, If I have any more questions I'll come back

You want a power adaptor that will be recognized as 130 W and hence you can boot with it still plugged in without the error message. If not, then your cpu will throttle its fsb and the gpu will throttle its clocks to low-level 3d. Anyway, you could just try to use the 9300 bios but I am unsure of its support for the 7800gtx.

But thats the thing I don't know exactly which REV I should get because I have read this entire topic and I've seen people with all different types of REV's work and people with the same type as them not work. Just not sure which I should get.

I think 01 or higher, maybe 02 or higher.

Post #842

OMG =.= i think i just realized that the 7800 go regular will not fit into the 9300...only the 7800 GTX and 6800's fit. correct me if i'm wrong please. thanks

That's correct although you could force it to fit. Anyway, my views of it previously was that there was no BIOS support. Maybe do a search to figure out some more information.

I did this upgrade in 2005 and I am now experiencing random crashes on my computer. Firstly it was due to w29n51.sys cracking up which i subsequently updated and now I just get the dreaded BSOD with a stop error number.

When i reboot it takes me to microsoft to tell me that there was a stop error (der!) and that it was due to one of my drivers. I have since erased the machine to kill off any chance of it happening through cruddy drivers and it still happens.

It happens about once per day which is annoying because you might be cruising doing something and then bang. Its BSOD time!

Has anyone else had this problem?
Has anyone got any hints on fixing this?

I don't want to just sell my computer as parts because its been the best machine I have ever had.

Thanks
aquapan

*** UPDATE ***

I found on other forums that this was likely to be a ram issue. I found a ramtester and run it to find lots of holes in my ram. No wonder my machine was freaking. I took it to a laptop shop to get more ram and put in some fresh samsung. Works like a dream again The techie reckons that my front side bus is running way overclocked and this is cooking my ram. I don't know if that true because I dont know where to find the specs on that but it might be. I run this machine for days on end when i go nuts on rendering so maybe that cooked my ram? Anyway... the main thing is is that its back to blitzing speeds.... I LOVE DELL

Hi guys, this is my first post here!

After reading 59 pages of this topic I still could not find definite answer to my questions :

If I have I9300 BIOS rev. A05 do I need to flash bios to XPS2 after upgrading to GeForce 7800Go GTX ? Or i9300 BIOS a05 still could run 7800 GTX ? Some people are saying that it will run but won't use the full power of 7800GTX some of 'em saying that it won't run at all.

Now, If 7800Go GTX will be recognized on my I9300 with bios rev. A05 and it runs on full power do I need the XPS 130Watt power brick ? Or I can still use my original 90 W one ? I presume that electricity consumption should go up with upgrade to 7800 Go GTX so I am not sure if 90W one will be sufficient.

And the last one - can somebody tell me where I can find 7800Go GTX ? On ebay there is only one with $369 price tag + $50shipping. Is that a reasonable price?

Thanks everyone and I apologize if these questions were already answered ....

Yes, you need the 130W power brick regardless. I will say this again, I had 2 130W power bricks, only 1 would let me run the 7800gtx at full speed with the 9300 a05, however both worked fine with the xps gen 2 hacked bios. Therefore, while you will almost definitely be able to use your computer with the 7800gtx and 9300 a05 bios, you may not be able to utilize the 7800gtx's full speeds depending on your revision of powerbrick, and no I don't remember which revision worked and which didn't

In terms of all 7800GTX prices I guess around $350 isn't bad. I think a few come up for around $275-$300 from time to time though. If you compare it to other cards on the market though, its a ludicrous price.

Oh and plus $50 shipping. Pssh, no freaking way. I'd rather use an ATI x300.