Acer MXM BIOS Mods and discussion (was: x920G vs. 9600M GT)

[jimmyjimmy]

OK, Completely disregard everything I said in my last post!!!
I don’t know what happened, but I have just rebooted the computer again and both displays are now working – Albeit the laptop screen still has the crazy colours.

Attached are some pics:


EDIT: I should also add that...
1) The laptop screen remains blank untill the Window LogIn Screen appears &
2) Once the LogIn screen is passed the External display appears 'in a box' in the centre of the screen.

[jimmyjimmy]

Further Update:

OK so I now flashed the VBIOS with the firmware .NetRolller 3D suggested for SOWI here:
Acer MXM BIOS Mods and discussion (was: x920G vs. 9600M GT)
(It was a .bin file so I had to use Nibitor to convert it to a .rom file first)

Result = Just the same I'm afraid - LAPTOP Screen still messed up, and EXTERNAL Screen still showing in a box!

[jimmyjimmy]

Even Further Update:

In case it provides any useful information:

- The LAPTOP screen works perfectly up to the maximum resolution (1680x1050) when Windows 7 is booted in Safe Mode [Indeed, I am posting this update on it now!].

- Neither ubuntu nor Mint will install using the LAPTOP screen.

[Meaker]

Hmz, that points to a bad card to be honest.

[jimmyjimmy]

Hmz, that points to a bad card to be honest.

I was starting to wonder myself, but I think I my have found a work-around which appears to work:

1) Boot into safemode
When your computer is starting press the F8 key and then choose to boot into safemode.

2) Then you have to stop Windows 7 from automatically installing the GPU drivers
Go to Control panel > System > Advanced System settings > hardware tab > Device Installation settings.

Then choose "No, let me choose what to do" and "Never install driver software from Windows Update" Then Click "Save Changes" to confirm.

3) Then replace the existing driver.
Click on "Device Manager" and "Display Adaptors" then right-click on the sub category which says NVIDIA drivers and choose "Update driver software" and "Browse my computer for driver software" then "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" then choose "Standard VGA Graphics Adaptor" and "Next" then "Close"

You should then be prompted to reboot your computer.

When you restart make sure your external monitor is NOT connected to the back of the laptop.

You should now have a working internal LAPTOP screen in your 9920G

IMPORTANT: I forgot to add, Windows Update will continue the try and install the Nvidia as an Important Update, so just remember to untick it!

[.NetRolller 3D]

That suggests that there are further problems with ACPI.

I'll try to get access to a 9920G to find this out. Especially the Linux part (Linux's ACPI implementation is open-source, and hence debuggable).

[jimmyjimmy]

Excellent @.NetRolller 3D - Thanks for all your hard work on this.

[avati]

Guys i have an acer 7730g with 9600m gt 512mb GDDR3 and i reflashed it with a wrong bios.Now i have black screen(wrong bios was from 8600gt).
The only thing i remember from the old bios is the Subvendor ID was from Acer(1025).
I already tried the bioses exist on techpower(using crisis disk), but there is still black screen(bioses there are from nvidia).
Can anyone with a working 9600mg Gdd3 512mb upload his bios?
Please check NOT be a Subvendor Id 10DE.
The one exist over the net with 0567 10DE doesn't work on my card.
Thank you in advance...

[konstantin77]

tested 5920g flashed with new bios with a 9600gt C1 and got a no-go! No dispay at all, not booting. Any thoughts?

[.NetRolller 3D]

@konstantin77: There are several possible reasons:
-The card is broken.
-It has a nonstandard VBIOS.
-You may have flashed a wrong BIOS, or the flashing could have failed behind your back. (Can you boot with no MXM card plugged in?)

@avati: Likely the Nvidia flasher is not really reflashing the card. Make sure you add "-4 -5 -6" to the flasher's command line to override ID checks (otherwise nvflash will check against the IDs stored in the current BIOS, and will reject all correct/working VBIOSes).