[NW] Upgrade the C90S to a 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 [FIXED!]

[King of Interns]

Just came across another 9600M GT sold by zepto. I reckon they gather all the old 9600M GT cards their zepto customers return to them when they upgrade to the 9650M GT. Hence they are used. A complete hoax if you ask me!

[E.B.E.]

Hello Nightwalker,

I have read your guide and I have one of those 9600M GT cards with Quimoda memory chips.
Basically I have the same problems with the card not running at full 3D speed like you did.
I'd like to know how to contact you via email to send you my bios file so you can have a look at it and to give you more information on where I bought the card and the specific problems I had with it.
Greetings,
Magneto7777

I would suggest you remove your email from the message... but by this time it's already been indexed by google many times so I'm not sure it'll help.

[ZeptoSG]

Just came across another 9600M GT sold by zepto. I reckon they gather all the old 9600M GT cards their zepto customers return to them when they upgrade to the 9650M GT. Hence they are used. A complete hoax if you ask me!

I wouldn't say that as the resellers/distributors receive cards also have slightly faded memory chips as well.

The issue is every card we receive has to be tested to work as we have learnt the hard way that some of the defective video cards that come out of factory have "Christmas lights" effects when run on 3D. If we don't physically install and test every single card, chances are the receiver and customers will blame us for problems.

[Magneto7777]

I would suggest you remove your email from the message... but by this time it's already been indexed by google many times so I'm not sure it'll help.

Haha, well it's no problem, I only use that address for public communication. So far I'm not having much spam on it ;-) But thanks for the note EBE.

I don't know if you (or anyone else reading this) have any knowledge of it but since I'm here now I guess it won't hurt asking.
You've probably read about the problems with the Geforce 9600m GT (30 seconds bootdelay, working in throttle mode only etc).
I've read that this happens because the card is not registered (listed) in the laptop's bios. The error during bootup (but before actual POST) is that there are no associated callbacks nor mxm structures and that these should be added in the 'Sbios'. The error message further continues with saying that it will halt POST for 30 seconds (hence the boot delay) for safety reasons and that after POST it will refrain the card from reaching any higher performance mode than those in the power saving mode or throttle settings.
Of course if you adjust the throttle settings, like Nightwalker did, you work around it but it's not always a solution.

I have both XP and Vista on my laptop and with this throttle fix i do get the card to work in XP but not in Vista. Vista crashes after booting in to the os desktop. When I remove the drivers (so that only the standard VGA driver is installed) it works fine (but with very poor 3D performance and so so 2D performance). I've tried a whole bunch of drivers (modded, regulars etc.) and it's not a driver issue.
I guess that Vista is a bit less forgiving when it comes to error information provided by the bios than XP is (after all, there IS an incompatibility between the laptop's bios and the card) and that when a driver is installed that addresses all the card's functions (a standard vga adapter doesn't do this, for example it only uses 64Mb of the card's 512Mb, no 3D functions etc) it crashes out.

So I guess that most of it comes forth out of an incompatibility between the laptop's bios and the card. Is there any way to modify the bios of the laptop so it accepts this card? I do have Phoenix bios editor but I don't know where to put what in the code, so I would need either an instruction on where to modify what, or someone who can modify my bios for me (willing to pay for it if it succeeds).

Is there anyone out there? (my god... I sound like that dude in 'The Day After' lol)

[waverider]

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but what size screws did you use to hold down the heatsink to the anchor nutplate in the nvidia card? I have some 3/8" long #1 x 72 thread/in. allen head and cap head screws that seem to be okay until I start to run them down to around 3 threads deep, then they feel like locknuts are holding me back, and I'm afraid I'm going to snap the screw if I continue.
Thanks,
Dave

[Shampoo]

Sweet hardcore mod~!
This kinda stuff is keeping the forums alive!

Now back into the shadows I go~~~

Muah h ah ah ah ah ah ah a

[King of Interns]

Lol fair enough, be sure to pop out again some day

[Atvaark]

you know, as magneto said, it would really suck for all the work nightwalker has put in hacking the vbios to be a waste, if all that needed to be done is inject the video card's data in the c90s's bios...by the way, anyone tried a nvidia 9650m gt in there? or a ati hd3650?

it would be nice if this mod could be applied to other c90s compatible video cards as well. hell, it would be awesome to have a list of cards that could work in there...

[King of Interns]

I just ordered a 9650M GT from zepto, its on the way now Will post up once I get it all working, just need to find some smaller screws from what I read

[King of Interns]

Installed the 9650M GT today and all went well(in fact typing from it now ), however after modifying the bios in nibitor like nightwalker suggests the card refuses to run any faster than the unmodified 2D mode 169/100. I have tried making all 4 modes use the same code ie running at 550/1350/800 and checked the voltages are at the max level and the screen will simply become screwed up after the bios flash and initial boot.

What else could I try to get this thing to run at full speed and beyond? It should be very similar to the 9600M GT as it is using the same samsung ddr3 chips.