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Hardware

Laptop Video Upgrade 155

Posted by CmdrTaco from the void-this dept.
captainstupid writes "The friendly folks over at GotApex? have a walkthrough of an interesting hack. They upgrade a Dell Inspiron's viedo card! It's cool to see the heat transfer mechanisms that they use to pull the heat away from the CPU as well as the GPU. Another fun way to void your warranty!"
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Laptop Video Upgrade More

Laptop Video Upgrade

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  • DUDE, you getting a......

    Well, heck... you could have what ever you wanted now. That isn't the DELL buisness model!!

  • Interesting, but... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Sorthum ( 123064 )
    There's no way I'd try it until my warranty ran out-- I've sent my Inspiron 7500 back to the depot six times in a year and a half. I guess I'm just not that brave.
    • Cant you hear tech support now...Dude...you fucked up your dell And we dont feel sorry for you in the least bit
    • Dewd, what is wrong with your laptop?!

      I had to bring in my wife's laptop once in two years- and that was because I broke the pc card slot (don't drop the laptop on its side when the 802.11b card is sticking out...) I think that pretty much equalled out the price of the extended warranty!
      • Cracked monitor once (which was admittedly my fault), monitor hinge snapped (was NOT my fault), blown mainboard, misaligned cover twice, and bad charging circuit.

        It's decrepit. Next time I'm getting a VAIO.

        • Re:6 times?!?! (Score:2, Funny)

          by GigsVT ( 208848 )
          Cracked monitor once (which was admittedly my fault), monitor hinge snapped (was NOT my fault), blown mainboard, misaligned cover twice, and bad charging circuit.
          It's decrepit. Next time I'm getting a VAIO.

          Haha, out of the frying pan and into the fire.
    • I have a 7500 also, and I've had the same hardware issue no less that 10 times. The hinges keep breaking off because of the gigantic screen and poor design.

      One particularly honest tech support staffer admitted that the hinges' design was a major factor in the decision to finally axe the 7500 series. If the 7500 were a car, an oven, or anything else but a *gasp* computer, there would have been a recall long ago.

      Anyone else interested in a class action suit? :)
  • You just voided your warranty!

    Also of note, holy shit, did I just see a huge 336x280 ad on this page for "Microsoft Visual Studio.NET - Get your trial DVD today!!" ... on Slashdot? Nah, couldn't be...

  • Upgrades (Score:3, Funny)

    by BurritoWarrior ( 90481 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @02:51PM (#4056348)
    Now if we could only get them to upgrade their web server...slashdotted already. :(
    • That's cause it's running on an Apple Lisa [slashdot.org]
    • Heh like I said below, I run the server and its quite upgraded, there is just no nice way to deal with slashdotters giving it to our server prison style =) Oh well, I didnt want to get any work done on the server today antways ;-)
    • They did manage to post this notice
      • Update: Yeah, the site is a little slow...We've been Slashdotted. Emergancy Personal are standing by, should the server in fact explode into lil' tiny bits. Which would be kinda cool to see.

      I'm actually voting for a meltdown into a slag of molten ash, with the scream of twisting metal collapsing under its' own weight.

      but I'm willing to consider other options ....

    • Re:Upgrades (Score:1, Troll)

      by suss ( 158993 )
      Now if we could only get them to upgrade their web server...slashdotted already. :(

      Yes.... the standard comment about slashdotting never gets old, does it.... or doesn't it?
      Well done, another +4 funny for something that was redundant 300 stories ago.
  • while I'd really like a GeForce4 in my Inspiron 8100 for Asheron's Call 2... umm, well... no.

    :-)

    Mike.

    • I've played AC for months on my Inspiron 8000 (GeForce2Go 32mb), I guess I could upgrade to a GeForce4Go 64mb for AC2.

      Only problem was that I had to scale the graphics down to 1024x768, as it was too slow otherwise...

  • The Dell "Brand" (Score:5, Funny)

    by dkresge ( 472373 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @02:52PM (#4056362)
    I've learned to never, ever, use my 7500 as an actual "lap top" -- after a while the hair burns off, your skin starts to melt, and you can read the word "Inspirion" backwards on your right leg. Interesting early engineering solution to dissapating heat though.

    It's wonderful to see they're handling the CPU/GPU thermal load much more intelligently in the 8500.
  • And it can be closed quickly if someone walks by.
  • and what about upgrading my CPU? i only have 233 MHZ, is there any way to put say a 500 MHZ in there?
  • Back when I bought my inspiron 5000 a lot of folks on the dell groups were talking about upgrading the video card since it seems it was on a daughter board. I am not sure if anyone ever made this happen. Anyone know? My 5000 is showing its age and a new video card would let me get another yer out of it.

    Malice95
    • The Inspiron 5000e has the same size agp card as the 8000 series. The problem with changing video card on laptops, is that the videocard bios is part of the bios on the mainboard. The cards must be capable of running with the same bios. I think this is valid for the 8000 series as well.

      As far as I can see that means:
      a) The 8100 has the same bios as 8200 with Gf4GO support.

      or b) The GF2Go and GF4Go use the same code in the bios.

      The Inspiron 5000 series does not have an option for GF2Go (they are older than that card), so they don't have support for it in the bios. Possible upgrades is M3 8MB to a new M3 16MB card (no mem upgrade, you have to change the whole card I think).

      If the new M4 cards (much faster than the M3 atleast) can use the same bios as the M3 cards, then that might be a good upgrade option.

      In order to use a GF4Go or GF2Go card, you would have to:
      a) Improve heat transfere from the GPU, and probably find a way of supplying the card with enough current.
      and b) Make a new Inspiron 5000(e) bios, with support for the Nvidia cards, and flash your laptop.

      Buttom line: if the M4 can't be used out of the box, we are at a dead end upgrade wise.

      - Ost

  • Bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @02:56PM (#4056400)
    The article isn't that bad. The Slashdot post sucks. The entire "hack" can be summed up by this quote:
    The process was not even that difficult - four screws on the bottom of the laptop removed the keyboard and three more and you were able to get the video card off of the motherboard. Right next to it lies the socketed CPU which can also be changed.
    The rest of the article details the performance difference. This isn't a hack - it's a standard upgrade. The article isn't that bad, but the Slashdot editors have SORELY misrepresented it.

    (And before you tell me that the Slashdot editors didn't write that blurb, keep in mind that I know that. The writer of the blurb, however, did not post it to the front page. EDITOR. The job of an editor is to proof-read the submisson for accuracy and legibility.)
    • ...because its par for the course.
    • Agreed - one of the options on my Inspiron 8100 is to go from 32megs of video RAM on my GeForce2Go to 64megs of video RAM. A further option which I can still buy is the Mobile Radeon 7500 with 64 megs of RAM.

      Not exactly rocket science when you can buy it direct from Dell.

    • Re:Bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Phexro ( 9814 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @03:26PM (#4056587)
      Also, upgrading the video card on a Dell laptop will not void the warranty. It's considered a user upgrade, just like if they upgraded the RAM.

      I'd provide a link, but I can't find it right now.
    • I am guessing you do not own a laptop. If you did, I think you would appreciate the difficulty of upgrading most of these systems. I can not speak for dell models, but I can tell you that on compaq's, the internals are very difficult to access, and upgrading anything other than ram is NOT easy, and could qualify as a hack. The fact that the site is slashdotted already is a testament to the fact there is interest among the readership, and that the article is a worthwhile read. The content is free. If you do not like it, do not read it.
      -k
      • I think it depends on the manufacturer/model - my (older) Dell 7100 has a small sliding door on the back (no screws) that gives access to the AGP slot - replacing the card is probably a 3 minute process. (same with system SDRAM).
      • Unless it involves solder, duct tape, resin, thermal vents, dremels or other implements of destruction, then it's not a hack.

        Hack == soldering a fan to the MOBO to increase cooling ability, then cutting holes in the case to mount it. Or installing a switch that will change the clock rate.
  • Question: Where can you buy the GPU chip to put in it? I didn't see that anywhere in the article.
    • I bought mine off of ebay, just search for Inspiron 8000 Video. Also I think you can Purchase direct from Dell, not 100% sure though.
  • People go crazy with these hardeware hacks. This would seem like a bad idea. I hate not having the best stuff so... ill just void my warrenty! Sounds like a moron to me.
    • Unless, of course the warranty means absolutely nothing to you because you're the kind of person who hack into your machine and fix it rather than send it back to Dell.
      Or, of course, you're upgrading because your machine is old, which incidentally means you're out of warranty anyway.
    • Agreed... and they tried to over-clock it, doesnt overclocking a very heat-sensitive laptop just seem like a bad idea.

      (warranty center) can I help you?
      (caller) My cpu melted.
      (warranty center) Excuse me?
      (caller) Yes, I seem to have melted my new 1.6ghz cpu in my Dell laptop
      (warranty center) Did you leave your laptop out in the sun?
      (caller) no, I just tried over-clocking my new-video card I replaced the original with, and it seems to have melted the CPU, which leaked over my SIMM, and my HD is acting kinda funny also.
      (warranty center) hold on, let me transfer you to our refurbished parts buyer.
    • I don't know, with me it's usually:

      Cool, Look at this, one laptop with crap video. another with a bum motherboard. Whatever will I do? Void the warrenty? Wait, these laptops have been out of warrenty for quite some time now.

      Then again, I'm usually working with the Latitude CP series, which is much harder to hack (everything is integrated or not there).

  • Old, laptops with nice displays... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by luiss ( 217284 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @03:02PM (#4056451)
    Any info out there on converting laptop LCD into something with a VGA or DVI plug? I got some old rather worthless or broken laptops with nice displays that just seem like such a waste.
  • The site is crawling dudes! I give it 10 mins before the server chokes.
    • Hehe I run the server that gotapex is on, and yes it is getting slashdotted. I just love how this works, the last time it was because we didnt have enough bandwidth, and this time its because we have too much stuff on this server. I remember back in the day when we could handle Slashdottings. For all those who remember, ZZZ Online (www.zzz.com.ru) is also on our server and it went through quite a few slashdottings well. Oh well, back to caressing the server and telling it the anal rape will be over soon =)
  • I have an Inspiron 8100 which came with the ATI Radeon 7500 Mobility (M7). I have bought both the GeForce 2 Go and Geforce 4 440 and use all 3 interchangably depending on what I want to do. As a driver and game developer, there's nothing nicer than having portable graphics power. The main reason I wanted the NVIDIA cards was that the ATI doesn't have support for paletted textures in OpenGL. When the GF4 came out, I picked it up right away to get at those shaders. Only problem I've encountered so far is that the S-video output is greyscale on the NVIDIA cards. Probably a pin-out problem, but I don't use it much anyway.
    • That can be fixed by making sure that you have the correct region set for video output. If you are in North America, use NTSC if you are in Europe use the version of PAL for your region. If you have already checked that, try to see if the Chroma pin is properly outputting a signal.
  • I would like to say that doing this doesn't really void the warranty. Several people have sent their laptops in after they have done this, WITH the modified card in, and Dell DOES repair it. I am on an internship 6k miles away from my desktop for 3 months. Its nice to be able to pick my comp up and move anywhere while still being able to play games. LK
  • "...Dell Inspiron 8100 laptops were the first to be equipped with the GF2go."

    Not true. I am sitting here typing on my Dell Inspiron 8000 that has a GF2go. Close, but no cigar apex.

  • I helped a colleague at work with the 440Go upgrade on an Inspiron 8000 - he went from effectively no 3D to impressive (for a laptop) 3D in about 30 minutes. Dell doesn't make these options very obvious (they can't be ordered through the website), but they don't actively try to prevent them either (the instructions are listed on the DellTalk forums hosted by Dell Support and they will happily sell you the upgrade over the phone).

  • Getting tired of the Slashdot effect, I threw up the main article and pics. The benchmarks aren't there, but the meat of the article and hardware pics are up there.

    You can find them here [compunotes.com].

  • Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by zsazsa ( 141679 ) on Monday August 12, 2002 @03:17PM (#4056540) Homepage
    Mirror here:
    http://kwak.polpo.org/mirror/gotapex/ [polpo.org]

    I had to do some quickie html hacking but it mostly works.
  • If this is a hack, then so is replacing any PCI or for that matter ISA card in any old box.

    Since the "card" is socketed and has screws, it's obviously made to be removed. Because of this, I wouldn't call it a hack at all.

    It's more like "someone didn't mid risking killing their expensive laptop trying to see if they could put another laptop's graphics 'card' in it, and it worked."

    • Actually, it was a hack. A hack is doing something that never was originally intended.

      This was actually done previously by people on the delltalk boards. I decided to buy the 8100 and put the GF4go in it the first night I had the laptop. Even now, you still need hacked drivers for it to work (well, thats mostly dells fault for not releasing new drivers more frequently).

      LK

  • I've got a Presario 2700, and while it's not a bad laptop at all, I'd really like to ditch the Radeon Mobility and move to the GeForce2Go, just for better drivers alone!

    Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any of the Compaqs with this same basic mobo that used anything other than the Rage Mobility, and I haven't been able to find any links to see if Dell and Compaq used the same supplier for the mobos. Are these daughterboards reasonably standard, since they're all coming from the same two or three suppliers in Taiwan?

    Anyone? Anyone?

  • There's no really big surprises here. The reason I bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 in the first place is because the whole thing is practically upgradable, including the video card and CPU.

    The only thing you can't upgrade is the LCD, obviously...which is why a smart shopper would get the high-end Dell UltraSharp display. More expensive, yes; but you can always skimp on the other parts and upgrade later. As with regular CRTs, the notebook LCD display is going to be with you the longest.
    • Actually, you can upgrade the LCDs as well. My Inspiron 8000 was "born" with the older ATI Rage Mobility M4 and a 15" SXGA+ display; it now has the Radeon 7500 Mobility and a 15" UXGA display. (Incidentally, it's also been upgraded from its original 700MHz CPU to a 1GHz, the original hard drive has been replaced, and the memory has been upgraded.) Given that the LCDs were the same form factor, the replacement fit right in.
  • they must be running their web server on the laptop they hacked
  • It says the first Inspiron with g2go was 8100, but it was 8000.
  • I was watching the page load (well... try to load, and then fail) - and I misread it as a goatsex url...

    yeah.

  • Old news...Sorta (Score:3, Informative)

    by Stonent1 ( 594886 ) <stonent@noSpaM.stonent.pointclark.net> on Monday August 12, 2002 @04:01PM (#4056803) Journal
    People have been doing this since last year. The 8x00 series systems all share the same video card interface. No you don't void your warranty (the delltalk moderators have confirmed this) however it is strongly advised that you replace your old card if you have to send it in for service. One guy reported his GF4GO card disappeared after it being serviced.

    To order the card call Dell's spare parts line. More information is available in the Delltalk forums at http://delltalk.us.dell.com [dell.com] Please be smart and use the search function before asking a question that is answered 9000 times already. We'd appreciate it. I'm known as Stonent in the delltalk forums.
    • I can see why it would go missing.. put yourself in the place of a Dell tech.. you take a computer to bits, change whatever needs to be changed, and then as you're putting it back together, you grab the video card..

      Having serviced this laptop about a billion times before, you know it doesn't come with a GF4GO card, so you think this can't be from this laptop.. you spend half an hour looking for the original card, then decide.. screw it, put the GF4GO back into spares, and grab the proper card, put it in and send it back to the customer.
    • Oh, forgot the shameless plug.. My website [attbi.com] I have some info there on what cards are compatable and what Dell's can be upgraded. (Yes I know the bottom half of the list is empty) Bet you didn't know that you can flash a Pentium based Latitude CP to a Pentium II based Latitude CPiD? Info's on my site on how to do it.
  • Upgrade my video card? Hell, I have a hard enough time getting linux to play nice with the geforce2go as it is[1]. Why would I want a newer card? Sheesh.

    But seriously forks, this kind of thing is neat. I'm not a fan of the one-year computer obsolescence, and as a starving college student, I'd kind of like to keep this laptop and keep it usable for a while yet.

    [1] Yes. Linux relative newbie. Deal.
  • This article makes me wonder why my "ask slashdot" concerning the viability of building a custom laptop was rejected. If changing the video card on a laptop is worthy of the front page, wouldn't a discussion on the possibilities of building a *complete laptop system* be more worthy?
  • /me watches gotapex's redlined webserver go nova from a safe distance.

    Betcha they wish they'd just spent $30 on a better processor rather than overclocking a cheaper one.

    (Disclaimer: Yes, I know bandwidth has to do with it as well, but its supposed to be a joke, since they're site touts its 'redlined' hardware.)
  • I tried a GF4 in my I8100(came with GF2) and it didn't work. Later found out that it basically had a 50-50 chance of working due to the bios and if I did get it to work it might have fried my laptop due the power consumption of the card. I ended up getting a I8200 partially because of the better video card and sold my I8000 to a friend of mine who is really happy now that He can play EQ at 1600 X 1200. Kent
  • The problem with the "lite" GF4 used in the laptop fixup is that it does not support pixel shaders.

    As a games programmer this is a perennial problem for me: I need to work with the latest video cards.

    What I want is a hack where any old card can be attached to the laptop (kind of like an external hard-drive). It can come with its own power supply and fan too if necessary.

    Is this even possible? Has anyone done anything like this?

    StrutterX
    • Great idea! I think you'd need an external AGP Bus connector, because the AGP slot is mounted to the PCB. The power is supplied to the card within the AGP slot so, essentially, all you'd need is the BUS connector externally accessable (Kind of like the PCMCIA slot). Then you could swap the cards and each card has the video connector out the end like a Xircom modem card that takes up 2 slots and has ethernet/modem ports sticking out.
  • I'm typing this on an Inspiron 8200 at the moment, and I must say, its a seriously cool machine. Not cool in that sense (it'll burn your lap if you use it on your knees) but quite hackable. Check out the Dell forums, there's all sorts of help about doing everything from upgrading your video card (there is talk about stuffing the mobile NV30 in Inspirons when it comes out) to upgrading your LCD screen. One thing, though, that pissed me off about the article was its response to my font sizes. The 8200 (and the 8100 that the article is about) have ridiculously high res (SXGA+ and UXGA) screens. On my 1600x1200 screen, the fonts are turned up quite large. Everything on the page wasa screwy. Oh when will vector graphics GUIs come out?
    • Heh - totally agree with you on the insanely high res. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm finding 1600x1200 to be too high a resolution for anything but a 19 inch+ desktop monitor. I have large fonts enabled but it's still hard to read on the Inspiron's 15 inch LCD screen in native res.

      Also finding the fan noise to be pretty loud (and yes, I've got Fangui installed). You know your laptop fan is too noisy when people peer over the sides of your library cubicle when it kicks on.

      Otherwise it's not a bad laptop - and the support is much better than Sony.
  • The graphs at the end are totally unreadable. Who uses jpg compression on graphs? I dont think i would trust someones advice who doesnt even know how to properly encode images.
  • One of the things I'd always wanted on my machine (VAIO F-series) was the ability to use the machine as the "head" for another computer, i.e. use special cables to plug the laptop into a standard desktop, and use the laptop's keyboard, pointer, and display as the input / output for a desktop. You could even have some Function Key to switch between the internal machine and the external.

    Anyone seen this?
  • someone figuered out how to change the video card.
  • Sounds like a coll idea but does anyone know where you can buy a new video card to upgrade with?

    I browsed through Dell's notebook and support web pages but was unable to tell if they sell separate laptop components beyond the standard RAM and HDD options...

  • So what if you upgrade the 8000? I have the 8000 with the M4 32MB card and have found no problems running any type of game whatsoever. Counter Strike? Sure...silky smooth. Nascar 2002? No problem...I feel the speed. IL-2? Why not...(okay, so I turned down the fluffy clouds)? Quake III/SOF? Bank on it. Is 10 more FPS on any of these games going to make a difference? It's like all these people are saying "You can't play games on the 8000 unless you spend an extra $150.00". Name one game that won't run well on the card above. Sure, maybe when Doom III comes out in late 2004, I'll want to run it on a good rig. But think of what $150.00 will buy you in an 8x AGP card by then?
  • viedo card

    When I read this, I imagined an Italian IT support engineer wildly gesticulating on a phone to a Dell Computer rep about the problems with his "viedo card" QUE COSA CON IL CARTA VIEDO, EH?!?
  • Anyone attempted something like this with a Gateway Solo 2500?

    That crappy NeoMagic card has got to go... :)
  • Anybody know if you can pull off this upgrade on toshiba 3000 series satellites? I've got one of the earlier gforce 2go / 16 mb cards, and would love to drop one of the newer cards in. But knowing Toshiba, it's probably soldered into the mobo. I've heard the processor is.
  • Anyone upgraded the CPU's on the Inspiron 8x00 series ?
    • I sucessfully upgraded the CPU on my 8000 from 700MHz to 1GHz. It uses the Micro-PGA2 form factor, for which I'm pretty sure 1GHz is the fastest speed available. I know the 8100 uses a different form factor (one of the flip-chips, I think) and the 8200 may or may not use yet another one, so it'll be a different story with those models, but in general I would say yes, it's absolutely doable.
  • To upgrade a laptop video card to a G4? To tell you the truth this is not what I would use the laptop for.. To me a laptop is just for programming portability. I would not play the latest games on it.. It just seems silly to me..
  • I also own a Inspiron 8100, and was very happy when I found that Dell has docs [dell.com] telling you exactly how to take it apart. They must consider it user serviceable.
  • Having built the Inspiron (and Latitude) for a year, I know that you don't want to mess around too much under the hood of one of these things. If you improperly seat the video card, the pins on the connector can be bent very easily. Also, an improperly seated heatsink can cause literal meltdown (and a not too pleasant smell). And when you're putting it all back together, don't forget to plug the LCD back in :)
  • The Inspiron's are bigger and bulkier than
    the Latitudes; it's always been this way because
    they bring out the newer hardware on the Inspirons
    first, do the engineering to get it all on a
    single board, and then release the equivalent
    Latitude. If you change the video chip on a
    Latitude, it's maybe interesting. Changing the
    video card on an Inspiron is about as amazing as
    changing the disk drive or upgrading the RAM.

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