Dell Inspiron E1705

[Nebulous]

Got 2 of these for free from a friend.

One has a 1.6Ghz core duo
1gb (512mb x2) 667 ddr2
100Gb hdd
ATI x1400 256 MB with HyperMemory


2nd one has a 1.82Ghz chip, but pretty much the same as the first. I sold the first one and kept the 2nd. Did a few upgrades:

Added a T7200 (2.0Ghz,4m cache,667mhz bus)
Added 2x2gb ddr2 667
256mb SSD

Swapped out the AMD card for an Nvidia. Bought this off ebay : P104H Dell nVidia GeForce GO 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 Precision M . Take the sucker apart and proceed with my upgrades with chip, nvidia card, mem. Put it all back together and power on. Go into the bios and I see the 4gb of mem and the 7900GTX

Start my reinstall of windows 7, get all my updates and done...or so I thought. Install GpuZ and I don't see my 7900 GTX Instead what comes up is an Nvidia Quadro NVS 510M. I check and recheck and the Quadro keeps coming up. Now I'm heated because it took me several hours of work to swap everything out, not to mention the time I waited after I ordered the chip and the video card, and now I can't game on my lappy

Dam Quadro card isn't a gaming card. I fired off an email to the seller I got it from (he's got perfect ebay refs) so I'm sure he'll do the right thing and send me what I paid for. I never had any problems on ebay so this is a first. I know, it's ebay right?

 

[||Console||]

Arent they pretty much they exact same card ? same core even . Did you try gaming on it

 

[Nebulous]

Arent they pretty much they exact same card ? same core even . Did you try gaming on it

Yeah I tried FC4, no joy. Didn't bother with any other game. Ebay seller got back to me and admitted it was a mix-up. I'm sure I'll get this resolved.

 

[Pinky]

Go into the bios and I see the 4gb of mem and the 7900GTX

This confuses me. Were you mistaken or does the card show as a 7900 in the bios?

Some nvidia cards will get detected incorrectly, you may need to find the specific (older) video driver for the 7xxx series cards. I doubt, if the bios shows it as a 7900, that whatever the seller is sending to fix the problem is the 'correct' card.

Maybe try this driver?

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

 

[Nebulous]

This confuses me. Were you mistaken or does the card show as a 7900 in the bios?

Some nvidia cards will get detected incorrectly, you may need to find the specific (older) video driver for the 7xxx series cards. I doubt, if the bios shows it as a 7900, that whatever the seller is sending to fix the problem is the 'correct' card.

Maybe try this driver?

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49949

Yup, tried that driver already. During installation I get the error "There is no compatible hardware device for this software, installation will now exit"

In the bios it comes up as a GO 7900 GTX, but once in windows it comes up as a Quadro NVS 510M. The Dell XPS M1710 which is identical is the one with the GO 7900GTX which is what I'm trying to get.

*Update* The seller has shipped me a replacement. I'm hoping it's the 7900GTX.

 

[Nebulous]

Well replacement received. Install it, booted into bios and checked. Showed artifacts (checkered pattern) and saw FX1500M. Booted to desktop screen and was greeted with this; Contacted seller and they emailed me a return shipping label.

I don't even know if I should keep wasting time and energy trying to swap cards in this thing.

 

[Pinky]

Neb, if you haven't already sent the 7900 back, put it back in and let's get together for an overdue visit. I'm relatively confident I can get the 7900 working.

 

[Nebulous]

If you're talking about the original one, then yes I still have it. The 2 one with the artifacts I just shipped back. Sure, I'll give you a buzz

 

[Pinky]

I think I figured it out - you need modified drivers specific for the "GO" video chipset.

https://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24003-forceware-18585/

Download [download links in the thread are dead]:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nio6ut8m8trioxc/VistaWin7x64_185.85.exe?dl=0


There is also a chance you would need a modified BIOS/firmware for the video card, as I recall upgrading a laptop to run a higher end video card around the time your laptop would have been new. It required the card be modified to work on the non-XPS Dell lalptop. But maybe you'll luck out with just installing the drivers...

 

[Pinky]

I think I figured it out - you need modified drivers specific for the "GO" video chipset.

https://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24003-forceware-18585/

Download [download links in the thread are dead]:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nio6ut8m8trioxc/VistaWin7x64_185.85.exe?dl=0

For anyone playing along at home - these drivers did the trick.

 

[Nebulous]

For anyone playing along at home - these drivers did the trick.

Indeed they did! Thanks bro!

 

[Nebulous]

*Update*

I started to get screen flickers and then it reverted back to the Quadro. Decided to just send the dam card back to the seller for refund. Looking at other avenues to get another one.

 

[Pinky]

Probably got a driver update from Windows and reverted back to misbehaving. You needed to stick with the drivers we installed. There were no meaningful updates for that card anyway as its been out of production for years.

 

[Nebulous]

Probably got a driver update from Windows and reverted back to misbehaving. You needed to stick with the drivers we installed. There were no meaningful updates for that card anyway as its been out of production for years.

Nope, no updates that I can tell. I also shut down Auto updates to prevent this. After it updated with you here, that was it. Next day when I restarted it is when it flickered. Everytime I opened up a page or did something the screen flickered. When I opened up GpuZ is when I noticed it reverted back to the Quadro, but this time it started acting all weird with flickering.

I'll keep you posted with any updates.

 

[Pinky]

Nope, no updates that I can tell. I also shut down Auto updates to prevent this. After it updated with you here, that was it. Next day when I restarted it is when it flickered. Everytime I opened up a page or did something the screen flickered. When I opened up GpuZ is when I noticed it reverted back to the Quadro, but this time it started acting all weird with flickering.

I'll keep you posted with any updates.

The video driver probably came down with that first round of updates.

You probably could have rolled back the driver, or just reinstalled the one we used. The flickering was probably due to the wrong driver being used.

 

[Nebulous]

The video driver probably came down with that first round of updates.

You probably could have rolled back the driver, or just reinstalled the one we used. The flickering was probably due to the wrong driver being used.

Yeah. New updated drivers probably snuck in with the rest of the updates.

 

[Nebulous]

*Update*

Found another one, but this time it's a GO 7950 GTX refurbished. Hopefully this one will work

 

[Pinky]

Glutton for punishment.

 

[Nebulous]

Glutton for punishment.

pffffffttt!!

I'll get it installed and it'll work normally you'll see. I'll show you, I'll show you all!

 

[Pinky]

That driver I found (and you hopefully still have a copy of) would work with the new chip you have coming, so if it once again has detection issues use that driver and hide the Windows Updates driver so it doesn't apply itself.