Alienware m17x gpu upgrade help(from a gtx 765 to a 970)

[MagePepsi]

Hello there beautiful people of this forum, I need an advice, a friend of mine wants to upgrade his alienware m17x gpu from a nvidia 765 to a 970,he tried to swap the gpu, but the pc got really slow and almost unusable,I think that the issue is that he used a power brick that was not powerful enough for the gpu (here are some picture below) can someone help me figure out if that is the case? And if that is the problem...which wattage should the psu be? Where I can purchase it? Thanks! 

[MagePepsi]

Update to the whole thing, it could be that the gpu needs a custom bios and not a different psu, Can someone pls help me figure out what is the problem? 

[jaslion]

It's quite simple why it doesn't work. The gpu was never validated for this computer so it will never work. Dells bios is super locked down for this.

 

So basically return the old card and return the 970m from whence it came and get your money back. It will never work.

[Savage2k]

On 5/24/2022 at 1:28 AM, MagePepsi said:

power brick that was not powerful

9 amps 19v dc is 160 watts its more than enough , 

[MagePepsi]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:59 PM, jaslion said:

It's quite simple why it doesn't work. The gpu was never validated for this computer so it will never work. Dells bios is super locked down for this.

 

So basically return the old card and return the 970m from whence it came and get your money back. It will never work.

Hello jaslion thank you for the reply! Thank you really kindly! Is there a way to bypass this bios thing? I've read that some people were able to flash an unlocked bios on unsopported gpus to make them work on these laptop, so the problem is the laptop's bios or the gpu one? Thank you again! 

On 5/27/2022 at 10:31 PM, Savage2k said:

9 amps 19v dc is 160 watts its more than enough , 

Savage also thank you for your reply, this is very important proof, thanks a lot! 

[MagePepsi]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:59 PM, jaslion said:

It's quite simple why it doesn't work. The gpu was never validated for this computer so it will never work. Dells bios is super locked down for this.

 

So basically return the old card and return the 970m from whence it came and get your money back. It will never work.

If It is a gpu bios problem, I have a clevo laptop that I can use to flash the bios of the gpu without any problem, so I'm asking for this reason

[Savage2k]

1 hour ago, MagePepsi said:

If It is a gpu bios problem, I have a clevo laptop that I can use to flash the bios of the gpu without any problem, so I'm asking for this reason

i remember a year ago did an upgrade for customer , there was a "unlocked bios" upgraded from 780m to 970m, you need to dig a lil deep in google, there must be some old articles about it 

[jaslion]

7 hours ago, MagePepsi said:

 bypass this bios thing? I've read that some people were able to flash an unlocked bios on unsopported gpus to make them work on these laptop,

For the model you have I cannot find anything. Then again it is still EXTREMELY unlikely to work. Even if it works it's never without issues. Your friend is better of selling the laptop and getting a laptop with the power they need.

[MattyB79]

On 5/28/2022 at 5:29 AM, jaslion said:

It's quite simple why it doesn't work. The gpu was never validated for this computer so it will never work. Dells bios is super locked down for this.

 

So basically return the old card and return the 970m from whence it came and get your money back. It will never work.

 

This is completely wrong. The OP's laptop is incredibly upgradeable and the 900M series, 10 series and even RTX MXM GPU's will work perfectly fine. 

[MattyB79]

On 5/27/2022 at 5:38 PM, MagePepsi said:

Update to the whole thing, it could be that the gpu needs a custom bios and not a different psu, Can someone pls help me figure out what is the problem? 

 

I'm not sure where you are at with this now. Most 970M's will work fine but depending on the card manufacturer you may need a different vBIOS. For example, an Aetina 970M would have usually been made for an MSI laptop so its vBIOS isn't quite compatible with Alienware. I found that this card would not allow the GPU fan to spin in a 17 R1 that I installed it in. (Also, you have the 17 R1 even though it says M17x on the Service Tag sticker). It took me a few attempts to find a vBIOS that worked properly for the Alienware. This could be part of your problem. 

 

The Aetina 970M also won't work in the models that have the 3D 120hz display, only the standard 60hz one. 

 

You will need the 240W power adapter and it looks like you only have the 180W in the original image.