17 R1, GPU 1070 upgrade issues

Hi @Chris_O99  welcome to this user to user discussion forum.  This is not Dell Support. 

Wow, this GPU 1070 upgrade sounds great and should be giving no problems.

Perhaps there is a different problem and the new drivers are not the source. To try and find the root cause, please open the Windows Reliability Monitor to troubleshoot. This opens a day by day timeline, user should force this problem to occur many times today, so there should be many identical critical events. Click on this critical event to open new window with its full details. Use windows snip to capture and save this image. Post this image in your next post so that forum users can see this critical event and post their comments. Thank you. 

Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from another user. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you. 

17 R1, is it possible to upgrade my GPU?  

First of all, thank you for your answer. So I tried to run Middle-earth again and this time I got a blue screen. Then I opened the Windows Reliability Monitor and it says that Windows doesn't work anymore, because of a hardware error.  Here's the Problem signature: 

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 141
Parameter 1: ffffde0d383f51f0
Parameter 2: fffff8078420e454
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 4450
OS version: 10_0_19042
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101
Local-ID: 1031

I didn't post a screenshot because the description is in German and I think it's more useful in English. 

Hi @Chris_O99  thank you for sharing update with critical event description in English text, that we can copy and paste into internet searches. This is just for the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor LiveKernelEvent code 141. 

Doubt that Optimus learning of the system's use will help with gaming, but it should not impair it. 

Games often through-up blue screen problems when the game settings exceed the capabilities of the system. Open the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor game settings and customise to run at your screen resolution and frames per second capabilities. Change game setting limit to use not more than 90% of CPU and GPU. 

Please play Borderlands 3 and share update on how the system responds. Thank you. 

You did not mention any gaming performance monitoring application in your opening post. Dell's AWCC Fusion provides monitoring of CPU, GPU, RAM attributes. However, there are gaming performance monitors which provide more detail [Here] and [Here] which can be useful when there are problems, but there is a system perfomance penality when running these or any other applications in the background. 

Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from another user. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you. 

You are going to have problems if you keep trying to run it with Optimus. If you don't want to spend the money on the 120Hz display and cable then you really need to look at the unlocked BIOS so you can permanently disable the onboard graphics. 

It is also a good idea to run the 330W power supply as you'll be close to the limit with the standard 240W one. Then you'll have to disable the adapter warning in the BIOS which apparently helps stop GPU throttling. 

Hi @crimsom , thanks for answering again. Today I tried to run Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Black ops 2 and Middle-earth. I could play Call of Duty without any issues. Borderlands 3 ran as well, but my FPS were quite "low" (~50-70) and Middle-earth caused another blue screen. Then I tried to do a benchmark test with Unigine. I'll probably run a few more tests and post the results later.

Hi @mattyb3, thanks for answering. I already disabled the adapter warnings. I read that the 60hz screen won't work at all if I disable the onboard graphics, because the 10 series cards use a different connector, so that I would have a black screen after changing the BIOS settings to edp. If that's not the case I'll probably try to get the unlocked BIOS. 

I don't know if the information is useful, but here are some more details. So while playing Borderlands 3 I tried to monitor the GPU and here's the screenshot. I have also noticed that the GPU has a high power consumption as shown in the Task Manager.

However, if the 120hz screen is the best way to improve the performance, I guess I'll do the upgrade. 

The 120Hz is definitely the best way to go and pretty much everyone I know who did this upgrade on the M17x R4 or 17 R1 also did the display upgrade. Unfortunately I'm stuck with Optimus on the M18x.

How are your temps while gaming? I have heard that the 1070 die sits a little lower on the PCB and a copper shim is needed to get better contact with the heatsink. I'm pretty happy with the temps on my M18x so I never bothered with the shim. 

If you're spiking up near 80degs then you could be getting some thermal issues. Do you have the 100W GPU heatsink? There should be a small sticker on the heatsink and it will say 75W or 100W. 

The 120hz panel uses an eDP connection which supposedly is the only one that will run a Pascal Nvidia card. These use a screw mounted connector onto the motherboard which sits right next to the 60hz LVDS connector that isn't screw mounted. 

I have never attempted to fit my 1070 into one of my 17" machines but I should probably give it a go and do some tests. I can only go by what others have said in regards to switching to PEG mode. The 10 series apparently can't work directly off LVDS but it sounds like you've proven that wrong. 

Well, I have read about the copper shims just after installing my GPU, so I didn't by any and I think the connection between the GPU and the heatsink is fine. Most of the time the GPU temperature is less than 70. I bought a heatsink with 5 cooling pipes (I think it's a 100W GPU heatsink).

I have a few questions regarding the screen upgrade: 

- Is there any advantage or disadvantage of a 3D screen?

- Is there any difference between a M17x R4 120hz and a 17 R1 120hz screen? Does this screen fit my Alienware?

- How do I unlock the BIOS or does the PEG setting switch automatically when installing the screen? 

- Is there anything else I have look out for? 

You will not have 3D capability as this feature will only work for cards up to the 880M. If you bought the custom 5-tube heatsink then you should be good. Just make sure that the copper pad on the heatsink that sits against the GPU die is perfectly flat. I've seen that guy send out some dodgy ones before. 

I'm pretty sure that the M17x R4 display won't be compatible with the 17 R1. I've asked some guys I know and they are pretty sure that the connectors are different. I may be able to test this with my machines if I can some time.

It's possible that the BIOS will swap to PEG automatically when you swap displays. I'm sure I have done this before without an issue and I can test it with the 17 R1's I have in the shed. Good question. 

EDIT: One of the guys I know says that you have to swap to PEG before swapping screens. I have two R1's, one with 60Hz and one with 120Hz so I can do a test for you. 

The other issue you will have is that I'm pretty sure the 3D screen uses a different webcam. If you want to get full function from your webcam then you'll need to change it out as well. From memory, the 3D webcam has a second connector that the standard one doesn't have. 

I couldn't find any information about the webcam. Do you have the part number, so that I can buy the proper webcam? If the M17x R4 screen has different connectors I'll just search for another screen. I think I have also read something about the PEG setting and I'm pretty sure I have to switch it before installing the screen. However, I'll try to find some more information about the BIOS setting before doing the upgrade. 

@mattyb3 so I did some research on the PEG setting and one guy said that the setting changes automatically. To be honest I am not really sure if that’s true. So if it doesn’t bother you it would be awesome if you could try it as you suggested.