Once again, another board, same issue. I have ordered an i7 from ebay for less than $20, so I'll see if that makes the difference. The only thing I can think of is that the 425 graphics board wouldn't have come with the i5, so maybe the bios won't work with it. If this works, at least I'll have a faster CPU too.
I realize this is an older laptop, but it's still surprisingly fast and useful. I still like this 14" laptop.
UPDATE:
After installing the i7, the board worked fine. I haven't tried updating the BIOS and then trying the original CPU I had, but this was obviously the issue. The only thing I can think of is that the dual core is actually a newer design, or Dell didn't want that board to work with the dual core CPU.
Both boards support the same CPUs. These are first-generation Core CPUs.
If you replaced a UMA (Intel video) board with the nVidia one, you will also need to replace the heatsink assembly and likely the power adapter (the UMA boards will run from 65W -- the nVidia boards need 90 or 130W).
My previous board had the Nvidia gt420m. The new board has the gt425m. Since I was replacing anyway, I figured I'd get the slight GPU bump.
My CPU is the i5 480m.
My power adapter is the 90w.
I was sent one board and I had a blank screen, on boot, and the second is doing the same thing. My original works find (minus the ability to charge) which had me wondering if the new board is incompatible somehow. Seems like it should work.
I guess I'll have to send these boards back and try again?
If the display cable fits the board, there should be no compatibility issues at all -- on some of the 17" systems of this age, there were 3D systems that used eDP rather than LVDS, but the 14" ones should not have this issue.
In any case, eDP uses a different connector so the screen cable wouldn't even fit.
Ok, yeah, the connection is exactly the same. Like I said, holding "d" and pressing power, and the display test works fine. I emailed the seller asking for a return. Funny, advertise it as oem NEW (yeah right). But since the display test works, does that mean the GPU is ok? I'm just wondering if the boards that came with the gt420m GPU didn't support the i5 480m CPU for some reason?
When I press power, the lights on the panel go back and forth, and then it hangs with the wifi light staying on solid. This makes me think it's getting stuck during post, but I don't know what that light refers to. On my original board (that works) the lights go back and forth once and then it's fine and the wifi light doesn't stay on solid.
I haven't tried that. I thought about that after ibwroI that. I already have yhr whole yhith back together on the original board...Im wondering how likely that could be, and if it's worth trying. If it won't boot because of the card though, then that's probably still defective. The wifi card works fine.
Ditchmag
6 Posts
1085
0
Posted August 14th, 2018 11:00
Once again, another board, same issue. I have ordered an i7 from ebay for less than $20, so I'll see if that makes the difference. The only thing I can think of is that the 425 graphics board wouldn't have come with the i5, so maybe the bios won't work with it. If this works, at least I'll have a faster CPU too.
I realize this is an older laptop, but it's still surprisingly fast and useful. I still like this 14" laptop.
UPDATE:
After installing the i7, the board worked fine. I haven't tried updating the BIOS and then trying the original CPU I had, but this was obviously the issue. The only thing I can think of is that the dual core is actually a newer design, or Dell didn't want that board to work with the dual core CPU.