ring the dell sales number and ask to be put through to the parts department.
ask for the card directly and don't say anything about upgrading i.e. your nVidia G Force Go 6800 has died and you want a replacement.
not 100% sure if you'll need a different heatsink as well though or whether a heatsink comes together with the card.
Yes, you can upgrade but only Dell-made video cards. The problem might be if Dell has any, since this the 9300 has been discontinued for quite some time now. I think your best bet is calling Dell, asking if they have any geforce go 6800's you could purchase or looking on Ebay because alot of people sold or are selling their 6800 for the unsupported upgrade to 6800ultra or 7800GTX.
*And as a correction to your post: the 6800 ultra was never avaiIable by Dell for the 9300, it was the regular 6800. The ultra version is a bit better but if you don't game and just want to upgrade for vista then the regular 6800 is perfect for you. Best wishes.
Bacillus - Thanks for the info.
Will try e-bay now to see what is available
Will also call Dell to confirm price for a new unit - though I suspect that it will be on the high side - which is why I went for the ATI graphics card in the first place.
Have to say the ATI has done what I wanted, it is just that Microsoft have changed the rules for Vista, which I understand will need a minimium of 256MB to support some of the new features
Yes, you can upgrade but only Dell-made video cards. The problem might be if Dell has any, since this the 9300 has been discontinued for quite some time now. I think your best bet is calling Dell, asking if they have any geforce go 6800's you could purchase or looking on Ebay because alot of people sold or are selling their 6800 for the unsupported upgrade to 6800ultra or 7800GTX.
*And as a correction to your post: the 6800 ultra was never avaiIable by Dell for the 9300, it was the regular 6800. The ultra version is a bit better but if you don't game and just want to upgrade for vista then the regular 6800 is perfect for you. Best wishes.
Joshnor713 - Thanks for your response.
YOu are of course correct that I need the GeForce Go 6800 and not the Ultra version.
Although I did find a reference to the upgrade to the Ultra and even a 7800 on another website - the link is pasted below for anyone who may be interested.
It look as if you have to upgrade the battery and power unit as well as as installing a different heatsink which supports 2 heatpipes.
I think I will stick to the 6800 basic version
I actually did the upgrade to 7800GTX on my 9300 myself. It's not really that hard and I used a guide on how to do it from that forum that your link provides. The only thing is that it can be quite expensive as you need to buy a 130-Watt AC adapter, a 9-cell battery (if you don't already have one), the Northbridge heatsink so that you can fit the other heatpipe if your 9300 doesn't already have it (most do), and the graphics card of course. You also need to flash your BIOS with a hacked one (provided in the guide) so that your laptop will think it's an XPS or else it won't power the card correctly. *But like I said, upgrading to this or the 6800ultra (as it involves the same process) is unsupported by Dell and will render your warranty void, so of course there's a risk.
On the other hand, the regular 6800 was an option for the 9300 back then and is supported by Dell, so the only thing it involves is getting the card and putting it in, that's it. So like I said, if you're not a hardcore gamer and aren't a graphics enthusiast then the 6800 is perfert for you and well sufficient enough for vista. Best wishes.
For anyone who's interested in 6800ultra/7800GTX upgrade for their 9300, I strongly suggest to take a look and go by this guide:
Joshnor713 - hanks for the additional info - not sure if I want to tackle an upgrade to the 7800, but may yet have to.
Tried Dell parts - no 6800s in stock, and would be over £200 when/if they did get some more.
None on e-bay at the moment, though I will keep a watch for a while.
The guy at the Dell parts said however that the replacement card did not have to be from Dell!
There are nVidia GeForce go 6800 graphics cards available for about £150 - and the nVidia site says that the 6800 is designed for laptops.
Does anyone know what the differences - if any - are between the Dell version and a "normal" 6800?
Regards
Are you serious he said that!? I cannot believe these Dell reps sometimes. That is
completely incorrect, you
cannot put any mobile 6800 into that laptop, it has to be a Dell Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 and I'll tell you why. Any other 6800 simply
won't fit. Dell physically designs their laptops and graphics card heatsinks specifically for each chassis. And it's not just Dell. Because manufactorers design their laptops in different ways, they have to decide how they want the graphics and heatsink to fit in there. Generally with laptops it's more difficult to upgrade than desktops because their hardware components have to all fit through the compactness different for every chassis (unfortunately, unlike upgradability of the hard drive and optical drive, the GPU falls heavily under this). Though an exception to this for nvidia graphics cards is the MXM modules (a standard design of graphics cards for notebooks), but it hasn't been enforced enough, especially not by Dell.
The only reason that you could put a 6800ultra or 7800GTX in a 9300 is because the XPSgen2 and XPSM170 had the exact same motherboard and chassis as the 9300, thus either card fit inside like if they were made to. This loophole works because with a BIOS flash (using a 130-W adapter and 9-cell battery of course) your 9300 will think it's an XPS and power it just like one which isn't a problem because the same hardware is used for the XPS's. But if by some way you get non-Dell graphics card to fit your 9300, chances are it still won't work because of incompability with your system's hardware.
So sorry for the false information, hearing among other people as well, it is seems to frequently happen and makes me wonder how some of these people even get hired to represent Dell. Best wishes.
Joshnor 713 - many many thanks, it did seem too good to be true.
Not having much success with sourcing a second hand GeForce Go6800 in the UK - there are a couple on ebay in the USA, but only seem to want to ship to the US.
I will keep looking on the UK site and keep asking the USA sellers if they will ship
For info of any other readers who may need the same card - the base Go6800 seems to be around the US$170-200 level on ebay.com and the GeForce 7800 seems to be around US$250
Now I know I owuld have to take the laptop to pieces anyway to use the Go6800. I may look at the 6800 ultra or the 7800 both of which mean extra expense for the better card and the need to change the battery and power unit.
Still a bit fearful of the BIOS flash stuff tho.
regards
Samsi
No problem at all, I like to help out anyone with GPU troubles or concerns because I remember how little I knew coming into this area, especially when I got into notebooks.
Don't be discouraged by the 7800GTX upgrade by the way it might sound. I have never been an expert in modding and this is very do-able for people who have never done a mod to their system (and this is speaking not only by others but from experience). There's a very small risk in BIOS flashing, you'll even hear of people flashing so many times with nothing wrong ever happening. Even BIOS updates provided by Dell require flashing. So trust me, I know how you feel, I was really fearful about it too but after sincere consideration I've ended up flashing twice, once in putting in the card and another in overclocking it and been happy ever since.
I tried talking to the seller I bought my 7800GTX to see if he had any regular 6800's but I just got a response that he didn't. Fortunately, if it comes down to it, he's still selling the 7800GTX and probably in a package with the 130-W adapter and battery. I have to say at first I was skeptical about buying from someone I didn't know but I ended up buying both the 7800GTX and adapter from him and have been strongly recommending him to anyone looking for an upgrade as he is very reliable, creditible, and gives great prices, and I'm pretty sure he ships internationally.
Good luck tracking down a 6800. Let me know if I could be of any more help, best wishes.
Joshinor713 - again thanks
Have located an as new, GeForce Go6800 in the USA - with the current excellent exchange rate delivered cost comes to about £120
So will order it as it will
1. provide me with the extra capacity I will need,
2. be cheaper than the Ultra or 7800 options - i.e no need to upgrade the battery unit and PSU
3. easier to implement as I assume I wil just need to install the card and new driver
Hey, that's great. You made sure it's a Dell though, right?
Yea, you're right, it would be easier to get the 6800 as all it'll involve is installing the card and changing the driver, and it'd be all the graphical capability you sound like you need. Good luck with it, best wishes.
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
August 12th, 2006 13:00
ask for the card directly and don't say anything about upgrading i.e. your nVidia G Force Go 6800 has died and you want a replacement.
not 100% sure if you'll need a different heatsink as well though or whether a heatsink comes together with the card.
Joshnor713
76 Posts
0
August 12th, 2006 13:00
Samsi
6 Posts
0
August 12th, 2006 17:00
Will try e-bay now to see what is available
Will also call Dell to confirm price for a new unit - though I suspect that it will be on the high side - which is why I went for the ATI graphics card in the first place.
Have to say the ATI has done what I wanted, it is just that Microsoft have changed the rules for Vista, which I understand will need a minimium of 256MB to support some of the new features
Samsi
6 Posts
0
August 12th, 2006 17:00
Joshnor713 - Thanks for your response.
YOu are of course correct that I need the GeForce Go 6800 and not the Ultra version.
Although I did find a reference to the upgrade to the Ultra and even a 7800 on another website - the link is pasted below for anyone who may be interested.
It look as if you have to upgrade the battery and power unit as well as as installing a different heatsink which supports 2 heatpipes.
I think I will stick to the 6800 basic version
http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=112813
Joshnor713
76 Posts
0
August 12th, 2006 22:00
Samsi
6 Posts
0
August 14th, 2006 10:00
Tried Dell parts - no 6800s in stock, and would be over £200 when/if they did get some more.
None on e-bay at the moment, though I will keep a watch for a while.
The guy at the Dell parts said however that the replacement card did not have to be from Dell!
There are nVidia GeForce go 6800 graphics cards available for about £150 - and the nVidia site says that the 6800 is designed for laptops.
Does anyone know what the differences - if any - are between the Dell version and a "normal" 6800?
Regards
Joshnor713
76 Posts
0
August 14th, 2006 13:00
Samsi
6 Posts
0
August 14th, 2006 16:00
Not having much success with sourcing a second hand GeForce Go6800 in the UK - there are a couple on ebay in the USA, but only seem to want to ship to the US.
I will keep looking on the UK site and keep asking the USA sellers if they will ship
For info of any other readers who may need the same card - the base Go6800 seems to be around the US$170-200 level on ebay.com and the GeForce 7800 seems to be around US$250
Now I know I owuld have to take the laptop to pieces anyway to use the Go6800. I may look at the 6800 ultra or the 7800 both of which mean extra expense for the better card and the need to change the battery and power unit.
Still a bit fearful of the BIOS flash stuff tho.
regards
Samsi
Joshnor713
76 Posts
0
August 14th, 2006 18:00
No problem at all, I like to help out anyone with GPU troubles or concerns because I remember how little I knew coming into this area, especially when I got into notebooks.
Don't be discouraged by the 7800GTX upgrade by the way it might sound. I have never been an expert in modding and this is very do-able for people who have never done a mod to their system (and this is speaking not only by others but from experience). There's a very small risk in BIOS flashing, you'll even hear of people flashing so many times with nothing wrong ever happening. Even BIOS updates provided by Dell require flashing. So trust me, I know how you feel, I was really fearful about it too but after sincere consideration I've ended up flashing twice, once in putting in the card and another in overclocking it and been happy ever since.
I tried talking to the seller I bought my 7800GTX to see if he had any regular 6800's but I just got a response that he didn't. Fortunately, if it comes down to it, he's still selling the 7800GTX and probably in a package with the 130-W adapter and battery. I have to say at first I was skeptical about buying from someone I didn't know but I ended up buying both the 7800GTX and adapter from him and have been strongly recommending him to anyone looking for an upgrade as he is very reliable, creditible, and gives great prices, and I'm pretty sure he ships internationally.
Good luck tracking down a 6800. Let me know if I could be of any more help, best wishes.
Samsi
6 Posts
0
August 15th, 2006 12:00
Have located an as new, GeForce Go6800 in the USA - with the current excellent exchange rate delivered cost comes to about £120
So will order it as it will
1. provide me with the extra capacity I will need,
2. be cheaper than the Ultra or 7800 options - i.e no need to upgrade the battery unit and PSU
3. easier to implement as I assume I wil just need to install the card and new driver
regards
Joshnor713
76 Posts
0
August 15th, 2006 13:00
Hey, that's great. You made sure it's a Dell though, right?
Yea, you're right, it would be easier to get the 6800 as all it'll involve is installing the card and changing the driver, and it'd be all the graphical capability you sound like you need. Good luck with it, best wishes.