Amen.

Hey Redfirelord,

Just wanted to thank you again.  I just installed the M9000 in my computer and it works fantastic!!!!  Now I can finally play Soldier of Fortune 2 in style.  Hey one other thing I wanted to comment to other people in this thread.  Of course I had to upgrade my BIOS, I had A06 to start with.  I had to do the A22 upgrade using a bootable CD and then just execute the A26 upgrade in windows to get the most current version.  One thing I noticed when I upgraded to the new type of A22 bios was the screen became incredibly more brighter, nearly blinded me!!!  Did anybody else notice this as well?  And no my brightness wasn't turned down before it was all the way before.  Really trippy.  All I have to say is that with the bios upgrade and new video card that I'm very very VERY happy with my 5100.  Thanks again to redfirelord and everybody on this thread who contributed to making this possible!

 

 

-Rick

I downloaded the latest catalyst drivers from http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k...2m1-012924c.exe and modded them with a program from www.driverheaven.net/patje. It gave me the correct drivers for my m9000 and even gave me the ATI control panel to boot. If you need anyhelp with this just go to http://sagerforums.com/showthread.php?t=11966 they seem to know whats going on with modding the catalyst drivers.

Glad to see everything worked out for you UWGUY.

Keep in touch if you find any drivers that may work better.

Jeremy

Hey Jeremy,

Fantastic, once again you the man!!  I did exactly what you told me and installed the latest ATI drivers.  I also installed the rage3d tweak www.rage3d.com and OCed the processor to 270mhz and the memory to 220mhz.  Then I benchmarked it using the latest 3dmark03 program www.futuremark.com.  Doing this I got a benchmark of 1160.  I also highly recommend getting norton systemworks to keep the computer virus free and the registry clean.  You can easily get an OEM copy (no box or manual) of norton systemworks pro off of www.pricewatch.com for as little as $10.  I'll keep my eyes out on any additional performance enhancers for our vid card and let you and/or the rest of this thread know.

-Rick

 

Inspiron 5100 2.4ghz

M9 64meg Video/15-inch XGA Screen

640mb Memory

40GB Hitachi HDD (5400RPM)

DVD/CD-RW

Windows XP

Message Edited by UWguy on 01-02-2004 01:43 AM

Message Edited by UWguy on 01-02-2004 02:19 PM

oh wow. good job you guys, thanks for spearheading this project.

I'm planning on ordering the 64MB Mobility Radeon 9000 tomorrow =)
I currently have the 32MB Mobility Radeon 7500, and to say i'm disappointed with its performance would be an understatement.

UWguy, you have the exact same specs as me (I5100, 2.4 P4, 32MB M7, 640MB DDR (1x 128, 1x 512) 40 GB, DVD/CDRW, and XP Pro. if I may ask, what kind of performance differences did you notice before and after the upgrade? if you could, could you please post some form of benchmark? I believe I got a score of around 3800 last time i ran 3Dmark 2001.

Thanks.

Hey Kmak,

I benchmarked my system the night before I got my M9 with the latest version of 3dmark03.  With the radeon 7500C 16MB version I got a whopping score of 157.  As you can see the M9 with 64megs provides a tremendous performance improvement.  Additionally it runs a lot cooler than the 7500.  When I "tried" to play SOF2 using the 7500, the poor little system would crank up the internal fan as fast as it could to keep cool.  Playing with the M9, the fan cranks up only half way during graphically intensive parts of the game.  Just make sure you have an updated BIOS before you install it.

-Rick

hrmm i didn't do that much better either, i think i got 278 or so

I've also notice heat problems from my system whenever there's extensive 3D rendering involved. it gets to the point where if i put my hand just over the middle of my keyboard, i can feel heat emating from it. sometimes i think it tries to step down to deal with the heat (i randomly get fps jumps from ~60 to about 12 for several seconds when i play any game based on the half life engine, worst when i play other, more graphic intensive games). Sometimes it even happens when i'm rendering in 3Dsmax or debugging a long MatLab script (though that's more of the CPU problem) Unless my laptop is idle, my fan generally doesn't go off.

 

I'm running the A22/23 Bios, do I need to update to the A25/26 to run the card?

Hey Kmak,

Not sure.  I know you must have the newer A22 type bios for the card to run.  I've got the A26 installed myself.

 

 

-Rick

Alright, just ordered the card, total came out to $133, $125 for the card, $8 for shipping. They expect to have it shipped on January 6th 2004. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

I asked the sales representive to repeat the parts description to make sure i have the right part (Y0708), and she said it was "A grapics card, 64MB, ATI M9 for Inspiron 5100" hrmm. I hope they don't ship me the 64MB 7500.

Good thing was that she didn't ask me any questions other than where i was going to use that product, so i didn't have to deal with that hassle.

---

@seblovesyou wrote:
I just placed an order for the m9000 as well. It's going to be a huge step up from my 16MB 7500. But I'm still curious, is the 64MB 9000 the best that the 5100 can do? Or has someone figured out some magical way to get the 128MB 9600 to work in it? *starts drooling at thought of it*

---

There is no possible way to get the 128MB 9600 Pro offered in the i8600 to work in the i5100... or any other model other than the i8500/ i8600 & (M60? one of the business ones anyway, with the same chassis). This is because it is in the wrong form factor and will not physically fit into the i5100. If Dell released a version for the i5150 though, for example, you might be able to..... but I can't see that happening. Tough luck, M9 is the best at the moment for the i5100.

stu

I just placed an order for the m9000 as well. It's going to be a huge step up from my 16MB 7500. But I'm still curious, is the 64MB 9000 the best that the 5100 can do? Or has someone figured out some magical way to get the 128MB 9600 to work in it? *starts drooling at thought of it*

the only time i see that happening is when a new mobility card is released (Mobility 9800 perhaps?) so that dell can use that for their 8000/M60 line, and step the Mobility 9600 down to the 5000 line

Mobility 9700 Pro or the Ati M11P is due in the next 2 months. It has 256 megabytes of memory. Already 2 manufacturers are offering laptops that house it.

Sager

http://talknotebooks.com/showthread.php?t=9961

Excellent work! I bought my i5100 almost a year ago(I was about to leave for Iraq, but my trip was cancelled), and I found this topic about August. Glad to see that things panned out! I prefer to build my own computers, but even a sff pc and lcd panel would have been too big to pack overseas, and Dell had a deal with AAFES(post exchange) online shopping. So, to upgrade, I need to:

1. Upgrade my Phoenix bios according to this post:

Foofoo42 posted - You can get it on the dell website. In the support menu go to download, choose flashbios for the inspiron 5100 Then you can get the bios A22 in an ISO form. Put it on a cd, reboot, and flash the bios. You have to install this bios before installing any more recent bios. Then go again in the dell website and get the bios A23 in a .EXE form, that you can install without creating a bootable stuff. That's it! I really recommend to install those bios, they fix a problem I had with my hard drive stopping all the time. And they enable to use the CPU at plenty power all the time, even on batteries.

2. Order the 64MB mobility Radeon 9000 according to this post:

RedHerring posted - My card was about 130 bucks shipped. Ordered friday and got it today ( wednesday ). Part # Y0708. 1-800-234-9999 parts number ext. 69938

3. Replace the card according to this post:

RedHerring posted - The card is very easy to install. You tilt your screen all the way back, and pry very carefully on the blue piece with the power button and i button and the three leds. Once you have this off there are 4 phillips head screws you remove and then the keyboard folds back. Take out the screw holding the large shield and remove the shield. There are two screws holding down the video card remove those. There is a cable connected to the video card. Grab the tab on the connector and pull gently. This will disconnect. There is a loop of plastic that you can then pull up on and the video card comes right out. Reverse to install new card.

Now to order the M9, an 80GB hard drive, and a 512MB stick of ram. Will anybody need a used 32MB M7 and 128MB stick of ram?

PS - If it says Phoenix at th lower right corner while booting, can I go straight to A26 BIOS????

Message Edited by coldguy on 01-04-2004 01:06 AM