Need help with upgrading Acer M5640

[sn3rd]

Oh, and about bashing the panels out, once you remove that black thing on the inside of your case, you should be able to easily slip the plates in / out. Keep them in case you need to plug a hole some time.

Sorry about the multiple posts: keep having to go back and read

 

[sn3rd]

Just noticed something. Do you mean the card is being prevented from going in by the cables on the HARD DRIVE side or the MOTHERBOARD side. Because I could see that you might have a problem with those SATA cables (with the orange connectors on the motherboard). If you move them to the connectors below, does it give you better space?

That job done by Acer or whoever has bunched up the cabling a lot. Maybe if it's the actual cabling getting in the way, you could try unravelling it and see if you can get it to fit THAT way?

 

[MartinMorrison]

Hi thanks for the replies man, sorry I haven't been at home for the last day.
In the end with the help of some friends I managed to fit in in, I worked out in the end I had to remove the black thing but then the problem were those SATA cables you mentioned (they plug into those orange thingies). In the end I unslotted both and moved them to the slot below but then my PC wouldn't start up, moved them back up and the card wouldn't fit but the PC started. Thought it may be my PSU but I swapped them around (left to right, right to left) and moved them down so the card fitted and it worked. I just get another weird startup screen tho, dunno if that really matters.

Funny thing is I don't have the new PSU yet but the card has been detected and installed fine. Haven't had much time to test but was running around Oblivion with everything maxed without my PC shutting down. Could be that this PSU is actually a pretty good one or something. The fit of the card in the case is VERY tight tho. Takes a good 20 minutes to put it in. It is also skew and resting on the top of the HDD. Hope this won't cause problems. Will post a pic of it soon.

One last thing is that I don't know how to disable the integrated card. Is there such a way?

 

[Glordit]

Hi thanks for the replies man, sorry I haven't been at home for the last day.
In the end with the help of some friends I managed to fit in in, I worked out in the end I had to remove the black thing but then the problem were those SATA cables you mentioned (they plug into those orange thingies). In the end I unslotted both and moved them to the slot below but then my PC wouldn't start up, moved them back up and the card wouldn't fit but the PC started. Thought it may be my PSU but I swapped them around (left to right, right to left) and moved them down so the card fitted and it worked. I just get another weird startup screen tho, dunno if that really matters.

Funny thing is I don't have the new PSU yet but the card has been detected and installed fine. Haven't had much time to test but was running around Oblivion with everything maxed without my PC shutting down. Could be that this PSU is actually a pretty good one or something. The fit of the card in the case is VERY tight tho. Takes a good 20 minutes to put it in. It is also skew and resting on the top of the HDD. Hope this won't cause problems. Will post a pic of it soon.

One last thing is that I don't know how to disable the integrated card. Is there such a way?

lol sorry could you post another pic of it in the case, the skew part scares me a little bit

just go into the bios and disable it but iyt should be done automarticaly when you installed the Card

 

[MartinMorrison]

just a bit slanted, it is firmly into the pci slot even if it doesn't look like it.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1805/s4300008qg9.jpg

I'm still a bit shocked that I can run this card on a power supply that most probably has a low wattage. But it works! Thanks for the help guys.

The card was automatically disabled but it is still using my RAM. I have 2 gigs of ram but 256 of it is allocated to the intgrated graphics card. I want that back.

 

[Glordit]

just a bit slanted, it is firmly into the pci slot even if it doesn't look like it.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1805/s4300008qg9.jpg

I'm still a bit shocked that I can run this card on a power supply that most probably has a low wattage. But it works! Thanks for the help guys.

The card was automatically disabled but it is still using my RAM. I have 2 gigs of ram but 256 of it is allocated to the intgrated graphics card. I want that back.

mmmkay, will be right back...
off to reboot PC and check settings in BIOS

EDIT:

Okay reboot your PC and push Del
Then when in the bios there should be a option like chipset Feature under there should be VGA Share Memory & DVMT Mode Slelect.

check under those menu's there should be an option to turn it off or reduce the ammount of memory used.

when that's done save and exit.

Sorry thats as much as I know well according to my MSI mobo

 

[bekdik]

just a bit slanted, it is firmly into the pci slot even if it doesn't look like it.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1805/s4300008qg9.jpg

I'm still a bit shocked that I can run this card on a power supply that most probably has a low wattage. But it works! Thanks for the help guys.

The card was automatically disabled but it is still using my RAM. I have 2 gigs of ram but 256 of it is allocated to the intgrated graphics card. I want that back.

That card doesn't look as if it is inserted properly. If it's at an angle, it isn't.

 

[MartinMorrison]

Okay thanks Glor I will do that. Bek it works perfectally fine, I'm going to screw it in and try straighten in a bit but it's clipped in as far as it can go. It has to be at a bit of an angle because of the HD. Gonna move the HD up when I figure out how

 

[MartinMorrison]

okay went into BIOS but couldn't find that VGA share thing, closest thing was allow IRQ for VGA integrated. So turned that off and now my computer is reporting 2 gigs of RAM so think it worked thanks!

 

[Dr.G]

It looks to me like the card is resting on the Molex connector thing which is on the Hdd...Haha why don't you just move the Hdd up a few slots?Jee i wouldn't let my card be "bent" like that lol

 

[MartinMorrison]

I have no idea how to move a HDD up don't have much experience with the hardware side of PCs!

 

[Dr.G]

Whats the name of your case?

 

[Dr.G]

Just fiddle around with the green clips on the side of the hard drive until it releases the hard drive then slide it out and then slide it into a higher slot..Then clip it back into place...Really simple

 

[MartinMorrison]

Okay thanks Grey!

 

[sn3rd]

:O @ that pic!!! EEK!

 

[Glordit]

:O @ that pic!!! EEK!

lol, I'll take your word for it... that I looks bad *can't look at pic no int bandwith*

 

[MartinMorrison]

Is it really that bad? :X

 

[sn3rd]

Is it really that bad? :X

Well, it could be worse. But I'd definitely try to do something about it

 

[Glordit]

Well, it could be worse. But I'd definitely try to do something about it

okay, gona try explain it as best as I can [had a look at the pic ]

so, what you need to do is:
1] switch off PC
2] unplug your Display card & it's power cable
3] grab on those Green clip's holding your HDD in place and give em' a squeeze and a jiggle and they should come loose
4] then move up the HDD to the top of your HDD rack
EG:
-open- move it here if possible
-open-
-HDD-
5] try to get more slack on one of you 4 pin power molexes, should not a be a problem as that case is pretty small
6] plug back in your display card and pull down the power connector for it past the HDD and plug it in.

If all goes well it should be O.K

 

[MartinMorrison]

I understand how to do it, but I don't see the point because everything is working fine! It's definitely not going to fall out the slot or anything!