XL201 Video Card Upgrade

[grahamjb33]

I have recently started using my Sony XL201 MCE 2005 running on WinXPSP2 for playing games and all was well until I installed MotoGP 2007. Whilst the graphics on this game are extremely good and even with the resolution set to its lowest, the CPU can reach over 90% power usage and the screen 'sticks' occassionally which makes it difficult to play.
I am thinking that as the standard card fitted namely the Nvidia Geforce 7600 GTL with 256Mb on board could be struggling with this game, the main CPU is trying to compensate and this is causing the high power usage.
If I am correct in my diagnosis I would appreciate advice on what video card upgrade would resolve these problems, eg a Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT? By the way... the XL201 is bog standard with 1Gb ram and no upgrades to date.
Great forum for info, keep up the good work everyone!
Thanks... Baler

[h4]

yep absolutely correct...very easy to change. Its a tight squeeze for both dvi and hdmi (if you need to use both like myself). Mind you, i didnt do mine myself, i bought mine from fellow member Scoobyuser. So far I have had only one problem - i have a 301 and had av switching issue - this happened the first time i changed the channel, it became nin responsive with no screen after i change the channel. however i hadnt updated any drivers. Since the update i've not seen much trouble though i suppose i havent used the 301 much.

I've tried connecting the dvi to my optoma h30a projector but havent had any luck, but am waiting for blueunplugged to send me a replacement cable.

Long story short.. i think its worth the time and money, for the first time in a year and a half my screen display is at my tv's true native resolution connected throug hdmi rather than component and omg....wow

[grahamjb33]

Well its some time since started this thread and eventually fitted the MSI NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2 and although I haven't carried out the modification to add the original heatsink, all seems to be fine and working satisfactory. Not much of an improvement with game play however... oh well!

Unfortunately I have lost use of my firewire ports after removing the old graphics card and this is a real pain to me because I am a keen amateur film maker and I can no longer capture video through these interfaces.

Does anyone know of any other way to restore firewire connections/interfaces with the XL201?

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread, it continues to be interesting.

Baler...

[andysp5]

I'm going to fit an MSI8500GT over Xmas, and I didn't think there were any issues except some connectors at the front of the VAIO are lost (which I don't use). However, I do use the firewire connections at the back.
Can anybody else confirm that the Firewire connections are lost, or is this a unique problem to the previous post?

[h4]

funnily enough i've never used firewire...however i attempted this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and had no luck. According to dell my laptop should have connected to the vaio straightaway... this may be a due to my GPU upgrade... but o gave up trying after a while

[andysp5]

Tried the MSI 8500GT this afternoon, and yes, whilst it worked, it did lose the Firewire connections at the back. This is no good to me as I use a FloppyDTV to view TV.
I could use a Firewire connection on the motherboard, but I can't see one. Can anyone confirm that the XL201 does not have a Firewire connector on the motherboard?

If not, I am considering looking for another graphics card with a connector that allows that extra cable to connect.
So what is that extra cable connected to the 7600GT? (the bigger one, not the SPDIF connector). It's not a 10-pin IEEE1394 connector, as it appears to have 12 pins.
Does this other connector have a name? Is it unique to the 7600GT?

[typod]

Well I now have firm proof that I should not be allowed near anything electrical! I got hold of an MSI low profile card as described in this thread and modified the heat sync as described with my junior hacksaw which took a while. Not 100% sure what happened but the MSI card went pop when it was powered on, no problem I thought, I will just go back to the original card so I attached the heat sync back to the old and the box came up fine. Then I noticed a burning smell as the graphics cards was running really hot.

So now I am in a dilemma, do I buy another MSI card (which is hard to get hold of now) and try and use the modified heat sync or can I put the MSI in with its original heat sync? I am struggling to find an replacement 7600 GTL that I could use as a backup. Or is there a newer card (9 series maybe) that will slot straight in?

Thanks in advance.

[ChalkyWhite71]

oh dear, sorry to hear about your experiences. Perhaps we should all ask IT Troll to source the MSI card, perform the heatsink mod, then sell it onto us for a tidy profit!
.... or perhaps you're just too heavy handed with the hacksaw! 😛

I know that the 9 series cards have been discounted previously because of the size of the cooling, but perhaps things have changed?

There's an XL201 up on ebay right now for £250 if you want plenty of spares!

[drchrissmith]

Hi

With all the problems of sourcing the MSI 8500 cards has anyone tried out one of the new ATI 4350/4450 based cards ? They offer native HDMI and low power passive cooling. Also any info on where people are getting the MSI 8500 cards from ? One thing is the actual fitting as they appear to have odd looking heatsink risers.

Thanks

Chris

[typod]

Hi

With all the problems of sourcing the MSI 8500 cards has anyone tried out one of the new ATI 4350/4450 based cards ? They offer native HDMI and low power passive cooling. Also any info on where people are getting the MSI 8500 cards from ? One thing is the actual fitting as they appear to have odd looking heatsink risers.

Thanks

Chris

I hadn't until now, but I might have to as I now have a large, expensive paperweight in my lounge, no TV and an angry wife

[ITTroll]

Eeek, not a good situation. Did you clean the heatsink and apply fresh thermal paste/compound each time you fitted it? It sounds like you were/are not getting contact causing the cards to overheat.

The 8500 cards are now getting hard to source (no I don't have a secret supply). They have been replaced by the 9400 and 9500. These are good cards, but so far the low profile versions all have active cooling.

The ATI cards are also a good alternative but there is one slight gotcha. They have an audio device built into the graphics card for the HDMI audio (unlike the nVidia cards which use S/PDIF pass through). As I understand it, this means that with an ATI card you would not be able to have simultaneous HDMI and S/PDIF sound output (you could however manually switch between the two). Just something to be aware of depending on the rest of your AV setup.