Thinkpads Forum

I've long since noticed that the W700 uses a commonly accepted type of video card slot, MXM II, and the W701 uses MXM III.

I've been doing research on it sparsely but I figured I might as well bring it up to ask, since there appear to be some skilled modders out and around this forum... is it possible to modify the BIOS or motherboard of a W700 or W701 to accept different, possibly newer GPUs?

To explain what I'm on about: The W700 and W701 are apparently firmware-locked to specific GPUs, the Quadro FX2700M/3700M on the W700, and the FX2800M and 3800M on the W701. Inserting any other video card will either result in no video or a beeeeep, beep beep of one-long two short, "video error".

I feel like the W701's workable lifespan and efficiency can be dramatically improved if it could be reworked to accept different GPUs, possibly a GeForce 580/680. I've recently upgraded my Clevo D900F from a GTX 285M(similar GPU to the FX3700M in the W700) to a 680M, and the productivity experience is so much better. The upgrade is very worthwhile.

I recently got myself W700 and I was looking at this topic.
Seems that only one guy tried (or documented) this on w701, and it's not working:
http://ridingtheflow.blogspot.com/2011/ ... nd-of.html

Aye. That article is a pretty interesting testimony... and answers a lot of my questions.

With the W700- there's no point in trying to use 3rd party cards, since the Quadro FX3700M is already the most powerful GPU that fits in a MXM II slot, featuring the G92 core that the 200-series GeForce still uses.

With the W701- upgrading the GPU would be an insanely brilliant possibility if it could be done- for the reasons I've previously stated. But the article basically states in the end- that the way Lenovo has implemented the use of the MXM III slot, despite the MXM III slot being fairly standard and allowing proper installation of other GPUs, is extremely convoluted and custom.

The brief modifications he did was apparently on his own time and took him quite a bit of planning and effort, and he didn't even get close to having a fully functioning modification, and he nearly ruined his W701. I fully understand at this point- the risks and the time invested really don't admit a fuller need to modify the W701 to accept other GPUs. At the moment...