Alienware Aurora m7700 Upgrade

So now that my Alienware Aurora m7700 is working great (see article where I had to send the laptop in for repairs), I have the need to upgrade it.

Alienware Aurora m7700 original specifications can be found here:

• Release Year: 2006
• Display: 17" 1900 x 1200 pixel display.  Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra graphics card PCI Express 256 megs of graphics memory.
• Battery: 12 cell 6,600 mAh Lithium Ion battery. 220 watt brick charger.
• Performance: AMD desktop CPU. Athlon 64 x2 4200+. 2 memory slots for PC400 SODIMMs.
• Motherboard: VIA K8T890 chipset.
• Size: (H x W x D): 2.1” x 15.6” x 11.7”. Our unit weighs 12 pounds, 5 ounces.
• Drives: 8X dual layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW.  80GB hard drives SATA 150 RAID capable.
• Audio: Sound: Realtek AC97 Audio for VIA chipsets, high-definition audio with surround sound, five built in speakers (one is a subwoofer). 3.5mm standard stereo headphone and 5.1 SPDIF jacks. Built-in mic.
• Networking: Realtek RTL8169/8110 Gigabit Ethernet and 56k V. 92 modem.
• Ports and slots: One PCMCIA - Type II/Type I card slot with CardBus support, 4 slot card reader (reads 7 media types). One parallel port, one serial port, one DVI connector, One S-Video out connector, Video-IN Ports (TV-Tuner required, not included, two PS2 connections, two mini IEEE 1394a (4-pin) ports, 4 Hi-speed USB 2.0, one headphone jack, 5.1 channel out (S/PDIF) / Line-in, microphone in, gigabit ethernet RJ-45, 56K V.92 modem RJ-11, Infrared port for Data transfer.

Driver Information:

• Option 1:  Get Alienware Aurora m7700 drivers here.  On the Alienware Legacy system driver website, simply click Submit where all the drop down values are "All ...".  Then simply search for "M7700" for Alienware Aurora m7700 drivers.
• Option 2:  Get Clevo D900K drivers here.  Set Model dropdown to "D900K Series" and Driver to "ALL".  Click Go.  Direct link here.

Per request, I have backed up my Alienware Aurora m7700 BIOS here.  Please exercise caution when updating your BIOS.

Planned upgrades:

• Processor:  The original processor is the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, Socket 939, 1MB L2 Cache.  I'm thinking of swapping it out for an AMD Athlon 64 FX FX-60, Socket 939, 2MB L2 Cache.  The processor is here on eBay and costs a premium.  As of March 2012, it's running anywhere between 170-220 USD.
• Networking:  I've already added in a mini PCI WLAN card I salvaged from a broken Dell Latitude X300, the Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN mini PCI Card.
• TV Tuner:  Some other improvements include adding the mini PCI TV Tuner.  The original PV-TV303P+ Conexant mini PCI TV Tuner (drivers) can be found here on eBay or here through Ztronics.
• Drives:  Lastly, I have free DVD drive slot.  Might as well go all the way and put something in there as well.  I have several spare SATA drives floating around in my spare parts drawers and I'm excited to be able to use them:  80 GB SATA drive, 500 GB SATA drive.  A discussion thread on the Alienware Aurora m7700 hard drive upgrade can be found here on forum.notebookreview.com.
• Video:  My Alienware Aurora m7700 has the nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra 256MB.  I'd like to upgrade to the nVidia GeForce Go 7950GTX 512 MB.  You can find additional video cards here at Ztronics or here at eBay.

Installing Windows 7 x64

Don't do it.  I know it sounds like a crime with AMD Athlon X2 4200+ being able to support x64, but the hassle isn't worth it in my opinon.  Additionally, the Alienware Aurora m7700 can't support more than 2 GB RAM, so there's really no other reason.  There's no driver support for approximately 4 hardware devices.  This includes the card reader, and the 3 unknown devices listed under Installing Windows 7.  You will be able to get the sound and video working though.

Installing Windows 7

Install nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra

Prior to the release of nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra 295.73 drivers found here at nVidia Driver Downloads, I was using the M7700 NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800-FX ULTRA 256MB NVIDIA Graphics Driver 78.70 found here at Alienware Support.  With the nVidia 295.73 drivers, I'm getting better performance on Windows 7 with a score of 4.1, the original score for the 6800 Ultra was a feeble 1.0.

To install the nVidia drivers, execute the nVidia driver installer.  It will fail, however, it will explode the contents to your hard drive, for example:  C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\295.73\WinVista_Win7\English

Right click on the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter -> Update Driver Software
Browse my computer for driver software
NOTE:  Since nVidia drivers does not officially support the nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra, you'll have to coerce it.
Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
Click Have Disk
Select the display driver path, example C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\295.73\WinVista_Win7\English\Display.Driver
Click OK
Select the nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra

Unknown devices

• Orion 1.3M-pixel video camera (U1.3M_ST_Ver01.1)
• IrDA Fast Infrared Port
• EZ-USB LED Board

Install Orion 1.3M-pixel video camera

Set the Setup.exe to Windows XP SP2 Compatibility.

Execute Setup.exe

Install IrDA Fast Infrared Port

Right click Unknown device -> Update Driver Software
Search automatically for updated driver software

Install EZ-USB LED Board

Right click Unknown device -> Update Driver Software
Browse my computer for driver software
Select path to m7700a_USBLED_68613 (download from here at Alienware Support)

2012-04-23 Update

I purchased a 12.7mm PATA to SATA hard drive caddy from amazon.com to add another hard drive to my Alienware Aurora m7700.  I have a spare Toshiba 500 GB HDD that I tried to add to the Alienware Aurora m7700, but the VIA RAID controller doesn't recognize the drive.  I've installed the Toshiba MK5055GSX 500 GB HDD in the hard drive caddy and installed the caddy in the spare CD/DVD drive slot and the drive is recognized by BIOS and by Windows.

Hard drive caddy with Toshiba MK5055GSX 500 GB HDD installed and Alienware Aurora m7700 hard drive attachment.

BIOS screen with Toshiba MK5055GSX 500 GB HDD installed as IDE master.

By default, the Alienware Aurora m7700 will attempt to boot off the newly added IDE hard drive.  Reorder the boot order and the Alienware Aurora m7700 will boot from the VIA RAID HDDs.

Update 2012-09-07

I've been considering it for a while, but I think I'll buy an AMD Athlon 64 FX FX-60 to replace the stock AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+. As of 2012-09-07, it's available for $145 here on eBay.

Update 2012-09-18

Purchased a Crucial m4 128GB 2.5" SSD while it was on sale at amazon.com.  I plugged it into the Alienware Aurora m7700 and no go.  The VIA VT8237R DOES NOT support the Crucial m4 128GB SSD.  I've read that the Intel 320 series SSD is supported by the Alienware Aurora m7700.