Broken Quadro 1500 into Working Quadro 3500

Small confession: the last time I had a desktop with a "real" graphics card in it was April of '09.

A friend of mine was nice enough to give me his dead nVidia Quadro 1500, and I decided to try something new: reflow it with a wallpaper heat-gun similar to this thread.

After removing the heat sink, cleaning up the chip, and giving it an aluminum foil bib I was ready to reflow.

Instagram makes everything look awesome.

After putting everything back together time to see how my performance improved:

On-board Graphics Score - 4.6

Quadro 1500 Score - 5.1

Well that's not much of an upgrade at all, but there's more. This particular card shares the same guts as the GeForce 7900 GT and Quadro FX 3500, so you can allegedly flash it with either bios and get a performance boost (read on). Just for kicks I ran a few benchmarks on the original 1500 bios to see how it fared:

The stock 1500 bios scored a 5889 in 3DMark05.

Next up was finding the new bios and following the instructions to install it. 

I tried two versions of the 7900 GS bios (rev0 and rev1) and had no success. I ended up bricking the card and having to dig out an old PC, set it to boot to a PCI graphics card while still having the Quadro inside, then flashing the old 1500 bios to get the card working again. 

This isn't getting complicated at all.

Never one to be defeated I tried the other Quadro bios. Fortunately the 3500 bios took (it can be found here) , so I was able to boot to that. Unfortunately after restarting I was greeted with a warning about not having enough power for the GPU:

Error: Nothing is ever easy.

The problem is the card doesn't have the connector for the 'supplemental power connector', so there's no way of providing enough power to the GPU. This causes the cards core and memory clocks to be crippled and results in the some bizarre benchmark results: the windows test got worse while 3DMark05 got better.

I should have quit while I was ahead.

Increased core and mem clock. 6128 in 3DMark05 

Even though it scored lower in the windows test I see definite improvement in video editing, so I'm sticking with this firmware for now. What does Windows know anyway?

So the next step is repopulating the plug for the power connector, random missing capacitors and an inductor. Unfortunately schools got me busy, so that will have to wait for now.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Update 04/16/2013]

After buying some parts and repopulating the board I managed to blow out a trace. I might pick back up on this project if I have time but as for now it is dead :(

Cramming a 1TB drive into a PS3

 [BACKWASH - this post is old but has been revived - original post date: 07/19/2011]

As the owner of a 3rd gen fat PS3 (Model: CECHHxx) I was limited to a 40GB hard drive. After installing GT5 I was more or less out of room and needed more. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a 1TB external drive (~$100) and ripped it apart only to find it doesn’t fit inside the drive tray.

PROBLEM: The original drives are 9.5mm in height where as the new drive is 15mm (see gallery). The thicker drive doesn’t fit through the slot in the side of the PS3.

SOLUTION: Make it fit – take the top off, remove the power supply, cram it in there, and bolt it all back together. Below is a more or less step by step gallery of how to so. Keep in mind this voids the warranty (but it’d be a surprise if you still have one).

CAUTION: Disconnect the unit from all power and video cables before opening. There are high voltage components present inside the PS3, so proceed at your own risk.

9.5mm 40GB on the left, 15mm 1TB drive on the right

Well there's your problem. Time to take this thing apart...

Remove the warrenty sticker, then remove the rubber stopper, then remove the T10 torx screw.

Slide the lid down about an inch and lift up.

Remove the Philips head screws. All are the same length except for the green one.

From the back of the PS3 start prying the top off. Use a guitar pick or spudger to avoid scratches.

Once the back is loose rotate the lid forward and lift up to remove it.

Remove the plug from the back of the power supply.

Remove the plug from the front of the power supply.

Remove the 6 screws holding the power supply in place and lift straight up. Be careful not to lose any washers on the ground cable (yellow).

Power supply screws (for reference).

Take the cover off the tray by removing the two screws and lifting upward.

Remove your old drive. Put the new one in the carriage and insert it into the PS3 from the top. Don't forget to install the single screw located behind the black HDD door on the PS3.

There's not enough room for the metal HDD cover to fit so discard it. Be gentle reinstalling the power supply - don't crush your HDD or bend your PSU.

Put everything back together by reversing the instructions. You should only have the metal driver cover and 2 screws left over.

Check your free space and enjoy.

...and we're back

Well it's been a few years, but I'm back and going to start posting here again.

Unfortunately my hosting expired so a lot of pictures are missing at the moment. Because of this I'll be taking down a majority of the old posts except for a few which I feel are worth keeping/rebuilding.

Regards