Somewhat recently my y510p became bricked while attempting to upgrade the bios from the version it orginally came with(v1.10) to the latest provided by Lenovo(v3.08). I'm currently trying to figure out the compatibility and potential cross-compatibility of the y510p's many different variations of motherboard in an effort to repair it. Hopefully I can get a bit of input and this can also be a nice reference.
Not wanting to go through the hastle of having to solder new bios chips, I opted to "simply" order a new motherboard.
Well I've since found that isn't as straight-forward as I might have thought, because there are literally dozens of slightly different versions of the y510p's mainboard, as denoted by their FRU number (which all follow the format of 9000xxxx), this number is typically found on a sticker on the motherboard under the RAM.
My original motherboard was 90004286 which Lenovo's parts lookup identifies as,
"VIQY1 MB W8S 47W HD+ WO/NGFF"
This translates to (as far as I can tell):
VIQY1 MB = Motherboard for a y510p
W8S = System Preloaded with Windows 8 Standard
47W = A 47w motherboard
HD+ = Full 1080p High Def
WO/NGFF = Without a NGFF/m.2 SSD slot.
(My original motherboard also had the nvidia GT750m video chip)
I have ordered a new motherboard and it arrived however it is not the correct one, even after confirming with the seller which one was the proper one prior to shipment. The motherboard I just recieved is 90003636 is identified as:
VIQY1 MB 47W HD GT1
So it is a y510p motherboard, 47w, HD in this case which I think means for a screen resolution of 1600 x 900(but I'm not sure on this), and GT1 I know means it is a board with an nvidia GT755m, also since it is not otherwise noted I believe this motherboard was original to a system that did not have a pre-installed OS.
I've not tested it(90003636) in my system, but I believe that it will not be compatible for my purposes, hopefully someone can confirm this.
My reasoning is first that the onboard nvidia GPU (gt755m) certainly won't be compatible with my ultra-bay gt750m(as far as I know y510p's refuse to boot if there is a video card mis-match). I suspect that not being marked as a system pre-loaded with an OS it could possibly cause de-authorization of the OEM copy of Windows that came with my laptop, that is if I hadn't already swapped my original (broken) HD with another containing a retail version of Windows. My next major concern is that the 90003636 motherboard is marked as HD instead of HD+, which I think means it is not meant for the 1920 x 1080 screen that came with my laptop, but I've not confirmed this and would appreciate any input.
So my main question at the moment is: Am I correct that the 90003636 board will not be compatible with the 1920 x 1080 screen original to my laptop?(That is if I were to remove the second video card, forgo SLI, and simply use a dvd or harddrive caddy in the ultrabay.) Otherwise, are there any other boards with FRU's besides 90004286 that should be compatible with my system?