Alienware 15 BIOS(s) Information

I notice that many were reverting to the initial A00 BIOS because the newer ones were causing issues.
Any idea of the trade off? What was A02 & A03 suppose to resolve from A00?
Does anyone have any real change log information?
Has anyone done any extensive testing between the different BIOS(s)?

Thanks!

 

Dell introduced hybrid BIOS... The 180w power supply fails to supply enough wattage at max load(trottling). Hybrid BIOS adds extra watts from the battery when hardware needs more power ... Aka Msi battery power boost. Bios A2 and 3 also introduces higher heat of the processor (quieter fans).

 

So question.... When you use a 240w does it stop trying to use the battery as part of its power system? I'm no engineer but that doesn't seem like a good idea, or a true fix. Just saying.

 

This is mainly problem at least to AW17R2. Those who owns a Aw17R2 in United States / Canada can get handed a 240W power supply if they ask Dell but not owners of the same laptop in other countries... Dell engineers miscalculated wattage at least with AW17 during maximum load. This is no ideal solution, since hybrid bios drain the battery unnecessarily, and that 180w Power supply fail to recharge the battery under heavy use and a empty battery. But 240w can do that..

 

The AW15 uses the same exact motherboard.

With all that said. Attention Alienware reps. When are we going to get a fixed BIOS we are using A00 even though there are 3 other BIOS releases after. Clearly that shouldn't be the case.

 

A03 is no longer available on dell support page. A02 is visible. Anyone know what is the reason? Should I be affraid? (I have A03 installed). There are rummors that new version of bios will be released soon, but i dont know if A03 can damage my notebook?

 

True ! no more A03 available, what does that mean ? Is this smelling bad ?!

Ok, with BIOS A02/A03 the battery will be drained to help the 180W in hard condition, but also with the 240W or not ? I mean by that, the hybrid BIOS, will know that i have a 240W PSU so no need to take some W from battery ?

On the french Alienware/Dell Store we don't have any more the choice of the 980m :/ Only 3 models remaining.... strange !

 

A03 had a bad fan table for CPU. It wouldn't speedup the fan when needed, so it was pulled. Watch CPU temps with A03.

 

Should I change this bios or wait for A04? So far no issues and CPU temps no higher than A01

 

Just remember to monitor the temperature while using your laptop before new bios launched and You can update.

 

Dayum, what a bs, Just reading about this A03 issue today, if I wouldn't notice, I just happened to have taken a ticket to fry my CPU
And I think I'm going to revert my bios to A02

Temperature is not a laughing matter

 

Temps are really higher than A02? I think these are the same bios versions with only change to bios security

 

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19630604

 

If you are using GA cpu overclocking in the bios, I could not get it to work with A00 bios. But it works fine with A02.

 

We'll be releasing a new BIOS update soon.

 

How about an updated bios with better fan profiles for the previous version AW 17R1 and AW18? These Aw laptops are still struggling with crippled fan profiles, 2 years after they were launched for sale...

 

I don't have any info about upcoming BIOS's coming to those platforms. We have escalated this in the past and the engineering team has suggested to use HWinfo to control the fans.

 

Thanks for your feedback So Dell's engineering team desire rather that we use the fan control in 3 part software like Hwinfo64 instead of giving us a better fan profile in bios / ec... Hwinfo manual fan control works well but it's amazing that the engineers at Dell is not interested in correcting mistakes they have done from the beginning. This issue will also persist with the new AW models as well. It was no surprise that Dell's engineers failed to make a good fan profile also in the new laptops. I assumed that this was going to happen. Better with hardware that fails after a while due to crippled fan profiles that fail to reduce the temperature. Dell customers will suffer in the end when the warranty has expired and you have an "fried" processor or gpu. Anyone can see that Dell is struggling to make good fan profiles. Maybe it is time; That Dell develops a fan control app in its own software ACC ? Like other laptop manufacturers do. You can see what AnandTech writes about the software that is included in the GIGABYTE notebooks.

 

Yes a fan control tool in alien command center would be a great and normal feature for a gaming laptop.
The problems with the bios are not acceptable, temperature and hard throttle made me go back to a00
According to other members A00 doesn't resolve everything and it might have a problem to get all the power from the 240 w.
I am not an expert in computer building but in any decent industry there is a process call quality control during which products are tested in order to check if they fulfill the expections before a public release.
I cannot believe that these machines were properly tested otherwise the 180w Psu story would not even existed.... it took only few days to people in the this forum target the problem. Thanks to them

 

The new Alienware Laptops was among the very last laptops that came on the market with gtx970/980m. Dell had plenty of time to fix these problems long time before these gaming laptop was put on sale. This is a poorly executed work from Dell... There is no excuse for this mess.

 

Im starting to think that Dell is using the past history of the Alienware name to sell systems.
Not only is this bios thing happening but I had a total of 2 systems that had issues right out of the box. On the third system they changed the config to an "upgrade" but the "upgrade" conflicted with my animation software. I complained about it and was treated as if I was a bother and making an unreasonable complaint. I was then told I should accept a refund.
Well the problem is that Ijust had wasted 4 weeks of troubleshooting and swaps... I didn't want a refund. I wanted a system, priced the way I initially purchased ( had a coupon and a gift card), the specs I initially chose, and working properly.

My point is.. 5 years ago this wouldn't have happened. I have purchased 8 Alienwares over 6 years and buy Dell exclusively for my clients. Something definitely has changed for the worse.

 

I agree with the idea to add that on the command center. The best way to get your idea to the engineering team is by creating a new thread on ideastorm.com and get people to support your idea.

Again, thanks a lot for the feedback.

 

Hello. My AW15 came with the A01 BIOS, which I haven't read anything in these forums, and I just checked Dell's website and it's no longer listed as an option in the BIOS download section! only A00 and A02 are available. Is there a known problem with A01? should I update to A02 or A00? Thanks in advance

 

http://www.ideastorm.com/idea2ReadIdea?v=1432006980935&Id=087700000009mDXAAY
posted mine.
ty

 

Submit this link also in your thread in Idea storm... http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-15-bios-s-information.775039/page-2#post-10004400

 

done, i couldn't edit my own thread, but I posted a comment with the link you gave me.

 

Great.. But if that helps is another matter.

 

Hey guys. All the Alienware 15 and 17 2015 are having serious problems with the CPU after waking up from sleep.
Test the fallowing.
1 restart the laptop.
2 use Prime95 and monitor wattage and clocks.
3 leave prime ON working and put the laptop to sleep.
4 wake it up and check clocks and wattage.
Now you'll see clocks are stuck at 2.2 or less and wattage stuck at 30w or less. And even if you stop prime and let the laptop rest the clocks will stay stuck and same as CPU wattage.
No matter what you do the only way to fix this is to restart the laptop. Even if you just press sleep without prime still sleep mode makes the CPU stuck at those mediocre clocks and watts. From 47w to 30w.
I even tried re plugging the AC charger. I pretty much tried everything.
Restart the laptop and leave prime working all day without putting the laptop to sleep and the CPU will maintain 47w stable.
I currently have a store and I have all the new Alienware models 15 & 17 2015 with all the configurations from 970 to 980 with 180w to 240w AC. I did so many tests to all of them and even updated the bios too all the versions possible even downgrading. And still this happens.
PS. still happens with A04 Bios.
Please AW fix this fast. It's incredible to see people paying for performance that's not delivered.

 

Hey guys. All the Alienware 15 and 17 2015 are having serious problems with the CPU after waking up from sleep.
Test the fallowing.
1 restart the laptop.
2 use Prime95 and monitor wattage and clocks.
3 leave prime ON working and put the laptop to sleep.
4 wake it up and check clocks and wattage.
Now you'll see clocks are stuck at 2.2 or less and wattage stuck at 30w or less. And even if you stop prime and let the laptop rest the clocks will stay stuck and same as CPU wattage.
No matter what you do the only way to fix this is to restart the laptop. Even if you just press sleep without prime still sleep mode makes the CPU stuck at those mediocre clocks and watts. From 47w to 30w.
I even tried re plugging the AC charger. I pretty much tried everything.
Restart the laptop and leave prime working all day without putting the laptop to sleep and the CPU will maintain 47w stable.
I currently have a store and I have all the new Alienware models 15 & 17 2015 with all the configurations from 970 to 980 with 180w to 240w AC. I did so many tests to all of them and even updated the bios too all the versions possible even downgrading. And still this happens.
PS. still happens with A04 Bios.
Please AW fix this fast. It's incredible to see people paying for performance that's not delivered.

 

Sorry but that destroyed my mind. as @Papusan said you force users to bypass fantables bugs using 3rd party software rather than just fixing the fantable? Is it so hard to make a coffe, sit next to the table and in 30 minutes set up new fan profile? Jesus christ im lucky that I own M18xR1.

 

New Bios just release A04. Anyone trie? Any improvement in cooling?

 

As expected . Same as previous Aw 17 and 18 models. LoL. It is time now that Dellienware develops an ap in ACC for manual control of the fans like other PC manufacturers are doing now.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...2-owners-lounge.770314/page-110#post-10008554

 

This is very disappointing.

 

Did you tell them that using fan control the fan speed, causing sound freezing and lagging? The team should thinking of making their product the best, not saying some **** like that. It should works without any problems from factors, not when ship to customers and say thing unacceptable.

I would vote for fan controlling in BIOS, or Alienware Command Center at least.