Alienware 14 Bios reset? Am I doing something wrong?

Alright, so first off I've tried searching the forums and haven't found anything that works.

I've removed the CMOS battery and laptop battery.
Did a power drain for 40 seconds. Then removed the system ram
Then plugged the ac adapter in, powered it up. Got 2 beeps for over a minute.
Then I disconnected the ac adapter, put the ram back in. 5 beeps for over a minute.

Powered it off installed the ram, then the CMOS battery then the system battery and powered it up. 5 beeps again, powered it off and then powered it back on now 8 beeps.

So I know the 8 Beeps means LCD/LCD cable error and this isn't wrong, I currently don't have a LCD attached to the laptop as the LCD cable I had is torn apart. The problem is that I was able to get it to boot with an external monitor and when I went to disable secure boot and enabled legacy support so I could install windows 7 it just gives me 8 beeps, even if I am plugged into an external display when it worked before. So I just want to reset the bios so I can just use windows 8 till I get the parts to fix the laptop.

If a bios flash may fix this I am willing to do that. But will it work with an external keyboard? the system keyboard doesn't work atm.

 

The issue with these new systems is that the settings are no longer stored in memory where removing the battery will reset them. They are stored in the NVRAM - there is a procedure for the alienware 18 involving removing components to reset it which may work here. I cannot remember the procedure however so you will have to search in the 18 forum for it.

 

Solved, just did what Mac users did to reset there nvram, took out the CMOS battery, and system battery and did a power drain and then let it sit for half an hour and its been as far as I can tell reset.

But I did also try the 18 bios reset (removing CPU and ram and the CMOS battery so that might have helped)

 

This method is for the M18xR1 - same as shorting the jumpers on a desktop, really. I have not needed to try it on my 14, but I imagine the principle is that it should have the same result. Use at your own discretion.....

[unlocked] M18x R1 BIOS versions - Page 6

 

Typically that would work but the setting don't get reset by just removing the cmos battery and holding the power button and so on. All of the bios settings for the new models are now stored in NVram like on mac computers.

 

I'm glad that did the trick for you.

 

Hey @Alienware-L_Porras do you know any way of forcing the alienware 14 to boot to an external display? The LCD cable got damaged as mentioned and I'd just like to use the laptop.