Bios A6

I just got my m14x on 11/10/11,It came with bios a6.I see on dell's site the latest being a5,Is this a new shipping bios?Sorry for noob question.

 

wow this is interesting, can you take some shots of the bios ?

maybe any new options?

 

A06 turns fan completely off.

 

Right? I don't see any difference,this is a replacement for a bad m14x I had for months.I can't find any info at all on bios.I'll post screen soon,I'm still loading and testing all.That's how I noticed new bios,It's definitely version 6.

 

Really??It is much quieter than my last m14.Tech support has no idea when asked.Everything else so far seems the same.It has the new 2860 proc,don't know if that helps.Dell upgraded wi hd,2860,killer nic,for issue resolution.

 

How are your temperatures?

 

can you control the fan yet?

 

I haven't done complete tests I.e,prime 95,but on temp monitor idle is approx 42,and runing the self test under load it's low 70s,actualy seems quite cool.I have both m14s running,Im just starting as I only had chance to test today.I will spend a few hours and let you know exact outcome.1st I had to update drivers and optimize a bit.

 

Don't see fan control.Again I really just noticed the bios today,while starting machine for 1st time and doing updates and all.

 

well if the temps are so low and the cooler is quieter then its prolly a hardware change too

 

Same here, got the M14x few days ago, says A06

 

Ok, so I have read a few times on this forum that owners of newer M14Xs (say from two months ago till now) report some impressive temps. I have one from April. (After repaste) CPU MAX EVER 85c, GPU 73c. Is this any different from a newer M14X? What are the highest temps you ever seen gaming? I do not benchmark at all.

 

It would be interesting to know whether the version of the MB is the same as those "old" in a couple of months, or if Dell has updated something on M14x

Ciao : Cool:

 

maybe they are using a new thermal paste or they upgraded the fan with a quieter one, my gpu under heavy load with my overclock usually sits at 72 or lower and my cpu i beleive hits 87 full load and idles at 45 46, and im using the basic stock paste that came with it

 

I am going to tear down and repaste,I always do with a clean windows install,even with good temps.After seeing dells stock paste job, I always clean and redo.I will see if there's been a mobo revision or any hardware tell tale changes.I haven't heard of anything,and it looks just like my other.My temps at idle are 41 to 44 while running the basics updates and such.(UPDATE) running 39 with laptop cooler from old m14x.

 

if any hardware was changed and upgraded please take a few pictures if you can

 

bump, I'm also interested about new hardware / fans

 

what about your temps m8?

you also got them cool temps and that quiet cooling noise? xD

common sense tells us this must be a hardware change, since a06 isnt officially released and temperatures are alot cooler and the fans are quieter.. most likely this is a hardware change, if it isnt the cpu must be seriously underclocked or undervolted

 

How would we be able to tell if it was an actual hardware tweak? Just posting the specs of the laptop will not disclose the info right?

 

I found this info, but I do not know if they can be useful





Ciao: Cool:

 

okay from an official source I have heard an explanation of the new bios!

New m14x use different hdd manufacturers, newer cpus and cheaper ram, thats why some of them need the bios a06 to function with these different components. The fan and temperature should remain unchanged, since the fan design wasnt changed. (I know this from someone who designs laptops for dellienware and is very well informed)

Concluding he said, that theres no reason to get an a06 bios m14x if your current on runs fine, because there is no major change

 

Of all the things you mention, only the new CPUs make any sense. You don't need a new BIOS to run a different RAM or a harddrive from another manufacturer, else you couldn't even exchange these parts for yourself.

Dell probably only updated the CPU microcodes, thus the BIOS hasn't been released since it won't make any difference for the current owners.

 

yes to be serious i had a hard time translating it, but i think i understood the gist..

I dont know much about hardware or bios's, i just happened to ask someone whos closely related to dell and designs laptops for them (german forum)

Your probably right, the major thing im saying is that there arent any significant changes to get the a06 m14x.. he even said they use cheaper memory, but i doubt someone would notice that difference

he wrote that there were some incompabilities with the cpu and other components, maybe thats a more correct explanation?

 

I just received my m14x about a week ago, so I assume it came with the a06 BIOS.
However i wasn't aware of the a06 version, and just blindly reverted to a03 for testing purposes, then back to a05.

If I wanted to go back to a06 to test it out, is going back to factory settings the only way?

 

Also, a bit off topic, but what cpu temps are people getting while playing bf3? I just hit a high of 85C, with a laptop cooler. I've been staying under 80 but today for some reason it shot up.

 

Max 82 that I have seen with BF3.

 

Some things report my 2670QM as the 2720. Shipped with A04 about a month ago, updated to A05. Wonder if A06 would correctly report my CPU as the 2670 to everything?

 

I got my latest m14x on friday its a06 and so far all tests show proper cpu 2860,I don't see any other difference from my 3 month old unit,but I really haven't done much yet.It seems a bit quieter but temps are pretty similar to my other,give or take a few degrees.

 

I also received mine yesterday and it shows Bios versioin A06.

Anyone can help me on here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/624849-m14x-dell-software-stage-remote.html

 

Wow I wonder what changed in A06 ...

 

nothing major mate

 

how do i check the bios version? i'm also confused on when people say to disable or enable something from the bios, because i don't know how to access that :/ any help is appreciated haha

 

Press F2 as soon as you see the alien head when you turn on your laptop.

Then you can see the bios version there.
You can overclock your laptop there, too.

I always disable the battery charge to pro-long my battery since I always charge at home.

 

thanks alot repped!!!!

 

Confirmed, I received my Alienware m14x yesterday and i just checked the Bios and it says a06, Impressed so far. I'll try to do some temperature benchmarks while playing Witcher 2 ( If i can manage to install >.>)

 

Sorry about not posting results guys,but my m14x died!I't seemed perfect,then a few hours later micro stuttering gaming glitches dropped FPS,and got hot at the palm rest I mean real hot,then died. A6 I guess although quiet didnt help the well known heat issues on this design.

 

thanks for the reply yankee, i was really starting to wonder..

but as i said, this bios was only made for cpu microcode updates and incompability issues, doesnt seem like they changed anything that concerns the heat problems, atleast thats what my "contact" says (he designs the new m17xr4)

the only reason i got the i5 is because of the heat issues, and so far im really happy with that decision.. from a gaming perspective its only a minor difference and some games are even more optimized for dual core or clock freq. like skyrim (which runs faster on ghz not on core count)

the max heat i got is about 75 degrees even with turbo on so i guess thats okay (could be better with a repaste)

 

Gamba Im happy yours is better,but be careful read the post on heat issues bill@dell Pm me and dell called this am they have atleast 10 heat issue posts on various forums and are actively looking into it.I don't want another xps 17 series debacle,I paid alot of money for a pc I cant game on,cmon dell.Do something already.It takes dell forever to get anything done.Atleast bill@dell is looking at the threads and reporting it to the right people.

 

yankee i didn mean that mine was better, i just wanted to tell you why i got the i5 2430m (money wasnt the issue)

obviously the heat issues suck extremely if there is anything i can do please tell me.. if there wouldn be any of them i wouldve got an i7 quad..

 

Gamba,you misunderstood what I meant.I really am glad you have the i5 with good luck.I wish I had the same,sorry for any confusion but I like your posts.No worries my friend,did not mean it that way at all. I'm actually trying to help anyone who needs it,I'm working with helping dell see there are real heat problems with alot of 2860/gt555 m14x combo.

 

Bill@dell pm me alot of engineer info and other forum posts.It's becoming very common,now the top 2 complaints are, heat at palmrest,and gaming glitches and stutter shutdowns.I'm supposed to talk to a dell engineer tuesday.

 

For me the following worked (by importance):

1. Re-paste CPU and GPU and clean heat sinks
2. Flashing to unlocked Bios A03 (yes, during load system becomes noisy, but in idle it stays as cool and quiet as on A05)
3. Raising laptop 2 cm over my table
4. SSD (produces almost no heat)
5. DVD drive taken out
6. Battery taken out
7. Memory cover taken out + using memory with heatsinks

Now my temps are CPU max 83c, GPU 66c.

The main problem that I saw before doing the above 'tweaks' was that in unlocked M14X Bios (in any version of Bios but unlocked) you can see that the CPU throttling is set at 85c, I set it manually to 90c (max possible setting).

In general, I have no more heat issues and yes I have seen 99c on CPU also before (especially before re-pasting).

 

Good tips.But we shouldn't have to do that so we can use the laptop.That's the problem,I repasted used a cooler etc and it helped alot.But the motherboard died after a month or so.Now my replacement had heat stutter issues even just websurfing.You paid for a fully functional pc thats all Im saying.Some people dont even know how to do half the things you did.I'm the same way you are I repaste all my laptops and ssd evreyone since the first one I did,I couldn't imagine not having an ssd anymore.