Unlocked bios 05 - impressing

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*Standard NBR Warning*
BIOS Modifications, VBIOS Modifications and other system level tweaks can potentially cause damage to your system. Be aware of this before blindly flashing. If you brick your system or cause damage, chances are very high that your warranty will be useless. Know what you are doing, you are responsible for your actions.
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info:

[tested & working] M14x unlocked BIOS A05


download screens from locked/unlocked bios menus:

Bios A05 and Mod.7z (87,71 MB) - uploaded.to

direct download unlocked AW Bios 05:

100%_M14xR1A05_Ulk_Menus_ByCamiloml.exe

More M14X custom bioses:

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienw...tage-increase-nvidia-gt-555m-7.html#post12003

M14X CPU throttling, repasting, dissasembly vid:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19424272.aspx
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*important: when flashing right mouse click and 'run as administrator'*
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What exactly are the benefits of getting this?

 

Simply put - much more options incl. fan control etc. I just flashed and a new book of tweaking opened in front of me.

 

its useless no option to make the laptop any faster no multiplyer mods no increase in the main clock mods no voltage mod.... useless stuff heh ?

 

If there are no overclocking controls for the nVIDIA GPU then I'd say it's worthless over the stock A05

 

This isn't an official release, is it?

 

No its nto

 

Ok, I changed fan settings, low speed fan starts now at 60c instead of 55c (default) and high fan speed starts I think at 80c (default), so I left it at default. Now during typing and browsing the fan does not come ON at all and I like it, especially with my quiet SSD. This is (I think) only modified a.k.a. unlocked official Bios provided by dell on the support page, only someone got a code to unlock all its features. It installs exactly the same way as the one from DELL support page. This is day two of using it, I have not had any problems with the bios, which does not mean I suggest flashing. It is just me ... more options (LPM on/off, Hot plugging on/off, list of Sata ports, and a thousand things I do not understand, but time will tell).

I have problems with my SSD startups, so I was also hoping that with so many options in this bios someone with some real knowledge can maybe solve these issues or point me in the right direction.

Yes, my max temps still have not hit 60, so thats why no fan spinning lol

 

just loaded it my system and started looking around.... I found RAID settings!!! no idea if they work or not, but I'm about to mess with em here in a min and try to get a pair of 120G OCZ Vertex 2's in RAID 0. I already have the dvd drive replaced with a hdd caddy, Just need to pop the drives in and see if i can get em' to stripe. hopefully ill be reporting back good news from a striped RAID array soon. if all goes well I'll be ordering a pair of Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120's this weekend. hoping to break 1,000M read! just maybe

UPDATE: so I have done a lil research and apparently the BIOS menu exists, but a RAID module of some sort would be needed to get to a Intel RAID configuration menu. I almost positive the chipset physically supports RAID, it just wasn't built in by Dell as a RAID setup wasn't a factory option. Please for the love of god somebody with the Programming expertise PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Get a RAID module added if it is in any way possible. I know im not the only one in here with dreams of striped SATA3 SSD's in a M14x.

 

For people that upgraded to that BIOS.


can you disable the intel integrated gpu and use the nvidia dedicated gpu ?
can you force sata2 speed for the second sata port? (caddy + hdd running at sata 1.5)

other than that thanks!!

 

I just checked in the bios, there is an option to disable IGP. Have not tried it though.
Re. Forcing SATA 2, I am not sure.

 

For the folks who would want to try to disable the IGP, don't try it, i had to reset my bios and got nice beeps saying i ed it up

now everything is in order.
just be careful with what options you will try

 

Yes exacly lol, I googled H2o and its menus -- nothing -- will serach more. I really maybe can sort out my Win7 SSD startup problems. I so far used the fan-speed-temperature tweaks, OC'd my processor a bit, memory to 1600. Other things I tried but only those I was familiar with (at least 50%). I will continue googling. MAYBE Port 0 6Gbps can be (fully) enabled or at least tweaked. My first post now includes screens from the bios.

 

Are we able to reflash back to the official A05 BIOS in case for warranty returns?

*edit* OP poster on the other site did state we can probably just flash back the official BIOS.

 

Well i flashed back to dell AO5, like it said, the menus are unlocked, but have not been tested.

 

Anyone knows where the unlocked bios options are explained i.e. what they do? I searched the net, but found NOTHING. I have a SATA III speeds SSD, but M14X seems after installing Intel RST only give me SATA II speeds, stable though. Could there be a switch?

SOLVED. M14X runs stable SATA 6Gbps speeds now. Uninstalled RST (of course). Either disable c states, or enable storage break point or both in unlocked Bios.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...abled-disabled-discussion-30.html#post7976953

 

Does it mean that there is no way to "hide" the IGP and switch by default to the NVIDIA Optinus card so that Ubuntu Linux detects only one graphic card ?

 

So this bios is pretty much awesome. I was able to turn off HT with this and reduce the heat output by a few degrees when gaming... Lots of stuff to play with. I only wished they had a way to reduce the voltage going to the CPU, that way we could undervolt...

 

In power settings there is pri plane power limit set at 896. Do you know anything about this??

 

From what I can tell, it changes the amount of amps that the processor is allowed to use. I will play around with it and get back to you with what it changes (helps or hurts).

maybe I'm retarded, but i do not see this setting? Where is it?

 

Lower part of the screen with c states stuff. Scroll.

 

must be part of turbo functionality, I turned turbo off on mine. I'll look.

 

As far as I know, no. The IGP is used to display what's on screen (Except in programs).

Like, if you go to device manager and disable the IGP, your display shuts off.

 

so after playing around for a while here is what I've discovered...

I started with 400 for pri plane current limit and went down.

attached is a little table to summarize my results

Here is how to read the table:
400 limits voltage during turbo mode to around 1.181V which limits turbo boost to 2.3GHz, max temp after ~20 mins of prime large ffts was 88*C

So This is actually a way to underclock/volt the cpu if you really wanted to. Notice that 256 is the lowest value that you can put in.

 

I see you played with fire there lol

 

All for you buddy.
I much prefer turbo = off to keep my laptop running cool...

I also forgot to mention all of those were with Hyper Threading off.

 

I am so happy that my SSD runs now as it should. I think re-pasting GPU and CPU is the next step for me. Btw. do you have your ATTO scores by hand? Too many people have unusually low either reads or writes, maybe this forum can sort it out somehow.

 

which SSD are u using? is it Sata 3???

 

I run OCZ Vertex3 mi 120Gb. It is SATA 3 (6Gbps).

 

What did you change to get it to run at SATA III speeds?

 

1. I uninstalled Intel RST (of course), with RST installed I was getting only SATA 3 Gbps speeds.

2. Then I re-installed newest Intel chipset driver and Intel management engine, both from Intel site.

3. In unlocked Bios I disabled c states and enabled storage break event (thanks custom90gt).

4. I also disabled hot-plugging on all ports and finally Aggressive LPM support.

5. At the end I re-enabled c-states and I am stable SATA 6Gbps.


This is a good thread for your questions.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...parison-bios-enabled-disabled-discussion.html

Please note, I have OCZ Vertex 3 MI. On M14x some people need tweaking to get SATA 6 Gbps speeds, some people never get it to work, for some it works straight out of box.

 

Oh man. I read this too late. I now can't get the screen to come on, and it just beeps. Anyone know how to reset the bios so I can get back in?

Thanks!

 

Make a power drain, open your system and remove the cmos battery for a couple of minutes.

 

I had the same issue, changed something (not graphics) and had no more access to bios, only white '-' in top left corner on startup. So I left it as it was and after about 3 minutes the puter re-started, showed Bios loading screen and I had to be fast to catch/press F2 and it allowed me to change back to the correct Bios value. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replies. I just left it on, and all it does is beep 4 times, wait a few seconds, and then beep 4 times, on and on. It doesn't seem to reboot, and I don't see anything on the screen at all.

I was going to pull the cmos battery, but I can't find it. Anyone have an idea where it is?

Thanks again

 

Have you tried taking out the battery and holding the power button for 20 seconded or so?

 

1. Have you tried pushing F2 even if you dont see nothing on the screen?
2. I believe you should send a PM to madmantm, he got out of it somehow.

 

Does the unlocked bios allow you adjust or remove the limit to the GPU on battery?

 

I am sure Bios 01 has the limitation removed as I read about M14X turning off on battery while gaming using Bios 01. I would use afterburner in combination with Bios 01 and/or adjusting Win7 power plan settings.

re. unlocked Bios 05 see for yourself, download the screens (first post of this thread). If you want to see sub-screens, let me know, I have this bios loaded, and will take a look for you.

 

Sure, keep me posted. Thanks a lot. Yeah unfortunately the way the newer bios' work you can't adjust it through windows power options or with an overclocking application. The voltage is limited by the bios as well as the clock speed so trying to overclock beyond it while on battery will just produce an error. I'm considering flashing the bios because I'd like to be able to game on battery but it isn't a major issue so I'm taking my time with the decision to decide if it's worth it or not. I paid extra for accidental damage coverage and I'm pretty sure flashing to an unofficial bios would void the warranty.

 

I prefer A03 as it is not noisy when doing light work, but under load it really COOLS, another 5c down comparing to A05.

 

Anyone knows where I can download A04 unlocked? Want to test it. Or is it similar to A03? And the change in A04 (comparing to A03) is only new processor support?
Please look at the release notes, which I don't understand. They changed 2 things are they both related to ONLY new processor support?

Thank you in advance.

 

i think a06 is pretty darn good. hopefully they release it for all you guys soon

 

please tell me more, sir

 

its quiet when it is supposed to be and only kicks up the fans when gaming.

otherwise its just overall very solid for me so far

 

i still favor the a03, to fix the fan noise i set my fan to passive so it slows the processor before speeding up the fan

 

I'm still stick to my A01.

Rather have the noise and keep the laptop cool

 

so, if this unlocked bios is on the machine once, you cant hide it/reflash it to the normal "hidden" menü?

basically all menu´s stay visible, even after a reflash with stock bios. Is that correct?

 

well if you have the custom one its custom, if you flash to stock its stock again

 

thats good news, ty