What is the BEST BIOS VERSION?

Hey Guys, I`ve tried to find a post about this, but what I did were a lot of people using diffent Bios versions.

So, Whats is the best BIOS (unlock or lock) that I should go for, looking for max performance on SSD SATA 3 ?

Now, I`m actually on BIOS A03 (original)...

So what do you recommend?

Best Regards.

 

For me the Best BIOS was the A05, because it reduce the fan noise while will not reduce the SATA 3 speed. And since I have the A05, there isnt a single problem with the BIOS though.

A08 also good for those have the newer GT555M (GF116) but with that BIOS, the SATA Speed will be reduce to SATA 2 only.

 

I See !! Are you using any OC for better performance on Bf3 ?

 

I think A03 is the best because the fan can get louder, but it almost never turns on while on battery and I kind of like knowing that my fan is working its hardest to keep the components as cool as possible

 

Sadly though, only during gaming.

When web browsing, the fan turns on much earlier (around 50C) so you will always hear it.

 

Nah, my M14x only release its noisy fan during gaming, and much opposite to what you say there, I'm a gamer and also a heavy web/internet surfer as well, and when I do so, I hardly ever hear a thing, btw I also on High Performance Power Plan when I'm doing heavy surfing.

Yes, the number can be seen in my sig, and yes BIG different (judging by fps) when using the clock speed I'm on, though most of my setting are on Medium because I like to have more fps than fancy graphic. While on High-Ultra on Skyrim and still able to get around 40-55 fps average.

 

Its not just the noise, but having the fun running while on battery uses alot of power. Having it completely off can probably almost get you another hour on battery life.

 

Where are you guys finding the older BIOS versions (possible link)?

I'd like to go back to one of the older ones if possible.

Latest BIOS has my fan on when I'm just browsing NBR (3-4 Chrome tabs).

 

You can get them all off Dells site. And you can flash forwards and backwards as much as you want.

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

 

Thanks, I must be blind to not have noticed it lol

 

Just in case you need a voltage mod, because the BIOS I use is a modded VBIO A05: Voltage mod for the Nvidia GT 555m of the M14x - Tech|Inferno

 

Been trying various versions and A03 is definitely out of the question.

Fan was on 24/7 (even when surfing NBR) and temps went up about 7-8c in all games.

Gonna try the A05 ^

 

Please let me know, I am on A03 and fans are much faster under load compared to A05. How can this be? Interesting. Maaybe A05 undervolts lol

 

For some reason, I also feel like the A05 where fan is less active but seem to keep the machine cooler than the A03, because when I first encounter a CPU throttling and the temp hitting the 97C ~ 99C across all cores, that was back when I had the A03 BIOS and with a cooler on. But When ever since I use the A05, there are also some occasion my M14x hitting a 90C ~ 95C point but never higher than that, and now since I've receive a motherboard replacement, which mean both the GPU and the CPU got a new thermal paste, and now the temp never reach 80C at all, as same for the GPU - 74C is max.

Which also make me wondering on what reason why the A03 seem to run hotter than the A05 despite of one having the fan being more active.

 

Hey all.

I purchased the M14x even knowing of the Sata3 problem. I wanted to install the A05 BIOS to be able to use Sata3 performance but with A05 the Nvidia GPU is not recognized. Well...it`s shown in the device manager but the nvidia driver installation says that there is no hardware found. Is this a known issue?

 

So wait, isn't the m14x only Sata 2 anyways?

 

Some people can get up to SATA6 speeds or something. And do you have a 3GB card? If so, you have the GF116 revision, which requires BIOS A08. There is a BIOS A07, but I do not know if this fixes the issue or if it limits sata speeds. It does either one of those. I would try to download it to see if you can get SATA3 with a working GPU

 

A07 is also limited to Sata600 Speed.

 

Why would dell lock out Sata 3? :S

 

I think it's been said that with SATA 3, the battery is close to 20-30% worse. So most believe Dell chose to limit it to SATA 2 to avoid this. I think some users noticed their battery was much better with SATA 2. Who knows? It does suck that everyone has to go to through so much trouble to enjoy SATA 3 speeds.

 

I guess the A08 BIOS does not limit the SATA speed but because of the A08 is release after the A07, so the code is carry over after each version is change because I used to try it about 6 months ago when I downgrade to A01 then back to the A05, and I do see the different when in A01 the fan noise is very loud with an ability of not downclock the GPU, and then when I upgrade back to A05, the downclock is back and the fan noise is reduce.

 

So is there a BIOS Version available that supports Sata6 with the 3GB GPU?