Alienware 17 60Hz GTX980m upgrade

Well, i succeed to instal 347.90 in optimus mode but result: no geforce experience working even with instalation, give a bug that dll missing and result are not so much better from 347.88
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9613112
idk if i need to share this driver mod, i will do it if shadow play works

 

I think the driver is missing some key components to allow GeForce experience. I think we need to wait for another proper release ..

 

okok yeaa i try everything and doesnt work even by simple update. But driver isnt better than .88 for my side. i return to .88 for shadowplay

 

@DARCODER, I see that you successfully installed 980m in your AW. Do you expect any occasional freezes, crashes or instability with your configuration? What do you think - is there any chance to run exactly the same config as yours on win7 of course in optimus mode?

 

Well the gtx i got is very nice. No crash or throotle while gaming.
I also try some oc with nice stable result.
Fire strike:
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4434625
3Dmark11:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9615766
In techinferno, they told if i remembered well that aw17 >2013 is compatible in both ws7 and 8.
i didnt try.. i will see tomorrow if that info is correct.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. This will be helpfull, because I have not seen anyone (?) who launched gtx 980m with Alienware using win7. Some techinferno users says, that it is possible only with optimus which is totally ok for me. For some reasons I can't change my OS to win8.

 

For not having any issues, you will need full UEFI so windows 7 might be a problem to make it works without any issues. When you could move to ws 8.1, you can consider gtx980m.
Otherwise i didn't see anyone showing a bench with windows 7 :/

 

I tried with windows 7 and 980m with alienware 17.
I got it to install and with modded driver it showed 980m in device manager like it should . This was in optimus mode. But my computer would do wierd things like completely freeze every once and a while and programs wouldn't load sometimes . I was afraid the gpu or something was going to fail and after spending 800 dollars on the gpu I finally just pulled it out and put my 770m back in and everything was good again. I know the gpu was good because the person I sold it to on ebay put it in a clevo and he said it's working great. I could of switched to windows 8.1 and installed it like a lot of others but I didn't want windows 8. So I sold the gpu and my alienware 17 and bought a clevo with 980m sli. Works great without any problems. I wish I would of bought the clevo before going threw all that but live and learn right. I'm not writing this to confirm that it can't be installed in alienware 17 with windows 7 I'm just sharing my experience.
Peace.

 

Alienwares and the Maxwell GPUs -

And about Win7 + Maxwell + AWs -

The Win7 is 1000% UEFI compaitble OS but the thing is our AW systems can't manage to get past win orbs loading with Win7 + pure UEFI
Only ssj92 managed to get win7 UEFI boot successful in his M18x R2.

Plus this also, basically the same but approach is different -

Update : Maxwell need MNVFlash (Windows mode) only still the turning off the GPU from Device manager on a 120Hz machine will result in a fail POST mode (only way to flash is M18x R2 or M15x). All this crap can be lifted from a small BIOS patch but Alas ! , that won't happen at all .

 

Hey guys, help needed.
A friend of mine not fluent in english has a R5 with 120hz panel D02. last bios A14. Boot is ok, but impossible to install drivers even with inf modded. It still goes blackscreen with w8.1. Oc i know i can't boot on igpu.
Here are some bios settings :




He followed guide on first post, but nothing seems to work. I can't help him directly as i know nothing about AW. Btw, it works like a charm in his old M15X and no problem flashing vbios owning m15x and 18R2
Do you have any idea how to make it work ?

 

It should be UEFI... Don't load the Legacy option at all..

 

Na mistake from him.
Question with modded drivers : do you use generic inf modded, or mod yourself ?

Edit : ok put the right bios settings, installed drivers with inf modded provided first page = > black screen on either 120hz panel or external monitor, with failure on installation program.
His id is : PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05AE1028&REV_A1
Looks the same in inf provided.

 

the tuto is intended for 60Hz not 120Hz as wrotten in tittle... but lets try helping you,
-First in safe mode , run DDuninstaler for Nvidia,
-then restart with 'F8' Boot options = 'Disable driver Signing'

EDIT- i dont know for 120Hz if the command bootmenupolicy legacy in CMD will broke or not your laptop this was the command i did to stop blackscreen in dedicated but i thinks its not good for 120HZ Need someone to confirm this....

-Finally, reboot with F8 = 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement' then install Driver
EDIT: try this old driver first:
http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/upgradeyourlaptop/Alienware/17_R5_9xxM.zip

 

Ty for your answer darcoder.
It finally works. We couldn't make 347.88 work, so my friend found a solution on techinferno using modded 347.90 :

http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia...et-upgrades-driver-support-modded-inf-18.html post #176, and it worked directly like a charm.

 

do you recommend installing the lateset driver ?
http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia...-driver-support-modded-inf-23.html#post129510

for gta v and optimus ?
and do i have to remove the old driver , then switching to the integrated , then installing the new one ?

 

Latest driver 352 is good, give me 11500points in 3dmark2011 with slv7 vbios.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9828121
I still didnt had time to try on game but i think it might be the same or a bit better.

Here the custom 352.86 file for gtx980m:
https://mega.co.nz/#!jsI1HTYZ!OAbHATN0j-WtpCxQ5ao5jSZd1Gluv7znNmxwybs4fjs
https://mega.co.nz/#!e0wmUbYJ!1KGSCT2PBGpwumppo5oEGkej2eOmOUAlZzZnKtlbIrI

 

are they ok to use with a 970m?

 

i think yes it should be same boost but i didnt do any mod for 970m

 

Ok I am looking to upgrade soon.

 

OK now I have to ask for help here too. Sorry for copy paste from TechInferno but...finally I decided to upgrade to 980m from my current 880m on the Alienware 17 R1 (aka R5 if you like) with 120Hz 3D screen after months of contemplating. After seeing successful attempts I jumped on board and popped the card in (bought from Hidevolution).

Before installing the card I used Driver sweeper to clean all drivers. BIOS is latest A14 unmodified and in UEFI mode, everything else on default. And now the machine won't POST. I counted 4 beeps and the screen is black. Lights and fans are on. Putting the 880m back in, same result. Now I'm too chicken to strip down the machine to get to the CMOS battery based on the Owner's manual steps. Last night though I got to the point of removing the palm rest to get the last 2 RAM sticks out.

Please help if you can. Specs are in sigs. Thanks

 

Well you should investigate what the 4 beeps mean, and it appears that 4 beeps is a ram issue.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/496582/en?c=us&s=dhs&cs=19&l=en

 

4 beep is about ram issue. one or more ram are death or just need to be removed and put them back. Just plug one by one to diagnose wich one should be replaced/cleaned.

 

Was ESD to blame though? I mean I didn't touch the RAM units at all. So just took out CPU heatsink to do some repaste, and installed new GPU. Somehow that affected the RAM?

 

Remoove all your RAM and reseat it... If it's still happening, probably some of the RAM is spoilt..

 

Good, got 2 x 8gb sticks and a 256gb msata SSD.

EDIT: just ordered a 980M from woodzstack...looking forward to giving it a shot.

 

also, where the heck is the instructions to flash with a UEFI environment?

 

To flash what?
You got 60hz so just change settings in the bios like in my video. after all you can also run in cmd admin and lauch this command:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
This command help me to succeed to instal mod driver from j95. this cmd is a copy/paste from j95
you can follow the tuto like in the first page, nothing hard with a r5

 

To flash the vbios.

 

Be in desktop as normal, in device manager, disable gtx980m. Do the procedure with nvflash provided from slv7 and the instructions as well. For us, It might freeze for 1mn or even more till the soft will let you know succeded. Once done, enable back gtx980m and restart.

 

Ok waiting for woodzstack to send the GPU to me.

 

how the heck you do OC in optimus mode? i can't even access the voltage controller in precision x.

 

with NvidiaInspector

 

AFAIK, IIRC instead of MNvflash with disabling GPUs from Device mngr, we can use this newer Prema modded NVFlash v5.218 (Full UEFI BIOS compatibility for 9xxMs) to bypass those restrictions (saving a reboot 2x), as It does the job automatically. More info on this new NVFlash --> M18xR2 980M SLI thread

 

I upgraded to precision x 16 and it works now.

 

would having hwinfo and precision x running cause flashing issues? would it be recommended to disable both programs before flashing the vbios and would you still need to reboot?

 

Yep, better. Coz when I use DDU I disable HWInfo (though startup window shows, so no issues but once I ran HWInfo w.o nvidia driver It caused a crash & MSI AB doesn't cause any hiccups with DDU)

 

Thanks for confirming that. I did a quick test and yes, disabling hwinfo will not crash the pc.

 

just need some info (or should i say instructions) on how to back up and flash a vbios in UEFI mode.

EDIT: I have a spare SSD and a win 7 so i could change it back to the legacy BIOS to flash then switch it back to UEFI.

 

You will not need Windows 7 for that, flashing works fine in Windows 8.1:
1. Enable legacy in Windows 8 (cmd as admin):
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
2. Disable nvidia GPU in Device manager (no need to uninstall driver etc, just disabling is enough). Disable your antivirus just in case (you can disconnect the internet if you want).
3. Download the new vbios to C root (it will help in the next step steps). Download modded nvflash version from the link at the bottom of the post and save it in the same place as new vbios.
4. Run cmd as admin and type:
cd.. press enter, cd.. press enter - you should now be at C:\ root
5. type:
mnvflash -6 vbiosname.rom
6. This is crucial - wait for a few minutes if required. It looks like the cmd freezes and does nothing, while this is not the case. I can't stress this enough, you have to wait for a while... I did not have patience myself when doing this the first time and thought it does not work. Searched for some help in the forums, but all I needed to do was wait longer.

Enable legacy in Windows 8 (cmd as admin):
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

Disable legacy (cmd as admin):
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

SVL7 vbios+modded nvflash:
http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...s-mods-900m-series-overclocking-versions.html

I hope this helps

 

I don't get setting the boot policy to legacy because I am using UEFI.

 

I am using UEFI too with fast boot and secure boot enabled in BIOS. Just set it to legacy for flashing and then set it back to UEFI after the flashing with the cmd commands I provided above.

 

Ok so no reboots between punching in those commands?

 

Yes, no reboots or any manual changes in BIOS are required.

 

Good, still waiting on woodzstack to send my card.

 

I'm pretty sure that you need to restart after doing this or BIOS flash will not happen... Are you confident about this?

 

So what do the boot policy commands do anyway?

EDIT: got confirmation that my 980M has been posted and I should get it tomorrow.

 

svl7 doesn't mention the bootmenupolicy in the flashing instructions.

 

while on ws 8.1 desktop, use the cmd command. I had used the cmd command weeks before flashing my gpu with slv7. As i tell you before, this command make some nvidia drivers update not giving you a black screen. Thats all i recognized till now.

And i don't see the problem with restarting these laptop with ssd...6 seconds are nothing for security...

To resume your situation:
Put your laptop in optimus then go in safe mode and uninstall all driver with dduninstaller.
Install Gpu, run cmd. Reboot with f7 with advanced reboot. install latest driver modded ( 352.86 is very good)
Reboot, test a game/3d mark with temp mode to be sure gpu is good.
Then Guide to flash GPU.
Reboot and your done.

 

What cmd command?

 

Yes, the restart is still needed for the changes to be applied. Just checked some additional sources, I did not have to do this for a while and forgot.

I was wrong, the restart is still needed after copy/paste of the command. As Darcoder pointed out restarts on SSD do not take too long though