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    Alienware M17x R3 A09 BIOS Discussion

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by mp5cartman, Nov 30, 2011.

  1. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    think i got my system all straitened out. No more BSOD's or stupid things going on. Looks like i just needed to let windows update itself. :rolleyes:
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 20, 2012
    #101
  2. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    Awesome news bro! now get that 6990m in there!
     
    SlickDude80, Jan 20, 2012
    #102
  3. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    its stuck in limbo in some post office :( seller is working on figuring it out.
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 20, 2012
    #103
  4. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    To demonstrate: A08 on the left, A09 on the right. (Crucial 256GB M4)

    [​IMG]
     
    The Revelator, Jan 20, 2012
    #104
  5. nayilalien

    nayilalien Notebook Evangelist

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    ^
    Why would Alienware do such a thing?
     
    nayilalien, Jan 21, 2012
    #105
  6. kakaroth1977

    kakaroth1977 Notebook Geek

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    from Dell Italy on facebook

    M17x does not support SATA III

    M17x hardware is not designed to support SATA III We would need an IC update for SATA3, we decided not to change as it requires a mother board re-design - to do a re-driver integrated circuit update to enable this, so this would require a motherboard re-tooling for M17x

    For M18x we validated the Samsung PM 830 SSD series that is SATA III compatible (256G SSD and 512G SSD).
     
    kakaroth1977, Jan 21, 2012
    #106
  7. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Dell+idiots. People should post their experiences. Ever since A01, M17x R3 users have been using Sata III, even if it is only in one port for some.

    Maybe Dell are talking about the R1 and R2? Post about the R3 telling them that Sata III works fine before A09. See how they react.
     
    widezu69, Jan 21, 2012
    #107
  8. kakaroth1977

    kakaroth1977 Notebook Geek

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    I told him that slot 1 with A08 work as sata III .

    He told me that R3 M17x is not designed to support SATA III , and Dell not certificate it .

    Can you ask to Dell Usa o Alienware?
     
    kakaroth1977, Jan 21, 2012
    #108
  9. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    I've asked both already.
     
    widezu69, Jan 21, 2012
    #109
  10. bigspin

    bigspin My Kind Of Place

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    looks like we need to start FB page. I'm sure then Dell auto Magically enable it via BIOS update. Let's report this issue to engadget...etc tech sites.
     
    bigspin, Jan 21, 2012
    #110
  11. kakaroth1977

    kakaroth1977 Notebook Geek

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    I agree, some of you want to create the group on facebook?
     
    kakaroth1977, Jan 21, 2012
    #111
  12. bigspin

    bigspin My Kind Of Place

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    Yes. but let's wait for other peoples opinion.
     
    bigspin, Jan 21, 2012
    #112
  13. DarKStreetS

    DarKStreetS Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am on the A8 Bios and I get Sata III on one of the hard drive slots. I am for the FB page and other means of slapping this unsupported Sata III story on their faces. Let's be real people, we paid large sums of money for the previlige of owning the best gaming rig out there. We should not accept this!
     
    DarKStreetS, Jan 21, 2012
    #113
  14. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Hell both my Sata ports operate under 6Gbps. Runs absolutely fine at Sata III.
     
    widezu69, Jan 21, 2012
    #114
  15. payday4ray

    payday4ray Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm all for a Facebook group. I don't even own a M17X but do have a 25% off coupon that was going to push me to buy one, but now I hesitate knowing that I will have to downgrade the BIOS first thing when I get it, which just feels plain wrong.
     
    payday4ray, Jan 21, 2012
    #115
  16. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    It takes less than a minute, is done under windows, and you can use the Dell A08 bios flasher. This sort of thing happens all the time with laptops, it is pathetic for Alienware to do it, but you shouldn't avoid the laptops because of a 1 minute bios flash.
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 21, 2012
    #116
  17. payday4ray

    payday4ray Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah, I'm still buying it. But would be nice to see if Dellienware could take these kind of problems more seriously and fix them faster.
     
    payday4ray, Jan 21, 2012
    #117
  18. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey i am wondering why i cannot get SATA 3 working properly, I just switched my hdd's and am in AHCI mode in the A08 BIOS.

    My SSD is a 120GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe and I am achieving very slow speeds ( 210 read 85 write..) in CrystalDiskMark any help would be great
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #118
  19. zoolian982

    zoolian982 Notebook Deity

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    Check for a firmware update azlinzo.
     
    zoolian982, Jan 22, 2012
    #119
  20. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Try putting the SSD into Port1 instead of Port0
     
    widezu69, Jan 22, 2012
    #120
  21. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have it in Port 1 and re-arranged my boot sequence, getting the latest firmware for the chronos now .. will post my results, Thanks alot for the speedy replies

    newest firmware installed on the chronos now 208 r 98 write..
    what else could be the issue?
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #121
  22. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    Try installing the latest intel RST driver
     
    SlickDude80, Jan 22, 2012
    #122
  23. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    Go to the bottom right next to the clock and open the Intel Rapid Storage program from there. Find your drive, expand the info and there should be a spot that says SATA speed, make sure it is at 6 gb/s.

    I have my Samsung 830 in the middle HDD spot with A08 and I get over 500 read and 400 write in sequential performance, and good performance with random as well.

    What should your drive be getting?
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 22, 2012
    #123
  24. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Supposed to be getting
    Read Speed: up to 560MB/sec
    Write Speed: up to 515MB/sec

    installed the latest Intel rst ( it was not even on my task bar before ) and nothing has changed.

    any more info I can give to help find a solution?

    Thanks again everyone
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #124
  25. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    Is it listed as 6gb/s in RST now? Is it set to raid or ahci in the bios?
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 22, 2012
    #125
  26. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    AHCI and yes to 6gb/s

    I heard something about disabling c3-c6 in bios.. is that applicable to our motherboard?
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #126
  27. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    here is a screenshot.. ATTO shows very different results
     

    Attached Files:

    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #127
  28. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    It appears that it is running full speed with ATTO? Maybe go grab the Samsung Magician software, it has a good benchmark built-in, and some nice OS optimization features. I suspect it might just be Crystal having a problem, especially if 2 benchmarks give it full speed rating.
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 22, 2012
    #128
  29. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    It looks like A09 is preventing Sata III speeds in only certain cases. Try running CrystalDiskMark using 0Fill compressible. Perhaps it is only incompressible data getting limited.
     
    widezu69, Jan 22, 2012
    #129
  30. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    you are correct, 0fill gives me similar scores to ATTO. 467/464 seq
    I am using a08 bios. any ideas on the incompressible data issue?
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #130
  31. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Right you are on A08. What about write caching? Have you turned that off? You need that on.

    Also SandForce drives are bad at incompressible figures. Although yours are abnormally low...
     
    widezu69, Jan 22, 2012
    #131
  32. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    write caching is on :)
    should I be asking in the mushkin forum?
     
    azlinzo, Jan 22, 2012
    #132
  33. azlinzo

    azlinzo Notebook Enthusiast

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    don't seem to be getting any response from Mushkin... maybe this is normal?
    seems extremely slow to me tho. Any other settings I could check?
     
    azlinzo, Jan 23, 2012
    #133
  34. YodaGoneMad

    YodaGoneMad Notebook Deity

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    If I understand the problem it is an issue with your SSD, not the system. It sounds like the controller used (in your SSD) has trouble with incompressible data and thus you get lower speeds. My SSD gets full speed on the CrystalMark test, so I don't think it is an issue with the laptop.
     
    YodaGoneMad, Jan 23, 2012
    #134
  35. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    i got the same issue with the A09 when the M17 replacement was shipped to me, port 1 or 0 i'd get SATA 2 speeds on my SSD...crucial 0009 FW
     
    paradigm, Jan 24, 2012
    #135
  36. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    widezu69, Jan 24, 2012
    #136
  37. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    ^^^ Not just recommended, but required. 0309 fixes the 5200hr bug in Crucial M4's...i.e., the drive bsods at 5200 hrs of operation requiring a reboot. It then bsods every hr after that
     
    SlickDude80, Jan 24, 2012
    #137
  38. mdw211

    mdw211 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is this possibly related to the drive then? I've got 2 vertex 3s in RAID-0, and port 0 always drops to SATA-2 speeds after a little while (starts from resume/cold boot as SATA-3). Swapping the drives around makes no difference -- it's always port 0 that gets the speed drop.
     
    mdw211, Jan 24, 2012
    #138
  39. Dethv

    Dethv Newbie

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    I can also confirm by benchmarking and through the RST driver interface that after installing the A09 bios update my Crucial M4 SSD was only transferring at SATA 2 speeds. I downgraded to A08 and everything seems to be back to normal.
     
    Dethv, Jan 27, 2012
    #139
  40. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    A10 is coming...avoid the A09 at all costs
     
    SlickDude80, Jan 27, 2012
    #140
  41. Cthugha

    Cthugha Notebook Enthusiast

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    System was delivered with A09. Intel RST same version as latest download from Dell/Alienware.
    Installed Samsung 830 SSD in port 1. Checked SATA speed in RST and it said 3 GB/s (SATA2).
    Downgraded BIOS to A08. SSD SATA speed is now 6 GB/s (SATA3).
    HDD in slot 0 is the 750GB Seagate drive that the system was delivered with. SATA 3 GB/s.
    Windows Experience Index disk speed was 7.8 before BIOS downgrade, and it's 7.9 now with A08.

    Hopefully they will fix this in the next version...
     
    Cthugha, Jan 28, 2012
    #141
  42. Geoffxx

    Geoffxx Notebook Evangelist

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    ok I don't have SSD's but I am getting random failure of sata port 0 (or the disk) - is Dell aware of some HW problem on these systems and is trying to hide it, my system can work perfectly for days then bang - port 0 stops and I have to force a reboot, this is a weird problem, even on reboot I have to turn off again as it can't find a bootable device then restarts normally and goes on for days error free
     
    Geoffxx, Jan 28, 2012
    #142
  43. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Call Dell. There's a problem there.
     
    widezu69, Jan 28, 2012
    #143
  44. Geoffxx

    Geoffxx Notebook Evangelist

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    well you're not kidding mate, problem is I'm away from home and currently in a Dell none service country and I really really don't like the idea of having to replace my HD's or MB which is probably Dells solution
     
    Geoffxx, Jan 28, 2012
    #144
  45. largohoj

    largohoj Newbie

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    Hey guys, so i just got my m17x r3 and my corsair performance pro. I flashed bios A08 and it was running at sata 3. However, after a few days it goes back to running to sata 2, so I flash again and it's back at sata 3. I've done this about three times already. Is there a reason why it keeps reverting back to sata 2? thanks :)
     
    largohoj, Jan 30, 2012
    #145
  46. GeoCake

    GeoCake http://ted.ph

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    The SSD should always be in the Middle (Port 1) since on the A08 BIOS it will always maintain SATA III 6GB/S, whereas Port 0 (Side) is known to fluctuate between SATA II and III

    A09 is an epic fail because both ports only work at SATA II 3GB/S -_-
     
    GeoCake, Jan 30, 2012
    #146
  47. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    Better be fixed in the next bios or its just gonna be more of the same :(
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 30, 2012
    #147
  48. largohoj

    largohoj Newbie

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    Yea, I installed it in the middle. But the problem seems to be persists. I recently just re-flashed bios A08 to enable sata 3
     
    largohoj, Jan 30, 2012
    #148
  49. GeoCake

    GeoCake http://ted.ph

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    :eek: <- This is my face right now

    You sure it reverts to SATA 2?
    And you sure you're flashing A08?
     
    GeoCake, Jan 30, 2012
    #149
  50. blink_c

    blink_c Notebook Consultant

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    Have any more info on this? Who said it was being worked on?
     
    blink_c, Jan 30, 2012
    #150
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