Alienware M17x R4 A09 BIOS released

So here it goes - A09 BIOS for M17X R4 were released and can be downloaded from here (UK site):

Alienware M17x R4 System BIOS A09

It appears A06-A08 were skipped as I am still using A05, which was later re-released at the the beginning of August. No changelog is attached as far as I could see. I found in another tech site fast boot for Windows 8 was either removed or made default, therefore does not have the option to enable it. Maybe Alienware support guys could shed some light on what was actually changed in this release.

As of the time of this writing the file can not be downloaded.

 

I have mirrored the bios here for those that cannot download:
M17R4A09WIN64.exe

 

any benefit of flashing it??

 

No real benefit that i have seen unless you are switching to Windows 8 which seems to be what the BIOS is really about.

 

Likely contains new SLIC table information for OEM licensing of Windows 8 for alienwares.

 

plain english please. I do speak a level of tech, just not that type haha.

 

Here is a good explanation:

What Is a SLIC BIOS Entry? | eHow.com

 

Here is a good explanation:
What Is a SLIC BIOS Entry? | eHow.com

 

Very interesting . I wonder if this is the reason for the new R3 bios as well . Shame dell do not publish a detailed fixes/enhancements document with their bios files so we can decide if we need them

 

Thanks for the link. Now I understand.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 running Resurrection Remix

 

hmms no uefi support for faster booting? will flash and see

Edit: hell yeah dell added UEFI boot. my windows 8 boots like a freaking madman on steroids.
If you have windows 8 install this bios and enable UEFI boot.
AND!! i have switchable graphics now with amd 12.8 drivers!

 

I went ahead and installed A09 and it went ok. Here is what I did and it was successful.

1) Disable any antivirus/firewall software running on the machine before downloading. Norton flags the update as WS.Reputation.1 which is a low reputation marker. It will auto-delete the file if it picks this up as the reputation hasn't been established yet. If you get that restore it and tell it to no longer detect that. Then redownload it anyways as it may be incomplete. Make sure you disable Norton before redownloading though.

2) Disconnect any USB devices. This includes the USB mouse you may be using right now. You can survive with the touchpad for a little bit.

3) Enable Enduro mode. I don't know if it was needed but I did it just in case anyways.

4) Run the update and be very patient. It will reboot the computer when done.

5) When it starts booting back up go into the bios and resave the settings just in case. Change anything that needs to be set again as some settings may of reverted (there have been reports of the update setting the drive mode from AHCI back to RAID, ect.). I personally had it on RAID already even before this so I didn't really have to change anything. I just looked and resaved.

6) Enjoy!

You should be ok.

New Features (that I could see):
* UEFI mode is now supported. Disabled by default. (Set to Bios or Legacy on Boot List Option. Set that to UEFI to enable)
* Older BIOS mode options are now named Legacy mode now. Enabled by default.
* Secure Boot now supported (for Windows 8 and some Linux distributions). Can be toggled.
* Windows 8 Fast Boot is now supported. Can be toggled.

Please be aware for Secure Boot to show UEFI must be enabled and Legacy Option Rom must be disabled. The same holds true for Windows 8 Fast Boot as it needs Secure Boot to work.
EDIT/NOTE: It appears someone pointed out that the Legacy Boot Rom can't be set to disabled if Enduro is disabled. You get the error "Can't detect MXM card GOP driver" otherwise and it switches back to Enabled status.

It is unknown if the update holds a new SLIC marker for Windows 8 or not. If it does then that would be awesome. The SLIC version number for Windows 8 OEM Pre-install is 3.0. I'll try to see if it is possible to do a dump to check later on.

Update: I checked with RW Anything and it shows the SLIC section of the firmware still houses a version 2.1 marker so it looks like the update does not modify that section. It isn't to say that future M17x R4 purchases that come with Windows 8 will not get a marker in their firmware though.

Screenshot of the new options (note: Boot List Option is set to UEFI and Load Legacy Option Rom is set to Disabled in order to show additional options... they will be hidden otherwise):


FYI: Enduro mode still works post update.

 

disabling legacy mode only works in endure mode. when on ati only you get a mxm error when trying to disable legacy.
to get true uefi boot you need to reinstall with gpt boot partition.

 

I am running into a problem with my 256gb msata dropping out from start up since updating this bios. Should I be worried??

 

Yes. You are correct. For others the error is "Can't detect MXM card GOP driver". Looks like they forgot something in the firmware update? Who do I need to report the bug to?

I have no idea what would happen if I enabled Enduro, turned on secure boot, then disabled Enduro again.

 

my 128GB msata works fine in raid0 after upgrade.

 

I am still on windows 7 using the A05 and I am wondering if it is worth the update? I don't intend to upgrade to windows 8 anytime soon either.

 

no it just adds functionality for windows 8.
So not needed per se.

 

i am going to upgrade to windows 8 today and the bios says it is A08, and there is an option for windows 8 fast boot. will this bios boot faster??

 

So I'm on A09 and want to upgrade to Windows 8 in my M17x R4. Should I leave the BIOS in legacy mode, or is there any way at all to use UEFI/secure boot/win 8 fast boot while also keeping the F7 switch ability? Without doing an entire drive wipe/re-install?