BIOS A05 now available for M17x-R2

It's up! You can download it Here. VT has been added and I would expect Crossfire 5870's as an option pretty soon.

One other interesting thing in the A05 release notes aside from CF 5870 compatibility, is mention of "N11E", and I remember reading somewhere that N11E/NE11E is one of the code names used in the GTX 480M and GTX 380M. Maybe this is a hint at a release of the 480M and 380M at some point for the R2 as well.

 

Here's all the release notes. It looks like CF 5870 support was added in A04 already (with 5870m support existing all the way back as far as A01). If someone can manage to grab two Dell 5870s + crossfire cable, they'll be good to go.

 

Maybe your "source's" revised statement of the 13th for dual 5870's may be correct after all, I guess we will see sometime tomorrow. I also posted the release notes already in a thumbnail in my first post.

 

Feel like we r closing to the target. at least on the track. good news anyway.

 

I know what you mean, I feel the release is imminent as well. I hope when I check the Dell site tomorrow I am greeted with the dual 5870 config option.

 

Time to Upgrade BIOS and get a price on two 5870s.

 

hope this dream come true any time soon

 

Funny thing is it mentions in the bios release notes "NV N11E" and "NE11E". I remember reading somewhere that N11E is one of the code names given to the GTX 380M and 480M. Perhaps this hints at a release of the 380M and 480M at some point for the R2.

 

Noob question....my m17x is only 2 weeks old, will this fix the problem i have with OSD telling me i have a non compatible AC adapter?? Dell actually told me it was my adapter and sent me a new one...but the problem still exists...I just wonder if it's a bios problem...Comp came with A02

 

i do not care what will AW put into it, that one must be SLI OR CROSSFIRE ,powerful than 4870CF of course and ASAP

 

upgraded bios turned my R2 in a dyson vacuum duster on steroids.
after a reboot it was gone

 

To answer my own question....no it will not fix that problem haha

 

well today looks very promising now. luckily not much is happening at school today so i can be on my phone refreshing the page, and here constantly

 

Well I hope it's in time for my visit to the USA lol...

 

Excellent. Time to give this new BIOS a spin.

 

everyone looks so positive. well i will go to bed as usual and check it out tomorrow. good luck to guys.

 

OK, first reports on this side.

This BIOS is sweet, at least for what I wanted to do. Virtual machines are running great now. And yes, temperatures are noticeably lower. The fans are quieter, and the Alien lights on the lid and stuff light up as soon as you press the power button.

So far, this BIOS is a nice score for Dell

 

War,

Interesting....

So this BIOS update fixes the issue of the power button and alienhead not starting up until the FX controller application loads? I would have thought that would require a Command Center update

How much of a temperature difference are you seeing?

 

Coolness!!!!

 

After my initial testing, this BIOS seems to be working fine. It appears to be quite an improvement over A02. VT support is there, the laptop runs cooler (not just the readings, it really does run cooler) and the Alien Heads on the power button and lid light up from the start of the system and stay lit and the eyes light properly with HDD activity. Very solid and no issues with this BIOS so far.

 

Great I cant wait to get this when I get home today!!!

 

Aye flashed to A05 no issues to report.

 

no probs here so far either.fingers crossed.

 

yep, all looks good here too.
Virtualization added, apart from that no visual changes...

 

I was hoping for some more overclocking ability in bios(multiplier control)but maybe next time.

 

Glad to see that everyone is reporting very positive results after flashing the new BIOS. If anyone sees any virtualization problems (not that I am expecting any), please let me know.

Thanks!

 

You sir need to visit us more often.

 

I always thought it was a Ms!

 

Yep it's nice to see virtualization back for sure, multiplier OC'ing for the extreme CPU's was a big deal though and should have been added. When you pay over a thousand dollars for a CPU you should be able to use the features it's designed with. The reason Intel unlocked the multipliers is so 920XM owners can use them.

 

Hi everyone,

What is the recommended setting in the BIOS flash application in the advanced tab?

 

I just double-clicked the RXXXX.exe file and that's it, no tinkering with advanced settings or anything. You should do the same.

 

I could not agree more having to use e-leet tuning tool is stupid.

 

Only issue I have with it is that the fans run at a real high rate during startup, once it gets to the windows starting screen it calms down and runs normal.

 

Cheers m8

 

That's not a big deal really. Plus we have VT support so I can deal with that start up fan noise.

 

Has anyone noticed flickering? I just ran 3dmark06 overclocked cpu @27 multi + 5% oc and GPU @ 675/1140. it happens about every 30 seconds or so.

 

He has signed his posts in the past as Brian.

uh-oh here we go again. Have you played any games?

 

I did the bios update and now my startup time doubled it waits at the welcome screen about an extra 15 seconds Any ideas should I reinstall again and if so what is the best way, or just go back to the old bios

 

flickering, my rig wont even run at those setting without bsod due to temp.

 

so new bios really lowers 06 runs.left is old bios right is new bios.same settings.

 

Hmm the flickering is back... not good. Looks like we'll be needing an A06 asap.

 

I have the EXACT same. I disabled AC Adapter warnings in the bios.

 

I can confirm that it runs cooler, i'm seeing about 3-4 DEG lower MAX temp on the GPU's! Dunno if this is just a coincidence!

 

arent those settings too low to cause flickering? lool. just kidding.

 

can't say idle temps are cooler. have to check it under games.
One annoying thing that was already mentioned is the fans that kick in full on whenever computer comes up from sleep/hibernate or is turned on.
I also had an issue (a rather scary one):
after a05 reinstall i went to the bios and disabled a bunch of devices i don't need (bluetooth modem, wired lan etc)-figured if i don't use them why waste energy and resources..
Then i noticed that if i put the computer to sleep when i turn it back on it wouldn't wake up.
So i did the 7 second hard off, turned it on but the computer wouldn't turn on - keyboard and fans are working but the screen would just stay black.
I took out the battery and power drained it, then it turned on but the computer still would not wake up from sleep/turn back on without another power drain.

So i went to the bios - loaded defaults and that had fixed the issues.

Thought i'd mention it...

 

I did notice the same thing mfractal, but i had disabled them before installing the bios.

 

What do you mean that you noticed it. You had the issue I described because of that?

 

yes, I had all the features disabled the day before. When I flashed the new bios and the m17x restarted it would put the fans on high and the leds would light up but it would not go to the splash screen.

 

So guess we found a bug...

 

Upgraded to A05 - nice easy install

No issues so far