Hey guys! Need your help to enable Secure Boot.

I recently re-installed my Alienware M17x R4 ( Voyager ) with Windows 8 Pro using the UEFI method on HDD with GPT partitions as gpt is the requirement for UEFI. Everything is fine.

My bios is A11 and I have a 3D Nvidia 675m configuration.

I can see the Secure Boot listed in Bios..but its greyed out? I am confused after reading the various threads related to secure boot. Some claim their bios shows Windows 8 ( fast boot ) option, while others claim their secure boot is enabled etc.

I dont know what else to try? Can anyone guide me on this matter.

 

Have you tried disabling the FastBoot?

 

Thank for replying Porras!

I dont have an option called FASTBOOT anywhere in my bios....

I do have Secure Boot mentioned but its Disabled and Greyed out

I cant disable Legacy cdrom... Currently diagnostics states I am booting with uefi with legacy oprom

My Alienware M17x R4 system spec is :

Windows 8 Pro ( UEFI install on GPT partitions )
Dual 7200rpm 750 WD HDD
17' 3D Display
16 Gb ram
Nvidia 675m GPU
Blu Ray Burner drive
4.0 Bluetooth
Killer 1103 Card

 

Is legacy support enabled in the BIOS? You have to disable it when you change to UEFI, when you leave legacy support on with the UEFI boot you won't have full UEFI boot (i.e. fast boot and secure boot). Unfortunately if you installed windows with legacy support on, you need to turn it off and reinstall windows. It won't boot just by disabling legacy support, I think there a few hidden partitions which will be missing for UEFI to work completely. But it is worth it though, boot to desktop in less than 10 seconds, (including time to type your password).

 

I don't believe you can use fastboot/UEFI on a 3D model. This was the information I got when win 8 came out: You only have access to the NV video and as yet they do not have the UEFI microcode on them.

I read that Vbios' will come along that support it but I haven't seen one yet (although not looking that hard!)

Another reason I haven't jumped to win 8 yet even though I have a license.

Edit: Maybe Luis can check with the techs and confirm or otherwise?

 

Just FYI mickyd any laptop shipping with windows 8 and 3d these days should have the UEFI compatible vBIOS. If you ordered with windows 7 the gpu is unlikely to come with the vBIOS required. I have seen that you can flash the newer vBIOS if you want (on techinferno). No official flash though as of yet.

My laptop came with windows 7, running windows 8, when i try to boot off the nvidia gpu only it won't boot but will fail post and restart using the integrated graphics.

 

Thanks, I would have thought that dell would be shipping UEFI enabled discreet cards with win 8 but not seen anyone with a 3D that it works on so far? Your test shows that, at least on earlier vbios', it it not possible on a 3D model.

Hopefully Luis can let us know if a UEFI vbios is officially available

 

Below is an excerpt i had taken from another forum by a member whom I have seen posting in our forum too.

Looks like what MickyD said is correct.

I did install with Legacy Bios disabled...And this problem is clearly mentioned as described below..

Post by svl7 from TI

The problem is I need a Nvidia GTX 675m vbios.Even though legacy bios is turned off UEFI is backward compatible and apart from that..I have tried disabling Legacy Cdrom too! But that is when I get the error "Cant detect MXM card GOP driver". I suspected 3D models will suffer first because we only have discrete Nvidia cards....
e
" User with any of the M14x R2 / M17x R4 / M18x R2 notebooks with a current BIOS have reported issues when using the Secure Boot / Fast Boot options in combination with the dedicated Nvidia / AMD GPU.("Can't detect MXM card GOP driver" in case of the R4 / M18x R2)

The reason for this is simple - Dell never provided a vbios update which includes the necessary graphic drivers to make those feature work. The only UEFI compliant drivers in the system have been the ones of the Intel HD iGP.
A very big failure on Dell's side if you ask me, especially since this has been reported here and in other forums as well on the dell community site and it was said that people would look into this... absolutely nothing happened.Not that this really surprises me... looking at the latest BIOS releases and also at the behavior regarding release notes for such updates. Seems we need to look for the updates ourselves.

Anyway, Dell actually ships the very latest systems with updated vbios on the dedicated GPUs.
Attached to this post you can find a new vbios for the Nvidia GTX 680m, 660m as well as the AMD 7970m. Both include the required UEFI drivers, and should therefor fix this issue.
Thanks @Zyron for the 680m vbios.

I don't have a version for the 675m so far, so if anyone has an updated vbios for that card, please let me know or post it.

Flashing instructions for Nvidia: [GUIDE] NVIDIA VBIOS flashing
Flashing instructions for AMD: [GUIDE] AMD VBIOS flashing



As for the M14x R2, a new, yet unreleased BIOS (A10) has made it's way to the web. You can find it here: [M14x R2] A10 BIOS - Fixes UEFI issues with the Nvidia card
Check the third post. Also I took a quick look at it and wrote down the most important changes (post #4).

EDIT: M14x R2 BIOS A10 is now officially available on the Dell drivers site."

 

Wow, good find +rep

Looks like I'm still waiting for a vbios - and then I want one with matched P clocks . Too much pain for so little gain...