M17x R1 - Features we want in future BIOS's

Well, it is official on the M15x too, so we need someone to test it with the A04

Maybe they added support in case they decided to offer the cards

 

If the Crossfire configuration is released and Dell parts will sell it to me, I'll be giving it a shot. Otherwise there's no point, as it would be a severe performance drop from my current 280M SLI configuration. The one thing that worries me is that there was no Mobility 5xxx on the R1, so I don't know that the BIOS will support it. The reason the M15x is working with the 5870 right now is because the 5850 and 5870 are close enough to each other that the added BIOS support for the 5850 gets you by.

 

Ya I know what you mean. But again, wont know til someone tries it.

PM'd DellChrisM about this thread and he said that he has sent it on to engineering! Hope this goes somewhere for us

 

Yep, I pointed Chris at the A04 thread earlier. Fingers crossed!

 

I didn't actually try leaving it set, but with A04 it's not beeping at me anymore when I go over 1333 while setting it. Memory is allowing it, too, and did stick through a reboot (not sure if this was already allowed before).

 

I tried it with A04 and if I entered something over 1333 it would just set it at 1333. I can play around with the A04 BIOS some more but was not impressed during my short time with it

 

Any fresh ideas people?

How about PROPER power management to stop the stuttering nonsense!

 

If only it were as simple as a BIOS fix for that.

 

Well, it SHOULD be as simple as a BIOS fix. Just remove the horrible power controlling scheme they have implemented. I thought you all proved that it is due to the system BIOS and not anything hard coded into the chipset or CPU

 

If you'd like to burn out your power adapter or potentially fry your motherboard or other components, sure. The only full fix is to have a power adapter that can do at least 300W. 350W+ would be a safer bet.

 

Well they are not even letting us run at the rated 240 watts. If you get close they send the cpu performance to the basement as a "precaution". I do not think the limiting factor is the power adapter. I know I have ran mine pretty hard and it is still doing fine. The motherboard may be an issue though. I am on my 2nd motherboard because the first just plain stopped recognizing the battery - I suspect I may have fried something on it with the strenuous regiment of benching I did when I first had this machine

 

I want to bump this thread so it does not die. There are still many of us R1 owners and as I proved last night, this system still has ALOT of steam in it

(see sig for details )

 

Ive thought of something to add.
When running on integrated with Hybrid enabled, the dedicated GPU fans will continuously start-stop - start-stop which could potentially cause premature wear on the fans. (only applies to Nvidia GPU's as far as I know)

It is not driver related because i have tried lots of different ones since owning this laptop
Also if Hybrid is off in BIOS the dedicated fans remain stopped as they should.

They need to sort this in a BIOS update.

 

I second that request , it would be nice to swap dedicated and integrated instantly without that fan issue

 

Weird - you sure its not driver related? I'm not having this start-stop cycle issue and I have HybridSLI and Integrated Graphics both enabled 24x7.

 

have you checked after switching from discrete to integrated without rebooting?(having both hybrid and integrated enabled in bios) it happened to me in that situation (with 257.21), but it wouldn't happen if I switched from dedicated to integrated rebooting

 

Mine seems to happen regardless of reboot on integrated or switching from dedicated to integrated. Whenever hybrid is enabled at all it happens to me.

The fans just appear to move slightly as if pulsing on and off if you look at them underneath.
What drivers are you using Batboy and ill give them a try.

 

sorry , when I said rebooting I meant with hybrid disabled and integrated enabled , it seems to happen to me also only if I'm using integrated with hybrid and integrated enabled , so it's the same problem

 

I own an M17X-R1 and recently upgraded my laptop with two 285M GTX in SLI.

although I am thrilled with the performance gain that I have achieved with this upgrade over the 260Ms in SLI I would like to submit a few things to be implemented in a new BIOS release for the M17x to fully support this upgrade.

my question is, whenre can I submit this info to? is there an email link I can send my request to? or a number I can call?

I have been trying to find that out on the DELL site and Alienware site as well, but with no success. al I was able to find were links to customer support, order status ect..

what I am looking for is to be able to submit this info to technicians at Dell or Alienware who will be able to consider these changes.

can anyone please redirect me to the right source?

thanks in advance for any help

 

Lets not allow this thread to die off. So, from the R1 owners - how about a recap based on the ideas which scook included in post#1 -

I agree with scook on the items he initially listed. the only one I feel which is not a priority would be the fan control - none of the other systems have it and the system does a pretty good job at cooling. Just my feeling on that point. The rest of his suggestions all make sense and should be added.

Thoughts? Any additions or changes?

Lets keep this going...

 

CPU voltage!

 

Thanks for the bump BatBoy. I am interested in having the option to max the fans for extreme benching

When my laptop is in a chest freezer it is cold enough the fans rarely kick in, keeping me from achieving optimal cooling! It is also a long standing feature of Clevo laptops.....

 

Yeah I understand the reasoning - and I would welcome fan control however judging from the past (XPS platforms), I doubt we will see this. One can certainly hope though

 

That is what this thread is all about, hoping!

lol

 

Well we have seen A04 and A05 come with not a single requested feature

I guess they were just pulling my chain when they said they were watching this thread

 

Just sent this to DellChrisM, Nagshead, and Erawneila

Hope something comes of it

 

Well I heard that A09 just got pushed out for the R2 and we are still sitting on the same turd(s) that is A05

Really wish Dell would just take the 1 or 2 BIOS engineers this would require and make the changes that we have all requested! It would not take them very long.....if the Phoenix Bios was editable by the public I would have made the dam changes myself by now!

 

I want the polling rate fix.... !!

 

I assume you are referring to touchpad performance. Will add that to the list now

 

i see you gto droped feel our pein now brothers

 

We had been feeling it for some time. And that used to be my pain too lol, I had a whitebook before getting the M17x

 

Yes i was talking about the touchpad polling rate problem. Guys who own R2 already got their fix, and we have the same issue (since a year before R2) hance i am a 99.9% sure that the fix is exactly the same, something about the bios need to be fixed in order to get decent polling rate in touchpad.

 

And I have done some extensive testing in relation to memory bandwidth and have discovered that the M17x R1 is running at a considerable deficit to what it should be. I am getting 8900 MB/s memory speed when it should be up around 10600 MB/s. Also, operating in dual channel or single channel has ZERO impact on memory bandwidth and performance. My only conclusion is that these are broken in the BIOS or nvidia just lied when advertising its chipset, regardless, this should be rectified.

 

Bump for this thread as I do not want it getting ignored!

 

Bumpy bump bump, but is there anybody around here who if reads the thread can do a difference?

 

There are several dell employees here for customer service and representation. They have gathered information from here before, here is to hoping that they do it again!

 

at this point I will be happy if some day Dell release another BIOS for M17x R1.

 

Got a dell rep on the forum who might be looking at this thread again so bump for any fresh ideas!

 

If we get:
--Removal of the horrific crippling of the CPU that occurs when the system draws alot of power.
--Memory Voltage
--CPU Voltage
--Official support for the 5870m/GTX 460m in single and dual card configurations
then previous and mostly perspective users will see you in a better light,as these let downs put a lot of question marks in our minds.
Thank you scook9/ BatBoy/ all NBR AW members and why not you DELL if you are trying to fix these ATM.

 

well so far we have gotten the improved touchpad polling rate

the rest is still TBD

Since I am loosing faith in Dell, I am investigating modifying the BIOS myself. Anyone who can help in this please feel free to pitch in.

 

Best of luck, Scook. To be honest, when it comes to long-term product support, and actually understanding the hardware, I have greater faith in this here community.

 

I currently have someone looking at editing the bios to unlock alot of overclocking features, no guarantees yet but if it works we will be a much happier crowd!

Once I have received the edited bios and tested it I will post a link here as well as a link to the individual who did the work for me so that you all can donate as you feel appropriate. I plan a generous donation myself.

 

Looks like this unlocked BIOS will also allow us to finally control throttling as well as some awesome overclocking options

 

Im looking forward for this bios , Scook
js make sure to test it out thoroughtly ..

these are super nice features cant wait !

 

I do not know how much of that list we will get, but the guy helping me is aware of it and will do his best.

 

Of that list, which are your priority???

 

I originally went to him to try to get 5870 support added. Not sure if that even happened but we will gain a lot of overclocking features.

 

The fact that the 5870 don't work in the R1 could it be related to the fact that the PCIe bandwith is limited? I don't know about the R2 but in the R1 instead of the x16 we only get x8 even with one card.

Also something should be donated eighter to the guy that looked into this or to the one that bricked his motherboard.

 

I am going out of town on a business trip but when I get back I will be testing it on my M17x. Bandwidth is not the problem, the R2 has x8 as well.

 

Mate, if you get this working there's gonna be allot of grateful R1 owners here.

Throttling disable setting is what I most want, but updated GPU options would be incredible.