M17x R1 System BIOS A05

Bios A05 is out
Drivers & Downloads

Fixed power adapter issue

 

M17xR1 A05 System BIOS

BIOS Information:
BIOS Revision: A05
EC Revision: 12.60
9400M VBIOS Version: v62.79.60.00.03

Instructions and comments:
1. To install the BIOS, download the ISO and use a CD burning software (such as
Nero or Roxio) to burn it to a CD.
2. Confirm the image burned correctly and restart your system with the CD in the
optical drive.
3. When the AlienHead splash screen appears hit F12 to pull up the boot menu
and select CD/DVD drive as your boot source.
4. The system will boot from the CD and automatically flash the BIOS; however it
will take some time to load the entire image to flash the BIOS. Please be
patient.
5. If your system is RAID enabled, after flashing the BIOS and rebooting the
system go into the BIOS Advanced menu and set the SATA Operation to RAID.
Then enable each drive for RAID.
6. The A05 BIOS must be installed with the OSD Application A02 (v. 2.19) or later
version. If not, your OSD functionality might not be complete.

A05 System BIOS Release Notes:
1. Enhanced AC Adapter communication to correctly identify the adapter
wattage.
2. Fix issue where system would enter hibernate or be shut off but would not
charge the battery.

BIOS history:
Please see previous BIOS release for their release notes.

 

Cool! K just installed on my machine. All went well.

 

Damn, I was really hoping they may of fixed the throttle issue for those with the max spec R1. What a letdown...

 

BIOS can't fix that unless they allow wattage over the power adapter spec. In other words, not happening.

Nice that they hopefully tracked down and squashed the PSU identification bug, though. I'm on an R2 now so I can't test this.

 

Thanks this normal for me, along with Nvidia driver 257.38.

 

Updated with no issue - using a CD-RW. Blah. Never did like these 'update via ISO' rollouts.

No issues found so far. Time will tell if the adapter issue is resolved. Anyone who is still seeing it after flashing to A05 please do post here with info.

 

Can't you just unpack the ISO and then use winphlash on the .ROM like all the other BIOS versions?

I guess my main question becomes, why should I use this version over A03? Has anyone had any real-world gains from it yet?

 

well, here is the main reasoning for updating:

1. Enhanced AC Adapter communication to correctly identify the adapter
wattage. (193W message)
2. Fix issue where system would enter hibernate or be shut off but would not
charge the battery. (plugged in, not charging)

 

I still get the message on boot about battery power and have to drop the battery to get it to charge. Only difference for me is that in BIOS it shows 240W and does NOT disable the discrete graphics....

 

Interesting - I have not encountered it yet but will watch for it. You sure you have Adapter Warning Messages enabled right?

 

All fine here so far, will notify if anything appears or goes wrong. Cheers.

I too am not a fan of having to burn the ISO bios image. I had to hunt down a blank CD-R lol.

 

Seems to be working fine for me. Haven't had any of the old 193W issues from A04.

If something pops up I'll post it.

 

Seems fine to me so far also - only had the message once since A04 came out so can't be 100% it's really worked for me.

Annoying it's CD only for install, but can only think Dell want a more stable/standardised environment to upgrade it in order to rule out any operating system issues.

 

Is there any advantage over A03?

 

damn. I was hoping for a vcore setting or 5870 support. I know my cpu could be stable at 3.5ghz and beyond with the ability to bump the voltage.

 

There is no major improvements in this from A03... it just fixes up the battery and power charger bugs they brought in from A04.

 

...and those were pretty big bugs... many were hit. nice to see them squashed. there is still quite a way to go of course.

 

Too true! Its great to finally have a fix available... took its time arriving but its good to finally have it.

 

Flashed to A05.

Rebooted.

No adapter warning message.

Logged in to Windows. Shows it´s running on battery and not charging while my adapter is plugged in (Flextronics).

 

Yes, after enabling "Adapter Warning" in BIOS I boot fine but not charging unless dropping the battery and reconnecting it....

 

Another BIOS release with none of the user requested features then

Requests discussed here

 

The question was not answered, if you have A03 on your system installing A05 did not fix anything.

A05 was a fix for A04.

 

I also asked this, best I can tell there is really not much to be gained.....

 

Does BatBoy work for DELL?

 

No, he is just a moderator here, this forum is completely separate from dell aside from the handful of employees who post here

 

Just asking, no offense BatBoy.

 

Why not just download throttle stop and up the voltage through that program?

 

Why would I be offended? lol - I'll take that as a compliment?

In any event, I have not encountered the adapter warning message nor battery not charging since flashing A05. I'll reserve judgement for now however I am leaning to it being resolved. *CROSSING FINGERS*

 

Because if you can do it at boot it may overcome problems like the horrible loss in memory bandwidth I have been experiencing

 

I've just noticed now my battery isn't charging after plugging back in the AC adapter. Hmmmsss.

 

It is definitely not fixed yet... at least for those of us with flextronics power supplies?? Is that the common item?

 

Good possibility cueball. I have the Delta PSU. How could they miss this? Anyone else with a Flex?

 

The funniest thing is that other than this power supply detection issue, this machine has been fantastic. I had a little of the latency issues but it never impacted me too much and the fix cured all of that for me. I played 16 hours of BFBC2 since Saturday so it has been getting at least a little workout...

 

I have a flex adapter and no warnings yet.

 

TS can only do it on unlocked processors. I'm stuck at 1.15v

 

It is not the warning it is the battery not charging in the OS. Check there to see if it is charging...

 

I'm using a delta charger and I've found it can take between 10-30sec to go from "pluged in, not charging" to "pluged in, charging".

I don't have a flextronics to test but if there is no change in charging status after ~1min then I guess there must still be a problem with A05 and the flextronics chargers.

 

Yeah, mine stays plugged in, not charging until i drop the battery and put it back in. Then all is good until i shutdown or hibernate again...

 

Yep same problem for me, I just checked the AC adapter its the you know who; the infamous "Mr. Flextronics". LOL.

 

Installed OK, no adapter warning so far (Delta, had the warning very rarely).

Unfortunately (but as expected because nothing mentioned in release notes), erratic fan start/stop behaviour of discrete graphics fans is still there when running on integrated graphics (Fn-F7)

 

I have a Flextronics for my r1 and I was running A03 with no problems with any alerts for the Power Brick ( adapter ) , THAN I updated to the A04, than it was like the fourth of July, Error messages galore, Seriously though, almost every time I turn it on I would Have an error.

Now, the big FIX, I reverted back to the A03 and low and behold, problem fixed, completely.

I don't think updating from A04 to A05 will be as stable as the A03, the A05 does not have any updates worth updating to.
You may want to go back to A03 until A06.

Go DELL................

 

Well A05 fixed the power issue for me. On anothe note, im having trouble with the P07 beta drivers .

 

Killed the adapter warning for me! Finally!
____________________
M17x: T9900, 8GB DDR3@1333, 2x260M, 2x640GB WD, 17" @1920x1200, Xtreme Audio Notebook

 

I was having trouble with the P07 beta drivers too, shocking performance and other bugs so I changed back to the Nvidia ones for now.

 

Just posted this in our old A04 thread - but I'll say it here too - A05 fixed the 193 W warning problem on the Flextronics adaptor here in the office that ALWAYS gave me the error (waited till I got back to the office because I was traveling with a Delta adaptor that only rarely failed).
I see the comments about the P07 drivers - have been using them since Monday - no problems so far (by the same token - I'm just running basic bisness apps)

 

San Diego 7697 - It fixed the 193W error for me as well but in the OS the battery icon in the lower right sys tray says "plugged in, not charging"... this is the continuing issue for some of us... The only way to get it to charge is to remove the battery and reconnect it while the system is up. Can you validate that is not the case for you? BTW flextronics here too...

 

cueball 12 - I'll watch for this - right now it says Fully Charged (100%). What I can't say is whether or not it charged at all because I used it at home last night (with Delta adaptor) and plugged it in 1st thing this morning.

 

For me everything is fine except, when I use my laptop in battery mode and reconnect it, it says "plugged in, not charging". Any idea whats going on??

 

Yeh I get the same thing. Its quite annoying with the battery not charging, because now when I need or want to disconnect for a bit I will notice I don't have enough batter power. Having to reach underneath each time and take the battery out and put it back in is not so nice either.
Strange though I never had this problem with the battery not charging before. Maybe in A04 but I never used A04 long enough to really see. I might have to jump back to A03.