M17xR2 BIOS A06 Discussion Thread

Can anyone give a newbie some advice and instructions on how to do this bios update....mine shipped 21st june with a05 so i believe i should update to the latest version on the dell website.

I have found the link but its says several versions available, please go back and choose but is this just meaning several versions of bios??

Also, do i just dowload and run it and let it do its thing?

Any help appreciated

Thanks guys

Also, noticed that new CC is available and from my understanding and reading the notes, i need to do the synaptics touchpad update also? - is this correct.....just dont wanna mess up my new system!! (and im not very confident when it comes to these kinda things being fairly new!!!)

 

This is the file http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R273034&SystemID=Alw_M17xR2&servicetag=&os=W764%20&osl=en&deviceid=23748&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=3&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=1&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=403394
click on download and on the download options window that will appear click on the download button which is under the "Download via your Internet Browser"
Run the file you just downloaded and do the installation.
I don't know about the synaptics drivers because I don't use them.

 

Can any of you that have flashed to A06 check the temp reading on the Ibex Peak to see if it is now reading correctly.

 

Maybe it looks different on the UK Dell site (downloads/suport) but i dont get that page.....

 

I just entered the UK site, it's exactly the same
Drivers and Downloads

 

So anyone who has installed the new bios, have you been able to put 10.6 drivers on with no problems?

 

Hi Ceshimm

I think the engineers have great fun writting bios notes. You have to read between the lines and not take so much at face value as they are written in semantics like personal adds. For example Arrandale is the code name for an Intel processor, initially sold as mobile Intel Core i3, i5 and i7. So yes this certainly does effect everyone with an R2 with an i5 or i7. As you recall back in February a Dell laison said to turn off turbo mode as a temporary fix for flickering and that an upcomming bios version would address this issue. Bios releases note semantics tend to focus on the positive rather than negative so hard to say how this will effect turbo mode and whether this will have any impact on R2 flickering. Time will tell. The current issue with CF could impact temperature and performance on battery as well.

 

Can anyone tell me in order what the three buttons under the WinPhlash64 BIOS application say? Thanks.

 

all you need to do is click backupbios and flash bios with new settings if it's not already selected and hit FLASH BIOS. That's all you need to do..

Just make sure you're on A/C power, that there are no programs running and that you don't turn the computer off.

just to clarify, The only i7 arrandale processor is the 6xx series.

the farthest left one is the one that Flash's the Bios. The middle is exit, the farthest right is help. I would try to reduce your font setting size to 100% if it is set to something higher to correct that problem however.

 

The three buttons (from left to right) say FLASH BIOS > Exit > HELP in the bottom right corner.


P.S. After you flash a little box will pop up and give a message about closing in 10 seconds. DO NOT HIT THE OKAY BUTTON AS THE BOX WILL CLOSE ITSELF during flash. Just let it run iteself.

 

you'll be fine if you hit it, it's just a reminder to not run any programs or turn the computer off.

using which monitor? I use HWmonitor and all it displays is CPU core temps.

 

Lozz is correct,

Intel brought out 11 "Arrandale" processors in 2010. They are sold under the following brands:

Celeron P4xxx
Celeron U3xxx
Core i3-3xxM
Core i5-4xxM
Core i5-5xxUM
Core i5-5xxM
Core i7-6xxUM
Core i7-6xxLM
Core it-6xxM

Intel's 2010 'Arrandale' Laptop CPUs

 

Ambient room temperature 76F

GPU-Z.0.4.3
Sensor 1 50.5C
Sensor 2 51.5 C
Sensor 3 53.5 C

After bencharking with New A06 temperature was 58,59,60.

 

thanks? As I said, the only i7 Arradale are the 6xx processors. 720/740 820/840 and 920/940 are clarksfield. There are only 3 Arrandale processors sold in the M17x, the 520,540 and 620. That's it.

 

so any feedback about the bios? are there any noticeable improvements ?

 

If you have a clarksfield processor that's not a 920, no. It does nothing that I can see except it changes the Intel RAID manager console layout a bit that comes up at startup.

 

Lozz thanks for catching my oversight. I had to go back to the website and build a computer as I forget what the options where. I don't even see any 6xx anymore? All I can see is 7xx, 8xx, 9xx. Is the 6xx no longer available?

 

the 620 is still on the US online configurator, it's under i7 processors for me.

not a big deal, I've been wrong or extended my knowledge farther than what it actually was more times than I care to mention hehe. the easiest way to think about it is if you have a dual core processor, it's an arrandale, if you have a quad core processor, it's a clarksfield.

 

not any difference on my 920XM. thus now i can only set it to 3.75 ghz the most. it maybe my cpu only.

 

The BIOS appears to be stable for me. I had occasional blue screens with A05 when booting up, A02 didn't have that problem and A06 seems to have solved it as well.

 

i didnt have blue screen during boot with A05 and not with A06 too. i get them when i have the cpu speed over 3.7 ghz (the highest stable).

thus i cant restart the system with cpu set at 5% overclock in bios. may i have to change cpu voltage?

 

So are you seeing temps higher with this new BIOS or same?

Thanks for the buttons response by the way.

 

Yes increase the voltage (probably in the memory as well) to keep it stable. But keep an eye on the temperatures. It may perform worse than before because it will reach the TDP limit faster

 

thanks for that. increased voltage on cpu. still the same. cannot restart as it doesnt even get into bios. i have to switch it off and then on again to enter bios. i ll try increase to 1.7 for the hyperx but i think i had it at 1.7 before and this issue was still there. the cpu is perfect with 3% overclock, then with 4% i can restart but i may get bluescreen after long long gameplay, with 5% no restart and faster bluescreen. this is for cod mw2

any ideas of the cause? power issues maybe?

thus if someone can post a guide for setfsb and throttle would be ok. maybe i have to set something there too.

 

Yeah, mine too, at 3% it's perfectly fine and stable, no need to increase the voltage. by the time I go to 4% or 5% I have to set the voltage to maximum on both CPU and memory. Also if I change those settings entering the BIOS takes me 2 power downs using the power button as well as removing the AC and battery. I have completely removed the battery for this reason. I unplug it and from the AC and it's a bit faster instead of unplugging and plugging back in the battery all the time

 

if i got it right you also cant restart with cpu at 5% overclock?

i would suggest to have battery always in though even if it takes alittle more to completely discharge the machine.

by the way with the cpu voltage at 150 i could oc the cpu to 3.95ghz finally and i could almost run 3dmark vantage. it always stucks at cpu test 2 to me but not blue screen. even at much lower clocks i cannot load cpu test 2. dont know why.

 

It's the temperature. It reaches the TDP limit very fast

 

Can someone with the extreme CPU check if the computer wakes up from sleep, the FSB goes back to 133 Mhz instead of 140 Mhz?
This is with 5% OC in the BIOS.
Thank you much.

 

Older BIOS update has a zip file within that can be used to create a bootable USB media to flash the BIOS. I see that it has been removed from A06.

A few people (myself included) had problem with booting the computer using only the battery with extreme CPU and Crossfirex. The computer would shut down after finished boothing through the BIOS (using just battery). A06 addressed this and I can boot with just the battery.

 

It's bittersweet that they fixed the 920XM booting on battery. I already setup a return/credit for mine, and purchased what I have in my sig instead. Saved about $1000. To me, it's close enough to be happy saving that much extra $$$. But, now that the problem is fixed, it'd sure be nice to have that "everything" model!!!

 

Has A06 made it any easier to install the latest Catalyst drivers?

 

10characters

 

Now that the bios supports them and M15x already offers them, there are no more reasons for AW to delay the x40 CPUs in the M17x. Any new updates on this?

 

No problem here so far.

 

Had a scare earlier.. updated to A06 from A05 and all went well.. This morning when booting it up, it wouldn't post.. Had to do the discharge method (Remove AC, Battery and hold power button for 20 secs) then it booted.. Shut down and booted back up to be greeted by no post again... Tried to power down and then all lights went off but fan remained on....

Discharged again and since then has been ok for reboots and shutdowns... Not sure what happened there tho...

 

This is the one known DPC Latency issue that still exists in both the R1 and R2. There are workarounds using the Windows UI instead for now.

 

Thanks Lozz....I will continue to dream of that miraculous update that will instantly solve all of our problems.

 

we all will.

 

Anyone else seeing this?

 

Not me, but can you give the team some feedback from some of us here? Any chance they can fix the full blast of the fans when coming from a startup/sleep?

This started with the last 2 BIOS releases.

Thanks Brian.

 

I see the same thing when I change the default values of the BIOS (disable devices like wifi, firewire,etc... and change the voltage)
Reverting back to default values the laptop will POST normally.
I have already sent an email concerning this matter to Dell and the representative that took care of my R1 replacement but didn't receive any answer about this specific matter.

 

The biggest issue with the bios is during POST after a change has been made in the bios. For example if you disable ethernet, firewire, bluetooth or some combination of the latter and save the changes and exit, the system hangs and requires a battery drain to get it working again.

 

For me just getting back into the bios and reenabling those devices I disabled fixes the problem No power drain needed.

And by the way it's a bug ever since A05.

 

Yeah I remember we discussed this before. It's not a huge deal for me since I never disable any of those but I figured I'd tell him anyway.

 

Hehe, I never disable any devices cause I can't, so I guess it's not a big issue for me either

 

Actually, once the system has updated and you can enter the BIOS for the first time the first thing you should do is set it to Default Options and Save. Then go ahead and tweak it as you need to. That will take care of any leftover garbage in the CMOS 99.9% of the time after an update.

 

Just applied the update. The Fans no longer go to high speed on boot up now. No other issues noticed.

 

Which update? A06? I have A06, and when I power on, the fans still go high speed, but quickly shut off. After about 15 seconds, the fans come on, but very low.

 

I never disabled any options and loaded defaults and this happened to me.. Everything is default except for the RAID options (From disabled (Default) to enabled)

 

I experienced this with A05 when I switched one of my 500GB HDD's for an Intel SSD after detecting the drive in the Bios. Took a few discharge/reboots to disappear. Have not had issues since.

Can't comment on A06 yet.