M17xR2 Bios A09 Discussion Thread

I opened another thread, but as was suggested I will post everything from that thread here so Brian can see it.

Everytime I put my computer to sleep I get a black screen and the keyboard is not fully lit. I then have to do the power drain and this normally brings it back, but this time I had to do several power drains and unplug the CMOS battery and do a power drain while the CMOS was unplugged. This is odd any ideas as to what could be causing this? Nothing is OC everything is at stock I am on A09. never had this problem on A07/A08.


This behavior never changed regardless of drivers I had Dell 8.763 or 10.9 modded 10.8.

So I reverted back to A07/A09 a few times, and no more issues with sleep or my Alien FX lighting on A07. I can still reproduce it on A09, but on A07 everything seems to be running better than before(A09). So this one is for you Brian lemme know what tests you want done.(Hope you enjoyed your vacation )

 

guys when my screen is turned off (example after the screensaver ) and then use mouse to get it back i never get the windows taskbar (like if its fully transparent).


do you guys have this issue too?

the only way i can get a normal desktop (with the taskbar) is to press ctrl alt delete, enter task manager, end explorer.exe and then run explorer.exe process again


need help with this. this really me off

 

No Aristotelhs2060 i am on A09 & i have not personally seen this issue.When,Where did you get the 5870's? & how much did you pay in the end.

 

sure doesn't sound like a BIOS issue. More a software issue imho.
did you install any fancy desktop enhancements ? Docks, iconpacks or whatever ?
i bet a fresh windows install will solve your problem.

 

i use the alienware breed theme if you mean that. thus i use the alienware screensaver (of course when it stops i get the black screen and then use mouse to get back the screen light). fresh format doesnt solve this as long as i install the same drivers - programs etc every time.

I remember i had this issue even with the 4870s.

other than that sleep issues etc are solved.

 

Aristotelhs2060

Thanks for the information.

 

Oh, so it's not bios dependent for sure if you had it with the 4870s. You have the 5870 for a while right?

 

Hmmmm. Mine, when it comes out of sleep after several hours, will stay black screened until I hit enter. When I wake it up after an hour or 2 it comes out fine. More testing.....

 

Thanks I'll try CPU-Z

 

Just tested with CPU-Z my multiplier is running at x20 seems to be running at 2.6Ghz and the gadget says 2.8 to 2.93.

Can I safely flash back to A05?

Thanks
AwHw

 

it shouldnt be bios related as i have this issue on all bios versions and both 5870s and 4870s.

the only solution til i find the cause is to disabled turn off screen in power options.

i have the 5870s for almost 1 month now

 

sorry i was busy and forgot to answer your question and i think its a little bit out of topic here. I bought them from ebay. The only primary and secondary Dell 5870s that were sold throughout the world. Dont know if you can find any now but i was reallly waiting for long.

The primary was new, and the secondary was taken out from a fully working R2. As for the cost well i paid almost 1.5 the price than taking them from Dell but it was the only way as no friend in US could help me and Dell really just spent my time trying.

 

The reason I asked is because you are in a A09 bios thread.
Is it only happening when you come out of a screensaver ?
I remember the aw screensaver did something similar to me as well. Can u try changing it to something else?

 

Aristotelhs2060

I am glad you finally got them as i remember trying to source a pair for you unsuccessfully here in UK.

 

yes this happens when i come out of screensaver.

i will use another screensaver and feedack.

thanks my friend. yes i couldnt find them anywhere. However, I am not very glad for the price i got them . I feel lucky and unlucky at the same time. One is for sure. Dell is not the way for someone to buy them now.

 

ok it looks like the issue doesnt occur with other screensavers. I wonder whats the issue with the alienware screensaver.

It would be good if someone who knows, could use the images from alienware screensaver to create a new fully working one.

 

I have seen this problem with that screensaver, I think it only works with XP, is there a way to run it in XP mod? It's a cool screensaver, but not worth the problem.

 

Aris, please create a thread for your issue. Thx.

 

hy,

since i flashed the BIOS to A9, i noticed some fan's behavior I haven't before
i do nothing special on my computer, just surfing on the net and the fan start for a few second and then stopped and started again and stopped.
i'am not used to that kind of "noise" on my computer on BIOS A8

i read part of the tread and saw other ppl have the same fan's behavior "issues", so i'am quite happy to see i'am not the only one.


this is the occasion to thanks you all for all the work you did and the help you provide.

i read you every day, but i don't speak a lot since my english is far from beeing good

 

Welcome to the forum your English is fine

 

So, again, not sure if it's the BIOS-but gonna post here. Mine comes out of sleep and wakes up initially. Then stops responding altogether for 2 and a half tp 3 minutes. Then all is good again. No screen saver. No crazy themes. Just Rocketdock. Anyone else have this or something like it? If not, I will begin my problem solving search elsewhere as I still don't really think it is BIOS related since no one else has this from what I can see.

 

Nope haven't had that problem chiefs. Although I have seen something similar in one of my older notebooks I would try to open up a heap of stuff but no response until a few mins later. Then everything would start opening up and working again out of the blue. I remember seeing some comments made that it might be the hard drive or something.

Cheers.

 

After that happens can you check the eventlog for errors?

 

I........will.........try. I know computers, and I have said this earlier when I was having problems-think is was you trying to help then also-not real sure what to look for. Event veiwer>system>errors. Right??? Never really use it.

 

Yep. That's the one. If you want you can filter errors and critical events (right side of event log) and then save it and post it here for us to see and help.

 

It's soooooooo long though.

 

Well you can take a date range I think.

 

Pmassey I had that issue, but mine wouldn't come back after a few minutes I would have to power drain it is something with the A09 bios. I made a post a few pages back in this thread.

 

I don't know if it has been mentioned before in this thread but one issue I've noticed with this revision is that if the CPU is OCed and you put the laptop to sleep, after waking up, the CPU clock is set back to stock frequency.

 

Hmmmmm. It's aggreavting, but as long as it comes back eventually, I'm OK. I know it's not normal, but I have reformatted 2X and still having issues. I'll live with it for now. Get a chance and I'll post an eror log for these Gurus to inspect.

Haven't tried to OC yet. BUt interesting none the less.......

 

Have you tried to revert back to A07 to see if it goes away. I reverted back to A07/ A09 a few times to make sure. I can reproduce that behavior on A09, but on A07 it is fine and doesnt do that. I wonder when Brian will be back?

 

Any known issues with the AO7 and Turbo Boost?? If not I will try it.

 

Nope chiefs A07 is fine. A08 was the one that was no good for your XM processors. Give it a try and see how you go.

Cheers.

 

hy guy's,

i'am not sure how to process to downgrade to A09 from A08 bios, i never did this before.

would someone be kind enough to explain to me, please.

thx

 

I just ran the flasher file and it redid it no problem so download A08 and run it.

 

Just DL the exe from Dell and run it. Did mine today back to AO7. No issues yet.

 

Sleep issues are gone?

 

Um please help. Yesterday I was using my m17x until the power was almost out and plugged it in. So I looked for driver updates and got the A09 and my laptop just froze while installing. Just froze. Couldn't even hard boot it. So panicking, I unplugged the cord and went to sleep. So when I woke up this morning, I plugged the cord in and turned it on. Besides 1/3 of the lights on the keyboard working all there is was a black screen. I don't think it was lighted. I can't even boot into safe mode or anything. It's just dead with the fans going off and on.

 

When you update the bios, it's always a good idea to have a fully charged battery. It sounds like you have bricked your machine and it will likely have to go back to Dell to be repaired.

 

hy guy's,

when i tried i got this msg and i do not know what i have to choose

maybe i will wait until the A10 bios will came, i will handle it

yeah i'am scare to downgrade, i have so many problems with this laptop since i got it a month ago (SAV will change my GC and HD soon).

 

you can overwrite the file, don't worry.
It just means you have already made a backup of the current bios before.

 

Does your computer POST? Give you the option to boot from CD, USB, etc.? If so, try to DL and put it on a CD or bootable flash drive and flash the BIOS from there. That should work.

 

@mfractal, thanks to you, back to A08 successfuly

 

I wouldn't use A08 if you have an extreme CPU. Go with A09

 

hum, fan issues came back on A08, i thought they came with A09, cause before flahshing it I do not noticed that kind of behavior and reading this tread makes me think A09 was the issue, like others ppl noticed it.

well i guess i have to search others reasons :/

 

what's the fan issue you are having ?

 

I've not been watching this thread much since A09 worked out great for me, got rid of that pesky extreme core nerf and gave me a workable trackpad, but isn't A09 the same as A08 minus the extreme core nerf? If there is truly a fan issue you'd have to go back to A07 or earlier to test unless I'm mistaken. Or if what you are experiencing is actually caused by something else.

 

in the mean time fan start acting weird i checked the temperatures and it goes high (60/64°) for no obvious reasons

 

can't say i observed anything wrong with the fans with A09 but i might be mistaken. Can you guys elaborate a little ?

 

Nope. Still, out of sleep, black screen until I het enter. It stupid. Not a biggie, but annoying.