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    Moving from A01 to A03 and OSD

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Jeheil, Jan 17, 2011.

  1. Jeheil

    Jeheil Newbie

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    Hi,

    My sons M17x (R1) is on an old BIOS (A01) and he is getting the odd 'freeze' for a second or two every now and again (15, 30, 45 mins). This is spoiling alot of his gaming fun.

    So dad and lad are setting off on an adventure to update his BIOS. Ive read up a fair amount (on these forums) and although A05 is the latest BIOS alot of folks seem to think A03 is the more stable...so that be where we are going.

    Ive looked at the install destructions for A03 and it requires us to have the OSD Application A02 (v. 2.19) installed prior to upgrading the BIOS.

    However when I look at the OSD Application A02 (v. 2.19) it needs to already be on A02 BIOS.....

    How can I tell what OSD Application we are currently on ?

    From my current position of A01 BIOS can I :

    Install OSD Application 02 (v2.19) and the go for the BIOS upgrade to A03 ?

    Or do I need to do some other stuff ?

    Also with A03 what is the best graphics driver (he as SLI 280x and the 9400 cards). The Dell drivers seem much older than the NVIDIA drivers...I assume I would need to update the graphic drivers AFTER the BIOS.

    Thanks in advance....Dad who will have sad lad if I brick his lappie.
     
    Jeheil, Jan 17, 2011
    #1
  2. fishnbanjo

    fishnbanjo Notebook Consultant

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    Do the OSD upgrade and then do the A03 BIOS, I tried both A04 and A05 and have kept mine on A03 as it is definitely more stable. I have upgraded my GPU's to 4870's but had 280's in SLi and believe I was using 197.68 drivers which I felt were best for me so I can't give any solid advice for the latest nVidia drivers for your son's M17x.
     
    fishnbanjo, Jan 17, 2011
    #2
  3. Jeheil

    Jeheil Newbie

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    Thanks Banjo.

    And on a side note...looking at your Avatar....final episode of LotSeeker ran in Australia last night.....fun series.
     
    Jeheil, Jan 17, 2011
    #3
  4. rsgeiger

    rsgeiger Notebook Evangelist

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    After the A03 update be sure to keep updated on the new A06 BIOS and how it performs. If you still have problems maybe the A06 might be needed,
     
    rsgeiger, Jan 18, 2011
    #4
  5. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    You can install the video drivers for the nVidias no matter when they are not related.
    To save you some time searching a stable driver version i'll advice you to install one of these as we tested all of them versions and we found that eighter the Dell beta P06 ones HERE or BatBoy's(one of the mods and respected member here) modded ones HERE were the best choice the other one will give your son problems.
    cheers
     
    katalin_2003, Jan 18, 2011
    #5