The First M17x R2 BIOS mod. Need suggestions for future mods.

any updates? (bumping the thread. we can't let this one go 5 pages deep into the history again.)

 

can dell track if we flash the bios? any chance it will void warranty?

 

No, you can always flash back to a previous official BIOS.
Cross your fingers not to do a bad flash with a non official version, but even in that case I don't think anybody would be able to see or go thru a PITA process to find out the version.

 

Are you sure? If you flash back all register what you change in the MOD Version are retained.

 

Have you tried it yourself? Flashing with A09 per example will replace all settings!

 

Yes, after the flash back, i put the A07 on it and can see the OC. So i put the A08, A09 and then the A10 on it. After that the MOD and i have all old Settings from the 1st MOD back.

 

I'm talking about flashing an official Dell BIOS only.
Doing so your options that were unlocked with the "moded" BIOS will no longer be available.
Also resetting your CMOS should bring the settings to default.

 

i need my fix on updates...

 

Yesterday I flashed back my bios back to stock A10 and the OC remained at 5% (greyed out). Therefore, if anyone has to send their unit in for service I would make sure to change all settings back to stock and then flash back to stock bios (assuming the computer still works)

 

i was wondering... isnt the bios what makes the decision that the power adapter isnt dell sanctioned? can this be deleted from the bios so we can use different power chords?

 

That would be nice to see. I can't believe they care about the power adapter that one uses.

 

not sure if this is mentioned but i would love to have an option in the bios to completely turn off the secondary graphics card so that i can get more than 30 mins of battery life with a functional graphics card instead of 2 in 2d clocks.

 

After testing the 6970M in the R2, I can see why Dell chose not to support it. There are hardware limitations that I encountered that go beyond just the bios issue.

 

Please elaborate joker. You can pm me if you would prefer that.

 

Agree with Scook. I am actually on the verge of buying a 6970M for experimentation in my R2. Any input you have would be extremely valuable. If you decide to PM, CC me if you don't mind.

 

i'm interested in knowing these limitations as well.

 

I too am interested in your findings.


Cheers.

 

Yes please elaborate on this Joker, am very interested in your results. Thanks.

 

It'll be all in my upcoming review but to be brief: The R2 chokes (shutdowns, throttling) with the 6970M + 920xm (TS unlocked) combo. Seems to be a power brick and/or circuitry limitation when a high TDP CPU is enabled. There is also cooling considerations, the R2 GPU sink doesn't cool nearly as well as the R3 GPU sink. I'm not sure if Ichime ran into the same issues or not, his seemed to be benchmarking just fine (which mine did as well in Vantage) but I didn't see him mention it.

 

What about with the CPU TDP reduced? I would take having to run my 940XM at 45-50w while gaming to compensate.

Also, is there still no way to O/C the 6970? One of the first things I would investigate is undervolting the 3D clocks if I get one.

 

If a single 6970M has these issues, my dreams of 6970M CF are probably toast. Still haven't tried putting two PSUs in parallel yet. Two 6970Ms and another power supply though...you're talking the price of a low-end R3. Any idea what the wattage draw was Joker? If you have a Kill-a-watt, post some numbers if you get bored.

 

based on what ichime said, two in an R2 is possible even with the current poser supply...

 

Not a chance.

Of course the 6970M can be OC'd, I've been doing it since day one using Rivatuner. I don't think undervolting the 6970M is worth it for the R2 and from what I experienced, adjusting the voltage results in a BSOD upon reboot and corruption of the driver in the R3. Didn't bother testing it with the R2.

Yeah I wouldn't count on 6970M CF working in the R2 (the way the connectors are positioned is also not ideal). I think the issue also has to do with the power draw of the card and the mxm slot becoming overloaded which trips the system to shut down immediately. I haven't measured it with Kill-A-Watt but when I pick one up, I'll give it another test in the future. For now the 6970M is back in the R3.

 

Sounds like RBE might need to be updated.

 

Ichime isn't reporting any of the tripping problems. I wish snagging a pair of them wasn't a $1K+ endeavor. Just so I could experiment with them and see what kind of wattage they pulled and such. We'll see.

 

He PM'd me and said he did experience shut downs when OC'ing the GPU at 850/1100. He never tested with throttlestop, just evga e-leet which really does nothing. But think about it, if a 920xm with a slight OC is tripping the system to shut down, xfire has no chance with an extreme CPU. Maybe an i5-520m + 6970M xfire (underclocked) might work but there's the issue of the connector--the way it's positioned makes it too difficult to plug in to the card from both ends.

 

Quick update: I put the 6970M inside my other R2 (720qm CPU) and it has the same fan problems--they spin up to full blast and the only way to get them rev down is to use HWInfo32's fan control. With HWINfo32 controlling the fans, the noise is manageable. I'm going to install Vantage and a few other benchmarks and I'll post the scores here and elsewhere when I get the chance (maybe by this evening). I've got a bad case of the flu so in case I don't, then you know why.

 

i wish the mods would sticky this thread, i get really sick of trying to find it when i want to see if there are any updates, and the search engine on this website is useless.

 

You can use the "subscribe" option so you can get updates in your mail inbox instantly/daily/weekly.

 

I just visit my user control panel, it notifies me of any updates in my subscribed threads

 

good idea.

on another forum i'm on they have a link "My Discussions" and it finds all the threads you've posted in and puts them on a single page so you can see if any of them have updates. all forums need that link IMO it's awesome.

 

I just bookmark the page and visit it periodically. So just curious will theWiz be able to add support for gpus other than the 6970, like the gtx 485? Sorry if someone asked this before, I didnt have time to read the complete thread.

 

ok. I'm really interested in trying this upgrade to over-clock my 720QM. I have to say I'm a far cry from being any kind of expert or aficionado. I've watched YouTube videos and taken my laptop apart to clean it. I've done hot-fixes on my computer. I rooted my Samsung Moment phone and downloaded and installed custom ROM's all under the guidance of the developers forums. Like I said, I'm far from an expert but I'm a technology enthusiast(best description I can come up with) and I like to teach myself how to do these things when possible because I learn more about such things, obviously.

SOooo, is this something you guys would recommend for the layman? The crisis flash drive or whatever kind of spooks me but if the directions are clear and readily available I kinda wanna have a go.

I also have 600 days left on my warranty so not sure if it's a good idea.

Thanks for any and all feed back.

 

I tried all the beta moded bios' during testing and never had an issue. Well one but that issue was fixed. It just froze my computer when I selected a certain option.

Basically it unlocks the OC 1%-5% for other non XM CPUs. It's pretty safe, and will allow you to push the FSB from 133MHz to 140MHz which should be a decent performance increase.

Best advice is to not bess with anything other than the ocing feature in the BIOS if you don't really understand it.

 

Hi all,
i have a small question. I switch in the Bios the OC to 5%. If i put my System to High Performance than the CPU-z looks so:



So far so good. You see that the Core's has nothing to do. The OC works and it's all right. But now i convert a Video. The Software required max CPU Performance. You see it in this Picture:



You see that all Cores are max. But the Multiplier doesn't comes over 23. What is that? Anyone a Idea?

Greats Crazy.

 

That is turbo boost. It boosts a single core higher for single threaded (or no) workloads and can only boost all 4 cores by a lower amount due to power/heat limitations. Play around with throttle stop and watch how it behaves

 

joker are you going to get the 330 watt power brick thats used in m18x and see if that fixes anything? and if i'm not mistaken the m18x uses the same mxm slot doen't it? haven't found any information on new mxm slot types

 

Yes, the M18x uses the same MXM 3.0 B slots.

 

Aside from the 6970 power issues, are there any problems with artifacts or click speeds in the R2?

If there are only power issues, then I'll in all likelihood buy a pair for CF testing (and perhaps another PSU) and sell them all if I can't get them to work. I've come across a few fixes for the hard shutdowns for the 6970's that might work in the R2.

 

The only problems with the 6970m in the r2 seem to be:
-fans always run at full speed (hwinfo32 can fix that)
-psu taking the punishment (get a 330w one)
-Ichime had shutdowns when over clocking above 850/1100 from (680/900) which is pretty good oc I think
-5150Joker had shutdowns when he over clocked his 920xm
-position of xfire connector

As far as I can see it will work, from Ichime we can see the mxm slot seems to be able to handle the load especially with the clocks he is getting, as for overall power consumption im sure a pair of heavily overclocked 5870s and 920xm will draw more or similar power compared to a pair of 6970s and a stock speed 920xm

The only thing holding me back the the lack of funds to try it out

 

can the same thing be done for the R3?

 

yes the R3 comes with or can be upgraded to a 6970 but not two 6970s in cross fire

 

I meant the BIOS mod

 

sorry, no its not possible as they have totally different motherboards

 

Hi been out of touch for a while.

Is there still no news about adding support for new GF cards, GTX 460, ext?

 

sorry it's not entirely related, but... is there any news regarding the mod for the R1? I haven't seen any news about it for a while now, just curious.

 

I am not sure there is much steam for the R1 anymore

I just received payment for selling mine this afternoon as it so happens

I think since we were the first successful phoenix bios edits TheWiz has been working his magic for many other users on the bios-mods forum from whence he came.

 

ah yes, it has become an endangered species the R1...

sorry if it's too much to ask but, could you maybe bump the thread about the bios mod on the biosmod forums? I guess it would have more weight than if I tried myself... don't bother if you think it's pointless of course.

 

I wanted to ask the same question myself!

 

I actually tested all the unlocked options and they sadly made no differences for me. The only thing we could gain from here is GPU support and I do not see that happening. I think it is a lost cause for R1 owners at this point