Windows 10 and nVidia 980M GTX upgrades for Alienware (M17X-R4, without Optimus: Working Great!)

It won't do any harm.
The reason you cannot go to diagnostics I guess is that it's not compatible with pure UEFI.
Diagnostics work right away when it's set to Legacy or UEFI legacy rom enabled.

 

okey thanks for your response
and are you have suggestion about what driver version should i use ?

 

Glad I could help
To be honest, Nvidia has been releasing shi*y drivers the past year or so. I'm using 376.09 works great, so far.
You could try and see what is best for your setup. I've been using 352.84 since 04/2015. I started using recent drivers a few months ago.

 

yeah feeling happy knowing that im not only one here that updgrading my r4, because at here(Indonesia) you can count by your finger amount of people that using alienware (so less)

and about the driver, should i installed driver with modified inf like that shown on the first page of this thread?

 

Actually, you have to use a modded inf. It's the ONLY way to install a driver. Otherwise the setup will not find the display adapter.

 

already downloading modded 376.19 driver
its detected my gpu
but its failed at installing process
what should i do ?

 

You have to disable Driver signature enforcement (DSE)
- Run cmd as admin
- type
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
-restart, press F8 to enter booting menu
-disable driver signature enforcement
- install NV driver

Or you can do this instead:

 

already disabled it and its still failed
feel confused now haha

 

I was able to use the built in "hold while powering on and booting" diagnostics

 

HELP!

I cannot update my nvidia driver after installed 980M on my M17X-R4

- my current Driver : 373.06
- Bios Version : A14
- Windows 10 Pro 64bit (1601-Anniversary Update)

what i have done :
- removing my current Driver with DDU
- removing Nvidia Corporation folder from Program Files
- Disable Digital Signature Enforcment (DSE)
- Disable Antivirus and Firewall
- Change inf file with my gpu id (now its detected my gpu)
- run setup.exe with administrator
- checking the "perform clean installation" box

and its still failed when installing the driver
(im try 376.19 and 376.33 version)

Please someone help me
i need the new driver

 

Join the T|I forum below and I think some can help you out with this. Or maybe @Ashtrix can chime in.
https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...t-upgrades-driver-support-modded-inf/&page=64

 

you need @j95's modded drivers.

 

when im trying to download, its said i must be the elite member first

 

you need to make 5 posts or pay for elite.

 

FINALLY !!

*sorry for my bad english*

After a few days feeling confused because i cant update my nvidia driver to the latest
Fortunately, i found this forum and this thread
because at my country (Indonesia) very less people that using Alienware.

And im just upgrading my Windows from 8 to 10, also upgrading my gpu from 780M to 980M
Everything just smooth in installation process, until i found there are two problems coming with this upgrade :

1. 8x beeps when im trying to launch boot diagnostic setup (F12)
But @Solo wing told me thats also happen to him and not such a big problem and he give me solution to using secondary monitor to launch Alienware Diagnostic.

2. NVidia driver cant detect my 980M GPU, so in the other hand, i cant update my driver. And this is sucks.
- At first im blaming the Windows 10, because many people told me Windows 10 is sucks. (i think its not stable yet).
- And im just suspect that my Current Bios (A04) is not compatible with 980M so im just upgrade my bios to A14 version from Dell Support.
- And the driver still failed to install..... it doesnt even detect my GPU

So, im just browsing everything at the everything and thanks God i found this thread
Happy to knowing that im not the only one that upgrading my AW17 gpu to 980M.

- After reading this thread and comment section, and also @Solo wing assisting me very nicely. seriously, he is a nice person.

Finally i can fix everything.

What i have done :
- Update my BIOS to A14 Version.
- Update all my Alienware driver with DriverBooster application.
- Installing DDU program (This application removing my current Nvidia driver 373.06 from system).
- Disable Windows Digital Signature Enforcement (DSE).
- Disable Windows Defender and Windows Firewall.
- Download newest Nvidia driver manually from website (dropdown menu).
- Modding inf file by myself with following instruction from http://null-bin.blogspot.co.id/2015/08/how-to-modify-nvidia-notebook-driver.html
- Deleting unnecessary folder from NVidia Driver like @j95 said at here https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...t-upgrades-driver-support-modded-inf/&page=64 (thanks to @Papusan for bring me there)
- Run setup.exe as administrator
- And dang ! The Driver successfully installing like a charm !

So now my Windows and all my Driver are up to date.
My current Nvidia driver now : 376.48

My Alienware can run smoothly now.

So, at the end thanks to Notebookreview forum and this thread
and especially big thanks to @Solo wing , @woodzstack , @Papusan , @thegh0sts for assist and guide me.

Hope we can always helping each other at the future.

Regards

 

disregard please***

 

hey there, congratz, so sorry you had so much trouble, I only get notifications when i see the @woodzstack and such you know...

But yeah, your ding/dang on how to get it done. The newer drivers are abit odd though for Pascal, at least it seems they work okay for Maxwel .

Wello cheers mate !

 

Hi guys, I've been a long time reader of this site, in particular this thread, for a long while now and only now am making my first post since,you guessed it, I've got in over my head!

It's an amazing forum and I'm hoping somebody out there in the NBR world might be able to guide me out of this abyss of he'll I'm stuck in at the moment!

So to cut a long story short... about a year ago I purchased a 980m from @woodzstack but due to time and other constraints haven't got around to actually installing it until yesterday... problem is I can't get it going. The card as far as I know and, as I'm sure @woodzstack would testify, is fine - just been in the box it was sent the whole time - but now I'm stuck in the 8 beeps hell (and also just shutting down as it beeps hell).

My rig is an M17x R4 120hz 3D with A12 bios 680m 16GB and currently has Win7 installed on the 500GB mSATA but after reading the threads I realised I was gonna need Win10, UEFI mode etc to get the 980m going so decided I'd do a clean install of Win10 to an empty 500GB SSD which would leave my Win7 stuff untouched and also give me a speed boost due to the crippled mSATA port throughput. With this in mind, I thought I'd start by replacing the 680m with the new card then once that was installed move on to installing the OS. However, after following these steps

I got to step 9 but had no option for the secure boot or for the Win8 fast boot (I assume that's cause I have win7 ) and when legacy rom was disabled I had the ''mxm gop error'' which I've read somewhere about... I probably should've stopped there but decided to seat the card.

On booting up excitedly for the first time, you can imagine my disappointment when only a quick cursor popped up on a blk screen then dissapeared soon replaced by my first 8 beeps... ... sigh... ok let's read the forums I said.

After reading a bit more I found a thread that simply suggested popping back your old gpu into the slot and quickly changing the bios again which I did then reinserted the 980 but this time before it even got through the 8 beeps it shut down, and will do this also when I put the old card back too (that is shut down as post is happening not 8 beeps). So now I'm not sure what's going on and am reaching out for somebody kind enough to help my misguided soul and show me the path to 980m enlightenment?

Thank you in advance... so sorry for the mega first post.

 

wow... are you saying you waited an entire year ?

 

your getting 8 Beeps because your not in a UEFI compliant state for the boot loader on the card. No screen is being detected, because nothing is making the proper handshake..

So go back to the bios, and go to boot menu and set UEFI, and disable any legacy options.. You might lose being able to see your drive as well (make sure you didn't go from IDE to ACHI or RAID, just stick to RAID or ACHI). In that case, you need to re-install.

I recommend installing windows 8 or windows 10 and when your at the install screen where it says "install now" and in smaller writing at the bottom says repair windows.. hit the SHIFT key and F10 This should bring up a CMD prompt and you need to run DISKPART to convert your disk to GPT, for best results. don;t NEED to have it but it helps since everything in the future is GPT and above.. MBR has been legacy for a while.

Anyways, Windows 7 is legacy. If you wish to use windows 7 with this laptop, then forget all of this and just disable UEFI and enable legacy and run windows 7 like normal, but the card is not really supported. Many of it's features are not compatible with windows 7, like DX12, it's bootloader, etc..if you manage to get itno windows 7 it's because of the HD intel graphics (iGPU) you will need to use this to load your screen and all gpu traffic will go through it, so you will lose some performance. It might not even work with the latest HD intel driver either, there was such funny/odd behavior that I stopped trying to help people to get it to work. I think there are also some bugs, which could make your system vulnerable with it too.

 

Thx for the quick reply mate. Yes I did wait pretty much a whole year... patient or crazy... go figure.

I would love to get to the bios but something is now shutting off the computer during it loading to bios when I have 680m inserted and also shutting it down during 8 beeps stage with 980m inserted! It gets 3 - 5 secs in on both methods then powers off at a random length each time. Weird... like it's overheating or something but all fans seem ok... I cleaned them both too just to be sure.

I am happy to go the Win10 route as this is why I cleared a SSD for install but cannot get to bios. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to reinstall the 680m with heatsink et al and hopefully I can get back to post then try and install Win10 via USB and as per your instructions format to gpt. The thing is there's no guarantee I'll get to the bios as like I said before something is turning it off before then.

Plus I don't understand how installing Win10 will affect the bios settings to recognise the card and not 8 beeps... Forgive my naivety. Is there a better bios version I should use? Plus why weren't some of the bios options in your original instruction post available to me?

Sorry to be such a pain.

 

Hi, as wrote in PM to Mr.fox year ago, I'm on Windows 7 (oem home version) with full uefi boot, legacy options disabled.
Just make sure that the gpu has a uefi enabled vbios (both hd4000 and 7970m goes well, 7970m only from bios 0.22)
here a trash video to prove it




My final test will be when I'll buy a 970m and install it, in any case on my second ssd there is a win10 ready as substitute

 

all I see is the iGPU.... which works even in XP and VISTA I think... nothing shows a dedicated graphics in there or am I missing something here ?

 

ah like the guy was saying i think thats what he meant.. just remove the gpu... use the iGPU, the bios will default to "AUTO" for the graphics and stick you on iGPU.

You can probably even keep the card attached to the heatsink if you know what your doing.

then try turning on the laptop without the 680M or 980M in it. If you still can;t do that - reset your CMOS to get default bios settings. If you need help with that, let me know.

 

ops my mistake, delete all

 

lol... no worries my friend.

 

So I tried to boot without card but system just turns on then off again. Did CMOS reset and FN button power on to reset bios but this just turned it on then restarted after few seconds then shutdown again. Still tries to give me 8 beeps (I'm assuming because it doesn't get all the way through before turning off again) when I put either card in.

Really hit a wall... since I can't even get to bios no matter what! Any suggestions as this is really driving me crazy???

 

it does a quick reset. It turns on, sometimes beeps 5 times and then resets, and then it should be good to get into the bios. If when it resets you just don;t try again, then you might be missing the reset.

 

OK... I'm getting a little confused now. I really appreciate the assistance mate, maybe if it's not too much trouble could you post the steps I should follow.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've got these steps so far...
1. remove battery, power cord, hold power button
2 remove CMOS battery
3. Power on holding F4... where it starts up, shutsdown, then starts for a few seconds again then shutsdown again.
4.plug in external monitor (minidisplay) screen on external display was black - inactive, like without any signal from laptop...

I have also like I said before repeated these steps then tried it with the 680m...starts, no screen action, no beeps then few seconds shutsdown. The 980m... starts, no screen action, beeping but shutsdown. I'm going to try HDMI next... since neglected to try that... do think that will make a difference? And what others steps do you think in your wisdom should I be following?

It concerns me how I could originally see the bios by just replacing the 680m back in when the 980m would beep at me (plus there was cursor and backlit screen) but now it's not possible and all I think I've changed was the settings in the bios and cleaned the cpu and gpu fans plus the obvious gpu transplant etc.
Do you think it's possible I'm going to have to blind flash my bios or is there something more serious at play?

 

take the CMOS out. Take all power "anything" out... hold the power button down and hit it repeatively, to drain any power.

Remove the CPU.

Put the CMOS battery back in.

Put your CPU back in.

Power stuff.... then power it on.

If that does not reset your bios, you would need blind flash OR - try this odd trick... keep holding the power button down and turning it on on and off and on and off, until things change... some odd timing to it should pick up the reset that way too.

But draining all power and resetting CMOS is one way, and resetting CPU should help reset bios too. Restarting 2-3 times in quick succession resets the bios too a safe default as well.

 

Thx... should I do this with the 680m or the 980m installed or without out either?

 

Either the 680M or nothing but the CPU.

 

120Hz panel installed and ready to go....upgrading to Pascal !

 

works like a charm.

 

1070 fits perfectly... had to really cut away where the top right corner is on the MXM female connector/bridge to allow the corner of the 1070 to go in properly.

 

If you build modded heatsinks that goes along with the card in 17R1 and sell both along with thermal pads already applied properly, you will make some serious sales my brother.

 

I've always sold heatsinks for the M17X-R4 and AW17 matching with pads though.

anyways :

 

Yeah I know ... So you already have plans to sell modified ones for the 1070 ? or no modifications are needed for your cards ?

 

Some relief once you get here :

 

very little modification needs to be done. I will show you after.

 

Sweet! Can't wait!

 

Work had to be done to make this area like it is

 

Then this needs to be done :

 

I would put this in the same reply, but the site keeps screwing up :


afterwards

 

Thermal pad placement, never go cheap always take your time :

 

actually had to go all out :

 

perfect fit :

 

the hype when that moment starts is intense !

 

stock 3610MQ and the driver was auto downloaded and installed by windows 10...