A12 DELL bios for AW18 system.

I have seen a coincidence with people using this A12 bios and not being able to get the 900M series to work.

AFAIK, before DELL released some fix, if you wanted to use SLI, you needed a full UEFI boot.
I do not see why that would change. This rules out using windows 7 AFAIK.
Correct me anyone, if I am wrong, and link to whatever supporting material you have, if you have any.
so far no proof has been submitted. Reminds me how for 6 months people were saying 980M SLI worked in the M18X-R1.
Because DELL says so, is not proof either.

These people I have, with these issues, seem to think windows 7 should work now, with Sli and 980M or 970M
They also are under the impression "legacy ROM enabled" when the rest is UEFI, will work.
AFAIK - that's a good way to get 8 beeps. I no longer personally have a AW18 anymore, so I can not test it myself.


What exactly IS the process that works, with this new released bios ?
What was the OLD practice that works, and does it still work ?
I will start with the NEW practice to install, and if needed listing steps for the OLD.


These are the things I wish to have discussed in this thread, also
is this absolutely adorable ?

 

***NEW SETUP***

WARNING about 358.xx drivers breaking videocards.
(this is the day 1 fallout 4 nVidia driver) Read thread for details :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvidia-358-driver-sli-warning.784226/



PLEASE NOTE:The A12 motherboards being released are using Alienware 0NT4Y3. Priors were Alienware 04WJJ9 and Alienware 01W2J2. AFAIK this works on all models.


You must run FULL UEFI with legacy disabled, and secure boot disabled.
Note: If not FULL UEFI mode, then you can get beeping to not detecting the videocards. this is because 900M series abandons legacy support. If you can not see your HDD/SSD you might also need to convert top GPT format.
THIS ALSO MEANS NO WINDOWS 7 Just like 3D vision only works on Windows 8


Then you will see the videocards, You WILL require BIOS A12:
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03304100M/1/AW18A12.exe
Note: Reset all your settings to default before doing this if you run aftermarket unlocked system bios's



Vbios flash MUST be done with no drivers installed.
You WILL require the Dell 980M vBIOS for both cards:
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03325272M/2/980M_SLI_Reflash_ZPE.exe
NOTE: The cards MAY not have the correct vbios on them, they will work, but it is better to have the correct vbios, performance wise (minimise throttling).



After that install the LATEST nVidia drivers from Nvidia:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/358.91/358.91-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe
NOTE : you will use the Win8 64Bit drivers, even if on windows 7. I believe support ended a while ago, and sometimes there are no drivers for Windows 7. Should be A-OK. Report any issues if you have them.

 

wtf? win7 works fine w/ legacy. win10 though....

 

So, it does work ? Explain more. Are you saying this because DELL says it works ? Or are you saying this because you are going to provide me something tangible to prove it. AFAIK, dozens of people trying it, can not get it working. But I can get it to work in windows 8 and windows 10.

Or are you saying windows 7 works with legacy (Because that option is pretty much there to allow windows 7..) and you are not saying the 980M SLi works with AW18 in windows 7.

 

It does. A12. 980M. SLI. Legacy mode. Works.

I've posted many benchmarks of 3DM11 using Win 7, including one or two for Win 8.1.

 

There is one difference. The A12 motherboards being released are using Alienware 0NT4Y3. Priors were Alienware 04WJJ9 and Alienware 01W2J2.

 

So does it works on all revisions or not? I'm in a process to get a used Alienware 18 and I thought A12 BIOS would work Win 7 legacy mode for all 18 models.

 

Can't speak for all revisions. Only 0NT4Y3.

 

TRUTH comes out ! Its basically a different revision of the motherboard !
Can anyone else confirm this, if you know. Its not that I don't trust ZERO989
It's that I do not want to throw all my eggs in one basket incase!

Or is it like Tulius implied, or just because something should work doesn't mean it does, or was intended to work.

 

I'm just trying to get to the bottom of a few issues to help a bunch of people.

 

Well when I get home I'll check to see which motherboard I have. I installed BIOS A12, but haven't yet installed a 900-series GPU in there. Still debating on that.

 

Can't hurt to know what you have

 

I am not sure if this will be helpful but my system's motherboard is actually the following: Alienware 0FT9KT.

 

And it is a AW18 motherboard ?
Does it work with the 900M series ?

 

Yes, it is an Alienware 18 motherboard.

I can't say about the 900M series running on it, but thought that there might be more to the picture of compatibility than just those three motherboard numbers.

I *might* be interested in getting 980M SLi cards sometime in the future, which will allow further confirmation of the queries being presented. I'm eyeing your inventory. ; )

 

I've not seen any issues except that absolute exact combo. (however I seen too much to ignore that combo, and apparently its been reproduced easily many times)

My advice, stick to well known drivers, forget day 1 drivers, you really don't need them (for what extra 5% performance here and there ... suffer it, its what, 4-5 FPS less on a 980M SLi setup on max details ? compared to the 100FPS your getting ?)
Update drivers when you see some praise for a driver, like 344.xx or 353.xx etc.. there are drivers every few months that work great, are tested heavily and have no immediate issues.

 

Agreed.