Alienware 18 BIOS A12 Findings & Fixes

You will need BIOS A12 on the Alienware 18 as well as the new 980M vBIOS from Dell, or Prema's unlocked edition of the Dell vBIOS. That way you can run 980M in legacy or UEFI, but I think you will need UEFI first to flash the cards to the vBIOS (can be done from a USB stick, doesn't need a full windows install)

Heatsink/x-bracket from the 780M will work just fine. Replace thermal pads if they are torn. Always replace thermal paste.

I don't believe you will need to mod the INF if using stock nvidia drivers, since they are now included in the Alienware 18 as a factory option.

Stock performance should be fine, if you don't plan to overclock or overvolt. I would personally aim to undervolt and shoot for a modest overclock.

 

This post about sums up the primary points. Although I hear that the heatsink can benefit from a modification process.



From what I have seen in the benchmark and order threads, people are managing to get a decent overclock out of the 980M SLi coombination in the Alienware 18, but frankly, in gaming terms, these aren't even an absolute necessity. Mild undervolting with mild overclocking are likely to be the winning combination for gaming and longevity.

 

Thank you very much for this! I've got A12 now and I'm not going to need legacy boot on this machine (I use Win7 on an older laptop for legacy Direct3D game support only). So does that mean I could just buy a kit and slot them in? No fan mods required to have both fans spinning (I'm on AW18, not M18X)?

Also, could someone be so kind as to direct me to the right place for unlocked vBIOS mods? I'd love to try and undervolt my 780M a bit, maybe reduce throttling with a higher OC. I've never done any vBIOS flashing and any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The CEG heatsink mods are what lead me to think they're necessary. If they're not and 780M heatsinks work - great!

 

980M Prema Alienware vBIOS: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...re-18-970m-980m-sli-performance-vbios.783857/

svl7's 780M vBIOS mod is on techinferno.

You will need nvflash (either the windows version, or DOS version. I prefer DOS version, less likely for things to go wrong.

The heatsink mods are not necessary.

 

glitched double post

 

Beautiful, thank you! Seems like a kit might finally be worth buying then!

 

Sorry, just one more question:
What about drivers? Would I be able to update drivers in a regular fashion like we do on 780M or would I need a modded driver every time?

 

Like I said before, the 980M comes factory in the Alienware 18 now so I expect nVidia to have the proper INF file with the Alienware subsys ID already in place. You should be able to update normally with nvidia stock drivers.

 

NICE! So no drawbacks then! Loving it!
Took Dell "only" a year or so to give birth to A12, but it seems worth it. Thanks again for the info!

 

Anyone having heat issues with A12? Seems mine runs hotter than it use to.

 

Why update the bios when you are not using gtx 970/980m? Don't fix something that work well.

 

I updated to the A12 and I think it throttles a bit more, tbh (may be a placebo). Would make sense if your cards run hotter because of Dell's stupid "the laptop shall remain quiet!" policy and therefore fuxx0r'd fan tables...

Though I am grabbing a 980M SLI kit and will be repasting with CLU.

 

Actually I thought I recalled someone saying it just worked better than the others. Which would be why I installed it. However, if it doesnt work better than A10 I guess Ill go back to that. Right now just sitting here typing the CPUs are sitting at 58C

 

If I remember correctly so is A09 the best version. Correct me if I say wrong.

 

A12 works fine for me on the Alienware 18. That's what I am using.

 

So could it be that just there is an issue that seemed to start at the same time I installed A12? To me hovering just below 60c when not doing anything is a good bit warm.

 

I could potentially blame A12 for my temps too, since they raised a bit after the update, but in reality I think what happened is I disturbed the thermal pasting on mine when I had to hack my laptop completely open to get to the RAM slots under the touchpad to do a BIOS reset when I was in a no-POST. So as soon as the 980M SLI kit arrives and I'll be hacking my lappy open again anyway I'll paste/repaste with Liquid Ultra and see what happens.

Maybe something of this sort happened to you too? Have you cleaned the fans/grills?

 

I havent ever pulled the laptop apart. I do occasionally blow it out and such and its sitting on a cooler.

 

I have A12 installed and my idle and load temps didn't change from A10 idles around 47° C. Maybe you got some background programs chewing on your CPU.

 

hello , my alienware 18 has v10 bios should i update to the latest bios i have dual gtx 880m windows 8.1 pro , whats the changes , i heard that now fans run properly of the 2nd gpu .

 

As I remember it, the A12 bios was for those that wanted to upgrade to the 980m GPUs. When the 980ms were installed the second GPU fan did not work properly, which would lead to overheating. The A12 bios was
supposed to make the second GPU fan run correctly, but a lot of us found that not to be true. I simply kept using the program HWMonitor to set my fan speeds. If your not upgrading to 980ms I would not bother.

 

is there a way to increase the fan speeds , my temps are in there 80c in cod modern warfare how to bring them down can i run the fans at full speed but how ...

 

I hear a lot of people are using speedfan for fan control. I don't have the fan issue and am using A12 bios. I also wouldn't run the fans at full speed but just enough to keep the temps at a moderate level.

 

If you want to control your fan speeds use HWinfo64. It lets you set the temps for when the fans will increase their speed at a given temp. It gives you control over the CPU, and both GPU fans. Search the forum for how to set it up. Mr. Fox has a how to somewhere in these forums.

 

can you please share the link on how its done - i am farely new here hence dont wana mess it up --- a small intro on how its done would be appreciated or a link to the source where others have done the same .

 

Here is the download link:

https://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

I use the portable version.

Here is a link from the forum to set it up:


http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/hwinfo64-setup-jpg.79627/

Every newer version is a little bit different, but the set up is pretty much the same.

 

Thx OK with this software do all the fans are controlled or just the CPU fan .

Do fans of both GPUs and CPU run faster

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