Alienware 18 with 980M SLI by HIDevolution

Doesnt look like they have sold any units from ebay yet. Its always been 5 available and none sold.

 

Yeah. No one is that stupid to buy one that isn't guaranteed to work properly when it costs like $5k.
HID is a big liar. They've lost their reputation if they even had one.

 

It's possible the reason for this Optimus crap is that Optimus can handle the video output conversion and redirect the output to LVDS on the Alienware 17/M17xR4 with Optimus enabled. If this works for the 17 and R4, it's only by accident because of Optimus doing a back-door move and redirecting the video output through IGFX, which is ported to LVDS.

If Clevo machines typically use eDP port for their LCD output, there is a really good chance that is the reason 980M works for Clevo and does not work for the M18x/18 or 17 with Optimus disabled. Alienware machines use LVDS output. The vBIOS must have code for LVDS. If the vBIOS only has code for eDP it won't work. The vBIOS would have to be modded and the LVDS code added to avoid the 8 beeps problem.

Considering the fact that Alienware decided to sit out this round and not take a lead role with the 900M series GPU development, it may stand to reason that NVIDIA didn't bother burning any calories building LVDS code for Dell machines into the 900M series vBIOS.

What would be interesting to find out is for the folks that have tried and failed to do the 980M upgrade to have their machine connected to an external display using the VGA port and the LVDS cable disconnected from the motherboard (Peter and godfafa, talking to you guys here). It may fail from a cold boot with 8 beeps, but a warm reboot may redirect the video output to the VGA port and it may not fail to post with 8 beeps. I am working on an M18xR2 with a bad motherboard for someone as a favor and it has this problem... It boots to a white screen and has random 8 beeps, but works normally with an external display connected to the VGA port. It also boots normally when using IGFX. The GPUs are fine, but something is goofed up with the multiplexer switch on the motherboard. Swapping the motherboard, problem solved.

 

Hopefully ati release something decent soon to match the 980

 

That would be nice, but I think the chance of AMD doing anything right is really slim to none. It's sad that they haven't done anything except replicate their half-baked (defective in my opinion) Pitcairn MXM product from 2012 for 2 more generations. I would like nothing more than for NVIDIA to have some serious competition, but it's getting pretty hard to take AMD serious about anything having anything to do with CPUs or mobile GPUs. They have done a fairly decent job of holding their ground in desktop GPUs, but they're a 3-strike screw-up as far as laptops are concerned. It's fine to hope and dream, but please don't hold your breath. It is not possible to administer CPR virtually and I would hate to see anyone keel over and drop dead from asphyxiation waiting for AMD to do something amazing.

 

Bahahahahah well said .. yer they have dragged there feet alot for a while hey I remember when amd and ati were the best money could buy and halflife 2 was only optimizated for radeon cards. Now days its in reverse, games aren't even optimized for ati cards and sometimes dont even work at all "ie rage.... well, did work but took alot of stuffing around probably more stuffing around than actual game time from memory" ...... just read this morning farcry4 is having problems with ati cards aswell. .. thanks again for the 3rd time in a row there ubisoft. Think I might pirate a copy this time

But im sure ati will come out with something. .... maybe they can rebadge the 7970 again

 

I remember that too... What was it... like 2005 or so? I was about 10 years younger and my adult child-bearing offspring were still school children.

 

They grow quick hey. So i wanted to teach my son at a young age to be disappointed with ati...... I bought him a Nintendo wii

 

I have a Clevo 970m in my GT60 that uses LVDS, so not sure that is the problem.

 

Ouch. Be careful... he will grow up and you will get old. You might be able to kick his rear end right now, but he owes you a punch in the face for the wii thing, LOL.

Does your GT60 have Optimus? Are you certain the physical port on the motherboard is LVDS and not eDP? Regardless of what your GT60 has for hardware, if it has Optimus it's probably not going to have a problem. Alienware's 8-beep code can mean a few things. Failure to detect the LVDS port is one of the causes of 8-beep diagnostic code. 980M works for Alienware systems (all of which use LVDS) but only if they have Optimus and Optimus is enabled. The M17xR4/AW17 without 3D display has Optimus, but the models with 3D display and the M18xR1/R2/18 do not have Optimus. Not having Optimus is a huge blessing, but if NVIDIA did a half-heinied job on the vBIOS, again, (which should comes as no shock to anyone,) Optimus might temporarily seems like a good thing to have until the vBIOS gets redone the right way.

 

My version of GT60 (780m originally) has Optimus and LVDS. eDP was added with the 8xx series GT60/70 laptops.

 

Ah, OK... well, having Optimus is probably why it works for you. If your BIOS has a way to disable Optimus try turning it off and see if it fails to POST.

Actually, I am kidding. It probably does not have that setting accessible (usually only Alienware does). Even if it does, please don't do that because it might not be easy to re-enable it. Many of the new machines store BIOS settings in NVRAM and it's often not easy to reset the BIOS by pulling the CMOS battery like it used to be. You might end up with a soft-bricked system and that would suck.

 

The accessories for the wii were amazing though so hopefully he forgives me

 

Yup, probably will. Kids flow freely in love and forgiveness until repetitive exposure to stupid people starts killing their brain cells. Just apologize as soon as he is old enough to understand and you should be good to go.

 

Wow! You really are smart.
Too bad I just dont have the gpu now.
Man.. You should've suggested this a few days ago. Damn too bad I can't try it myself.
If peter or svl7 try this and if it works to post, it would be a very straight-forward help for people who can mod the vbios.

 

HID's response to the bull auction on ebay...

 

Fixed it

 

:thumbsup:

Nice!

 

Why are you selling something that doesn't currently function or exist - how can you take peoples money before even verifying it?! I hope you've taken down the listing for that AW18 with 980M sli since I saw it last - as it stands it's a con and not something any reputable company should do! Make sure it works first, then put it on sale! (Also saw it advertised on your website too, where it was stated that it was ready to ship!)

EDIT: Just realised you're not a HID rep, I thought you were a HID rep! In that case this rant's not directed at you, but at HID! Haha

 

Yeah..it pissed me off too, so I called them out. They changed the auction slightly and changed the price to something obscene so no one will actually purchase it.

 

It's actually against eBay rules to sell a product that doesn't exist.

 

They are just hoping it works or hoping someone in NBR or TI to fix it for them. Then they will steal it as if they've done it by themselves.

 

not cool at all!

 

Well the ad on HID website have changed and it says "Pre order" now plus the price is $10k, so is the auction on Ebay. Thats good.
Their website states "Pending research and development, no ETA"

Looks like they are monitoring the threads and have seen the criticism

 

Wow, can't believe this has turned into such a long thread. There was some misunderstanding between us and another group we are working with to get the SLI 980M (or single 980M for that matter) to work properly on the 18. We've taken down the ebay/Amazon listings to avoid confusion. I will update this thread once further news is available. I apologize for the alarm.

 

I understand the situation. However you should not have lied to customers. I asked you and your HID whether you have tested the configuration and you answered me that you have. Thats called lie. For me and my folks in Korea, you are just whole bunch of BS.

(I didnt ask one time, but several times)

 

There is no such misunderstanding, it was clearly that you mislead buyers to purchase product which doesn't exist. What you and your company doing is against Ebay/Amazon policy rule.

 

I hope you dont pay them per hour

 

That was what we call a "catch 22" They tested it, but neglected to state for the record. "It didn't work"

 

Once you have been here a while you learn just how long threads can get

 

Guys, at least its seems possible to install just one 980M in a M18X (R1/R2) if I could enable this thing namely Optimus isn't right? But how could I do that? A friend of mine who owns a R1 with 6970M crossfire want to upgrade their machine buying one 980M and I will help him in this task. Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah we call it as "進退兩難".

 

Talk about false advertising I just realized ive got a r1 not a r2 m18x as advertised ffs does anyone know if it can upgrade the processor any further than a 2960xm ???

 

That is the max config for CPU

 

If you purchased it as an R2 having a 2960XM doesn't mean it is an R1. The 2960XM and other Sandy Bridge processor work flawlessly in an M18xR2 (the opposite is not true). Check the chipset. If it is HM77, indeed, you have an M18xR2 motherboard. If it is HM67 you have an M18xR1 and Mike Cacho is correct about 2960XM being the best CPU the motherboard will accept. CPU-Z will show you the motherboard model name and chipset.

 

Thanks yer its definitely an r1 all good im getting some pretty nice ghz out of the 2960xm from memory im getting 3.5ghz across all 4 and 4.5ghz across 1 max temp 89°c using your settings actually Mr fox ha ha

 

Have you repasted your chip with a high quality thermal compound?

 

Yer i put arctic silver throughout pretty sure thats not bad paste

Back on subject though.. you would have though dell would have made there own range of 980m's as they do with most gpus

 

They were too busy making a dual core Ultrabook, a console replacement and a new desktop to be bothered by new laptop GPUs.

They don't make them themselves, though. These MXM GPUs are only made by one or two vendors for all of the OEMs. Sometimes the OEM will tweak the vBIOS a bit. ASUS and MSI sometimes have goofy proprietary modules that will not work correctly on a machine they were not designed for, but Alienware and Clevo use generic video cards.

 

I bought two 880M for my AW 18 but when I try to put new vbios on NVFLASH the cards are just not found by it. Same on windows, it cannot install the driver "no nvidia display adapater found"

If I put the 880M indepentendly on my MSI GT70 and nvflash a clevo 880M vbios will it solve the problem on my AW 18? (because they using same vbios that clevo)

 

Don't take anything apart yet. What GPUs did your Alienware 18 have before?

Open Device Manager, expand "Display" adapters and tell us what you see and how many.

 

I had 780M SLI before.

now its show only intel hd graphics 4600

 

Ok, I've heard 980M SLI works on M18x R2. Does it work with AW 18 as well?

 

Idk I cant find any unlocked bios, I presume thats my problem

 

Does anyone happen to know if HIDevolution have sorted the vbios issue for the 980m and are shipping the m18 with 980m in sli?

Has anyone ordered one?

 

It was discovered that the m18x r2 will work with 980m SLI under windows 8 in full UEFI mode (not the r1 - no UEFI).

I've already ordered a couple of cards with a standard Clevo .12 Vbios on them from Hidevolution as they have shown to work great at standard clocks.

 

I thought it's not confirmed in the R1 yet? If the 970M can work in the 15x, I'm quite sure the R1 should have the 970/980M working somehow

Let's see Mr Fox does with them

 

R1 could be a stretch with sli, but! This is a serious one. The R1 was also able to run SG mode with two dedicated gpus.
So this should be interesting.

 

Ah so it was the R1 that could do that, I thought one of the 18 series could. If I remember rightly it disabled SLI and ran with a single card in that mode right?

 

Pretty close Meaker, but I don't even think it would run one dedicated card in that mode from what I remember. I used it to recover my cards.