Alienware M18xR2 New/Updated BIOS Mods - NOW WITH MAXWELL LEGACY SUPPORT - Testers Needed

any help in trying to flash bios in windows 8 ? I got as far as the screenshot goes.

 

The package has a DOS version of FPT. Looks kind of like you are booting EFI. Have to run PRR2 first to disable flash protection. If you are running Maxwell in UEFI mode in an M18xR2 you have to pull the GPUs, switch to Legacy BIOS and use DOS, not EFI.

Did you read the "READ ME FIRST" file first?

 

Flash the bios in windows 8?
you need to be flashing in windows dos...that is. Meaning a bootable dos flash drive of course....
And maybe turn on legacy booting and turn off secure boot Also run the prr2 command first...maybe.

 

'nonymous: Guy Fawkes ... or ... Guy Fox​

 

That is dos mode in EFI. I was hoping not to have to " re-do " everything lol. But it looks like there is no way around it. * sigh * ....

FYI: did you guys know that I downgraded from bios A12 to A10 without going through dos ? I downgrade the bios by the same step as if i were upgrading the bios. Weird you can do that in Windows 8.

 

Redo everything? It's turn it on, flash then turn off. What's there to redo? Although you will need to redo your bios settings of course.

And I can go from A03 up to A12 and back down again in windows. Any version to any other version for that matter... But that was a while ago.

 

Phonetic similarities can be tricky... Mr. Fawkes and Mr. Fox are both tricky guys... metaphorically speaking, of course.

 

That was my fun last nigh: remove 980m's, flash bios, restore uefi booting, reassemble...... Along with windows 7 that is main reason why legacy support would be so nice!!

 

Ah, yes...That's right. So you were not able to set sg mode and still boot legacy....It's been a while since i messed with that part of it.

Or even intel graphics?

 

Well , I'm back lol. I did the routine of dis assembly and re assembled lol. But I'm on unlock A11 now. The speed is awesome , boot time , opening webpages etc ... or maybe cause it's fastboot ? lol

 

Hey everyone,
Im really, truely, honesrly, HONORED that yall were willing to test my MOD! Im now looking for people that are willing to test the next bios release to see if im able to get it to support legacy for clevo gpus, but need some peole that have the 970m, 980m.... gpus. Its going to take A BIT of trial & error, but... i do have several options and things we can try. So... let me know if youre interested in testing the next part.
Further, i doubt, highly doubt, ill unlock a12. It didnt add TOO much support from what i real... so, this is likely the last hacked version. But, i will try & see what i can do, but i doubt thatll hapen. Besides, ive added a lot of updates on tgis bios mod, and the only other thing to add is clevo legacy support. Im working on it now.
Thanks again for testing. Its a true honor to be able to help the community!!!

 

Is there a way you can add a mod for it to recognize AW 18 LCD ? That would be super awesome.

 

I would test it , but I have no clevo cards.

 

It's not clevo card dependent, not sure why swick keeps referring to it that way. Its to get all 980Ms working (dell or clevo) working.

 

If you can get a legacy boot working for the 980m Ill be willing to take a shot. As for the A12 bios maybe try getting one unlocked just for the sake of simplicity and being able to flash directly from the official A12 m18x bios.

 

Something was drastically changed in the A12 structure regarding the SetupUtility module, which makes it more difficult to unlock ALL the menus as compared to before. We cannot safely do this, even svl7 did not attempt.

We are still trying to sort what modules could be responsible for proper 980M legacy operation.

 

Yes, indeed. I actually spoke with him about that. I think @johnksss might have even helped him with testing, but that was a long time ago and I don't recall all of the details. BIOS A11 was borderline usable and then BIOS A12 for the M18xR2 was the second major step toward destruction of the Alienware brand. The first was the firmware write protection filth change that created the need for @svl7 PRR tool to circumvent it, which started somewhere around A07 or A08. Things continued on a downward trend from there. These clowns definitely had an evil master plan and strategy to destroy everything that we found value in.

I no longer have any patience, desire or time to deal with fixing their nonsense, but I would like nothing better than to be a witness to all of their evil craftwork coming undone. The M18xR2 is worthy of being uncrippled, but even more important than that, I would like to see it happen as a supreme act of defiance and a triumph of good over evil kind of thing. In spite of its engineered shortcomings compared to the M18xR2, I want to see their crippled crap broken/undone on the Alienware 18 someday as well. It's a matter of principle more than anything else now. Tit for tat.

Kind of like, " OK, sucka, so you think you gonna lock me out of my own house now, beeawtch? Well, gimme some time to break down the doe and then I gonna lock you foos in the back yard and let muh doags out. And you best run, son... they be some mean doags."

 

I keep referring to CLEVO GPU's cause those are the ONLY kind I'll use. I realize it's others, but I just use clevo's, so that's why. But Raid is right... It's all nvidia GPUs.
Again, I'm really glad this was helpful for ya'll... I'm STILL researching the modules and TRYING to find where the change was that's giving the support to the GPU's... In any case, if there are OTHER updates to the bios that you'd like to see, please let me know. I'm working as hard as I can trying to update and give legacy support for the GPU's, but willing to add more.
Let me know!
Thanks,
Swick

 

SG mode and intel graphics work until you restart after flashing, all the bios settings are then reverted back to stock settings and you get the dreaded 8 beeps.

Yeh no point wasting effort on A12 when maxwell legacy support is Number 1 on the wishlist.

 

@Swick1981 - You know, what might be a HUGE help to guys like @kenny27 and @Tulius and @Rengsey R. H. Jr. is changing the BIOS default for video from PEG to IGFX so that after resetting the BIOS or doing a blind flash it would still be bootable long enough to press F2 and enter the BIOS to change it to PEG with UEFI mode. Until full Legacy support for Maxwell can be worked out, that would at least eliminate the need for having to tear it apart and remove GPUs just to get past the 8-beep problem. That could also make the task of helping test the mods less daunting as well. Even guys that can do it with their eyes closed don't like the hassle of having to dismantle the machine just to pull out their 980M cards in order to change BIOS settings. Back when @johnksss and I were still trying to get 980M SLI to work right, this small tweak would have made the effort a far less miserable experience.

 

Yes please!!

I have thought about asking to have the default boot setting to be changed to uefi but this is a much much better solution. It would help anyone with Maxwell cards and make testing bios's a 5 minute job.

 

Yeah I'd agree what we need is for the bios to default to the igfx in the event of a failed legacy boot on the gpus. Its why I'd be hesisant to flash any mods right now as taking the laptop apart is very time consuming not to mention all the delicate parts inside Id be afraid of breaking by accident.

 

I've actually been working on that... TRYING, but I'm in need of a little help. MOST of the insyde bios files have a descriptor type file, and I can usually take that file, port into Intels Flash Tool and edit the settings in that program. That is NOT the case with this, sadly. I've even tried a FULL or PARTIAL dump of our bios file(s), too. But I AM working on it. IF ANYONE has any suggestions or idea's please let me know! But I am trying to work on this.. I'll also have by sunday night or monday night a few BIOS mods to test to see if the LEGACY support is available... I have several modules that I have to port, but I want to do them one at a time, to see what the effects are of those mods, one at a time, and go from there. As such, that WILL OBVIOUSLY slow things down, but it will allow us to figure out exactly what's happening...

 

Hey Everyone,
So, I need a small hand / some help if possible... I've been able to get the variables (mostly) for the setting for the IGFX. I was also able to get the HEX location. HOWEVER, in that location, it should be one value, but it's something completely different. Does ANYONE here know HEX editing, as I'm not terribly skilled at it. If I could get a hand from someone, that would be extremely helpful. I literally have EVERYTHING that I need, except one thing (or maybe I do have everything and am doing it wrong). It's hard to explain, but here is the short version. I'm told that at a certain offset, the Primary Display option has several variables that can be used. It's set to 0x1 (I THINK), and we want it to be 0x0. However, when I go to that offset, the value is set to AA. I don't know exactly what is going on. BUT, if I can get some help, I'm almost certain we can get this default setting to be changed. The problem is I MAY need the values from the bios to be dumped, but I'm unable to get that done for some reason. So, if anyone knows how to get all the values dumped, please PM me. Or, if they have an idea on the HEX editing, pleaes get back to me too. I'm still working on it, but I wanted to attack this problem first, as it'll make life so much easier for EVERYONE if we can just get the default to be IGFX instead of PEG.
Thanks,
Swick

 

I do not know if those values are right....I know the M18x has 5 options for video:
Auto
IGFX
PCI
PEG
SG

So in theory, there should be 5 variables. also the values are not typically 0x1....at a minimum any flag values should be 2 hex digits (from my experience, could be wrong), ranging from 0x00 to 0xFF and everything in between that.

For what it is worth, from my Osx86 days, I know the address of GFX0 (also known as IGFX/iGPU) is 0x00020000, and the address for PEG0.PEGP (dedicated graphics slot 1) is 0x00010000, and dedicated slot 2 is 0x00010001

You think this flag/value is stored in SetupUtility module, or elsewhere?

 

Hey again,
Just wanted to give you an update... So, I'm in the process of TRYING to WRITE (or more specifically) modify a C++ program. This program was able to give me all the EFI variables, the offsets, and what the default value is on the R1. The problem is that dell has modified how that information is listed. It used to be AA 55 3F and now it's AA 55 7F (or vica-versa). Therefore, once I get this script to work, I'll have EVERY DEFAULT setting, and where they are located within the BOIS BIN file (HEX offset)! Again, assuming I'm able to get it to work. If I can't, then it'll just have to be that I'll start doing the mod for legacy support on the 900 series cards. Anyway, because of that, this is slowing me down but I'm working on this EVERY SINGLE DAY after work for many hours. I'm working hard, just so you know! I'll keep you posted as I get more info. Again, I'm SO VERY CLOSE, truely VERY CLOSE! I just need to extract a little more info and I'll be able to change ANY default setting within the bios. And the good part is, IF I can get this C++ program to work, there is a chance that I'll be able to get this program to work on other InsydeH20 Bios's, as well!
So, you'll be hearing from me soon... (Oh, if anyone has experience writing C++ and hex editing, please contact me)! I could use the help!

 

Hey All,
I just thought I'd edit this post instead of posting again...
I can confirm that my new bios release does, in fact, change your default value to IGFX. So, whenever flashing the bios, you'll be in good shape. Also, I believe I can change the value in the blind flash version as well, if you think that'll be needed. Otherwise, this should, in theory, be good enough... (I HOPE)!
So, now on to testing the modules to try and get legacy support... I'll be honest and tell you that I don't know if it'll be something that I'm capable of doing, but I will most certainly try!
In any case, you'll be hearing from me again in one way shape or form... heh

Thanks,
Swick

 

I can also confirm the default GPU setting is now iGFX instead of PEG. Any CMOS reset should now default to intel HD graphics instead of PEG graphics. This should make testing much, much faster.

 

The default to igfx is great, but the issue with the reset is now having to reinstall OS due to SATA Operation settings. I have mentioned to swick that if you are a Windows 8 user, maybe also Windows 7 , the reset in SATA Operation in BIOS is set to RAID after doing the reset. So if you are in ATA or AHCI setting , you are stuck having to reinstall OS, because changing the SATA Operation settings back to your original either ATA or AHCI , the BIOS can't read the drive and therefore the message " there is no boot disk found " .

For Windows 8 user like me , for some reason , installing in UEFI , the disk is not recognize in RAID setting in the initial start of installing OS. I have to set to AHCI , then install windows 8. So if I reset BIOS , it gets back to RAID setting , and from there my HDD aren't recognized anymore because it was initially set up in AHCI.

Unless someone can tell me how to install windows 8 in UEFI mode with raid setting. I can test further ...

Edited: or if swick can mod the SATA Operation setting to not changed after the reset.

 

I sent you 8 private message, but I think the way to fix that should be somewhat simple. At least I hope. Though I could be wrong in full disclosure. After you flash the BIOS you need to reset the computer and make sure you enter the BIOS immediately. Once you are in the Bios you can change the option from raid to whatever you want. After you have made those changes, save the changes and then reboot. This way you won't even have the error message no OS is installed or found. Try that first and let me know... fingers crossed...

 

Have to say this is looking really good guys keep up the good work. If you manage to crack the legacy boot issue for the 9xx cards your gonna have alot of happy people expecially knowing that it'd be possible to use the newer cards as good as the older ones as well as hopefully no longer needing to use modified drivers to install the nvidia drivers.

 

Why would you reinstall...? Just get back into the BIOS and switch from RAID to AHCI. I do it all the time and it works fine

 

I tried that. The structure of the GPT formated hdd installed OS is not as simple as changing from RAID to AHCI in Windows 8 , and hopefully it will work. That's not the case. Once the laptop boot up , the path to those partitions are manipulated and BIOS won't be able to find the boot drive. Their is a warning that says " your hard drives might not be recognized " if the setting is changed.

I believe Windows 8 makes about 3 - 4 partitions when installing the OS. If any of the partition is missing when booting up , boot disk will not be recognized.

Maybe I'm not doing something right. Lol Right now I hate Windows 8.

 

Here is a link to what I was talking about when you change the SATA Operation setting. * copy and paste *

Hi Thomas,

Richard has the right idea about your problem. Windows may be using different storage drivers for RAID and AHCI modes. Windows will try to load the RAID driver but the driver will not match the AHCI mode and bugcheck with famous 0x7B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE). Startup repair will not work because it will not know which driver to load.
The easiest way is to reinstall the OS with AHCI mode.

Going back to the core problem, what issues are you seeing using the eSata port in RAID mode?

PS:When changing SATA Mode, BIOS should warn you, saying something like "Attention! SATA mode changing may prevent the present operating system from booting or require a reinstall".

Thanks

Link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-to-ahci/4c94f678-6bd1-48a6-b871-8872c841023a

 

Thanks for the kind words... ive been busting my rear trying to get these defaults changed, modules modified, etc... Im glad that my mod can be useful for the community. I just think the r1 & r2 were (and maybe still are) the BEST laptops ever made. They are amazing! And the sheer potential that they have is just astonishing. Im hoping ill be able to crack the legacy support, next. And thanks to Raidriar willingness to testing and flashing of my bios's, progress has been made! Hes seriously got guts, heh... fingers crossed on the next big part, legacy support! Im off to work on that now! Lastly, My thought is, perhaps i should change the default device to ata or ahci for ppl testing. This way it might help so they dont need to reinstall? Or, any other suggestions? Lmk

 

So, I believe I MAY have found a way to give Legacy Support for the 900 Series. If anyone is interested in testing, please contact me. I can confirm that the mod flashes, as I have done it, and that the system works just fine. However, the problem is I do NOT have a 900 Series GPU. The only way to test it is to find people that have it. Anyone willing to test, let me know!

Thanks,
Swick

 

The guys like @kenny27, @Tulius, @Raidriar and @Rengsey R. H. Jr. ought to be all over this testing opportunity. They have the world to gain if your mod does the trick... would be life-changing in very good way.

A little late to the party with that hate, but yeah... really sucks. But, not as sucky as Windows 10 cancer OS. Thanks for the testing you are doing... awesome stuff. If you are booting 980M SLI in Legacy mode without 8 beeps this is a fantastic accomplishment and people will have mega respect for the work of Brother @Swick1981. I sure do hope people that benefit from it give him a nice donation via PayPal for this. He would deserve every penny, but awesome talent is too often taken for granted. I know that @Prema and @svl7 and @johnksss have seen plenty of ungrateful takers over the years. Next thing you know, some dishonest scum bucket will change the boot logo, claim it as their own and try to sell it. So, maybe it should only be offered for purchase to known members of NBR and Tech|Inferno that are in good standing with each community. If it is made available to the public it's almost guaranteed somebody is going to steal it and claim they did it and start selling it.

 

This mod is really promising, I'm picking up an m18xr2 and selling my r3 if this works, I'll see if my friend with an r2 can test. Does 970m work though?

 

Probably will. I cannot think of any reason 970M would not work if 980M does.

My M18xR1, M18xR2 and all of my spare parts are for sale on eBay.

 

Sell me your modded PSU.

 

Nope, I am selling everything as a bundle for the R2. A few people have already asked if they could buy that. I want whoever gets it to have it, along with all of the extra parts. I could probably make more money dismantling everything and selling it in pieces, but I am just too busy to mess with all that.

You can make one really easy. I posted the instructions how to do it over here.

 

Well, it looks like the MOD will give 900 Series support has been CONFIRMED.
Now it's to get the AW18 LCD screen to work on the r2! Any other enhancements that people want, please do not hesitate to contact me! I'm happy to add any thing else that would give this beast more capability! I will be unable to put the MOD download link on this site. I'll be putting a link to the download in my signature in a little bit.

 

Reach out to @j95 about the M17xR4 BIOS. It is almost the same as the M18xR2 BIOS. Once you're done putting the final touches on the M18xR2 BIOS mods you may be able to do the same for the M17xR4 owners, and it may not require much in the way of extra effort.

This could also make Brother @woodzstack happy, because I suspect his GPU upgrade sales will increase with proper Maxwell support. I know the lack of Legacy support, throttling and having to use crappy OSes and special tweaked drivers with Maxwell has kept many people away from the upgrades. Most people are not interested in having to deal with a lot of rigmarole. Most want plug and play and something that just works with no hassles. That might also be a mechanism to control distribution and avoid people stealing your work for profit. If one of the few ways people can get the mod is by purchasing GPU upgrades from him, it could be part of their upgrade package and maybe even give you a little bit of pocket change for your work on this project.

 

That's a fantastic idea, Mr. Fox...

 

Support for the m17x r4 would be awesome!

But i'm not that keen on the idea that you would only be able to get such a mod from buying a gpu @woodzstack. It would mean current r4 maxwell users would be left out other than having to buy another gpu just to get a bios mod.

It sounds great on paper to reduce the change of piracy but in the end it still would be possible.

Though in my case I'm hoping for Polaris or Pascal to be able to work with the R4, a legacy bios on the other hand would greatly increase that the chances of that.

 

The m17xr4 I can take a look at next. I'm thinking it's bios is probably similar to the m18xr1 bios. If that's the case, it MAY be possible to give support for that, too... I have the modded files that need to be used, so it is, theoretically, possible to do. It may be easier, or it could be harder. One never knows with dell, heh. In any case, once I get the m18xr2 bios all wrapped up, I'll take a look at the 17r2. In fact, if someone could send me the bios via a link for the 17r4, that would be of great help. I can take a look at it and see what I can do. If you are just looking for the legacy support, I can do that. I could also, possibly, add the newer intel oprom (and EFI module too), the vBios (if you have onboard GPU), the LAN (Depending what the ONBoard LAN card is), and add support for a few others things, too... If that's something people want, let me know and I'll see what I can do for ya'll!
LMK

 

I would have to see it working before I jump to conclusions, since a dozen people have attempted it before.
If I had the bios, I would offer it to clients who already purchased, if they have the latest card, as an example, thus if you purchased a 780M but you could theoretically now use a 980M and the bios, what would be the point in offering free tech support at no gain ?
I would run out of time, doing nothing but tech support for thousands of clients everyday, without a penny to show. So clients only. Just like those who contact me and ask for my advice on how to fix 10+ problems they are having on their laptop, that they just purchased from another vendor, or my favorite - they just purchased a Videocard from laptop monkey of CEG or RJTech and are getting NO tech support responses, and need me to help them install it.

Now, if you already have a 900M series and its working in your laptop - why would you need the bios anyways ? When next gen comes out, we can support it, isn't that what matters most ? If it was given for free, it would be fine for me too, but then when the bios no longer works and has bugs and you want the original people who made it, update it and fix it, but they don't feel like putting in 200+ hours to fix a small issue for free, don't complain either.

So it's a give and take situation. Anyone who knows me and my business, knows I REALLY try and keep my pricing low, because I'm more about helping you do what you want with your laptop, so long as I'm making enough to cover my time. I would expect the same for those who made the bios. Since Videocards is a few MILLION dollar market for aftermarket upgrades, there is still some small slices of pie to go around.

 

I can't use a maxwell card and Windows 7 without having to use optimus, windows 8 and 10 are both still atleast for me big pieces of a very very large dog turd.

And don't get me wrong, if I was going to upgrade to maxwell I would buy a card from you just for the support alone .

 

@Swick1981 , did Rengsey R. H. Jr. reported any throttling now with this updated legacy bios mod? I hope at least this problem could be gone like the maxwell Clevo notebooks. I'm going back from a trip at work, I could not test for now this bios. But anyway congrats for your hard work!

 

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad I could be of use to ya'll! (I mean it, seriously)!
At the moment, he said it was SLIGHTLY throttling the GPU's, but the score in 3dmark11 was actually pretty good for a first run. If you look at the OP, you'll see the score was almost 15,000 or 14,500. Can't remember, lol. Anyway, the minimal throttling might be able to be fixed. I'm going to be working on that, too. It's likely the vBios just needs to be modded. Otherwise, the drivers could always be modded OR I could certainly try, and will try, to change that in the bios. But, at least there are options, heh!
Thanks again for the kind words. Means a lot.