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

I believe that iGPU Ram is dynamic. It is selected by the OS depending on your total available RAM. A possible setting above 64MB, is bricking the system.


Also thank you everyone for answering my post.

What I meant was to have a separate post considering the throttling. I was merely asking if with Legacy boot and windows 7, Throttling is present?

I used a belkin wemo switch to mesure wall outlet power draw. It reported that maximum was 185Watts with my 3720QM and a single 980m.
I am still on windows 8.1 and flashed prema's bios for AW18. I selected high performance from Nvidia panel and now clocks are always at full, even when in desktop. I am using latest drivers and throttling is minimal when running Fallout 4. Only when I enable TXAA, it throttles like hell. GPU is workning 75 - 90% all the times. Rarely goes to 99%, "coughs" a bit, and then full clocks.

 

yup tried discharging by pressing and holding the pwr button with battery, cmos batt and AC removed for 60secs. no dice
even tried shorting the jumpers next to the cmos batt.
i wonder if the A11 bios saves to nvram??? because right now im stumped on how to clear it back to default so it can boot. other option is replacing the mobo but thats last resort
removed cpu and ram and let it boot, got 7 beeps. added cpu and let it boot got 2 beeps. added ram and let it boot, it powers on then goes straight off with no beeps. so definitely not getting to POST

 

Use only one stick, if you haven't done it. Next is do the "blind flash" to A03 bios. Use swick's mod rar file as it contains both the 5MB bios and 8MB with EC. You have nothing to lose i think.

 

I wish I would have seen your post before you did that and I would have warned you against changing it. You never want to mess with that setting. As you discovered, doing so will cause massive problems. Just leave the Intel IGFX alone. It will never deliver satisfying performance, even if you overclock the snot out of it. It offers nothing of any value in terms of performance. It's only good for running on battery or flashing soft-bricked GPUs.

 

all good mr fox all part of the fun when overclocking / modding. just trying to find out where there nvram is to see if i can short it out to clear it.
the first board that fail i used the unlocked A10bios and tried some overclocking. guessed i pushed it too far. now this one i changed 1 thing and bam! same error. thank god for alibaba and cheap replacement boards. the amount of money i spent doing **** to this R2 i could have bought another one over haha.In the end i have tried every trick under the sun from this forum with no luck but atleast the help is here. so for those playing around with the bios DO NOT CHANGE IGPX SETTINGS

 

I have not have any issue so far messing around with igfx .. Lol I'm ready to sell one of my m18x r2 (as a barebone) when my new m18x r2 arrive this Wednesday.

 

NVRAM is the extra space on the BIOS chip.

On the M18xR1/R2 this is located in the opening around the DMC slot. It can be replaced (or removed and reprogrammed) without removing anything except the battery and bottom cover. If you don't have a manual programming tool, or the correctly formatted file for manual flashing, it is easier and cheaper to buy a new chip pre-programmed with the firmware.

BIOS CHIP for Alienware M15x, M18x, M18x R1, M18x R2 , M18XR1, M18XR2

I use the technique shown in this video. It is not difficult to do. I have done it several times now and every time, including the first, was successful. You will need a soldering iron with a fine pointed tip, some thin gauge high-lead solder with a low melting point, good no-clean flux, soldering wick and some fine copper wire strands. I recommend a magnifying glass or magnifier headset for this type of work so you can see clearly what you are doing and be sure there is no solder bridging the contacts, verify solid connections, etc. Working in a very brightly lit area is also helpful.

The thing to be most careful about is removing the chip. You want all of the solder melted and use the thin copper wire to separate the legs from the contact pads on the motherboard. If you are careless and "pull" the chip off instead of melting the solder and separating the legs from the contact pads you can tear the pads off of the motherboard and potentially ruin your chances of fixing the problem. So, take it slow and easy, be gentle and it should turn out fine. Again, it's not difficult to do if you have the right stuff and are prepared in advance.

I did not solder the end of the wire to anything. I just wound it around a nearby screw (under the screw head) and tightened the screw to hold the wire on one end.

 

What settings did you adjust? I was trying to increase the ram from 64 to 1024 since I got 16gb

 

Yeah, don't mess with that. To anyone that doesn't read all posts, do not adjust ANYTHING related to Intel HD Graphics in the BIOS other than overclocking multipliers and Secondary Plane power. Those are safe to play with if you honestly have nothing important to do with your time. Changing any of the other settings may lead to a bricked system that is only repairable by BIOS chip replacement/reprogramming. There is absolutely nothing meaningful to be gained by changing any of the Intel HD Graphics settings, including overclocking it. Ignore them all is the best policy... complete waste of time.

 

He's talking about DVMT allocation in the BIOS. Don't touch that setting, it will brick your BIOS, and there is no point in dicking with it either since Windows can automatically manage DVMT size depending on RAM.

 

Was trying to install win 7 in legacy mode onto my msata but it keeps giving an error.... anyone know what setting I missed to fix that?

Formatted the drive but no dice atm.

 

Gonna have to be more specific than that mate

 

I put the CD in and got to the install windows menu but it gives a cannot install to this drive error when select the msata drive as the drive to install windows 7 to even tho Ive deleted all the partitions from it.

Getting a feeling it wants to install part of the install onto the SSDs which contain my games, videos and my win10 image backup (that 100mb recovery partition on drive 0, msata is drive 3) instead of completely onto the msata.

 

Ohh, i wish i had some 980`s laying around, i would gladly had tested it on my M18X R1........

 

it should give you some more detailed info imo, (not enough space, SMART failure, invalid type,...)
What exactly did it tell you?... and i fail to see this question relevant to this thread unless you have the OP's BIOS installed

 

I have the bios installed. Im trying to reinstall windows 7 on the msata in legacy mode like I install windows 8 and 10 in UEFI mode (as in using the msata as the primary boot drive) but it give an error code and just says you cannot install windows to this drive when I get to the select drive to install to menu. Wondering if i missed a setting or something on the bios to do so.

 

Probably because the drive is formatted GPT and needs to be formatted MBR.....

 

Agree, that seems very plausibile, especially if you had UEFI Win 8 or 10. I believe they set GPT by default.
Boot linux live cd and change the drive to use MBR, and you will be ready to go.

 

Ah. Would formatting with a win10 install flash be just as good as well (without actually installing win10)?

 

Unnecsesary, he can just use the build in command prompt in the install disk recovery tools section. Commands needed:
diskpart
list disk (select whatever your msata disk is)
select disk x (where x is the number of your msata)
clean
convert mbr
exit

Should be good to install

 

Yeah that seemed to be the problem got windows 7 installing now. Want to make myself a windows 7 backup image with all the core files installed like the windows 10 version I have so I can switch to it for testing purposes when I need to.

 

Can anyone tell me if its possible to flash this bios without tearing apart my laptop again to remove my 980m? In the instructions I read the I must change to legacy and intel gpu. Will the laptop boot or I will get the 8 beeps?

 

I did a stock benchmark running windows 10

Not a bad score, or should it have been higher ? I remember when i did the first run in SLI , I had a score a little over 14K



Edited: both GPU fans working

 

@Rengsey R. H. Jr.
What's needed for gpu fans to work on M18X-R2 with 980M SLI? I'm currently using HWInfo64 to do the job otherwise my second GPU temp goes up to 94C and machine turns off. What's your GPU vBIOS?

 

If you set the computer to igfx the intel gpu then your fine. It would only 8 beep if you set legacy mode while on the PEG aka the 980m. Once you boot in dos and flash the bios your 8 beep horrors are gone for good.

 

@Infinaris is correct you will have to flash in legacy mode with igfx enabled, once you have flashed the new bios default will be igfx.... not that it is really needed anymore as the 980m boots fine in legacy with the new bios. The only issues left with the 980m in the R2 is the throttling and odd instances were the second fan does not spin up.

Its a reasonable score, I'm pretty sure the new cancer drivers (as @Mr. Fox would say) are a factor, but the very best you can expect to get with stock clocks is the example Mr. Fox has left us:

I am not sure what is going on with your system mate, the other day I though I'd try Prema's v2 vbios for the Alienware 18 with the new bios, guess what? My second fan refused to spin unless I used Hwinfo, I then flashed back to the standard v2 vbios and fans are back to normal....

 

I used a clevo BIOS.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/167297/clevo-gtx980m-8192-141030

As for drivers I use 353.84. I am running Windows 10. 2nd GPU fan kicks in every time I did a benchmark.

From what I read , the clock drops around 60 Celsius. I am in the process of trying to do cooling mod to the m18x-r2. And also I am in the process of building the dual PSU too.

 

Mr. Fox just told me about this. Looks so epic i need sunglasses . Do you happen to have a back up link to download? I went to techinferno It's complaining that I don't have permissions or the right member ship level (extremely vague) to download the file (which is marked as FREE amazingly) yes I still plan to donate but I would like a sample the goods, good sir. Thank you for your guidance and hard work. looking forward to V2.5 as well =)

 

Hey Brother Fox didn't Premia Vbios mod fix the throttling issues already?

 

Still dunno whats the issue with the occasional throttling but some indications earlier have pointed to the drivers rather than the bios itself. Think swick was still looking into it at last check.

 

Nope. Not for Alienware. I think it is drivers, but since most systems don't have this problem the driver issue is one that doesn't play nice with Alienware. The problem affects 780M SLI, 880M SLI and 980M SLI and increased in severity with overclocking, including CPU overclocking. So, I think there is some connection between the BIOS and GeForce cancer drivers. They should be allowed to communicate with one another and the GPU drivers should mind their own damned business. I blame NVIDIA 100% for this, not Alienware. Everything was peachy until NVIDIA started producing the worst drivers in their company history.

 

I understand that TechInferno is hosting the files so that @Swick1981 keeps the rights to his mods. Just make 5 post or become an elite member and you should be good to download the files (then you also have access to all the other good stuff on that site!!)

 

Hey guys i would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you, most off the time i have know idea what your talking about but i was lucky enough to come across this thread and someone not mentioning any names @Swick1981, has personally contacted me via phone and spent at least 2 hours guiding me through his bios mod. Im not a overclocker but do like my games, My M18xr2 has the GTX680Ms installed at the moment but i eagerly await my GTX980M's which are on there way.

Even with the 600 series gpu's my r2 is running smoother with his bois mod, the machine just feels better if that makes any sense.

I purchased my 980's because i wanted better frame rates in my games but know i find 3d mark on my screen, well i guess this is how it starts.

Everytime i read something on this board i learn something and you guys make it so easy to ask dumb questions of which i have many lol.

Anyway to anyone considering donating to @Swick1981 for his great work please do as i have not the hardware yet to take advantage of the mod but even then i can tell you my R2 is much better flashing his mod, can't wait until my 980m's arrive.

 

Dang No POST, I some need help, I flashed the bios. From a Rufus Dos disk, Legacy was already enabled. Had 8.1 loaded. (incorrectly still on my AMD 7970m CF - legacy mode) I was Preparing to do the 980m swap. So everything went smoothly with the install, Erased the blocks, flashed the blocks, and Ends with Green Text saying something...successful, Then dumped me back to the c prompt. So i reboot, Black screen no IRST, no POST, no beeps. BTW I over wrote Slvens A11 unlocked bios with yours. Any ideas please sirs? I'm in a bind

I tried pulling the CMOS batt and holding the pwr bttn down 30 secs to reset maybe it was the defaults wrong. all i have is keyboard lights (all of them how i left them) no fans. (they start for about 1 second on boot then shutoff)

Bummed

 

Thanks buddy, They changed their policy, you still need to post, but now it takes a week to get reviewed manually before they decide to let you in or not, (I reached out to them) Impatient so i just bought a level 4 subscription

 

Is your m18x-r2 working now ?

 

You didnt happen to have updated your intel ME firmware by any chance did you? Afink that can trigger a brick. Possibly might have to blind flash a bios to get it going.

I actually flashed my bios from the official a10 to swicks mod when I installed mine so maybe its because you had a modded bios already on it or something in the configs banjoed you?

 

No its not working

 

I have heard of this, I didn't touch anything to my knowledge. with the intel ME firmware.

What is the procedure to blind flash?

 

You would need to have another computer to create a bootable dos and set it up. Should be instructions with the bios you downloaded. Otherwise you would need to look at the svl7 bios mods afink theres a stock a03 bios included to flash back to an older file. If your able to do that and get it working then you could try flashing the modded bios again.

One thing though you have amd GPU's atm? You try removing them and booting?

 

Found the procedure on how to blind flash. https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...cover-from-a-bad-flash-for-alienware-m18x-r2/

Searching for an .hdr file of the bios. I extracted the exe. it only has a .bin

Update: got the a03 bios. found the file they where talking about. Sorry Im slow today guys. Watching baby boy and trying to multitask. Failing

 

not yet. Wasn't planning on tearing the old girl down today but looks like plans change huh? And yes sir. I still have the factory 2x 7970m Crossfire mode. the plan was to get everything ready. order the cards, and just "slam them in" since no one has done it this way yet

I will try taking the cards out. Is there anything else you can think of. First timer here (with a "bad" flash). I've had great luck upgrading downgrading, "sidegrading" with Slv7 bios'. Just trying to keep centered. not mad, just worrying. Afraid of having to buy a new mobo. Or even if i can find one... :/

 

So it won't blind flash, just sits there with the fans spinning.

Downloaded A03 Bios
Extracted QBR10EC.fd
Renamed to M18R2.hdr
Put the file on a freshly formated FAT32 stick
took the battery out
plugged in the stick to the ESATA usb port
Held down END while plugging in the power cord
Fans come on waited about 1 - 10 seconds (tried multiple times)
Old girl just sits there with the fans spinning.

What now gentlemen?

 

Theres another instruction on that thread...

Pull the power out and press the power button for 30 seconds.
Then hold down the fn key and power key when you put in the power cable until it restarts. Think that clears the cmos. U try that?

Also: https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...enware-m18x-r2/&do=findComment&comment=116159

Another fix from mr fox give that a try.

 

if the fans are spinning at high speed , let it sit there till the BEEPS starts going off and you get annoyed by it. Once the BEEPS stop , it should reboot and the old girl will boot right back up.

 

Took both cards out. nothing. black screen. no beeps. won't blind flash. no 20-80 beeps. just reboots after about 5 mins.

As to not trash this post. Ill just recycle this message

First I want to thank those of you that are helping me figure this out. I know you have lives and problems of your own. I really appreciate you guys.

I am attempting another blind flash. It has been 8 minutes now with no beeps. fans on high speed. fingers crossed!

13 minutes now no beeps

22 minutes no beeps still. ugh
Tried to connect 2nd monitor via HDMI (to test if the monitor crapped out), "no signal"

26...

42 mins no beeps.

52 mins no beeps. I don't think it's going to work friends

 

@Swick1981 , is there a way for you to help this brother out. Maybe this issue will be fix.

 

U try the fn+power button method that I mentioned earlier?

 

Yes sir. took the battery out and power cable. held down power for 40 secs. plugin power cord. pressed fn+ power until it rebooted did this 3x in a row as well for good measure. Any other ideas? its only half way put together. just enough to get it to boot

 

Only other thing is that post from mrfox i linked from tli if you wanna try it.