Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!!

Hi all,

I apologize for my bad English I'm a froggy, I know I have not had any luck

I really need help, I'll go crazy (I'm already little )
I installed on my m18x r2 a sli 980m, I installed Windows 8.1 x64, UEFI mode, I installed with the DVD, I deleted all the old partition (Windows 7 x64) I created new and installed W8.1
that's my problem: IMPOSSIBLE to enable SLI !!
of course I use a modded drivers, I disable the signature before installation
reboot, a small window bottom right said better performance by enabling SLI, everything seems normal
go to nvidia control panel, I check SLI, he asks me to restart (normal)
go to nvidia panel again to check.... it is grayed SLI not enabled !!
I tried dozens of times, same....
my problems are not over ! I have another Alienware, more recent, Alienware 18, I started by installing dual 980m to him,
I had EXACTLY the same problem, this is why I tried on r2 !

I hope you can help me before I became totally crazy...

Another small detail, with 980's on both laptop, if I go into diagnostic black screen and 8 beeps
without 980's, (680's for r2 and 780's for AW18) diagnostic perfect, all tests passed

last information, modded drivers is 353.15

sincerely thanks for your help

 

Maxwell GPUs are technically not compatible with the 18 or M18xR2, M17xR4 or AW17. While some level of functionality is possible in a pure UEFI environment, they are still limited in functionality and can only boot using GOP. Attempting to boot using VGA will fail with 8 beeps. Maxwell will not work at all with the M18xR1 or M17xR3 because they do not have pure UEFI or GOP booting capabilities.

How many different drivers have you tried using? If you've only tried it with one driver, the one you are using may be the problem. See if you can enable SLI using this driver:

Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod for Alienware and Clevo Mobile GPUs

Do not attempt to run the Dell/Alienware ePSA (diagnostic) test with 980M SLI. It will fail with 8 beeps because the diagnostic test will not be able to find the LCD panel. It need to use VGA not GOP display protocol.

 

Thanks for your help Mr.Fox !

Problem solved ! it was a simple thing:
After driver installation SLI is never activated, in Nvidia control panel they propose activate SLI, you must check and "apply"
after he asks reboot, I always did with Windows 7 and drivers "stock" but with Windows 8.1, SLI 980 and drivers modded
after reboot SLI was not activated...
I tried something else, disable signature, install modded drivers (353.15)
disable signature again, Nvidia control panel, check SLI and I leave !!
a message tells me: "apply changes" ?
yes... no reboot and SLI activate

I dont know why it works this way, but active SLI !

maybe this strange thing help people who have this problem...

now I will test other drivers modded, same method

I dont know modded, I tried with 355.82, failed !


maybe that by installing this chip, for Alienware of course, everything is easier no ?
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/161664201047?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I dont know....

 

Thanks!

The cards are coming "pre-flashed for my system" I'll see what vBIOS is in there and either stick with that or follow the pointers for using the Clevo 8GB version until the AW 8GB release.

Homer

 

I think the triple PSU adapter will be ready within two weeks from now. Once it is completed I will start with testing (I do not have so much time, work + studying so maybe it will take a while) I will keep you posted.

 

I wonder if the new full GTX 980s for MXM will work in the M18x-R2.

 

No they won't..

 

No they won't. Each GTX980 runs at 200W. That is equivalent to 2 GTX980Ms.

 

What is advertised is 160W for GTX 980 MXM board. The problem itself is the weird PCB shape if trying to install on a M18X-R2

 

Maybe with this M18X-R2 will be able to handle whatever monster mobile GPU they like to release
[UPDATE]

 

Well as I do not run the cards @Stocks values I was hoping someone around here could tell me if this value for stock is correct as I see it a little bit lower I do remember it was near 19k500 or so with stock clocks but I do not have good memory so
what do you think is or is not a good score for stock values?

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8714360?


PS: I am using Win10 + 355.82 so I am guessing this drivers are not working right :s

 

I'll give it a shot, downloading 3DMark Free now.Quick question, which monitor will tell me what the fan speeds are?

Homer

 

No idea if this is good or bad: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8715230





Is the compare with some CPU overclocking? http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8714360



Plus, it looks like your memory is faster as well



Homer

 

With 353.51 and 3920XM my score was 13500~
Stock vBIOS though, hope that helps.
My score with PREMA was quite a bit lower

980m SLI
Windows 8.1

 

Brother Nikos, please upload your guide for dual psu mod cant wait to see your triple psu mod as well. Maybe when gtx 980 mxm 3.0b comes, you can be the first one to break 30k barrier in laptops for Firestrike

 

the triple PSU mod it's done and it's working perfectly the bad news it's that the systems reboots when higher temps or higher loads appears (not sure which is the problem to be honest as the temperatures never hits 92ºC so... Maybe motherboard power limit? :S), it is not PSU mod problem as we built a test bed for the PSU mod to be able to emulate constant load over the Tri-PSU. It can handle +-600W constantly so for the laptop it is more than enough. I do not know where the reboot comes from but I am not able to run the cards @ 1.2 V (1.193V real). There are so many variables to think of and right now I am stuck trying to figure out which one is the one.
So I've been thinking and maybe it's better to share the Dual-PSU (if you can do dual you can do triple in fact) document to help you out to build your own mod.
Right now I do not have so much time to translate to English the doc but I am thinking to share first the Spanish version and translate it along the time to English.
PS: If anyone of you want to help me to figure out which is the problem about reboots (it can be system power limit) feel free to post your thoughts it will be very appreciated

 

Has anybody flashed the Dell vBIOS to the 980M and tested legacy boot? There are some reports that it is working on the Alienware 18 in legacy boot.

 

From this 23k600 to this 22k600 points (with higher clocks)


I do not have any clue where I am losing 1k points haha this has to be Win10 pure magic.

 

Brother Nikos, I will be eagerly waiting for your dual psu guide, let us know how much it costed you in total also. you can send me the Spanish version first as well

 

Best I ever got with stock gpu clocks was 19010 (350.12 drivers 1.1.1 vbios 4.4Ghz on the cpu) I dont have a link for that score though
Low 18K is reasonable but still think it is throttling a little bit.... 18.7K I seem to get alot and about 19K with overclocked CPU but I'm not convinced it is 100% throttle free

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4718150

 

Thank you buddy!
I am having low scores even with high overclock but no throttling at all the thing has to be some win10 stuff holding back the performance a little bit :s

 

I have had the same, clocks are solid but the score is low. Try watching your gpu core load, I have noticed mine decreases for no apparent reason some times as low as 75%

 

I will check that todays evening
But the vBIOS is the same and I tried with 2 different drivers so I have no clue where it comes from, at the end if this lose of performance keeps happening I will do a clean install

 

Isn't the low performance of 980M sli in Alienware just the same old problem everyone has had since Day 1 - it's just not fully compatible? You yourself have apparently been working with Prema to fix the situation, and as far as I remember you were testing different versions of his vBIOS that he was releasing to you - how's the progress with that going, isn't this just the same old problem that's been happening since Day 1?

 

There is no problem of low performance with 980M SLI @ M18X-R2 right now... I am just having performance degradation overtime @ windows 10 which can be caused by anything such a bad driver or bad windows 10 update or even some demon or whatever, If you check the 3D Mark Score I have posted when windows 10 was released you could see that the 980M SLI are working perfectly. Also I asure you that with the Prema's vBIOS which I think it is close to be out for everyone you are going to be able to enjoy and squeeze all the juice out of the cards.
But what I wanted to point out with this is that we are far far away from the beginning of the issues with the 980M. We have them working perfectly

 

Hello.
I just upgraded my m18x with gtx 970m but the gpu fan turn off after boot.
Thanks

 

Well, working perfectly when you have the vBIOS released, not working perfect now - otherwise you wouldn't be messing with a new vBIOS. Don't you guys have to use a specially modded driver (from j95 perhaps) to avoid throttling or low GPU usage. When I was reading up in this thread there were issues with strange low GPU usage (and possibly Mhz throttling IIRC) - which resulted in decreased performance both at stock & when overclocked in comparison to other systems with 980M sli. My understanding is that the vBIOS that Prema is working on (with you) is to eradicate those issues and to bring it in line with the performance that 980M sli is having on other systems (like Clevo or other systems built from the ground up with 980M sli in mind)?

 

Niko Question for you... I have minor bug that is pretty easy to work around but is very annoying at the same time.
some times when I boot up my laptop when is not plugged in and I try running a game ofcorse the performance drops since is not hooked up to the ac adapter. But in order for me to get the performance back to normal I need to Restart my pc, When before with the 780ms SLI I would just plugged In the ac adapter and the cards automatically clocked back to normal speeds (without restarting)

Is a little annoying because I have to make sure my laptop is plugged in before i turn it on. If I plug it in once the desktop loads then often time I need to restart the laptop in order for the 980ms to work at normal clocks.

are you experiencing this?

 

Sorry buddy I've never run the laptop with battery or without the AC hooked up :S

The vBIOS I am using is a release candidate if you will but it is fine tuned, if I am not mistaken acording to my cards ASIC quality, Prema needs info of ASIC quality from more people in order to get all the range covered (AFIK). We do not need any driver mod in order to make it run stable or without throttling even with overclock but J95's drivers are awesome for other reasons too. Maybe something is bugging my system with I do not what making it to decrease performance but I can not see any sign of throttling whatsoever. Maybe Prema read this and can explain it better and further than me but to sum up, the vBIOS is fully working and there is no more throttling at all

 

Hmmm, I'm not totally convinced that M18xR2 & 980M sli is functioning with the same performance as other 980M sli laptop models that have 980M sli offered from factory - I remember Mr. Fox abandoning his Alienware 980M sli attempts and going with a Clevo due to lower performance than expected when overclocked and also IIRC it didn't perform that well at stock either in comparison to other systems - and that's not because the M18xR2 is a rubbish laptop (it's not!) but because the 980M sli is not fully compatible. If that was the case, then I don't see what has changed between now & then. Perhaps Prema's vBIOS will cure all those ills, we'll have to see I guess when it's finally released.

 

Prema's vBIOS is most likely optimized since @Mr. Fox tested gtx980m sli and M18xR2.

 

My experience:

Prior to changing the video cards, I installed Windows 8 Pro and patched it up to 8.1 Pro and all current patches. I set it to Optimus, removed the video cards and set the BIOS to UEFI without legacy. I then installed the 980Ms. The laptop booted to Windows with generic video adapters. I modded my INF for 353.30 and both installed without incident.

Homer

 

Quick questions on this.

I went 1 mm as in the first image above. On the chips at the top and side, I cut pieces that closely matched the actual chips rather than a continuous strip. For the memory chips that have the end one out of line, I covered the three with one piece and the fourth with its own piece. Any issue with that?

Finally, any advantage to going with 0.5 v 1 mm?

Homer

 

Mr. Fox switched to Clevo before I even made a working AW specific vBIOS.
He was so upset with the lack of support from Dellienware that we couldn't convince him to put the 980Ms back in even after we had them "under control".

 

Hello Prema

do you have an ETA for the m18x r2 980m Vbios? I know you have a few projects with the m18 that you are also working on.

Thanks

 

No issue at all, what you have done will work fine, it is just less effort to cut one strip for all 4.
0.5mm is better BUT only if you have good contact, your not going to transfer any heat if its not touching... you need the 1mm pad to get good contact

 

Thanks! I'll stick with 1 mm. I think they are fine, I just need to repaste one of them since it was my first time using IC Diamond and it is quite stiff compared to some others. I feel I got a very thin line compared to the other side and my CPU.

Homer

 

Yes Mr.Fox dropped the cause of making Alienware works along 980M, not before he and many others did all possible on their hands to make it work. After a lot of tries Prema found the key to make them work. In terms of performance is not going to work as the Clevo because of the monster CPU the P570WM can be mounted on it. It is not the same performance with a 3920XM than a 4960X or 4930K. But SLI is working as it should at stock and with overclock. It depends of your cards and your power supply how far you can go with them. I mean mines are not as good in terms of "oceability" as the one J95 has. Even if I did the hardmod to them they refuses to get so high and J95 can hit higher clocks without the hardmod.

My point with all this post is to prevent people to be scared to upgrade their R2 with SLI 980M. With the Prema vBIOS I am working with, the system is fully capable of work with a 980M SLI.
You are going to need a Dual PSU if you like to overclock them to their limits as you needed it before with 780M SLI.

 

Yep, that's my point, you're using a vBIOS that isn't available to the public yet - I'm just saying that until Prema's vBIOS is released then it's not currently working with 980M sli as well as other manufacturer's laptops with 980M sli.

 

Hello again,

this time I am here to ask for some kind of help to find or guess the current problem I am having.

I am going to try to simplify the problem as much as I can:

Problem: System reboots itself when high load (high overclock) over one card or SLI.

Runnign 3DMark 11 :

It only happens after test 2. Sometimes at the end of test 3 sometimes at the beggining of test 4.

Settings:
CPU: From 4.0 to 4.5 GHz it happens anyway
GPU: Over 1366 MHz / 2805 @ 1.125V

Temps:
They never reachs 92ºC for GPU's or 100ºC for CPU.

Power Draw during the system reboots:

+-500W (from 499 to 515-520)

Assumptions:

Bad BIOS setting (some kind of prevention measure). Here I let you all the BIOS settings (Sorry they are on the other way around)

http://imgur.com/a/eJAz2

Faulty motherboard
Motherboard power limit?
MXM power limit?
Some kind of temperature problem from some internal component ?
Any other guessing?

PS: it will be interesting to find out for all of us as maybe it is a power limit or something that can affect all of us :s
If you think it may be helpful I can upload a video.

Thank you for your help

 

Doble post**

 

[Nikos], I dont know if you aware but even the M18X-R2 have some problems with the second gpu fan with 980M installed just like the 18 did before the new sBIOS released. You can try two things: Put the BIOS in default values and disable the CPU overclock completely, next install and run the HWInfo64 just like this Mr. Fox guide - http://imgur.com/a/UYC3s/embed#0
After that test it again in 3DMark11 and see if it reboots again or not.

 

Thank you

I am running HWInfo 64 the way you suggested. I do not have any temperature problem on CPU but I will give it a try anyway. This is issue is making me crazy. I will try to record a video to show you the problem asap.
If any of you have any other suggestion please be my guest

 

Perhaps the problem lies in the stress of the VRM system rather than the core on gpu. Speak with @Meaker
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-980m-overclocking.771979/page-2#post-9947277

 

Both of my cards has the hardmod applied to them. (3 more MOSFET for card)
But maybe can be it (maybe high temperatures undid some weldings :S)

I will try to put the lappy under an AC cooler that I have in other house but I can not go right now so on the meanwhile I need to test other solutions :s

 

I don't think it will be melted solder, if your getting that hot (200Cish) something else is probably giving out first.

You say it happens in with single card, SLI and regardless of CPU OC... soo it shouldnt be a general system (power heat etc) problem or a problem with the secondary card side of things. Its got to be related to the primary card or something supporting the primary card. I would try swapping the primary and secondary cards and see if your now primary card is the weak link. If you still get the same rebooting at about the same OC then either the secondary card has the same problem, or the issue lies on the motherboard side of the MXM slot.... that is all I can think of.

I think the AC cooler is a good idea and will help you alot....

 

can someone please link the page that has the detailed instructions for the installation of the 980m in an R2? i saw it on one of the pages but forgot to bookmark and there's 275 pages...

also, is any 980m compatible? from what ive seen they are all blue pcb

 

Have you tried looking at the first page?

 

i have, but the page i was referring to has a different set of instructions, im fine with using 1st page instructions though

 

Forgive me for not going through all 275 pages. I did do a search through the thread, but for some reason the forum doesn't list the results in order by date. Seems to be in random order.

I've just noticed that while playing FFXIV I am getting constant throttling in game. The clocks seem to randomly fluctuate. I've reflashed Prema's vBios and I am running 345.20 drivers. I'm on Window's 8.1 Pro w/ just one 980M in my R2. Anyone mind linking me to a possible fix? Thanks.