Help! We need an unlocked BIOS for the new Alienware 18 - please promote on IdeaStorm ASAP.

I know some will be uncomfortable with what I am about to say but a part of me is thinking that Dell/Alienware may not be "fixing" the UEFI Secure Flash "problem" any time soon as it might be possible that one of the main reasons for it is to prevent customers from overclocking in the first place.

Maybe Dell/Alienware did some kind of analysis and came to the conclusion that having to replace failed components: GPU's, motherboards, CPU's etc, was/is very expensive and have been planning on implementing some form of safeguard to eliminate overclocking related hardware failure. The cost of all hardware failure has to be factored into price of a new unit, meaning, it is passed on to the customer. At some point, the costs may reach an amount, determined through thorough market analysis, where it is beyond the reach of its core consumer base. So instead of pricing the AW 18 at $7k+, Dell/Alienware may have made the decision to drastically reduce overclocking related hardware failure via some new draconian hardware measure?

With all of the design blunders of the AW 18 and the shortcomings of its predecessors, it is easy for one to conclude that the people who are making these things are complete morons and then fall into a false sense of complacency, at least as far as making publicly available the fact that they are overclocking their system to the hilt with reckless abandon goes.

But it may be possible that a few diligent and aware engineers and bean counters have been and are monitoring all of this behavior via forums such as this and said "hey, there may be a correlation between the large numbers of AMD 7990 failures etc. and heat related to overclocking".

Engineer meets with bean counter, discussion ensues, and UEFI Secure Flash is born.

 

That does not make good sense for a couple of reasons. First off, 7970M was just a bad product and failed because it was no good. Many were malfunctioning or DOA out of the box. Secondly, Secure Flash applies to the system BIOS, not vBIOS. So Secure Flash would not do anything to protect the GPUs. I also think the engineers are a lot smarter than that. I don't think I can identify any Intel CPU or M18xR1/R2 motherboard that has been damaged by overclocking or using an unlocked BIOS. They are doing it because it is mandated by Micro$oft.

If there were lots burned up i7 processors and motherboards that would be a reasonable theory, but it is so rare that there is no reason for them to take steps to prevent something that almost never occurs.

 

What Mr.Foxx said, I have never had a CPU fail in an Alienware, EVER, Pretty much everything else failed, at least once.

If overclocking was a concern, well then Dell should not be offering XM/MX processors

And you fail to consider, Dell themselves selling laptops with overclocked processors.

And to end this idea, well the biggest issue we have with AW18 BIOS, is the CPU throttling and rest is related to it. Even WITHOUT overclocking, the issue is still there.

 

Agreed 100%.

 

hope bios update asap

 

Hoping is good, and I know they are working on it. Everyone that has not already done so, please show your eagerness for them to fix it by commenting and promoting both of these threads at Dell IdeaStorm. This is very important. The need to fix the BIOS CPU power settings, EC fan tables and fix whatever is broken that prevents us from using HWiNFO64 for custom fan profiles.

Here are the links, and thanks in advance for showing your support.

Unlock the Bios on the new Alienware 18s

Alienware: Enhanced / Customizable Fan Control

 

32 and 49 votes respectively for both motions. It is very sad. Supporting both ideas is just a few clicks away, and still so many won't do it. It might the case we make a sticky or mass email/PM all members of this M18x/AW18 forum? If common sense doesn't reach them maybe spamming their inbox will.

 

I think anyone who asks for help as far as performance goes should be promptly met with a link and recommendation to promote first. The horse goes before the cart!

 

Promoted the fan idea now as well. Hope they will listen and fix it soon

 

Promoted both idea.

its weird it doesn't get more vote....

 

They must be too busy 'liking' friends' pictures on facebook.

 

Unfortunately, Brother rafix73, there is probably enough truth in that statement to make me just want to puke. To call it sad would be an understatement.

 

Well the current "S" generation thinks, Facebook likes are he answer to everything in this world. And yes "S" stands for stoopid.

What a sad world we are living in

 

I submitted my vote! My 18 isn't coming with an Extreme processor but I will be upgrading once the 4930XM is cheaper!

 

I don't have my A18 yet, planning to get one during Black Friday, unless I find something different but submitted my vote anyway, hopefully it will be hotfixed with new Bios.

 

Thanks to the new IdeaStorm promoters.

If you folks that haven't already logged in and clicked on "Promote" would please do so, that would be awesome.

Also, if you voted and did not comment, please consider taking a couple of minutes to say something in relation to your vote. This will lend credibility to your vote. Providing written feedback informing Dell/Alienware that you are displeased with the status quo and letting them know how much you will appreciate their prioritizing fixes for the messed up CPU BIOS settings and fan controls will be valuable.

 

Hi guys! :hi2: I have been lurking around the forum for quite some time. Making my first post I am pretty much a noob when it comes to gaming laptop and due to receive my first AW18 with i7-4900MQ and 780m SLI. I'm quite worried about the performance of 4900MQ, how does it compare to the performance of 4930MX? When Dell solves the bios issue, will system with 4930MX trash 4900MQ with the same GPU? How big the difference will be?

 

I've tried about 73 and a half times to register and promote the idea of an unlocked bios...no joy...the site just doesn't want to know about me....and that's fine......could well be operator error (me) and probably is....but there is only so many times that I'm willing to try, filling in everything they want, every little box, hitting the register button and being returned to the same screen; over and over, expecting a different result.....that's the definition of insanity; isn't it?

So, I'll just say it here....I'm not certain why AW/Dell isn't able to provide an unlocked bios for the AW18...or maybe they can't...but it would certainly alleviate a lot of frustration if AW/Dell would at least provide a statement indicating whether or not the bios can be unlocked, and if it can: an indication as to whether or not AW/Dell will provide an unlocked bios...and if they will...what sort of a time frame.

 

Hello and welcome to the community. We are glad you joined us.

Unfortunately, they both suck really bad right now. Please use the links on the previous page to promote both fixes at IdeaStorm.

Yes, it will definitely get trashed if they fix it. In fact, even with the messed up BIOS the 4900MQ get trashed by the 4930MX right now if you know how to tune it correctly. The difference between 4930MX and 4900MQ is gigantic. The difference between an ordinary mobile CPU and the Intel Extreme mobile CPU is always staggering. If anyone tries to tell you different, you can rest assured that they lack the technical expertise needed to answer that question accurately. The 4930MX will literally run circles around the 4900MQ, but if you are a gamer rather than a performance enthusiast it may not matter to you.

 

Voted for it a few days back. Thanks for the explanation! My main concern with 4900MQ is that it may adversely affect the FPS of future games. The 780Ms are pretty awesome imo, my CPU will probably be the limiting factor for this rig to be future proof. But well, there's nothing I can do about it since this is the highest config dell offers in Singapore -sigh-

 

Mr.Fox you've mentioned that the same problem affects other CPU's. I was considering 4800MQ and possibly a 4900MQ with sweet dell deal, but if I will only play games on A18 is 4930MX that good? cause it's 600 euro price difference for me. I hope that cpu problem will be fixed no matter which one I will get.

 

Did you vote on the idea of unlocking BIOS and manual fan control on IdeaStorm?

 

Scratch that, I was able to change my order and upgrade to the i7-4930MX!! My coupon for a military discount wasn't working on the website but customer service was able to apply the coupon on their end. Hopefully the unlocked bios on IdeaStorm (go Promote!!) will get picked up!!

 

Well I wrote a pretty angry letter to Susan Thomas, Executive Director of TechSupport this morning in response to an email I got from her yesterday where she kind of tried to placate me but without saying anything definite about getting anything done. Then I wrote back to her thinking I was a bit too harsh in my words (no cursing or anything mean spirited). Here's what I wrote in my 2nd letter and I hope the mods don't delete this as I was trying to explain as clearly as I could our predicament. Dear Susan, I'm sorry if I came off as being rude in my previous email today. It's just very frustrating not to be able to get the performance we paid many thousands of dollars for. It would be not very challenging for your engineers at Dell/Alienware to remove the SecureFlash from the Bios and to correct the fan tables via a Bios update. Please do not think this is a trivial matter for thousands of us loyal Alienware customers to have an extremely expensive computer and not being able to run the Cpu at the advertised clock speeds of 4.3GHz. let alone overclock it. Thanks

 

Nice response, Northstar* ...and it is OK to post your own words. The kind of posting that is against forum rules involves correspondence that is content from another's person's communication, email, chat and anything with their contact information. So what you posted there is perfectly fine. When Ms. Thomas replies it is OK to share, in your own words, what kind of response you received.

 

I decided to make a thread in the Alienware 17 forum as this issue exists for both the 17 & 18 -- confirmed by Mr. Fox and myself. I'm also hoping it will boost the votes.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-ideastorm-petition-unlocked-bios-4930mx.html

I am very happy with the turnout, so far. 40+ votes is great and I hope it's enough to get Alienware to work on resolving this issue. Keep it up, fellas (and any ladies out there who own Alienware's). :thumbsup:

 

I wish our AW reps that frequent these forums would chime in on this or offer some sort of information that AW is actually looking into this. Even if they "can't" then atleast take our comments to the people that makes things happen to fix this.

 

For whatever reason the site didn't like my username....but alter ego....promoted...

 

They probably cannot comment without authorization to speak on behalf of the company. Most big corporations have strict rules on that, especially where social media is concerned. They could jeopardize their career by making public statements about hot issues without permission.

But, I am confident they are observing comments, making notes and escalating things internally. Doing that is part of their job and they are excellent at what they do.

 

Hope this gets resolved soon for you AW 18 guys. I registered at IdeaStorm so I could promote the idea.

 

I sent another email to Susan Thomas. Idea Storm Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx so we can discuss what progress has been made on these issues. This is my wifes email address; you can contact me at: I would rather talk on the phone though when you get a few spare minutes. Thanks. Not that I give rats -ss anymore. My rig is on eBay. Oh just to clarify, that last sentence was not in my email

 

Susan Thomas is horrible to deal with, she is egotistical, and full of herself. I hated her so much. She repeats herself Like a broken record, as if Im some retard. However, she never says anything constructive, you want answers, speak with ANYONE else, and they will tell you more, even though she says she is executive support/last /highest escalation - my .

she got nothing done, because of her I waited months for my cheap replacement, but calling tech support again, when I got fed up, and speaking to some low middle guy, things got done asap.

You want anyone BUT Susan. She wont do anything for anyone. She is one of those Boss's yes men. That's it, nothing else. She can not think for herself, she is a tool, she will not be able to negotiate anything for anyone.

 

It's always the guys in the bottom and middle who get the job done

 

So true meaker. Theres a manager who I call specifically, at tech support if I need anything, and he ALWAYS get it done, like a god's gift I tell him everytime, he is also the only guy I know, who actually returns emails and keeps up to date with me. Now if only everyone could do that.

we need unlocked BIOS. Im not helping anyone anymore unless they agree to sign that idea.

Ive seen people with issues, I PM them now, and wait to see if they follow instructions and promote it.

 

Im getting my machine next week. I voted both ideas up.

 

Time to bump it... new Alienware 18 owners that have not taken action already, please do so...

 

This needs to be bumped again... please go to IdeaStorm, register if you are not already registered, the promote and comment in both threads.

Also, please post in the Dell Community Forum Alienware Club threads. See additional links below.

 

yes he us right... no questions asked..

 

Not sure if anyone is monitoring this board anymore. It's been a while. I have had my 18 for about a month now, and I am getting it replaced. I have watched the event logs for some time, and I assumed that I either had a bad motherboard or a bad CPU, so I had those replaced. In the meantime, the screen is going bad ... I think the tech messed something up when disassembling and re-assembling.

After further research and testing, however, I am not sure that there was anything wrong with my machine in the first place, save for the BIOS settings: See, I was getting intermittent freezing problems. In Chrome, this was absolutely caused by video rendering by the HTML5 video player. Kill the associated dll, and the problem goes away. It uses adobe flash instead. But there were some freezing errors still.

Then I noticed that I was getting most of my freeze-ups when I had the BIOS set to overclock (A04 has four settings up to 4.5 GHz). I would get them every couple of hours when browsing or when trying to resume the machine after putting it to sleep. I decided to go back into the BIOS and disable the overclocking (3.9 GHz max), and as far as I can tell the problems went away. Obviously, this is not a solution, but I think the problem lies in the power being fed to the CPU itself. When it's overclocked, the machine becomes unstable. Has anyone else run into this?

 

what about the usb debug? in the bios menu? or if you look at the power port on the new 18 whats with the port its self? looks like an all in one diag port..

 

Yes, using the factory BIOS defaults for OC LV 1, 2 or 3 was identified as a cause of instability, including Windows lockups. You could generally stop this by lowering the multiplier for Core #1 by one. The standard BIOS OC LV 1, 2 and 3 settings have never been ideal (even on the M18xR1/R2 they were not any good).

I believe the purpose of this BIOS setting is to disable USB 3.0 functionality to resolve issues that make USB 3.0 ports unbootable. I believe that enabling it forces the USB ports to behave properly like we have come to appreciate from USB 2.0 ports.

Here's something I found on the subject: Disable USB 3.0 Functionality

 

Have we now an unlocked Bios for AW 18?

 

We need one, but still do not have one.

 

Hello, i've seen some crazy page on modifying either the insydeflash.dll or editing efi settings trought a efi shell. on this page : http://donovan6000.blogspot.ca/2013/06/insyde-bios-modding-getting-started.html

think this could apply to us? its a lot of hex editing ... it make my head spin lol

 

To pull this off, need someone with serious skills & willing. Pure speculation

Spoiler: SecureFlash BS

 

As I replied in your other thread, it is easy to unlock the BIOS. However, there is no way to flash it without a hardware flasher due to signature restrictions in secure flash. Good luck generating the right key for signing it as a genuine Dell BIOS.

 

I had high hopes when I read Frank Azor said he would get us the BIOS (from his AMA - ask me anything) earlier this year. I had hopes. Back then it was the thrid stage - bargaining.

Now I am at the fifth stage (of grief). I don't think Alienware (Dell) will ever provide us the unlocked BIOS.

 

Whenever I say "never" is when I usually find out I was wrong. I doubt they will hand us a ready-to-go unlocked system BIOS. They should, and there is no legitimate reason for them to not give that to us. What would be nice is if they would just do the right thing and remove the Secure Flash garbage so we can fend for ourselves as we have so overwhelmingly successfully done in the past, with help from awesome folks like @svl7. It feels like the introduction of the flash-blocking filth is just something done to spite us. Probably more ignorance and draconian control on the part of the new decision makers than anything else, but it feels really bad from the customer's side of the fence.

 

It sure does. From where I'm sitting it looks like Alienware did anything but go down swinging. Probably by choice - although it's hard to fathom a company deliberately sabotage a brand, that's what's happened . Either way it's pretty lame on their behalf. All we've got to go on is the strength of their products and actions. Neither point to a willingness to have an enthusiast product or following anymore.

 

It appears we still need an unlocked bios for the Alieware 18. Please promote this idea on ideastorm the OP idea has been archived...

http://www.ideastorm.com/idea2ReadIdea?v=1436452754037&Id=087700000009pzAAAQ