How to activate UEFI in Alienware 18 (Windows 7-64 bit)

Hi guys,

I just bought my very first Alienware 18. It's used but like new (880 SLI - 4700 mq - 2 256gb ssd). I've also been keeping my eye on this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...vers-are-killing-alienware-lcd-panels.779449/ where users are reporting a combination of Windows 10 and Nvidia drivers have been trashing their displays. The danger for Windows 7-8 users has currently been identified as the installation of Windows 10 ready updates and the previous owner of my laptop said he updated the drivers but I'm not sure if those where included.

So far it seems if the worst happens, having UEFI activated will at least allow me to use an external display to use the machine so I'm trying to at least take the precaution of activating it before I go checking for the updates. The very first thing I've done is boot into the BIOS and the Boot List Option is showing Legacy as selected so I'm guessing that means it isn't running UEFI. When I select it, it gives me the option of choosing between Legacy or UEFI. What do I need to do now in order to Activate UEFI reliably? Thanks in advance.

 

You cannot have UEFI if you want to use Windows 7, it has to be legacy or UEFI with Legacy OPROM which is another form of "Enable CMS" which is not pure UEFI.

If you enable pure UEFI mode, then you won't be able to boot into Windows. Just stay on Windows 7 and nothing will happen, the issue about killing LCDs is when using Windows 10.

 

Generally, Windows 7 (SP1) does work in pure UEFI mode, but from my experience it's a hit and miss.

Now I haven't tried with the Alienware 18, but on my Alienware M18x-R2, I was running Windows 7 Home 64 bit in full UEFI mode with Legacy disabled and fast boot enabled before upgrading to Windows 10. Of course, your video cards will have to have an UEFI BIOS, your system BIOS must support UEFI, other devices will have to be UEFI compliant and you'll have to install Windows 7 64 bit in UEFI mode (the Alienware Windows 7 Home SP1 64 bit DVD that came with my laptop already included an UEFI installation option, so all I had to do was to make sure that the DVD drive booted the DVD in UEFI mode). That said, the dedicated Radeons didn't want to show the desktop after booting in UEFI mode even though they have an UEFI BIOS (they work fine with UEFI in Windows 10, however). The integrated Intel Graphics didn't have a problem with it at all. That might be different with Nvidia cards, though, and perhaps also with a different system like the AW18.

So if you felt experimental, you could try installing Windows 7 in full UEFI mode (set boot devices to UEFI and disable Legacy options, force the DVD/USB drive you're installing from into UEFI - leave fast boot disabled at first until after you've installed all drivers in Windows and made sure everything is working in UEFI mode, as fast boot might make it difficult to get back into BIOS if something doesn't work) and see if it works for you without problems. Might be worth checking if your video cards' BIOS supports UEFI first (the latest versions of GPUz will show if it supports UEFI, for example), however, and if not update the BIOS to one that's UEFI compliant.
If it doesn't work, turning on Legacy support in the BIOS should let you boot Windows in hybrid UEFI mode still and try something else or leave it at that (I'm not sure if it will allow you to work around a killed display, though).

Sorry that I can't be more specific on how to turn it on on the Alienware 18 as I don't know the names of the BIOS options to turn on UEFI there, but it should be pretty straight forward. Turn on/force (U)EFI boot, disable Legacy devices including your SSDs/HDDs/and whatever medium you wish to install Windows from and you should be good to go.

 

The VBIOS of the nVIDIA GeForce doesn't work when you enable full UEFI for Windows 7, it gets stuck on the splash screen and you won't see the Windows desktop until you turn on legacy OPROM which defeats the whole idea of UEFI boot.

 

You will need to reinstall if you're installation was done when in legacy mode.

Switch the boot to UEFI and then enable Legacy Option Rom. When formatting during the windows installation, this will make the proper partitions for a GPT partition type on your hard drive. That way when you ever upgrade to Windows 10, you can turn off legacy option rom and run fast boot with pure UEFI.

 

After multiple attempts and trying everything suggested, this never, ever, worked for me with Windows 7. The web is full of people looking for a way to do it and not being able to. Most of what you will find is newer laptops that lack CSM/Legacy support not being able to run Windows 7. It installed for me that way but always freezes during the first post-installation logon attempt and will never go past that point. Only a few people have been lucky enough to have it work and doing everything exactly as they did always fails for me. I'd say don't burn any more calories on it... waste of time, and for no real benefit. Just use Legacy BIOS or UEFI with Legacy Option ROM and be done with it.

Running in pure UEFI mode, even with Secure Boot, won't stop your LCD EDID information from getting corrupted by Windows 10. It doesn't happen to everyone, apparently, but who really wants to be a statistic and an example of when it does go wrong? One of the first Alienware 18 that experienced this problem, owned by @Daniel1983 was running in pure UEFI mode with Secure Boot enabled and his EEPROM still got botched up by Windows 10. My best advice is to not play with fire if you don't want to get burned, and don't wallow with hogs if you don't want to get covered with mud and hog feces.

Below are some examples of what sort of wonderful things you might experience running Windows 10 besides having your LCD bricked.

 

that's secure boot only stops unsigned code from breaking the system: the win 10 drivers are signed so it's pretty much useless.

 

If you mod your display drivers for an aftermarket GPU upgrade the signature is broken and the drivers will be treated as unsigned due to something as innocuous as a simple INF mod. Secure Boot is pretty much worthless anyway. It doesn't need to exist, especially on a gamer or enthusiast machine. Given the opportunity, it will always be disabled on everything I own. Given the preference, I'd prefer not to even have the option available in the system BIOS. It's a nefarious dress-rehearsal for Micro$haft and OEMs to be able to control what people can and cannot do with their computers and it's being marketed as a nebulous security feature to lull people that are OCD about security into thinking it's OK or something good to have. People need to understand that Windows and UEFI BIOS is unable to think or act. Only users have that ability. Smart people don't allow their OS or firmware make decisions for them.

 

I could get the AW18 too boot in pure UEFI mode once the Intel HD Graphics Driver was installed for the Integrated Graphics and it would actually continue the boot to the desktop, but switch to the discrete graphics and you'd be stuck at the splash screen of Windows Loading...... I think the VBIOS of both the Radeon M290X and the nVIDIA GPUs does not work well with full UEFI mode for Windows 7 for some reason. Heck I even tried with the modded VBIOS you gave me and it wouldn't boot.

 

Yeah, the UEFI display drivers for Windows 7 are different than Windows 8/10. It seems only Intel has them working properly for Windows 7.

 

Since Windows 7 will not work on an Alienware with 980M SLI it simply doesn't matter. There is no benefit to running a machine in pure UEFI versus Legacy BIOS and I don't understand the basis for wanting it that way in the first place. The whole thing seems kind to ridiculous to me. My pursuit of it was for the sole purpose of using Windows 7 instead of Windows 8 with 980M SLI in my M18xR2. Even if the Maxwell throttling problem eventually gets fixed, I am no longer interested because I don't want my stuff configured in that manner. I want to distance myself from Micro$haft filthy new product model as much as possible, and sticking with Legacy BIOS deprives them of the Nazi controls they are seeking. One of these days the Kool-Aid drinkers are going to look at their zombie computers and wonder what in the world happened while they were asleep at the wheel.

 

Maybe you misunderstood my intention. I wasn't asking in order to try to install Windows 10. I was asking so in case, the laptop was one reboot away from getting a corrupted display I could at least use the machine even if it meant using an external one.

I'm actually one of the guys that has kept up to date and read all 125 pages of your warning thread (as of today) and I'm sticking with your advice and plan to keep Windows 10 far away from my system

To update everyone, I finally bit the bullet, turned the machine on and found out all the most recent Windows Updates where installed (the machine was Windows 10 ready). So I followed Matrix Leader's list of updates to remove in Windows 7, disabled Windows automatic updates, used DDU to delete the Nvidia driver, rebooted, installed the Nvidia video card driver provided on Dell for the laptop and I haven't had any sort of problem since.

My thanks to Matrix Leader for posting that list. My outcome may have been different otherwise.