M18x A00 BIOS.....

Hrm there is a Youtube video of a guy with an m18x OCing his cards and the trixx works for his fans.

 

YouTube - ‪M18X Overcloking the 6970M Crossfire‬‏

Skip to 2:40 ...

 

Yeah...ive seen that vid. SHows you can adjust the fans in Trixx but wether or not the MB actually recognises those changes is a different subject. Ive read that fan control on these cards is regulated by the MB and cant be overridden.....even though he chose those settings in Trixx, most likely they did not work.....

 

hrm ... interesting though because the guy complains that it makes his rig a little louder, as if they are working. I will test tomorrow, since my machine arrives tomorrow !!!

 

anyone here with a method for reflashing now that we have the bios?

 

I was wondering if we can modify the Winflash used to flash the M17x, put in our .rom file and do the update.

 

good questions.

 

So, here is an update about backing up and re-flashing our A00 bios.

I downloaded and unzipped the WinPhlash64 that I got from the M17x r2 drivers page. I believe this utility will allow us to both back up and re-flash our M18x bios. Before re-flashing the bios with the one we saved with the toolkit, I would suggest attempting another backup using WinPhlash64, in order to avoid any compatibility issues.

This is the link of the WinPhlash64 utility already cleared from the M17x.



NOTE: since we're experimenting I'm not entirely sure this will actually work with the InsydeH20 bios we have. So, all of those who feel like trying have to know that they might be attempting something risky -- I didn't try to re-flash it myself, because I could fix the greyed out options in my bios simply with a load setup defaults and reboot. So, once again. feel free to attempt a re-flash but be aware of the risk.

 

AW needs to hire you. I bet it does work. Maybe someone who is about to return their system can test this?

 

Lol, thanks gunner, but like we say in Italy: "this is like trying to climb a mirror," and we shouldn't be here trying to figure out a way to flash our bios. I don't think that this is too much to ask for from a company that as they claim, makes the most powerful notebooks in the ultra-verse and surroundings.

Your idea is good though: we could ask someone who's about to return his machine if he could test the Winphlash thing.

 

this looks very much promising
but did anybody test this
i think to reflash bios you would need to know some kind of key or hash mach for program to aloud it
but i can be wrong i wish i am
thanks for your work any way
i see we are moving forward in this

 

I sooooo hope it works for reflashing. Anyone out there sending their unit back willing to help the advancement of fellow M18x owners?

 

Well, you may be right, although over the years I have flashed and updated bios (and during the good old times even hot swapped damaged bios with new ones extracted from same-model motherboard lol) using both DOS and Win versions of bios flashing programs. I believe that you do need a Hex editor and hash strings if you want to mod your bios. If we could find a way to safely test this the result could give a direction what to look/work for.

 

i agree but mashine is not even week old

 

There's not a huge amount of information on the web regarding Insyde BIOS. It does seems there are a number of issues with trying to update Insyde BIOS and that may be why Alienware no longer has it posted for download. If it's buggy, I don't blame them for taking down something that will let customers screw things up.

I did find a flashing tool, but do not know if it is compatible with the BIOS in the M18x. I am not advocating that anyone try to use it, just sharing information I have found. Look here.

In my scrounging around, I see that HP, Toshiba, Acer and Gateway are using InsydeH20 on some of their newer systems. This NBR thread has some interesting information. Look here.

Given that the HP Envy has issues with Windows Aero, and InsydeH20 BIOS, I wonder if there is a connection with m18x and windows aero.

 

That's a serious 38 page thread!!! Thanks.

Great............the bios are compressed...................

 

I see some chatter that the InsydeH20 BIOS allows an OEM to whitelist hardware. I wonder if the switch to InsydeH20 is a clever but diabolical way for an OEM to prevent customers from modding systems with hardware like upgraded GPU modules such as we are seeing with the HD6970 and 580M being added to the R2? If so, that seems like a Gestapo tactic like Apple would implement.

The Apple MacIncrap modus operandi has historically been: "Upgrades anyone? Sure, but only if you get it from US."

 

you make a good point...I hope these BIOS allow us to upgrade past the 580M into M18x R2 territory. I wonder what was going through Dell engineering when they discovered the thread for modding the R2 to work with the 6970M?...lol.


We really need to confirm how to reflash the bios. Once we do that we need someone who knows about the inner workings of the A00 Bios to clue us in.

 

Here's more interesting information about UEFI BIOS specifications (of which InsydeH20 is a variant). It's interesting that there is not much valuable technical information for InsydeH20 on the web... it seems rather hushed up.

There is an implication that this interface specification facilitates protection of intellectual property, and there is a maniacal obsession with that in every facet of business, across all industries, with plenty of lawsuits driven by that obsession. It's obvious to anyone paying attention that "the love of money is the root of all evil."

UEFI does seem to offer some end user advantages that were not possible with a legacy BIOS, and it looks as though its biggest supporters have been Intel, HP and Apple until recently, with adoption lately becoming more widespread. It seems that this is the most prevalent interface used on Sandy Bridge systems. It looks like there is a competing open source project call Coreboot, which AMD is actively supporting. (If AMD is focusing its energy and priorities on advancement of Coreboot technology, might that be why AMD's CCC is not playing nice with aero under an InsydeH20 platform?)

It looks like Insyde is designing products well suited for our intellectually lazy set-it-and-forget-it generation, and with rapidly growing adoption of its products this could be a death blow to computer power users that want to do things their own way.

If they noticed it, my guess would be a great deal of hand-wringing about how they are not going to sell as many new systems if users can install the latest and greatest hardware in their old systems. It's strictly anecdotal conjecture, but a conspiracy theory would be that it may explain the eagerness to upgrade customers to the R3 and M18x under warranty, just to get as many R2 systems off the street as possible. Taken a step further, it could also explain why they are not putting out any BIOS fixes to correct known issues on the R2. For a customer getting an upgrade, the OEM becomes a customer-oriented hero while the OEM simultaneously builds a platform for structured obsolescence and stronger future sales to the fan-base elated with their upgrades.

 

You make an interesting case. Sometimes I sit back at night and wonder why didn't they fix all the issues with the R2? Besides the plugged in not charging & sleep brightness/code 43 error it was the perfect system. Everybody I know with an R2 has been upgraded to a M18x in one way or another. It's strange that Dell would rather upgrade everybody at their expense instead of providing a proper fix.

Somethings not right.
Now we have a bios that doesn't play nice with USB peripherals with onboard memory and no official way of reflashing.

Lame.

 

As I said, conspiracy theory and anecdotal conjecture... I doubt we will ever know the real reasons, but I have wondered the same thing about why they did not fix what should have been relatively simple issues for their engineers to resolve. The possibility of not wanting to seems inescapable.

 

Awwwwww......man.....I forgot to try and reflash my old unit before I dropped it off at Fedex.......lame. I always get these collection notices from Dell for replacement systems I already sent back. So when I receive them I do what I have to do and send it back asap!!!!

 

Probably good that you didn't, unless you have a spare $3k laying around that you would not mind being asked to pony up.

 

lol.....that would suck if I messed up the bios and they asked me to pay for the damages. I wonder what they would do in that scenario? My other system was valued at 4300.00USD+ This one has 2 Sata III 256GB SSD's. So it's at about 5000.00USD+ after my 2920XM swap(authorized). I'm going to remove one and add my 640GB 7200 HDD to Drive D.

 

I don't think we would want to find out. I'm sure merely unboxing a brand new system sent out by mistake would not win any Brownie points with them, as they would most likely have to treat it as a used/refurb system at that point.

 

They said it was a replacement for my system. I asked for a replacement 2 weeks ago. They said no...lol.

This system doesn't play nice with usb devices with onboard memory either at post.

 

Well heck. I've been waiting since 6/21 for an estimated ship date. The status is still "In Production" and you get one you didn't even know was coming in 2 weeks. Life is unfair, isn't it. I'm going to eat worms and die now.

So what are you going to do? Send the latest one back or the one with all the replacement parts? Decisions, decisions.

What USB devices with onboard memory are not playing nice? Smartphone? Have you tried different ports, or just the one that is supposed to charge USB devices when powered off? That feature has never worked on my R2 for some reason, but it may be that my BlackBerry is too picky about the voltage output being too low when turned off. (The BlackBerry is the only device I have tried to charge by USB when the R2 was turned off. It's not something that I really cared about one way or the other.)

 

The new one arrived. I swapped CPU's and screens and sent old one back. Both units don't like my Razer Mamba or Logi G13 inserted at boot. Having them inserted randomly causes the systems to hang at post. My Fiance's and good friend down the street have the same issue with the same scenario.

Disabling USB Emulation helps but 1 out of 10 boots results in a hang at post.

 

If you didn't already, have you tried checking the boot order and made sure the SSD is listed first? and what about disabling all the 3 USB options listed in the bios and see if it's one of them that freezes the loading.

 

I did. Doing what you recommend helps...but I still rarely(1 out of 10 boots) see the hangs on 3 different M18x's with the same scenario.

 

Do you have an old AC powered USB hub lying around? It would be interesting to see if it still happens with those devices attached to a hub. Also, does it happen if only one is attached, or always with both attached simultaneously? It sounds like it could be a scenario where your BIOS is trying to make us its mind whether it should handle one or both of them as a boot device.

 

This may sound weird... but I have the exact same issue on my R2 (among others).
I have it working "pretty" good in this regard by disabling these in bios:
powershare (to charge devices when laptop is powered down)
usb emulation

I then had to plug it into 1 specific usb port (the right hand side, furthest back).
If I switch it to a different one, I get the hang again.

I am sure it is the EXACT same issue with the m18x and the system not knowing how to handle the memory it sees on the peripheral upon boot.

D.

 

It only randomly happends at post. I don't have a usb hub.

The funny thing is...all 4 of my R2's never had this issue. The Razer Mamba & G13 is the only device that causes this issue. All my other devices work as they should.

 

My R2 may experience the same thing and I just don't know about it.

I hardly ever use my USB ports except for drive imaging and backing up to an external drive now and then. The peripherals that I use are all wireless LAN (printer, NAS) and Bluetooth connections for my Orochi and headphones. The only physically attached item is my AC adapter.

 

I have the razer mamba, an ext HDD 640 usb and an ext fan all plugged to the usb hub present in the Cryo LX. That's probably why I'm not experiencing those issues now, although it happened sometimes until I disable usb legacy support (usb emulation). That's why I think Fox's idea is good, why don't you try plugging everything to an A/C powered usb hub and see how it goes?

 

The reason I chose a laptop over a desktop was to keep cords/cables at a minimum. I really would hate to have to add a usb hub to the mix.

That Cryo LX does look nice. Maybe I'll order that instead. What's really annoying is that as of late, whenever I try to explain these software issues with AW/Dell all they want to do is have me send my unit to the depot....lol. Out of 4 M18x's I've seen all of them have this issue. Yet, barely anyone mentions this issue....so it probably will never get fixed.


I've read alot of of other threads about other models with insydeh20 bios having this problem.

 

Definitely not, you didn't pay for a certain warranty for nothing!

 

That's what I am saying.

Lately I have been getting the same female Hispanic AW Tech. She is soooo bossy and loves to say the words, NO & Depot. Her englsih is very good with little to no accent. You'd think she'd be more understanding.

 

HAH, I know her.
I got her 2-3x before I got someone in the states (or Canada) who was willing to listen and help.

D.

 

I have started to listen to the rep in the beginning of the call. I then either hangup or continue the call based on their etiquettcy. The problem is when I hang up and call again I get her....lol. I explained to her that the bios has issues with usb devices with onboard memory at post. Her response is...the only thing we can do is have you send in your unit to the depot.

My only reason for calling is to have my case escalated so that they can be aware of the problem and provide a solution.

Not have them scratch up my badboy and send it back in 2 weeks only to still have the same problem.