M18x Unlocked BIOS Modification Info

also as speedy suggest....do not go back into the bios at this time..(if you didn't, then disregard)
and you will need to download hwifo32 as well...this will allow you to up the fans to full speed...unless your already doing this and i missed it?(also disregard if you have)
http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw32_386.exe

 

Hello, I did not go to the BIOS (that was the meaning of "went to Windows directly").
And checking the BIOS backup .bin the modified values stay the same.

I have HwInfo64 but I can't find where to adjust the fan speed (or only in HwInfo32?).

 

Hero - to adjust fan speed select sensor and click on the small fan icon at the bottom of the sensor window. This will pop open a new window where you can manually adjust fan speed.

 

Quick question.

Why do we have two different threads on modified bios? The other thread is very easy to install while this is significantly more hands on so is there any benefit of this one vs the other?

 

one is the unlocked bios only this thread is the unlocked bios plus editing the registers to go over the limits of the unlocked bios... like 90C is max throttle temp in unlocked bios if you follow the method in this thread you can set it higher... and even the multipliers can be set over 45.. hope that helps

 

Thanks that does help. So basically the other one is inferior to this one.

 

no. not really.

 

Both are important if you plan to push your system, otherwise the unlocked bios by itself is sufficient for most who just want to get a quick easy overclock set up.

 

Right, none is superior, only different Well, for now! I am still working to improve things a little at a time, real life is kicking my butt right now!

Right now i'm facing an interesting problem with OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 120gb where the latest firmware 2.13 is causing the drive to blink out at relatively random points and never coming back, causing all sorts of nasty if the the SSD is the boot drive (which mine is)

So, I took the unlocked BIOS and updated the Intel ACHI/RAID OROM inside to the latest version I found floating around online (11.0.0.1124 ) - I figured i'd share it with you guys since there are some newer options available in the RAID firmware. I have tested this in AHCI mode and it works just fine, I did not test with RAID but I don't see any glaring reason it would have a problem. I took a photo for reference:



And here's a link to my ongoing discussion at OCZ forum in case anyone's interested:

General Discussion 2.13..did it work for you or did it not work for you? - Page 8

I'll probably also update the Intel Management Engine firmware and any other OROMs I find updated versions floating around for, just for S&G while i'm poking things with a stick. I'll be sure to share Among the list of stuffs I want to do is to lift the limits on multiplier/current/TDP in BIOS so there's no longer a need to hex edit to surpass those values. I've already got a fair enough idea how to do it, just haven't gotten around to it yet!

Anywho, here's the link to the modified BIOS:

Alienware-M18xR1-A03-Unlocked-Intel-OROM-11.0.0.1124.zip

 

Welcome back Da_G, Yes real life sux sometimes, but glad to see your continued support here +rep

 

brother G.
was wondering where the hell you got off too! glad it's on a positive note...

side note: def not flashing any more ocz drives at the moment. i flashed my agility 3 drives and lost 130MB of speed.

 

Yeah, my drives are a hair slower with 2.13 than with their shipped FW of 2.06, I haven't seen those 550MB/s tests since then.

Fortunately, their firmware updater supports downgrading via the following command in linux (haven't tried using their windows updater)

./fwupd -log -force -fwl FW_2_11 /dev/sd?

With FW_2_11 being the version you'd want to downgrade to.

Anyone try the new RAID OROM yet who has a RAID? I'm curious if it is any more performant. The stock RAID OROM from A03 10.0.0.1046 was 85KB and quite dated, about a year old (first referenced online around October 2010 after passing WHQL, so safe to assume it was developed a bit before that). The new one I replaced it with is paired up with an alpha version of the Intel RST drivers with the same version number (see discussion here including release notes: Technical Discussion Intel 11 Series Orom ) - AHCI users would benefit too, as the OROM is loaded to handle both AHCI and RAID, but not ATA/IDE mode.

This particularly interested me since I am affected:

0x9F BSOD sporadically seen when running reboot/suspend stress test on ICH10 platforms

 

not i. dont have my machine yet...

 

I have 2 240gb ocz max iops that have been waiting to be installed since I received my m18x a few months ago... Lol who does that lol.. Anyway I'll get to installing them Da G so I can see if I have probe too. Welcome back G-man lol. Mfractal used a registry fix on older firmware to fix a problem with lpcm or lpm.. The one that saves power on the hardrive lpm anyway disabling it fixes those lockups... What if we try disabling lpm in bios does it fix the e lockups DaG can you test for us? I saw the options in the bios.

 

What the I don't even

I wish I could afford to have two 240GB max iops hanging around waiting to be installed for months. Damn! I'll trade you for my single 128gb MI for uhhh, testing purposes.. It'll work just as well on your shelf as those!

The LPM registry fix addressed a stutter problem with the 2.06 and 2.09 firmware versions that was addressed in 2.11 and the 10.6 Intel RST driver, doesn't affect the drive-disappearing issue i'm afraid. Nor do the settings in the BIOS relating to power saving (for cpu, pci-e, or sata) - that was among the first stuffs I tried.

Even if those fixes did make it work though, I would still be hammering away at it, we have these nice fancy laptops with all their nice fancy power saving features that neatly step out of the way when we demand full performance for a reason right?

 

Very true Da G yeah power savings is important. Hopefully we get this figured out though we pay for vertex 3.. They better work... Lol yeah your 120Gb will do as much on my shelf as mine are now ha ha. I'll get them I'm soon though probably some bench scores to be gained. I'm worried you say you lost performance going to the latest firmware. Lol how am I supposed to reach 1gb reads in Raid 0 on giant files lol if the latest firmware drops performance.

 

Well, the performance drop was in an attempt to fix the stuttering issues I believe, which were quite worse (your system would hang for up to a minute at a time with the older firmware if you were one of the lucky affected ones, which I was)

So you had the choice of dropping ~50MB/s performance across the board and not having that issue crop up every few hours, or having that extra ~50MB/s performance and having the system randomly seize up for a minute at a time, always at the worst time possible!

OCZ has stated that they are commited to getting the fixes in first, then addressing raising performance back up to specification-levels, so that's fine by my book. Much more important to have a fully functional system than one slightly faster that fails randomly Of course, i'd rather it worked 100% out of the box, but see definition of "bleeding edge"!

 

Lol so true Da_G. I'm with you.. I'd prefer the 100% stable system too. Yes lol Bleeding Edge is where I like to hang.

 

Hello
I would like to modify my BIOS
I have Acer Aspire Ethos and BIOS is Insyde H2O

 

What are you wanting to accomplish by modding your Acer BIOS? I'm not sure how much of the information in this Alienware M18x thread can be safely applied to your system.

 

I agree with Mr. fox the M18x bios and its modification will not help with your Acer. But if you manage to get it unlocked or modified and you see values that we discussed here then perhaps you can extrapolate the needed information on what values help overclocking in general when on the topic of bios's.

 

For example these advanced BIOS options
that i can mess with RAMs timings etc ..

Something like here

 

Alienware-M18xR1-A03-Unlocked-Intel-OROM-11.0.0.1124.zip exactly how do I flash the bios with this file? I must be stupid because I cant use the windows insyde flash util with the modified.fd thanks in advance!

 

That bios isnt unlocked but it is giving you the performance options As you said the ram timings can be tweaked or XMP profiles setup or meory voltage changed, cant see from your pic but probably cpu baseclock there if that cpu you have is not an XM and doesnt have unlocked multipliers... than that setting in anycase actually that says "Flex VID override" says 25 can and should say 0 at those speeds If you have the 2800 series in your signature you can still use baseclock to overclock the cpu but don't go too high as memory, PCI express lanes, Sata & usb ports etc are overclocked at the same time. If your on non-xm cpu you can try raising both the PWR limits as high as they let you... your cpu should be able to sustain those watts even on non xm it may boost a couple watts or atleast maintain your turbo speeds longer

 

Hello folks,

I'm new to this forum and want to ask, if it's possible to change the bios logo of an M15x, too. I'm also aware to the fact, that for M15x flashing, insydeflash should not work.

 

[unlocked] M18x R1 BIOS versions

Is the A05 unlocked bios by Svl7 in the link above still the recommended bios to use for overclocking?

Just checking that I'm not behind the times since I'm a new m18x R1 user.

 

I'm currently using it and it's awesome. Highly recommended!

 

Using A04 unlocked and thats fine for me. Went with A04 over A05 as Dell A05 had some tweaks made to it for 6990m overheating. Not needed for my 580m's and I found that my system actually ran quieter on Dell A04 so I stuck with the unlocked version of that. If you have AMD cards, I'd go A05 unlocked as that should still hold the fix for the 6990m's if you have 'em....

 

Thanks for sharing the information. We recommend the official ones of course but I understand that certain users have different needs and sometimes require these mods.

 

Is there anyway that Alienware could authorizes an unlocked BIOS for a specific model set, for overclocking? I originally wanted to buy the pre-overclocked 3920XM (4.1Ghz) I believe but, it was replaced by the standard clocked 3940XM, no overclock option available. I was wondering if the overclocking options could be incorporated into the Alienware package, a bit like MSI afterburner. Effectively select the speed you want within pre-defined limits and your good to go....faster.

For those on here who are more experienced an official unlocked BIOS would be very gratefully received. Of course any damage caused would be at the users own risk but, the befits could be just as beneficial...

OB

 

Brother Johnksss has put the idea forward for pretty much this exact thing. You can share your thoughts and vote for it on IdeaStorm by checking out his thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ge-all-18x-up-would-you-buy-into-i-would.html

 

That would definitely be the way to go.

 

I have an M18xR1 and I've tried A04 unlocked and A05 unlocked, did a fresh windows 8 install, and started installing drivers in the proper order. When I get to the Intel HD 3000 dell graphics driver install, I install it (restarting in between each driver install), reboot, then change bios settings from IGFX to auto, save settings, reboots, then gives can't read disk error, press control alt del. No matter how many times I reboot, it gives the same disk error.

I've replaced the HDD with brand new one and have done 7 clean windows 8 installs and every time I try to switch to discrete graphics or do into the unlocked bios, I get the same error. However, running the OEM bios never causes the error, but there's no way for me to switchfrok discrete to binary graphics on the OEM bios... whole reason I wanted the unlocked bios.

I first got my 18xR1 in march 2012 and I was able to switch to binary graphics using fn + f7, but it stopped working after a month or two... so I thought since the unlocked bios allows you to manually choose in the bios itself, that would be my best bet, but every time I even enter the unlocked bios on the fresh install, even if I don't change anything, I get a disk errror. This isn't a problem with my HDD obviously, but I'm at a loss at to what's causing this or how to fix it without going back to the OEM bios.

 

The BIOS settings might be corrupt. Be sure you are using RAID and not AHCI for the SATA protocol in the BIOS.

Using the option in BIOS to reset defaults sometimes does not work correctly. Clear the CMOS using the instructions below and see if it helps.

 

I did do a CMOS pull before but didn't touch the screwdriver tip to the two pins and I installed the system battery at the same time I connected ac adapter, then powered up. I have no prob doing this again, just wanted to ask something before I do...

When I boot back up with the win 8 DVD, I can use sys restore and once it restores, it works fine... until I enter the bios again lol

I'm currently on A04 unlocked... should I try downloading from this site instead of the site I used before -.techinferno.com?

Another thing I did was change the drive from MBR to GPT using cntrl + f10 at the windows install menu, thinking that if its something with the MBR that GPT has numerous redundancies and isn't corruptible like MBR is... however what wasn't clear to me from reading about GPT is if I need to turn on UEFI in the bios. I did try turning it on and got a bit confused as primary HDD disappeared from boot options and was replaced with a long string with acpi and other text listed... it was over 20 characters long and not something I had seen before, so I disabled uefi. I did this after the fourth or fifth time I got the disk read error after entering the bios, so I know this isn't what's causing the problem, but wanted to list everything I did in case I might have made it worse. I'm knowledgeable enough about computers and am a fast learner, but I'm a novice at best, not an expert.

The other thing I tried was flashing the oem bios (A05) while using the cmd line repair option on the win8 dvd, but I still received the same disk read error. It wasn't until after I did a clean install again that I was able to enter and exit the OEM bios without issue. I did use f9 to reset the bios to default with the OEM before the fresh install, but did not do a CMOS pull.

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

That conversion to GPT and UEFI boot options is probably causing some issues for you. It causes significant reliability issues for some folks even with the M18x R2. I would go back to using MBR and only legacy boot options if I were you, especially with the M18x R1. It was never designed for that and I have never heard of anyone using GPT with UEFI boot for the M18x R1. I think your BIOS is not playing nice with it and that may be causing your drives to not be recognized.

Did you have all of these problems with Windows 7 or they started only with the move to Windows 8? Windows 8 has some issues with drivers not installing correctly unless Driver Signature Enforcement is disabled. If it is not disabled, driver installations fail on all of my systems most of the time.

Do you have one or two GPUs? I have heard that IGFX does not work on an M18x R1 unless it has CF or SLI... doesn't work with one GPU installed. (I've never tried it personally, but I have seen others post that it does not work with only one GPU installed.)

If clearing the CMOS does not help, doing a blind recovery flash of the BIOS can also be helpful in fixing corruption. You can try that also. NBR member residualvoltage (mw86 at T|I) had issues with a mess of garbled characters in his M18x R1 BIOS. Clearing the CMOS did not help, and neither did normal flashing. I suggested he do a blind recovery flash and it fixed his issues. If all else fails, you can certainly give it a shot. Use the stock A03 BIOS for the blind flash, then flash the unlocked A03 normally if you wish. Do not attempt to blind flash the unlocked BIOS. It might work, but it is not a proven method and could carry more risk. This process is explained here: Blind BIOS Recovery process for all M18x R1 in case of corrupt BIOS

I see you posted exactly same information in multiple threads. This is known as cross-posting and it is not permitted for a number of reasons. Identify the most appropriate thread for your question and post it once in that thread only. The duplicate posts have been deleted. Please review forum rules.

 

I apologize, I wasn't aware of the multiple post policy. Thanks for letting me know

No, I was running windows 8 fine since October... I ended up with a virus and a bunch of DoS attacks, so I went the safe route and wiped with a new install. It wasn't until the fresh install a week ago that all of this began.

I only have 1 560m and I've heard that as well on numerous sites about igfx, bug I distinctly remember being able to switch to binary graphics using fn+f7 when I first got my m18x. I loved it because I could get 3 1/2 hours out of the battery vs the 1 1/2 hrs on average I get using discrete. Then in the summer, binary quit working. In could press fn+f7, select yes, restart, but it would no longer activate binary graphics. After doing some research, I assumed it was because I updated my display drivers to non dell ones, which numerous sites said would stop binary graphics from being activated. Since I had to do a fresh install, I figured I'd give it a go and try and get it to work by removing my 560m graphics card, installing windows, then reinstalling it and installing drivers for it. Seems logical, but upon booting my machine backup, I got a black screen. Finally I got it to work by disconnecting/reconnecting display cables. Then a half hour ago, I installed the HD drivers, fn+f7, and upon rebooting, black screen again lol I'm going to remove and reinstall my graphics card again and that should fix it, with me resolved to accepting defeat that I won't be able to get graphics switching back lol

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

Also, is it possible to use GPT on my second, data only, drive without problems? I like the fact that gpt allows more than 4 partitions, which is the only reason I tried it for my boot hdd. The maximum of 4 partitions per disk w/ mbr is a massive hindrance.

Do you you have any thoughts on why a system restore from the win8 DVD would fix the disk error issue? Even using bootrec doesn't fix it, nor the automated fix it option... just sys restore.

I just came across an article on the R2 and I think I may have made a mistake when flashing the unlocked bios... the post I just read says that you should always be on the OEM version of the unlocked bios you're flashing too, and I didn't do that. I believe I originally flashed from OEM 05 to unlocked A03 or A04. I either simply missed see that on the R1 page, or I didn't recall it when flashing if you indeed are supposed to be on the same OEM bios for the unlocked one you're flashing. If this is the case, would this more than likely be causing the problem and if so, would the blind recovery process solve it? (As soon as I get some reinstalling win for the umpteenth time, I'm going to do the blind recovery to A03, as I just flashed OEM A03 before I reinstalled.)

BTW... thank you for all your help, I'm extremely appreciative.

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey, you're most welcome. I hope we can help you find a solution.

I don't understand the reason for some of the behavior you are experiencing. I think you are OK with the BIOS flash. The recommendation to flash to the stock BIOS first is to minimize the chance of a failed flash and bricked motherboard. The newer BIOS versions do not allow flashing down to a lower version in the normal manner. The only tried and true way to do that is a blind recovery flash using a stock A03. I don't remember what version it was that it became a problem. It must be A07 since you were able to flash A03 unlocked from A05. There is no harm in trying the blind recovery flash using the stock A03 file and it may clear some corruption that is affecting your graphics switching.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the questions about GPT because I don't use it, but someone else probably can. I don't use multiple partitions, so I don't need more than 4 and it haven't found a compelling need to become better acquainted with GPT. I know BrickTop has experience with it, and I believe that DDDenniZZZ may as well. But, that is with the M18x R2 and I am skeptical of how that will turn out with the M18x R1 BIOS. It might work fine, but I have no experience to draw from. Some of the things you are attempting to do with GPT disks may only work with MBR.

 

There's a bios higher than A05 for the R1? How can I access it, cause Dell stopped updating their drivers page almost a year ago.

I was able to successfully do a blind flash back to OEM A03, but its still doing the same thing. This has to have something to do with the removal and reinstallation of the 560m, as I've been running an unlocked bios for weeks now, going in and out of it quite a few times, and this didn't start until after I pulled the 560m (as AW Tech Support suggested I do in order to get the system to recognize the binary graphics so I could install the IGFX drivers), installed windows (the 1st time on Sun), then reinstalled the card.

I'm at a loss of what to do since I've been scouring forums since Sunday and I've had no luck finding anything that even remotely comes close to what I'm experiencing. I know its a communication issue between the bios and mother board and possibly the vbios (though I'm not sure how that works as I just discovered today video cards even have a bios). I'm going to try reflashing the A02 bios for the 560m, but I'm not holding my breath.

I've reinstalled windows 8 again for the 12th time or so and finally was able to get through the installs for all the drivers and windows updates, but I don't want to try going into the bios again until after I make a WIM of my system.

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

No, A05 is the newest BIOS for the R1. Maybe there is something wrong with the GTX 560M. There's not much point in repeatedly doing the same thing time and again. If something doesn't work by the second or third attempt, chances are pretty great you're trying the wrong thing and need to move on to something else. If your computer works fine on IGFX without a discrete graphics card installed and starts misbehaving after the 560M is reinstalled, that kind of narrows down the options.

Now would be a good time to consider an upgrade to GTX 680M, even if only one. One 680M is probably triple the performance of your 560M. That's all I will say on the subject because this thread is for BIOS not GPU upgrade discusions. We have other threads for discussing NVIDIA and AMD GPU upgrades.

 

The problem began with the removal of the 560m, but even running without it installed, I still get the disk read error. Maybe I didn't ground myself as well as I thought and discharged a bit of static build up to the motherboard, I don't believe I did, but somehow something caused corruption in the bios or something to happen with the motherboard.

As much as I didn't want to do it (as even though I'm sure I didn't do something to cause this, I haven't 100% been able to rule it out), I called Dell for a motherboard replacement. I've swapped HDD's 3x at this point, removed the 2 x 4GB memory cards I installed and booted with dimm A & B empty, replaced A & B with the 2 x 2GB I received with the system and booted, and reinstalled the 2 x 4GB (as I got a diagnostic memory error 2000-0123 error when I ran diagnostics this morning), reseated both ends of the HDD data connector (motherboard and HDD sides), tried flashing A03, A04, and A05 through win8 install disc repair cmd option, did a blind flash recovery to A03, reinstalled the OS over 10x, and ran the system with and without graphics card installed andno matter what I do, upon entering the bios settings or running the onboard diagnostics and exiting to boot, it gives a disc read error cntrl alt del or just cntrl alt del without the disk error (as its been doing all day since I ran diagnostics this morning).

If this was something I did, I'm at a loss as to what I could have done that made my motherboard so angry at me lol

I'm currently running diagnostics in thorough mode for the whole system. I did thorough mode for memory this morning after getting the error on simple mode, as that was the only error given. I figured running a thorough on everything was worth a try in case the simple mode missed something

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

I doubt it is something you did to it. Just one of those things... A replacement motherboard will most likely take care of it. Let us know how that goes.

 

Thanks . I'll keep you updated

Sent from my RAZR MAXX HD using Tapatalk 2

 

So it appears the problem was the HDD SATA cable lol Motherboard was replaced, however after everything was put back together, Intel RAID controller wouldn't load and it took minutes for it to even post, simply showing a blinking underscore. When the bios was accessed, HDD's wouldn't register, reseated and reinstalled SATA cable, but the problem still persisted. Received a new SATA cable Monday and everything works fine. More likely than not, there was a damaged circuit in the cable somewhere that when at the slightest movement or voltage/amperage surge (for spin up, seek, etc.) it would be enough to short out that specific circuit, leading to the error "a disk error has occured, press ctrl alt del to restart" even though there was no disc error, but a problem with the SATA cable itself.

Unfortunately, there's no way to test a SATA ribbon cable to determine if it's the problem, so on the off chance anyone has this issue, I would strongly recommend requesting [buying if out of warranty] a SATA cable if you receive this error. I did receive a HDD error on one of my Momentus XT's while running diagnostics the first time, but none after that (I ran 3 thorough tests, with only 1 out 3 throwing an HDD error; but I received RAM errors on all of them even though the RAM was brand new and haven't had any problems with the RAM), so even if you receive an HDD error, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the HDD; so before buying a new HDD, buy or request a new SATA cable, which is $5 or $10 at most.

Thanks for all the help and advice I received from Mr. Fox and anyone else :-D



Also:

If requesting the SATA cable, as well as a tech service call, request Dell (or other manufacturer) mail the cable to you directly, and not include it with the parts they send to the tech. If you don't have the cable itself mailed directly to you, you're at the mercy of the appointment with the tech since you're not allowed to pick the cable up from the shipping company if it's shipped to the tech, unless you go through an arduous process that may or may not work in the end. I figured this out the hard way, as my cable arrived on Fri; but because WWT didn't receive the service call order by their cut off time, the cable sat at my local FedEx until Monday because Dell doesn't allow anyone other than the original person it's shipped to to pick up the parts. So if it's a part Dell allows you to install yourself without a tech, always have them ship it directly to you and not the tech. There may be scheduling conflicts, something might come up, etc. and if they ship it to you directly, you're not at the mercy of the tech appointment.

 

hello to everyone,
I would like to ask a question, I hope you can help me, I have a alienware m15x_r2 I would like to have in my bios the head of alien present in the bios dell'Alienware m17/18 someone help me to modify my bios? thanks

 

am I being a spastic does the m18xr1 05 not boot from USB

 

Hi Everyone,

I recently got a hp 2570p which has a insyde BIOS and was wondering if the same approach could be used to unlock the bios in my machine? Is there anyone who's still experimenting with such mods and would be willing to lend a hand? Thanks in advance!

Aiki

 

Hey Aiki :hi2:

Maybe your best bet would be to ask one of the guys over at Bios Mods. Not sure who tweaks the HP stuff, but it might be a good starting point.

Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source - HP

Or maybe over at T|I 12.5" HP Elitebook 2570P Owner's Lounge

 

Thank you! Just emailed one of the mods there. Hoping for the best.