Step by Step: 980m Install in Alienware 18

Mr FOX and Scanner, thx for eveything, sad to hear those words about d MSI TITAN, wut about the clevo with z97 chipset and 4790k?

 

If you want a single GPU laptop, I think that would be a really nice option. Some people don't want an SLI beast and that is probably one of the best single GPU options available right now. For more information on that model, see this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-clevo-p75xzm-batman-sager-np9752-owner´s-lounge-welcome-to-the-batcave.767105/

As you are considering your options, be careful to not lose sight of the fact that you have already tasted multi-GPU performance and may be much harder to please than someone that has not. Bear in mind that while a single 980M is quite powerful, it still falls short of matching the GPU performance of 780M SLI and 880M SLI (which you already have). Another thing to be cognizant of is the fact that you own a machine that is built like a brick house. You could use that 18 as a battering ram and hardly scratch it. While that Clevo is a really nice machine, it is plastic and there are some things about how it is built (such as floppy/springy display hinges and a sort of flimsy display lid) that you might find more than a little bit disappointing. I vaguely remember reading that there something weird about the charging system... like you can't use it plugged in without a battery or some other kind of silly thing.

 

Thank you so much

 

Fox i send u a pm

 

This is good news. @Scanner and @1Schumsta1 - thought you both might be interested to know this since @Prema's vBIOS 1.1 with @j95 350.12 driver mod might fix the 980M throttling on your 18 and let you overclock if you want to.

 

can u explainme a little bit, i'm kindda nub on 980m problems.

 

Some of steps that @ [Nikos] posted here: Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!! only work for the M18xR2. They cannot be followed explicitly with the Alienware 18 because you must have an unlocked BIOS to set SG mode. The menu you need to access is not accessible with a stock BIOS.

See what I quoted from tanzmiester above. He was able to flash his Maxwell vBIOS in an Alienware 18 running in pure UEFI mode as he described. It required an extremely long wait time because the version of NVFLASH that is compatible with Maxwell MXM cards is technically not compatible with UEFI BIOS mode. It requires Legacy/CSM support to it function properly. Miraculously, tanzmiester got it to work by simply waiting for a ridiculous amount of time to pass, with the command window open, just sitting there seeming to be froze up. It eventually completed. Under normal circumstances it would be reasonable for anyone that may have attempted to do it to not wait that long, use Task Manager to kill NVFLASH and move on without an expectation that the flash process would eventually complete after several hours of doing nothing. I'm very surprised it worked, and it worked for him twice.

 

Hey guys! I found this thread and thought you may be able to help me.

I ordered 2 gtx 970m 6GB to install in my Alienware 18 2013 edition running Windows 7. It originally had 2 gtx 770m 3GB. But thanks to my lack of research it obviously failed. I have update the bios and put in the gtx 970m's but when I boot it will show the underscore in the top left of the screen for a moment and then nothing and will gove me the 8 beep error.

Will I be able to use the guide at the beginning of this thread to get my A18 to boot up in UEFI and work with the 970m? Or is my system simply not compatible?

Thanks for the help.

 

Yes. Reinsert your original GPU and boot up your PC. Once it's back on follow the instructions in the first post of this thread. You will have to switch from win7 to win8 or win8.1. If your adventurous win10 also works.

 

Thanks for the heads up Mr. Fox, can't get to it now-kids want to go out in warm weather. Also I'm knee deep in GTA V, every free moment I have.

 

Thanks alot for the info. I will be updating to Windows 8.1 and following this thread this evening in hopes of getting everything going. It seems the only real complaint is the loudness of the fans which isn't a big deal to me. I will post my experiance on here after I have done everything and let you know how it went and maybe post some benchmarks for anyone else who may be thinking of the same setup.
Thanks again for your quick replys.

 

Ok, I have a question. Am I going to be installing Windows 8 from this Rufus USB setup? Im currently running Windows 7. Or am i just upgrading BIOS to a UEFI setup? And if so, how exactly do I do that? Im currently in the process of making a Windows 8 bootable USB with Rufus (GPT part. scheme).

 

While in win7 set up bios to UEFI. Turn off PC, replace GPU with your 970ms. Boot PC with USB win8.1. After win8 installs your PC should restart all should be good. Please make sure the HDD your installing win8 on has been converted to GPT.

 

(Oops, double post)

 

Okay, so, I changed the BIOS to UEFI, and *then* I installed Win 8 with the USB stick (set on GPT when I formatted it). After I installed Win 8, I reinstalled the 970s, but when I boot it up again, I still got the 8 beeps. Any ideas?

Edit: It's also worth noting that when I try to boot it up, I don't even get to post. Literally nothing shows up on my screen at all. Not even an underscore in the top left corner. It just immediately gives me the 8 beeps. I've tried on battery power, outlet power, with the USB in, and out... I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong. I changed the BIOS to UEFI, Windows 8 is currently installed (not 8.1 - I haven't updated it yet), and I installed windows from a USB I created with Rufus that was set to GPT.

 

This is exactly what will happen if the BIOS settings are not correct. It sounds almost like Windows is not installed in pure UEFI mode (no Legacy Option ROM). It needs to be set exactly like this screen shows using Windows Boot Manager, like this screen shows of the UEFI Boot Menu. If it is not, you are going to have to reinstall Windows with the correct BIOS UEFI settings (Legacy Option ROM set to Disabled).

The other possibility is if you have an M18xR2 (unlocked BIOS) and set the BIOS set to SG mode with both GPUs installed it will fail to POST with 8 beeps. That only works with one GPU. If both GPUs are installed, the only video configuration options that will boot are PEG mode and IGFX (Intel HD Graphics, with GPUs disabled). If you have an Alienware 18, this is not a concern because you have no access to those settings.

 

Ok, since you got the 8 beeps something went wrong. This can be a pain in the butt, so stay calm. You probably have to start again. First question did you change your HDD from MBR (default) to GPT? I'm talking about the HDD not the usb stick. I had to do this process a couple of times. Take out the 970s replace with old GPU. Get PC to come on. Recheck bios Make SURE bios is UEFI, check and double check 1st post as to what it should be. That is most important. I wiped my HDD when converting it to GPT. After wipe, reboot with win8 usb stick.

I will say this, I did not reinstall any screws until I got it to work because I had to keep restarting.

Good Luck

 

Definitely, leave it disassembled until you know everything is working. If you have a USB keyboard, use that to adjust any settings and test everything before buttoning things up.

 

Okay, so my problem was that it wasn't in pure UEFI mode (I didn't understand that at first). So I enabled that and tried to boot (still using my original cards, just so I could reinstall Win8), but when I went to install Win8, it couldn't find my drives anymore.

 

Oh, hmm. I'm not sure if I changed the HDD to GPT - how exactly do I do that? The USB stick is set to GPT, but I'm not sure about the HDD itself.

Edit: Ah, I googled how to change a HDD to GPT from MBR, so I'll give that a try. I'll report back.

 

You use Diskpart... clean and convert GPT commands. You can do this by opening a command prompt during Windows setup. I could post step-by-step here, but you can Google it and instantly get literally hundreds of hits on instructions, including YouTube videos, showing how.

If the HDD is configured as MBR, it will not work in pure UEFI mode. It will default to MBR mode during Windows Setup to match the drive.

Edit: here's a post I found real quick using the forum search...

 

Well, I followed the directions for converting a HDD to GPT from this site, but for some reason when I try to install Windows, no drives show up. I've confirmed that I've successfully converted the HDD to GPT (I did precisely what I was supposed to according to the directions, and even DISKPART shows that the drive is GPT), but it's still not showing up.

The only options are "Refresh" (does nothing), "Load driver", and "Drive options". None of them do anything. And there's nothing listed at all. It even says "We couldn't find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver."

 

Try this... download f6flpy-x64.zip from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24779/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver and unzip the files in that package to your USB stick. During Windows Setup, choose the "Load Driver" option and select the USB drive. You should see a driver appear for Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Select that driver and see if the drive is visible after that driver has loaded.

 

Holy cow! It absolutely worked! I seriously can't thank you enough. Now, I haven't installed any drivers or anything yet, but I've gotten it to boot up into windows successfully with both 970s in the machine. Now, can I just install the Nvidia drivers as per usual, or do i need special custom drivers or something?

Again, thank you guys SO much for helping me out. I'll gladly buy you beer if you send me your PayPal.

 

A regular driver installation will not work for a GPU that is an aftermarket upgrade. You will need to install a driver using a modded INF with the hardware ID added.

Use the driver mod provided by @j95 in this post, or you can try the one I posted over here. Since you are running 970M, my driver mod should work fine for you. 980M users need to use the driver from @j95 and a vBIOS mod from @Prema to avoid throttling problems. As far as I now, 970M does not have that issue.

Either way, follow the provided instructions closely. You will need to boot Windows 8 with Driver Signature Enforcement temporarily disabled during modded driver installation or the installation process will fail. Windows 8 has a nasty disposition toward unsigned drivers and the modded INF required breaks the signature.

Glad to help. Your success and appreciation is my reward. That's why many of us are here, so no donation required.

 

I wasn't able to get your driver to install, unfortunately. I disabled DSEV just fine, and the driver booted up and tried to install, but it said it couldn't find compatible hardware or something. I'm wondering if this is because I have a 970 and it was made for a 980? I'm going to try the other driver you suggested, though. Will report back.

 

No, it should have support for all of the GPUs listed in the opening post. If the original files were replaced by those in the zip file, should have worked without giving you the error about not having compatible hardware. The other one should work, too. If neither one does, you may be missing a step in the process.

 

Oh, I just straight-up unzipped your driver and tried to install it as-is. Was I supposed to merge it with another existing driver or something?

 

The instructions are in the opening post. The link provided is to download a stock driver. The mod files are in a separate zip archive that also needs to be downloaded. You would download that specific driver version from NVIDIA and extract the contents into a folder wherever you wish to place it. In the folder where you extract the driver package, there will be a Display.Driver folder. Download the zip archive with the modded files and extract them into the Display.Driver folder, overwriting the original files with the same name. Then go up one folder and run the Setup.exe as you would a normal driver installation. If you use j95's driver mod, the process would be the same. Don't mix and match the modded files with different versions than what they are intended for. My mod is for installing 345.20 Desktop drivers on notebooks and j95's is for 350.12 Notebook drivers.

 

Well, I got everything up and running last night and I installed everything. And after running a few benchmarks and running some games (very impressive by the way) I restarted the computer and it will only boot up to a black screen. It shows the Alienware logo screen and the "now loading" dots but after that screen it just goes black. I though ok just a small issue and after much debate I reinstalled windows 8 again and started over. Well I just installed everything again and I restarted but it will only get to a black screen. I was able to restart no problem before installing the Nvidia drivers and a few other things so Im not sure what is going on. Could it be that I am using the desktop drivers Mr.Fox has listed? Do you know how I can get windows to boot up again? It sounds like it is booting up but I cant see anything. I thought I would try safe mode but UEFI doesnt seem to have an option for safe mode. Thanks guys
Also, auto repair doesnt work.

 

The black screen your getting is your PC's bad reaction to the Nvidia driver. I got the black screen from those drivers and had to wipe my HDD to get everything working again. Well so I could see what I was doing, unfortunately you may have to do the wiping again. Try repairing your system with your USB win8 stick, there's an option to repair before installing. You can get into safe mode same way as when you disable signature driver, but you'll need to have your screen active. If those Nvidia drivers indeed do not work for you, modded drivers can be obtained from laptopvideo2.com. Since you now have GPU that your PC does not natively support you should learn to mod Nvidia drivers yourself.

 

Windows in UEFI does have Safe Mode, but you have to enable Windows 8's legacy boot menu to get to it using F8. The stock configuration of Windows 8.X is a real abortion, but you can fix the majority of the mess Micro$haft made of the OS. That's one of the important tweaks. Those drivers work fine for most. The thing about NVIDIA's drivers is they are hit or miss any more. GeForce Community threads are chock full of posts from some people that find the drivers are a mess and causing them stability problems and others that have the same GPUs and no issues using the same driver.

If you can get into Safe Mode and not have a black screen there you might be able to run DDU to remove drivers and reinstall them again.

 

Will I be safe booting into Windows 8 Legacy boot menu? That wont cause me the 8 beep error? I just want to make sure before trying that.

 

is installing 980Ms in alienware laptops still unstable as it was late last year?

 

It doesn't do anything but, allow you to get into safe mode like you used to in win7 (f8 at start up). Just in case you don't know how to enable win8 boot legacy:

-press win key +x
-select command prompt (admin)
-type "bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy" (without quotes)
-hit enter

PC should say operation successful (or something like that).

If you want to disable win8 boot legacy:

Same steps as above, but type the following at command prompt:

-bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

I will advise you that if you can, have a 2nd hdd cloned so that if anything goes wrong you can simply swap them. I do this (because I'm always trying something) when things go bad I simply take out the hdd I screwed up, put in the cloned one, reclone the messed up one and proceed. It takes less time to do this then reinstalling everything.

 

I don"t find anything unstable. The only problem that I see is the OC throttling problem. My system with the 980m SLI is rock solid, the only time my system will crash is when I try things I don't really know how to (how else is he gonna learn)

 

i remember some people had 980Ms fail and die on them for no reason yet the 780M is fine. i saw a few people try and it not working like no signal or anything and that got me worried about blowing a lot of money just for a GPU.

 

Ahhhh, you mean the GPU itself. Yes, I had one of mine die, but it was replaced (yeah warranty) and everything good so far.

 

Getting a DOA or defective part is always possible. I recently bought a 780M that worked fine for less than 2 hours and the machine would no longer boot with it installed. In fact, I have had all sorts of things, not just computer parts, that were DOA or junk brand new and had to be exchanged.

 

What's the failure rate of the new cards?

 

There is not enough data available to us for anyone to know that. Based on frequency of public examples, I'd say it's fairly rare for NVIDIA MXM cards. Failures can also be caused by post-manufacturing mishandling by distributors or end users.

 

I am still working on my Alienware I just noticed Scanners reply that I must have looked over as I have not tried any other Nvidia Drivers except for Mr.Fox desktop drivers. Is there a site that will teach me how to modifiy the mobile drivers myself so that I can get em to work with my Alienware 18? Id really like to try the most recent mobile drivers if I could.

 

I learned how to do it from J95 after I joined this site technoinferno :

http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia/5249-[guide]-modding-nvidia-oem-inf-files.html


The above listed thread is where you can post your questions.

 

thx for sharing.

 

thanks for the step. successful upgraded my alw18 to 980m sli. everything works good except have to use moded driver. performance good. no throttling issue with moded 353.00 driver overclock using evga precision x. 1280/2905 and pixel clock to 100hz.

 

Hey @1Schumsta1 , first of all, I want to say thank you for the detailed walk through, kudos mate . I was wondering if the heatsink modification was fairly easy. How long does it take, also do I need a special tool for it? Can you link me to a video (if you can, I am just worried about screwing things up )As you had the 880m sli, do you think it's necessary for me to get the 980m sli. My 880ms are working flawlessly, no overheating, full boost 24/7, crushing every game except the witcher 3 where I get 45-50fps with everything on ultra. According to what I saw, the 980m get only a measly 15-20fps more, which is not much at all considering nvidia crippled the Kepler performance and the game has been optimised for the maxwell gpus. Any ideas as I don't really have the cash to buy the 980ms right now. Thanks

 

Bumped with quotes from closed thread.

 

Hello all! I read through this thread (every post) and this has not been answered, so I will ask

1. Has Dell released part numbers for Dell's 980m?
2. Has Dell released part numbers for Dell's 980m Heat Sinks?

This question has been theorized about, but does anyone actually have hard evidence:

3. Will Dell be releasing a BIOS for the Alienware 18 R3 (2014 model)?

Thank you in advance,


/imest

 

Answers in bold red above. There is no such thing as an Alienware 18 R3 (2014) model. The only Alienware 18 is the Alienware 18 released in 2013 (there is no R2 of the 18). It is exactly the same machine with refreshed GPUs and an updated system BIOS. Alienware does not release "R" models (model revisions) that coincide with GPU refreshes.

 

I can't see how they would not release the bios as anyone wanting a replacement motherboard for their 970/980 equipt AW18 would need this bios to update any old/new stock motherboards, unless they wanted to make it a different part that needs to be ordered specifically for that model AW18 (which I wouldn't think they would do).