Upgraded m18x r2 with 3940xm, 1070 mxmb and windows 10 but card not showing

Hi all

Had someone help me install windows 10 pro, 3940xm and 1070m on my m18x R2. However the card didn't seem to show up.

He got it to the point where it would show intel 4000 and Microsoft basic application on device manager but told me that he couldn't install any of the Nvidia drivers. Showed code 31 back then

I tried to troubleshoot, downloaded an OSD file update, tried FN+f7 and got 8 beeps post. Took out battery, cleared CMOS and got it to work again however now only intel 4000 showing in device manager. I ran command prompt to show hidden devices and it showed basic application again.. I uninstalled and tried installing Nvidia graphics again but didn't work and now it's not showing at all.

I've got the unlockedaunlocked bios posted here by Raidrair (says sv17 mod) and it shows no dedicated card detected. I tried to set video mode to PEg in bios but constantly get 8 beeps and it resets to igfx when I fix it again.

I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions. I sent him some guides on how to install etc and he spent ages trying to get it to work without success but granted he doesn't usually deal with this stuff. I still have my old 680m but I'm not great at assembly disassembly so ideally don't want to put it back in then replace again

Many thanks for any advice. Ive tried reading countless threads through googling but not sure what I'm missing. Quite noob at this sort of upgrades

Edit think it was a clean windows install so not sure if all the drivers like command centre etc have been installed but not sure if that would make the difference?

Edit2 also NVIDIA Display Driver Service is not listed under services if that makes a diff. And windows version is 1909

 

Ok got the Microsoft basic display adaptor to show again by switching to SG mode in bios so back to square 1. With warning sign and error code 31

 

going to try the steps listed here:
https://www.alienowners.com/threads/alienware-m18x-r2-gtx-1070.8095/
and install 436.15 driver after somehow modifying it (?). Do i still need to download DDU and uninstall old ones if its not even detecting my card?

 

ok ive set boot to UEFI and tried modifying the driver by adding the first line from "device description --> hardware ID" and
NVIDIA_DEV.1BE1.057B.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070" (taken from https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...x-r4-another-socket-victory-against-bga-crap/) into the info file but it still wouldnt install the driver.

i did notice however that when i go into Bios it now does show Nvidia GFX where as before it was just integrated. however thats about it.

EDIT: by turning off driver install in troubleshoot i was able to finally force install the driver after a bit of editing but it still fails.

this is what i have in my Device manager hardware ID:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BA1&SUBSYS_05501028&REV_A1

Not sure what "section" to add in the editing plus in the strings section there are multiple 1070 lines so not sure if i need to double copy? really struggling and not sure what else to do

 

It looks to just be a driver issue if it is detected in your BIOS and shows as the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. Are you running Windows 10?

Try this one (Windows 10 only). I believe it has my 1070 inf included. Don't forget to disable driver signature enforcement first. I always find it's best to use DDU first. The setup.exe is in the International folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zaeo09kc7dgao2n/AACIbOdgsnlrfAIcsF-09H8Aa?dl=0

 

Thank you very much I will try it first thing in the morning.

I am running Windows 10 pro version 1909

 

If it works, I'll drop a link for the most recent driver

 

unfortunately it didnt work. i ran DDU in safe mode and did "clean & restart" and "clean and shutdown" and then tried to run installer from the download you provided but each time it failed. It still shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter in device manager.

when doing this, i didnt remove the 1070 in between. would i need to do that? install the 680m again, reflash bios, install everything to make sure it all works, then run DDU, remove 680, install 1070 then install new drivers? really hoping to avoid any install/reinstall because not too 100% confident in that but i guess if thats the only way...

Edit: I did switch of driver enforcement before I did this on previous attempts but I don't kno if it switched back on so I'll try again later today

 

Ok I disabled driver enforcement and reinstalled the drivers you provided and it now shows up as 1070 on my device manager!!! Is this the end of this nightmare? Do I run a 3d mark test to ensure its working? Do something in bios to ensure its not the integrated one being used?

 

You have to run a benchmark for checking purposes, as it's running in Optimus and that's sometimes not switching the GPUs properly, or to check for any other possible flaws.
So do a Firestrike (and 3dm11) run and post the links to your results here.

 

Sounds like it's working. It's easy to forget to disable driver signature enforcement in the stress of getting things working but it won't work without doing it.

EDIT: Disabling Driver Signature Enforcement only works one time so restarting the laptop enables it again. You can permanently disable it using the command prompt but it isn't a good idea.

Definitely run some Time Spy or Fire Strike benchmarks to see how it's performing. After I installed my 1070 and ran a benchmark it was clear that things weren't running as they should be. Unfortunately I have to reset iGFX and SG modes in the BIOS on startup regularly to get the card running at full power.

 

will def do it first thing tomorrow. got pointed out to me that actually i also probably need to install all the other windows 10 drivers...presumably i should just download everything from this link except the nvidia stuff?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-10-driver-guide-m18xr2-and-alienware-18.762513/

or is it not necessary. laptop seemed to be fine doing just browsing / youtube etc without any of the above.

many thanks for replying excited about having this baby back to full strength rather than just being a slow youtube / vlc only machine

 

It really isn't necessary but if you don't like having Unknown Devices in your Device Manager then you can manually install the ones that are missing. Windows 10 auto-installs all the ones that it can find but you may see one or two that aren't installed. The free-fall sensor will definitely be one of these and you may also find the Alienware OSD driver is missing. I tried to manually install the OSD driver but I kept getting BSOD's so I didn't bother. I was probably trying to install the Windows 7 version and it wasn't compatible. Didn't try to find a Windows 10 driver.
Also keep an eye on your temps when benchmarking. You really need to keep the card in the low 70deg mark. When I first installed my 1070 I was getting mid to high 80's until I got my thermal pad placement right.

 

Ok I ran the 3d mark test (think it was 2013? Fire and Ice fightets) and got scores of 17187 graphics, 9424 physics and 5362 for combined with the orange circle showing 12787. Think that's broadly in line with what others got? I don't have full version to see temps but gpu z seems to show consistently 50c no spikes. Will see if I can download something else to check and redo test on latest version too but seems all ok broadly?

 

You're getting 50 degrees while benchmarking? If so, that's phenomenal and it kind of makes me want to cry myself to sleep. That sounds more like an idle temp but awesome if it's under load. Would you be able to post your vBIOS version? If you have GPU-Z installed it will show you so if you can post a screenshot of that it would be very helpful. Thanks.

 

That was from GPU z but my only worry is if it was running consistently in background or "switched off"? The other thing is j had the back panel off and battery out because wasn't sure whether I'll need to do another cmos reset. I'll do another run of the test later today and note the bios version (it was a11 from rainairs post that I rmb)

Is there an alternative temp measure download you'd recommend? I got hwinfo too but haven't used it yet. Don't want to pay 30$ for 3d mark

 

I honestly don't believe that, 50C, that must be idle temp, 1070s usually hover around 67-75C when under load and depending on the cooling capabilities.

You could use HWinfo or the overlay of MSI Afterburner, which shows the temps right away, but it needs a bit of setting before you can use it as desired.

Btw, your card seems to run like it should.

Yew, there's no need to buy the full version of the 3dm software for just a handful of benchmark runs.

 

Ok weird ran the test again with the bottom panel sealed and got a combined score of 7.6k -7.7k twice with hwinfo showing AVG temp of 67 and max of 77.

Is it switching to my integrated? 1070 still showing up everywhere on GPU z 3d mark and device manager

Also for better temp control would getting 3rd fan make sense? They're 16-17£ used on eBay not bad

 

Ok it sounds like you have the same issue I have which I believe is very common. Unfortunately the card power throttles for no good reason sometimes and you have to switch video modes in the BIOS to get it running properly.
Go into the bios and switch to iGFX then save and restart and back to the bios and switch back to SG. This will reset the card.
I pretty much have to do this every time I want to play a game at proper FPS.
It only takes a minute but it can be a little bit of a hassle.


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Thanks for prompt response. Do you have to run a test each time to determine that you need to do this? Whilst restarting on these specs is very fast it's the loading a game or 3d mark that would take time.

Thoughts on 3rd fan btw?

 

I don’t bother doing it when I’m just going to do regular PC stuff but I do it whenever I’m going to start a game. It really only takes a minute while it will take you much longer to run a game or benchmark to check.
I still have my third fan plugged in but since there’s no secondary GPU and heatsink it’s pretty useless.


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Hey guys, I don't want to open a separate thread for my problem since it might be similar. I also have a GTX 1070 (black PCB MXM 3.0b standard layout), but it won't show up abymore. It happened when I wanted to "remove" the power throttling (classic SG -> igfx, boot to windows, reboot, igfx -> SG procedure) we all know and love. Then my CPU started to act up stying in random multipliers (×21 to x29 instead of OC multipliers), but my GTX 1070 was still present. After a normal reboot the 1070 wasn't detected and CPU still acted up. I ran a ePSA test (which checked out completly fine, even video card connection test and video memory test, but I'm not sure if it really meant the mxm card) and checked the BIOS for weird settings. Everything was normal. Booted back to windows, CPU was still acting weird, no 1070.
I removed the CMOS, let the PC sit there without it overnight. At least that has helped with the weird CPU behaviour, running at normal speeds (Level 1 OC on 3920xm), but no 1070. Checked in BIOS, no PCI card detected, set in SG. ePSA still reporting no problems... help please?
Thanks in advance

Edit: I don't have acces to another mxm machine nor GPU since I'm stuck in Cuba thanks to corona.

Edit 2: There was no Bluescreen or any other visible nor olfatory indication of a GPU failure.

 

Welp, forget that, seems like I didn't notice the windows update 1909 and the mess it can create... At least everything is back to normal... for now...

 

Hey how did u solved?

 

It looks like he went back to an earlier Windows version and the card came back.

 

Oke so was just windows. Anyways I saw an used MSI from Germany (Ian from Italy) an new black pcb it’s selling just from China and import taxes are crazy so it’s not an option, he sell it as 100% working maybe it’s the good one?

 

Hiya. I wanna do an upgrade also on my m18x r2. Current 3610qm and 780m sli
But im in a hard decision whether to go for the 980m sli or the single 1070m.
Im pretty sure most people have had these cards and the experiences with them. Ive spent months reading and trying to find comparisons between the 2 set ups but there isnt much info especially in the form of videos.

I really want to go with the 980 sli route. I know some of you will say sli is dead etc and can come with its problems. Eg. Throttling and sli compatible issues with games but ive also read some people have 980m sli with no throttle issues by doing the igfx to peg reboot trick. Plus there are profiles for games which can help.

Now with the 1070m i know having one installed will be less power hungry and less headache compaired to 980m sli set up.

Now my question is with my current 780m sli, in some games not all and programs such as 3d mark and valley engine i cant use them because i get this major flickering strobe lighting effect where sli dosnt seem to work properly. There is a way i can sort this out and thats by going into display settings and duplicating the cards to use 1 single display which i read ages ago on some other forums. Does anyone know why is happens? Or is it vbios problems on 1 of the cards?
Another problem with this is that this trick only works in windows 7 and there isnt a way to do the same thing in windows 10

So has anyone experienced this issue with 980m sli setup out of the box or is it just my 780m set up? I have both OS installed just so i can play some of me sli games in windows 7.

Now with the 1070m. Ive read up on how to get it installed and working.
Its the comparison in its power compared to the 980m sli. Ive read comparisons where benchmarks n scores of 1 x 1070m beats the 980m sli but then ive also seen some where they say the 980m sli beats the 1070 in good sli scaling games. Its so confusing hell.

Please give me your experienced advice. Im not much a major gamer as i used to so im not so bothered to play games in ultra high or 4k and i just only wanna future proof my beloved m18xr2 a bit more so i can play games like red dead 2 at reasonable fps where it curently only runs at like 14-20 fps on ultra low!!

 

Hi. I’m not really sure about your current 780M issue, all I can think of is that maybe one of the cards is starting to fail or it’s overheating.

My vote would be for the 1070 upgrade. Yes, benchmarks will show the SLI 980M’s to be comparable to a 1070 but it will be different in real world gaming due to the lack of SLI support as you pointed out.
You will also find that two 980M’s will generally cost more than a single 1070 so you’ll be paying more for less performance. You will also have driver support for longer as they will drop 980M support over the next few years like they did with the 700 and 800 series.


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Its not my cards as ive also read on other forums that people have also experienced the same problems which is how i found out about the duplicating screen trick to fix the sli. Some sli games worked fine without this trick such as rise of the tomb raider and then theres others that don't.

Money isnt really an issue in regards to 980m sli as these cards are pretty cheap now and can buy them off aliexpress for as cheap as £160 per card.
I just wanna hear peoples experiences on the comparisons. I know im kinda late on the game and people have probably moved on to better systems. Where as for me i wont be changing laptops as this m18xr2 is such a beautiful machine. I am tempted on the 1070m though

 

Sli doesn’t make sense at all nowadays, dx11 is dying, more and more games are in dx12 and it doesn’t support sli, just explicit mgpu that developers must to set on to be working and its not happening because mgpu is dead so don’t waste money on two gpus just put an 1070 or quadro rtx 3000 or wait to see if someone will produce some mxm rtx. Plus gtx 980m are very crap ones they have always problem like to be defective

 

Yeah i think I've decided to go for the 1070m route. As long as i can play most games at at least 60fps if with adjustment to settings im all good tbh and im sure the 1070m is pretty capable of high fps. Im not even that keen on 4k either not that im gonna get an awesome experience playing on my 18.4" screen anyway . I just wanna be able to game a 60fps with no issues or barely any.

I have a few questions.
My current 100w nvidia heatsink. Do i need to mod it at all to fit the 1070m?

Will i be able to install the card with no issues. Like just plug n play as i will be selling my current 780ms so i wont have any gpus to plug back in to do card swaps.

Will my curent cpu 3610qm be adequate and not bottleneck the 1070 as i wont be able to upgrade it till prob next pay day to the 3940xm

And also i dont know much about optimus. So with this optimus issue. So every time i want to game i will have to do the igfx to sg to unlocks its full power potential?

Oh and one last question. Does anybody know where to find a 3 pipe cpu heatsink for the m18xr2 or wants to sell one?
I currently have the 2 pipe and for the life of me i cant find any 3 pipes anywhere! Are they super rare or somthing? If not will my 2 pipe be adequate for 3940xm?

Kind regards

 

You may not have to do the switch every time but it’s probably easier just to do it anyway. It only takes a minute and it’s better than getting into a game and finding out you have low FPS.
The 3-pipe cpu heatsinks can be a little expensive but you’ll really need one if you want to do any overclocking.


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Yeah its np to me. Dosnt take long. I once read somewhere some guy said to run till windows loads before restarting into bios.
Then i saw not long ago someone else mention about u can do it just on bios boot screen.

And i dont do over clocking im not that much a fananatic to wanna get a extra few fps. I just want my laptop to perform at its stock best. I also have 16gb ram and i doubt id need to go higher as its probably more than enough for usual gaming and web browsing and movies unless someone says otherwise?.

So for the heatsink you saying the 2 pipe will be enough for normal usage?

 

my advice it's to install the gpu in the second slot, it has a "friendly" heatsink for the black pcb gpus and and it can avoid the throttling issues. the inconvenient it's that fan doesnt works in automatic just manual hwinfo settings

 

I do the switch before going into Windows and it seems to work just fine.
I still use 16gb memory as there really isn't any need to go higher for gaming.
I'd still suggest the 3-pipe if you can get hold of one as it will keep your temps lower. The XM or MX chips do seem to run a little warmer than their QM and MQ brothers.

 

Wait hold on. You saying that installing the 1070m will make my fans not work properly and that I will have to manually use hwinfo??

Also its cool that i can use the card in slot 2 but why is it better ?

 

no, on main mxm slot works fine, but it could have throttling issues. in second slot maybe would works better avoiding throttling issues and the stock second nvidia heatsink surface it's black pcb gtx 1060/1070 vrms friendly but fan it's not auto just that.
I don't know why it's better but it uses another 3d controller which in my case works perfect, in main slot it was throttling for several second now it works at maximum tdp all time.

 

Are you sure? Usually any card in slot 2 won't run at all, as long as slot 1 is empty, at least as far as I know for the M18Xs.

Would also recommend using the 3-pipe Heatsink with the XMs.

 

in AW18 does it works i assume that should be work also on m18x but just in SG mode.

 

Please dont confuse me lol. Gimme facts no assumptions about the m18x r2.
If you do happen to know which 3 pipe 100w gpu heatsink is the best. Drop me the model number

 

0MXJ5 would be the part #.

https://www.pchub.com/dell-alienwar...mxj5-m18x-r1-triple-pipe-cpu-heatsink-p111350

https://itdeviceshub.com/products/0mxj5

 

I've got one available to sell but I'm in Australia so shipping may be a killer

Here you go. Super cheap one

https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=17727

 

Are we talking about the CPU or the GPU heatsink? As far as I had understood he's looking for the 3-pipe CPU heatsink for the XM CPUs.

 

Don’t know. He asked for the 100W GPU heatsink in his last post. I also thought he was originally asking for the CPU heatsink


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Sorry for any confusion guys.. i was talking about the 3 pipe GPU heatsink to be used with 1070m
I did previously also discuss about the CPU heatsink but i believe i ended that discussion and sticking to my 2 pipe CPU heatsink for my future 3940xm as i wont be doing any over clocking.
So yeah talking about the right suited GPU heatsink now.

Also can someone verify of what Expresstyle was saying about using the 1070m in slot 2 and about fans not working using this method and having to use hwinfo to control the fans. Tbh i dont wanna have this hassle because knowing me i will forget about things and prob end up frying my gpu. If this be the case I'll pass on the 1070m upgrade.

 

I would definitely suggest using the primary slot. If you get a standard MXM 3.0b card then it will fit without any issue.