m18xr2 motherboard installation

Hello everyone, I am in need of help, I purchased an
Alienware M18x R2 Intel Motherboard GRP9C CN-0GRP9C LA-8321P on ebay and installed it and nothing happened. Just dead, no lights, no sound, no smoke. So I reinstalled old mobo and back to my old problem, secondary gpu slot not working but detecting card. Had gtx 970m sli running for about 5 or 6 years from woodzstack666, slv7 unlocked bios also. I burned something out, my bad. So I purchased 2 gtx 980m and installed, same problem. So its not the cards. The primary card works and the other 980m works in my m6700. So I think I need a mobo. The mobo I orderd has latest updated bios A14. I am wondering if there is something I need to do to install a new mobo I am not aware of. I sent the new mobo back for a refund but asked the seller to recheck it to make sure its not a bad one, presently in the mail. Any help, I dont want to give up on the M18xr2

 

Send it back for replacement or refund. If your old board works and new one doesn't then it has to be the board.

Also one way around your current board is to get a more modern gpu.

You can run SG (Optimus) mode and get more performance from a single card.

options are:

Quadro P4000 (cheapest and around 1060 level)
GTX 1070 (good gaming card)
Quadro RTX 3000 (super rare but has latest features like ray tracing)

 

Thank You ssj92 for your reply, and the work you are doing on the m18xr2. I really appreciate the hope given to this laptop. The mobo arrived to the seller and I asked him to let me know if it was bad. My board works with only 1 gpu the secondary is out. I purchased 2 gtx 980m and had the same problem. So the board came from White Plains NY so quick delivery & return.
Another issue is SG mode, cant seem to get it to work. Dell locked up my BIOs, it has a "Locked Setup" requiring a password, called dell about 5 years ago and was told I needed a new mobo and in the same conversation told to get a new computer, so i dont call dell any more. I have the A11 unlocked bios and can run 900 series cards but never had choices in BIOs. Getting a RTX 3000 would be amazing. Thanks again

 

If you have the unlocked BIOS then the second 'Advanced' tab will have the video mode option to switch between iGFX, SG and PEG.
If your BIOS is locked with a password then there are people on eBay that can unlock it for you for a small fee (usually $10-15). I've done it before and it worked perfectly.

 

Hey Maxware79 I cant believe it, just never knew, I just found it on ebay, exactly what I needed for a half a decade!!!!!!

 

Hopefully you can get it sorted.

 

It worked, all bios options available, switched to SG mode and got lines on display cant boot, reflashed bios logged on, switched graphics, restarted, in bios switched to sg mode and got lines on display cant boot. not sure what needs to be set for sg mode. There are alot of settings that I know should not be touched but the procedure to get it right am not sure about.
Als any suggestions on where to buy a mobo from, afraid to buy from china or overseas for that matter. The one I just sent back was in White Plains NY. He has 2 more I am going to ask for another if he says the one I returned was a bad one.
The seller sent me pics the board is working so he is sending it back to me

As far as the bios goes I can boot in to IGFX or PEG no problem but not SG not working. I tried AUTO but no difference. I only have PEG or IGFX

 

Can I run 2 RTX 3000"s

 

What GPU are you using in SG mode? Strange that you'd get lines on the screen on in SG

Just remember that SG mode is for a single GPU and not for dual cards.

 

No. One RTX 3000 is much faster than 980M SLI.

Even a Quadro P4000 will provide 980M SLI performance in one card and no SLI issues.

 

Thanks for the help, m18xr2 is working in sg mode with fully unlocked BIOS. So now to look for a mxm 3.0b card.
There are so many cards out there, I saw a quadro rtx 4000 but how do I determine if it will run or fit. Saw this on ebay for $600
would this be better than rtx 3000?

 

Glad to hear it's working. So you got rid of the lines on the screen? What was the fix?

 

I had GTX 970m in SLI so I removed the secondary card and sg mode worked so today I shoved in a GTX 980m and am testing it out with UserBenchMark and getting "failed creating direct 3d device". So am updating with win10 second set of drivers 8813 to 9924. the 9924 gives temp on gpu in task manager. But I dont know which drivers will give best performance for the 980m. I probably will be upgrading the card anyway

 

Will a
Quadro RTX 4000 8GB MXM3.0b at " https://www.ebay.com/itm/185225550070?hash=item2b204d98f6:g:z-IAAOSwouhhw3so" fit the m18xr2?

 

Ahh, I had a suspicion that you were running SLI.

@ssj92 is probably best to answer your other question.

 

Use latest drivers , should work fine in SG.

No it won't.

Cheapest option with good performance: https://www.ebay.com/itm/4021595224...var=672099467772&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649