M11xR1 A05 BIOS available... Discuss here

Direct link from Dell:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...peid=-1&formatid=-1&impid=-1&checkFormat=true

 

thanks for posting the link - thread stickied for now. discuss away.

will update with main link once i see it on the support site.

 

And release notes:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/A05 release notes.pdf

 

So what do we know about the A05 BIOS fan table improvements?

What are they designed to correct/improve?

Does it fix the locked fan syndrome?

Has there been any fan temperature threshold changes?

In the past the fan would kick in at 40C CPU temperature on the M11xR1.


Update - After installing A05 for M11xR1
So hard to get good guinea-pigs these days.

During the A05 BIOS upgrade the fan switched on and remained on at full until the restart after the upgrade.

Stats via CPUID HWMonitor

With nVidia GPU enabled, the fan did not kick in until the CPU was at 44C and the GPU was at 48C.

It would not surprise me if the fan temperatures have been rise 5C to 45C for CPU and 50C for GPU depending on which comes first. And depending on what is actually triggering the fan to engage.

The fan stops when the CPU has returned to 35C and the GPU has returned to 40C.

So from this I will extrapolate that M11xR1 owners will have less fan in moderate to low operating temperatures.

Only time will tell if the 'fan locked on' issue has been addressed by this BIOS upgrade. By increasing the temperature threshold it is possible that the M11xR1 will be better placed to detect the new minimum temperature threshold and thus not remain 'stuck' on.

Disabled nVidia GPU and returned to integrated GPU.
Still takes approx 15min for the nVidia GPU to be removed from the device list during which time the fan still switches on and OFF at the same thresholds.

Once the nVidia GPU is disengaged and removed from the Device List the fan has turned off and remained OFF (temperatures permitting).

In the past (BIOS A01), disengaging of the nVidia GPU has been the only time I have noted that the fan remained 'stuck on'. This only happened a couple of times and was not a consistent fault that could be repeated at will using BIOS A01.

Using BIOS A05 on the M11xR1 has not shown any symptoms of a 'stuck fan' with my VERY limited test(1).

Guess time will tell.

Giving the game Crysis a whirl for three hours pushed the max CPU temp to 48C and the GPU to 56C. No temperature problems noted. Disengaging nVidia GPU successful with no 'stuck' fan. test(2)

In summary, no dramas with M11xR1 BIOS A05 thus far.

 

@ DrGoodVibes
I have similar findings as I updated last night
For me, the fan stops when my CPU dropped down to 35C and the GPU was 42C.
I was on Nvidia GPU the entire time.
Surfed internet, youtube videos, watched some HD quality videos and fan did not turn on immediately like before after a few minutes, it turned on and then after a few minutes it turned off and it actually did not turn on until many minutes after. I apologize for no #'s as it was 2am when I did the update.

I will try to provide better research with data to quantify my initial testing.
so far A05 is good update for fan, but honestly I have noticed my M11x not has slight delay in opening IE8, opening some applications, but not sure if it is me or because of the BIOS update.
Thanks.

 

How is the volume control and display on screen? there is a thread where people were complaining that the volume control using A04 was giving 10% instead of 2% increments and the display was ugly.

 

I'm on A04 and I have no complaints.

 

Yeah, the volume thing is still there.

The laptop overall though does seem a lot quieter now.

 

Quieter but hotter? Unfriendly hotter or still okay over the lap?
One thing I like about this machine is how cool it runs.

 

The update already is in dell support page... much quiter...

 

yeah my fan barley turned on while browsing and watching youtube on the integrated graphics, definitely an improvement.

 

quieter, sorry.. no problems so far...

 

actually if anything it only gets a little warm to the left of the touch pad, but nothing uncomfortably hot. I think it does feel a tiny bit warmer than before.
the noise reduction is totally worth it though.

 

It does feel warmer to the touch on the base. I left mine playing streamed internet chill-out(pun intended) music via winamp over night.

Placed on my lap the next day, it felt pleasantly (hmmmm) warm with a CPU temp of 40C.
During summer I believe you'd still be able to place it on your lap with minimal discomfort WITHOUT nVidia GPU engaged. During gaming I found the M11xR1 got no hotter with a max. 56C GPU. This is compared to max. of 59C which I saw once using BIOS A01.

It runs a lot quieter. You can now play Crysis with headphones during church services without distracting anyone with excessive fan noise. Mind, just remember where you are and don't shout "Killed the bast*rd!" during communion.

 

So is this latest bios worth upgrading from A01?

 

It's for the R1. Not the R2 (i5/i7).

 

Yes, I have the R1. I was thinking about upgrading if it's worth going from A01 to A05. The only thing I have upgraded on my R1 is the latest graphics driver from the Dell site and the Alien Command Center. Should I upgrade anything else if I go to Bios A05?

 

The only thing I know that didn't work on BIOS A01 was disabling battery charging. It kept re-enabling itself after being disabled with the A01 BIOS.
This was fixed in the first BIOS update.

I'd upgrade the Realtek audio driver and the relevant network drivers.
I seem to remember updating my Seagate ST9500420AS HDD too.

Would NOT upgrade to Intel rapid storage technology.

Put simply, upgrading to BIOS A05 won't hurt unless you have a reason not to.

There does seem to be a lot of fixes in BIOS A03 and unless told otherwise the BIOS upgrades are accumulative and any updates in A03 should be carried over to BIOS A05.

BIOS A03 release notes.txt

I went from BIOS A01 to A05 and I'm still here talking to you

 

Okay, I appreciate it! I updated to A05. The left side of the track pad seems to get warmer than I remember and the fan seems to kick in a bit more (and louder); but that could be my imagination. Everything seems good with the upgrade. The only benefit I am seeing is that I now can see my volume bar go up and down. I am not sure what real benefits I am getting, but I upgraded.

 

Updated to A05 - So far so good.

I have to admit, I do appreciate Dell working on the fan table/noise issues that were present at launch. I'm sure I could be quoted a saying "Dell will never care about that". I'm happy to be eating my words in this case

 

I will upgrade this tonight. Only if they would fix the OC option! I have one of the computers you can overclock but it will randomly BSOD (especially when idleing) due to VCORE. Please dell throw some more juice to the CPU on overclock!

 

I've also upgraded, combined that with Realtek's own official sound drivers from their site. (I noticed mine were dated in April of this year.) I think I'll need more time to test mine, see how different it runs etc. No problems since I ordered it, so far...knock on wood

 

Dell already said they're not going to touch the overclock. its too bad. they could definitely make it better. if mine didnt work at 1.73ghz i'd ask them to swap out the motherboard till it did.

 

Upgraded the BIOS to A05. Now running a lot hotter and the system has locked up twice. Reinstalled A04 and problems gone.

 

Disabled nVidia GPU and returned to integrated GPU.
Still takes approx 15min for the nVidia GPU to be removed from the device list during which time the fan still switches on and OFF at the same thresholds.

How many times should we talk about it? Its not a bios problem, its driver problem. Install 188 driver and you can set there power off time for 1 min and nvidia will disappear in 1 min after you switch from nvidia to intel...

 

Not testing anything just browsing but no issues or diff noticed after update.

 

I've requested a new video driver package from engineering for the M11xR1 - hoping to get something later this month or early next month, but don't hold me to that.

 

Unfortunately, the changes made in the R2 (multi-step overclocking) will not be applied to the R1... Sorry bout this...

 

just upgraded from A04, all good!

 

Upgraded and running smooth with EQ 2

 

I upgraded to the A05

but now my sound OSD does not work. anyone else have this prroblem?

 

Have you downloaded or attempted to re-apply Dell OSD application (R270681)?

I only applied the OSD application 0.0.0.15c, A03 upgrade after I installed BIOS A05.

It then worked fine.

Think I then upgrade my Alienware Command center software and the ACL655 audio software from realtek as it has the latest version.

So when I saw your post and checked Fn+F8 or Fn+F9 knowing that I had it working after installing BIOS A05, I was slightly surprised to find it wasn't working.

So, I just un-installed and then re-installed the OSD Application AGAIN and the volume control image is back...again.

So even if BIOS A05 by itself does remove access to OSD volume control image, then it's not the only thing that does, cause it seems other upgrades also remove the OSD control image.

As an aside, even when the image could not be seen the volume could still be reduced/increased using the fn F8/F9 keys, so functionality is not lost.

Bit of a pain, but in the end it'll still work.

 

Dear NBR moderator,
You can delete this post as I was just talking woffle I can't find any difference in performance from BIOS A01 to BIOS A05 with a 4Mhz difference and as someone reported in another post the performance may be even better... Doh!!!

Using CPU TrueSpeed v1.8 and BIOS A05, I note I consistantly get a CPU clock speed of 1729.00Mhz and no higher

In the past using BIOS A01 I would consistantly get a CPU clock speed of 1733.00Mhz.

Is anyone who has upgraded to BIOS A05 still able to get a CPU clock speed of 1733Mhz using CPU TrueSpeed v1.8

I notice my core speed in CPU-Z has dropped to 1596Mhz when in the past using BIOS A01 it was consistantly around 1600Mhz

I don't think 4Mhz is going to change anything, but I like gaining Mhz not loosing them

Love hertz.

Update: A bit of slothing in the forum and it appears that this may have happened in BIOS A04.
BIOS A01 - A03 still reported 1600Mhz in CPU-Z.
Don't think this has any real world impact as 3DMark06 is still around 6950 3DMarks and CPU score around 1450
wPrime in BIOS A01 was 55.537sec. (take into consideration environmental conditions)
wPrime in BIOS A05 was 55.207sec.
May do a bit more slothing but nothing to be concerned about.

 

Updated to A05 a few nights ago and no problems to report. Fan seems a little quiter(apart from when the bios was flashing which scared the #*!¥ out of me)

 

thanks.... reapplying the (R270681) fixed the volume OSD. I just like to get a visual confirmation of my volume indicator

 

I've just applied the A05 BIOS and the fan is definitely alot quieter! It doesn't come on every few mins...it's been sitting on the lowest setting now for over 15 mins and I can hardly hear it! What a godsend!

Finally Alienware saw sense and did something about this...been waiting since February to get this sorted!

 

Anyway they can just fix the vcore issue. Fixing this issue is easy! Don't lower the voltage to the CPU when in OC mode.

 

@bittercold- this would probably cause more heat. For some reason I guess they are worried that the R1 might over perform the R2 with I5 if they allow further OC and Vcore capabilities... YES I SAID IT OUTLOUD!

I have asked about this several times directly and Brian (Erawneila) responded via pm that the engineering staff have no plans of allowing this..
Another option is to contract someone who writes or updates bios software to analyze ours and see if it can be acomplished.

BW, StevenX

 

I can confirm that the a05 bios run quieter..alot more especially idle for both intel and nv states. The laptop itself does get hotter to touch but it's nothing bad at all.

For ppl updating yes the fan will got crazy after till it reboots so don't panic

Good update, I've also seen an increase in battery from 5 to 15 mins, might just be in my head

 

I don't think the clock speed is affected by the BIOS at all. And the notebook with the A05 BIOS is much quieter. Shocking really, and I'm glad that Dell/Alienware took the time to update the BIOS settings.

 

I updated my bios to A05 about 2 weeks ago and no additional problems or anything. I used Furmark to stress test my laptop and monitored the GPU temp from it.

My fan has 3 distinct levels of "on-ness". The first level is very soft and barely audible. The second level is audible but still bearable. Then the third level is like jet afterburners...

While stress testing my laptop, the first level of the fan was on till about 50 odd degrees Celcius, and then the second fan level kicked in till the temperature was under 44 degrees Celcius. I havent had enough time to see at what level the afterburner kicks in.

 

Well I don't really want an extra option. Just more voltage to the VCORE. Just enough to make it a bit more stable on system with weaker silicon. I know it won't happen but heck if they did do this they might save some cash on replacing peoples MBs.

 

not sure if this had anything to do with the bios update, but i recently needed to heal a 25 man ICC (WoW) and had no choice but to use my m11x-r1 ( previously i got poor performance and 25 man icc was unplayable at lowest settings) but this time around it was decent,framerates were in the 20s and dipped down to low 10s in big fights.
maybe the A05 update did something more (intentional or not) as this was the only thing that changed on my lappy

 

Can I update my M11x R2 using A05 Bios, or this is only for R1?

 

R1 only.

/points at the title of the thread

 

M11xR1 SU7300 4GB RAM nVidia 197.72 BIOS A05 Win7 Pro

BIOS
Brand: Alienware
Version: A05
Date: 08/06/2010​

For the life of me I can not get battery charging to remain disabled!

It was mooted that the BIOS battery charging disabled option had been modified to allow it to remain disabled.

This does NOT seem to be the case for me.

Am I correct in my observation?

If so, would there be further development to assist in the disabling of battery charging at the BIOS level in a future BIOS?

I use Fn+F2 to confirm battery charging is disabled/enabled.

OR note that after a boot and/or resume from hibernate the battery is again recharging when I set it as disabled in BIOS.

Are there conditions that are known, when setting BIOS battery charging disabled will be overridden and thus re-enable battery charging?

This could be a good one for Alienware support as it should have a straight forward answer which is not policy based.

 

How do you check which Bios version you are running? Can you check in Windows or do you actually need to get into the BIOS to check?
Can't check now, im at work.

 

Do a search for 'System Information' and run it from the Start Menu's search box.

 

Couple this with the cpu bandwidth set to 0 (talked about in another thread), I can move thru 25man healing in icc with decent frame rates....10-30fps.

marrowgar is the worst.

 

I looked for this thread but have not found it. Can you link it? I noticed that my random BSOD don't happen as often. Only when I let the computer idle for hours. Maybe this helped.