M11xR1 A05 BIOS available... Discuss here

I totally mis-remembered the optimization name. It is something you have to regedit..

here is the thread for clarification..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/513360-new-m11xr1-optimization-must-have.html

 

I got the weirdest error trying to run the BIO updater. I didn't even get to do anything really...



I can't even get to HELP for troubleshooting because it crashes every time I try to run it...

edit: I should add that I was plugged into AC power and using the integrated graphics.

 

Try loading BIOS defaults, save and exit BIOS. Once done, run the BIOS updater again.

Might be the fact that you are on integrated. Not sure but it is something to rule out first.

 

Wow! Horrible spelling, grammar, and word choice. Why capitalize "Battery?" We know it was intentional and because the next time it is spelled wrong ("Bettery"), then done again but should be deleted (redundant), then again with lower case. "Presented" should be "present." "Gasgauge" is supposed to be two different words and is not the proper terminology for power level. Lower "then" 10%? Come one! Lower THAN 10%. "Then" refers to before and after ("this, then that"), so it is correctly used the second time. The comma before it, however, is not. Then, to top it off, it should end with a period but we find, not one, but THREE exclamation points.

Heck, they should say that it failed "due to" before the colon.

FAIL. Someone hire this programmer a proof-reader. I don't know how people with such poor writing skills can have a career so particular to formatting and syntax. If they can learn to do it right where it matters in programming, why can't they learn to do it right in English writing?

 

Does it fix sleep/hibernate issues? When putting it to sleep, those of use with the lid sensor set to "do nothing" have to wait until it goes finishes going to sleep before closing the lid or there is a good chance that it will hard lock (black screen, AlienFX lighting still active, desktop/Windows is not). When hibernating, sometimes it will not resume unless you switch back to AC power (especially if it was hibernated while on AC power). Just don't delete your hibernation data!

 

i am still on bios A01 and pardon the noob question but can i upgrade directly to A05 without going through A03 or A04? i suspect i can but i would just like to be sure

also, i did some backread and i am concerned with the loss of some OSD functions. will this happen if i do my upgrade or is this problem unique to those upgrading from A03 to A05?

so far, i am fine with my A01 bios. i have no problems and the fan noise does not really bother me although if i can make it quieter and improve battery life with the new A05, why not?

 

Yes you can! I did it also and the new BIOS works like a charm for me.

Regards,
Sascha

 

@Mythbuster One -- thanks for the information

is there a particular order/sequence of installation of the new bios vis-a-vis the other driver updates, i.e. do i need to install the bios first before any other updates? or it does not matter?

i already downloaded all the recommended updates from the dell support website and i am still unsure about the sequence of the installation

 

ice, this comes up quite often - driver installation order.

Take a look at this AW KB doc -
Alienware : The Best Custom Built Gaming PC for the Ultimate PC Gamer!

While the order listed is for the M17x running Vista 64, the general order is what I would go with.

If flashing the BIOS, I suggest BIOS first, followed by Chipset, OSD, etc. Be sure the CommandCenter install is last and be sure to use the current version of CommandCenter from support.dell.

 

thanks for the reply. unfortunately, before i was able to read your post, i went ahead and did the updates based on the following sequence/order:

1 - bios
2 - OSD application update
3 - command center
4 - nVidia update
5 - synaptics touchpad driver update
6 - realtek driver update

so far, so good. i have not noticed anything strange or out of place on my M11x

regarding the synaptics touchpad driver upate, you have to uninstall the old driver before updating to the new one

i am considering some optional updates for the atheros lan, dell wireless wlan and wireless broadband card but this is still a "maybe" for now

 

ohhhh goddddd...
I upgraded from A01 to A05 3 days ago... my M11x suddenly died this morning.
When I was suffering the internet, I heard some strange noises from the speakers, and windows frozen.
it cant recognize my hdd now, I dont know what is the real reason T.T.
I need some help before bring it to a warranty department. T.T

 

Was you plugged in an outlet or on battery? It could be a power surge if plugged (any burning smell?). Alternatively, your hd may just have died. Try to install other hd and see if the machines recognizes it. After 3 days (assuming that you have been using the machine during these 3 days), I wouldn't think that the problem was caused by the new bios.

 

I hear some trange noises from HDD (had thought it's from speaker before). exactly, my HDD'd just died, I'm going to warranty department tomorrow, dont have another HDD for testing as you said, btw. , I have had this m11x for 5 months.

 

i have been running on the A05 Bios for days now and here are my observations:

1. definitely less frequent noisy fan operation
2. better screen resolution. my rocket dock icons look much better
3. battery life appears to be a bit longer but this still requires more observation

overall, it is worth the upgrade

 

Updated to this the other day been playing cs:s tf2 and wow and lotro. before i was getting pretty crappy fps in css and tf2 now i get 80 plus in intense firefights. wow has always been good but now i can do icc 25 man without lag and lord of the rings online... heh dx10 max graphics with 30+ fps.

 

Hello, I still have the A01 Bios, I just saw that A05 is released.

I am not very confident on updating my bios really.

Is there any cautionary steps I should take, or anything I should do before updating?

Thanks for reading, and/or replying.

 

Should go fine, just make sure you are on AC power and let the update run its course. A05 update makes the fans go a little crazy during the process but after all is done you should find things back to normal. I personally have never had any problems with the Bios updates from Dell.

 

Do I need to install back all other drivers like graphic card driver, sound, etc.?

 

Install M11xR1 BIOS A05 with AC power plugged in.
It is best to have no other applications running at the time.
The fan will fire-up and go wild. (I upgraded my BIOS at night when it was quiet and the fan noise all of a sudden nearly did my dicky ticker).
Reboot the system as part of the upgrade and that's it, job done, you're good to go.

The only thing you 'may' have to re-install after upgrading BIOS A05 is the OSD for volume control.

 

I see, at first I thought it's like a reformat that I have to install everything again. Thanks for the clarification.

 

the download link is down, can anyone get a working one again.

update: updated link here http://support.dell.com/support/dow...emID=ALW_LP_M11X&os=W764&osl=en&catid=&impid=

 

Has Alienware given up on any updates for M11x R1 ?
I mean possible graphics driver updates? BIOS update with other major concerns that other people have posted all over?
Just curious.

 

I just thought I would mention that I am also having problems with the A05 update for the M11x R1.

I was bored and decided to check for updates yesterday. Of course, there were lots of updated drivers and the updated BIOS.

So I do some driver updating, and everything is going ok. Then I do the last thing, which was the BIOS update. One thing I noticed that I thought was a bit weird was after the Dell unzip utility finished and you clicked "OK", the Phoenix flasher came up, and before I could even read the warnings, it automatically started flashing. So even if I wanted to cancel at that point, I had no choice and it went ahead.

Whatever, I wanted to updated the BIOS anyway.

It made it's backup and all that stuff and started writing. It got to around block 22 (it wasn't in order, so I dunno if that was early or late in the process), but it just locked up. Other than a quick HDD access every few seconds, the computer was totally unreponsive. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went to sleep.

Woke up 4 hours later, and it was still locked up on the same spot (clock didn't update either, so Windows was frozen).

I tried holding down the power button to do a hard power off, but it was unresponsive. Nothing worked... Unplugged from AC, still nothing.

Since I didn't want to wait for the battery to drain, I decided to unplug the battery.

Turned it back on... no video, no POST, no beeps, nothing except the ALIENWARE/keyboard/"speaker" LEDs flashing for a split second, then the keyboard goes into the last color change setting I had it on (normal during bootup). The fan controller is working because I left it on today for about 30 mins to see what would happen, and the fan was cycling on and off. That and the power button color properly changes colors between AC/battery/charging. Not sure if the "working" things are BIOS controlled, but they work.

So now I've got a bricked M11x... and to top it off? I'm in Afghanistan at a forward deployed location (i.e. it's a convoy trip to the nearest post office, PX, etc), and only here for another month or so... well, my O6 tells the Afghans that I volunteered to extend.......... yeah right

Due to that, mail takes a MINIMUM of 2 weeks one way, but usually a month... which means there's not enough time to do a warranty repair until I get home.

Right now I'm figuring out if I can get the BIOS to read an image off a bootable USB stick (since I read SOME computers with a bricked BIOS will load the image off a bootable CD to fix themselves), but I'm not holding my breath.

Luckily the office has a laptop I can use at night, so it's not a total disaster.

Oh, and I'm having the hinge problem as well... I didn't know until I was forward deployed, so when I went to pack it up, the left hinge just popped apart. So hopefully they will repair that too, but it's not a huge deal compared to the BIOS issue!

EDIT: guess I should mention I've already tried the 10/20 second power drain to reset the BIOS settings, pulled the HDD/WLAN/RAM and tried booting (no error beeps), tried holding down certain key combos while powering on, etc. That and I'm A+, so not like I'm just shooting the dark here

 

Suggest starting with support (even if just chat) and get a written record started. log everything.

 

Kane, your post has been moved to its own thread -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/529859-how-recover-m11x-bad-bios-flash.html

 

Hy i know there are threads abot this, but just tell me where can i update bios, in my bios? do i lose anything if i do that, must i backup something??

 

See post 1 of this thread.
download the bios update and run it... The updater will take care of it for you.

you will not lose anything. No need to backup.

 

I updated my bios and Now my alien sense does not work. I did reinstall/repair command center after the bios update... I really miss being able to log in just by looking at the computer. Any thoughts/help?

*edit*
Deleted the biometrics that were already saved and now it works fine. Slept it and woke it and all better...

 

Yep, as a side note, anyone having glitches with AlienSense not working correctly should remove the biometric data. This will resolve most issues and can be done via the Advanced Settings of AlienSense.

 

I'm getting this error when I attempt the update. Battery is at 100% and plugged in. Any suggestions?

 

Couple of thoughts,

1. If your BIOS is locked, it will need to be unlocked before flashing.
2. Be sure you have an R1 and not an R2. A05 is for the R1.

Other than that, call AW Support. Don't recall anyone running into this issue. I had no issue with flashing A05.

 

I am still having an issue when I restart the computer. It does not recognize the camera fast enough... it seems... and I get an error. I cant remember exactly what it says though...

After the first startup, if I put it to sleep and then wake it, it works just fine. Actually it works great... It sometimes recognizes me even before I show up in the little picture window.

I am not sure if it has something to do with the bios, but sometimes when I put it to sleep from closing the lid it crashes. It only seems to happen about 15% of the time though.

 

I let it drain for a while and plugged it back in and it updated successfully.

 

I got it too...
Make sure you have extracted the utility manually, and aren't running it from a compressed or zipped folder.

It finally worked maybe the fifth or sixth time I tried.

Eventually it worked.

 

YouTube - Alienware M11x Teardown **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video)
@ 6:33 it shows the removal of the coincell battery off the mb pull that out and disconnect battery. i dont have my alienware m11x yet but ive done this to reset cmos is plenty of laptops.

 

It's been a while since this Bios update came out...and I was wondering since the hinges problem will be soon part of the past...a new A06 bios will come to fix the overclocking ability of the M11x R1.

You guys have any information about a possible A6 bios for the M11x R1

 

that would be awesome but i doubt that would sell more R1s than if they didnt write an new bios. thats basically the bottom line of why they wouldnt waste the resources on somthing like that.

im pretty sure the reason the desided to fix the hinge issue is because they were heading for a recall anyway regardless. this more that they did will probabily just cost them less inthe long run.

 

This bios update didn't even fix the damn fan running at full speed using integrated gpu, just editing microsoft word document using integrated gpu unplug and the fan kicks in at full blast "FAIL"

 

There are many flaws in the last bios update....but the point is that the M11X R1 is probably the best selling alienware laptop to date. All these new customers deserve more support (meaning a new bios and a possible new video driver)...at some point in the future Dell will (once again) get complains for the poor product support.

 

Given this is the M11xR1 BIOS A05 thread, that's all we can really comment on here.

I'm not sure what more, people want to see addressed in an M11xR1 BIOS?

I'd like to see the option to disable battery charging 'stick' after a reboot, but that's all I can think of and that's hardly a show stopper for any future purchaser of the M11xR1.

I wouldn't mind the 'Alien' backdrop picture removed and old school driver loading information introduced. But that's just me.

I've had no problems loading M11xR1 BIOS.
Just downloaded them and installed them.

 

i agree with the charging thing. it should defenatly stick like all the other settings do after a reboot.

other than that i would only want a better fan table. my lil brothers R2 seems to have a nice fan table... while mine runs 50% speed for a few min if i hit 45c which imo is a pretty low temp for that kind of fan action. i wish that if anything maybe only 15% fan speed at that temp. seeing as how as soon as the fan kicks on to 50% the temp drops to 35c in like 5sec.

not to mention 100% fan speed at 55c? thats half the thermal profile for the CPU/GPU. yet the fan kicks in full blast? its nice to never see temps above 60c.... but not at the expence of the noise level.

i may add a restistor to drop my fan speed. as long as the board doesnt throw a fan error it should work out nicely.

 

I ran into this issue going from A05 to A04 (i was trying to unlock the WWAN slot, and get some use out of the usb connection) and back again. Ultimately i couldn't get the port to work, and even if i had my fan was all over the place on A04. What finally got me past that error was to make sure the computer was set to max performance when running the update.

 

Mumak, the author of HWiNFO32 is working on fan control for the M11x. PM him if you'd like to help out. He generally just needs a debug dump file or two for test builds.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/480077-hwinfo32-thread-questions-reports-suggestions-discussions-33.html

 

will do.

i tried using a 10ohm resistor (lowest ohm my radio shack carries) the other day but i think about 5-8ohm would be the sweet spot. with the 10ohm in there the fan would click and not spin and the lowest setting, i know thats no good... the cpu goes to 50c before meduim speed which instantly takes it donw to 40c and then the cycle repetes. over and over because of the stupid fan table.

 

I'm purchasing a new M11X system soon and was wondering if this install would be necessary? And if I decide to buy an r2, would the r2 version of this be necessary as well?

 

No real complaints on my fan profile... if I started monitoring it I and had easy control then maybe would make some changes. Necessary? I dont think so but system behavior may vary and some environments are quiet or warmer etc.

 

What I meant was will my system come with this update?

 

oh! not sure. Its an easy update to get though if not.

 

Did A05 fix the fan noise issue on M11x01?

 

I don't know about the noise but the fan once it starts running it will be at full blast and it's still getting stuck after switching from nvidia to intel gpu, to fix this you need to put the m11x to sleep then waking it up stops the fan from running. This is A05 Bios

Another thing i notice is that even when running intel gpu and basically having the computer do nothing at idle or just editing Microsoft Office 2007, the fan will just come on blasting randomly (this is when using integrated gpu)