Alienware Releases B14 Bios and 130E Keyboard Controller Bios What do they do?

I apologize in advance for starting another thread, as there is already a B14 BIOS thread (here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=389823), but can you "insiders" and smart guys figure out from Alienware what the B14 Bios and 130E Keyboard Controller BIOS that were just put into MyHive actually intended to do? Alienware never puts in release notes to let you know what was fixed so we have no idea without having some inside knowledge somehow. I too am hoping for a Quad Core Stuttering BIOS fix similar to those who use the .28 OCZ BIOS to eliminate their issues. Thanks again.

 

Reflashed to B14 Bios and it did help with stuttering problem but still happens sometimes but not as much.

 

I have the exact situation as you.

And I start to wonder if my chip has already burnt...

 

AW-Warner confirmed on the AW support forums that B14 was intended to fix the intermittent stuttering.

 

well the keyboard bios is saposed to make it brighter some people have said it help i didnt see much

 

can someone upload that keyboard bios to somewhere please

thank you ..

ps : my aw is second hand and dont have the card for hive .. this is my problem.

 

I must have missed that. I'll give it a try tonight and see if anything changes.

 

http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...are.com/files/259060683/M17_KBC_130E.iso.html
Thanks Shockwave Omega.

 

Np though I dont know how long Rapidshare will keep the file up.

 

I've just realised...I've had the B13 bios all along. (Only just noticed when I updated my keyboard BIOS right now...) And here's me thinking that I had B14.

Has B14 been reported to improve stuttering for people? (Compared to B13)

And just so I know...what could go wrong in a BIOS flash? My parents would be pretty annoyed with me if I bricked a £1600 laptop trying to update the BIOS. Presumably unless you've got a bad download of the BIOS or you accidentally open the disk drive, nothing really can go wrong right?

 

you just updated your keyboard bios .. doing the normal laptop bios is just the same as the keyboard. The chance of bricking it is very very small. And if u need help doing so or want to claim warrenty if something goes wrong call AW and have them talk you through it. If something where to happen u should be able to claim warrenty and get it fixed for free..

 

Okay, fair enough, I'm going for it. I can't be arsed to wait in a hold queue for AW support or whatever.

I just want ot make sure, is using the same DVD as I used for the keyboard BIOS safe? (Obviously I'm formatting the DVD first)

 

Well yeah if it worked with the keyboard it should work with the B14 bios.
Make sure its formatted correctly and go for it.

 

Well, it worked. I had a major scare at first when it would just restart after the initial boot screen , but then I pressed F10, the boot menu loaded and then I realised that it was trying to boot from the DVD again...lol, so I just set it to boot from the HDD then it was fine.

I don't know if it's just me being paranoid but my boot times seem to be slower after updating to the 130E keyboard BIOS...o.0

Not to mention my system made me tempoarily deaf TWICE with that loud beep sound it makes during the process.

 

The loud beep is normal. Mine scares the hell out off me when it restarts my keyboard lights up then goes into disco mode. My laptop then restarts again and it all looks fine after that.

 

I had my very, very loud earphones in...the laptop nearly fell off my lap when it made that sound. Yes I use my M17 on my lap, however right now on holiday I've got no suitable desk and the placement of the vents is such that I can have it on my lap without blocking any. In fact it runs cooler on my lap than on a hard surface...burns the hell out of my left knee though

 

Mine almost always sit on a desk or a Dell monitor stand I got about 7 years ago

Can't really say my m17 gets really hot.. unless I install the QX9300.

The first time I flashed my bios I went from the AW B10 to Zfactors 0.28 whitebook bios. Just to test. Went back after 5-10 mins to the B10. I'm only using the AW bios's now.

 

I don't recommend the B14 BIOS with the Q9000. Mine made the stuttering 10 times worse even with High Performance Power profile. I actually reverted back to B10. Unless you're using 8GB of RAM, B10 is better than B14 IMO. B13 simply added support for 8GB Ram, B14 was intended to fix stuttering but failed in that regard miserably for me.
Are your lights any brighter with 130E?

 

Can anyone confirm what version of the keyboard firmware the K|N nagamaki Bios+keyboard firmware update provide? it is visible on their site and should be open to anyone without a password.

 

Problem is my knee is right below the area of the laptop where the CPU heatsink is. I'm not blocking the vent but the base where my knee is gets a bit toasty which makes my leg uncomfortably warm after a while.

Actually I've been using B14 a little over an hour now without stuttering. In terms of whether my lights are brighter with 130E, I think they're a little brighter, but it doesn't make a significant difference. I am in a brightly lit room though right now (well, a conservatory to be exact)

 

well does the keyboard bios make the led's brighter? what does it do?

 

God knows. It's just meant to make the keyboard brighter. I'd love to know myself exactly how it achieves this.

 

given that the brightness of a diode (assuming use of LEDs here) is directly related to the voltage, you can not just go pumping more and more voltage through silicon devices, they are pretty sensitive to it. Unless these diodes are on a very isolated power circuit, which would seem unnecessarily expensive