BIOS A02 for M17x-R2 is now available!

i am glad i return mine because i don't want to be on the same boat it was exiting when they post what suppose to be a fix but now i can forget about alienware bs. for another time until they show some love for the consumers

 

Damn. If this thing is not fixed i'll just sell my 820 and buy a 720.
This bios is the only reason I kept my order and now it seems it didn't work. I hope that the info here is premature though, maybe reinstallation of video drivers is required.... Guess we'll know soon enough.

Edit: @jocker: what's EC?

 

I am uploading a video from my "flickering" in Mass Effect will post it once done..

 

Don't jump the gun just yet...My first R2, with 820, played fallout 3, COD6 & ME2 maxed out without any flickering, so chances are you will be fine.

 

I think that's a large enough variety of games to conclude the bios does indeed work. Anyway if this bios release doesn't resolve the issue for the rest of you, then you should contact Dell about it. I suppose that makes my M17x-R2 a special edition? [/QUOTE]

they may put a nuclear power supply on yours beware of that

 

Ok, first time I post a video, wish it's gonna work, this is Guild Wars, same problems as with all my other games...
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h192/Fjlam/?action=view&current=MVI_0044.flv

and thats just by loading an area ! other videos comming of other games

 

Here's another one, now its Mass Effect, same thing
<embed width='600' height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid64.photobucket.com/albums/h192/Fjlam/MVI_0045.flv">

 

call dell. i bet money they will say what is in my sig.
try me.

 

Don't worry, I am calling them tomorrow morning first thing

 

Your flickering looks a little different from mine and the other video's I have seen. I don't think I ever got such a smooth roll of the picture. Plus your frame rate was still really good. I would bet 10 bucks that there is something else wrong with your system. Defective secondary card perhaps?

I think we need a few more people to check this out before we call this update broke.

 

Whatever it is, I definetely call Dellienware tomorrow !! All those games runs smoothly with 1 card, only when I turn the second one that I get those... there is very small flickering too that isnt perceptible on the video

But if it was the second cards fault, wouldnt it flickers too even on desktop ??? cuz when on desktop/browsing/watching video in Xfire, all is good...

 

Did you get the new Bios ?? did you tested it out in games ???

 

Yup, call and give them hell. I returned my system because of the faulty parts that they put in it. One card worked fine for me as well in games. Only got the flickering in games as well. And no I don't think enough of a resource was being pulled from the card at any other point other than playing games, so you would not get problems at any other times, ie. watching movies etc.

No I returned mine Friday, so I never got the new Bios but did test out plenty of games before I sent her on her way. Just saying that you should look into the possibility of bad parts since that was what was plaguing my system and that visually it looked very similar to the Bios flicker issue but I noticed that slight difference.

Did it do that scroll before or did it only happen after the Bios update?

 

I am getting the exact same visual problem with the new Bios as with the old one

 

Think I'll wait for Nvidia cards on the I7...

 

You might wait a loooooooong time. They had big issues with Nvidia on the R1, and replaced a lot consumers Nvidia for AMDs, so they prob lost a lot of money in there.. . if they did, they'll be VERY wary to deal with Nvidia again

 

This is what joker saw before his update. This is also what I saw when playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzUSROu5WE

Durring actually gameplay I would see a drop in frame rate right after a flicker too.

Edit:
Checked out your video again. Your frame rate definitely stays sharp. If you have the confidence I would see if the Xfire cable is loose. A few of the first round R2 people had that issue right out of the box.

 

Just wait ATI 5000 series we may only have another week or so. Unless you want to wait till next November for the licensing.

 

Does anyone know if the new bios allows processor VT?

 

Even if they announce it this week, it will take much longer than a month to get the new systems

 

.... i know... *sob*... dude. why you got to kill my ATI fanboy high?

 

I know how you feel, I wanted to wait for them, but with the way they are lagging with the 4870's, I don't even want to think of the issues that could arise with the 5xxx generation.

 

News like this makes me happy I went with the 720qm and not the "Alienware recommended" 920xm. It is still puzzling why Joker's system works fine and nobody else can get the same BIOS to work. Although Dracomagus's scrolling looks very different from any flickering videos I have seen.

 

Well it could turn out that Dracomagus's system has other hardware/software issues that is causing the flickering, i.e. xfire cables being loose. We have to wait until more people with the 920 flash the new bios and test to get any definitive answers.

 

I'm uploading a fairly lengthy youtube video that shows once and for all that the A02 bios works for my system. If others are having issues, it could be due to something else (defective video card, bad driver install etc.). If the bios released today is the same as the one I have, it should resolve the flickering. Once the video is done uploading, I'll edit this post with a link.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9e1ruyuOo0o&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9e1ruyuOo0o&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='560' height="340"></embed></object>

 

I agree, in the sense that I have no flickering issues what-so-ever. That being said, I really hope the new bios works out for you guys.

 

Me thinks we need a poll (like the one asking people if they had flickering or not based on their configuration) about who flashed the new bios and if they managed to eliminate flickering.

I guess those who wish to participate in the poll should run the same flickering benchmark of some sort.


In response to Joker's comment we should then be able to see if it's some isolated cases of defective xfire cable/video cards or a "mass effect" (pun intended)

P.S. Don't look at me, I'm just a newbie

 

Im not an R2 owner, I have been reading this thread and I'm curious, I have a question did Alienware tech give you a complete run down on the procedure for properly applying the bios.

 

so far so good with the new bios for me but I have only played l4d2 for about an hour and no flickering yet. but I will play more and let you know if it changes. I am not oc yet either.

 

Interesting, looks like it does appear to work. Hmm maybe people are jumping to conclusions about this bios not working?:

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wT9PQGygZwA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wT9PQGygZwA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height="344"></embed></object>

 

I think people are jumping to conclusions. So far only one person has an issue. Still not sure if he tried a fresh driver install yet like some of us recommended. That may help. Or check his cables and make sure everything is tight.

I have had no problems so far with this new BIOS and in fact it seems to run smoother. I have seen most people that have tried it say it seems to work fine. So, one person does not make for a bad BIOS fix. I think it is fine.

 

@luigo

Can you check to see if the bios supports processor VT?

 

Could somebody confirm that he had a flickering Issue and the bios solved it?

 

Hi,

i can confirm what Joker says. I have just installed the new bios, and for me it works like a charm.

With bios A01 i had massive flickers in gaming, expecially in Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead. I tested this two games with the new bios and can confirm that the flickering problem is fixed. The R2 runs awesome now. So for me the new bios works.

Best regards
Rolf

 

That's awesome, congrats and thanks for keeping the rest of us posted.

 

Congrats indeed!!

 

Works for me as well. I'm out in the middle of the desert so my games are a bit limited atm. DAO flickered like hell when I first tried to play it. Installed the new BIOS just a few mins ago and runs like a champ. YAY!

 

Dracomagus Try reflashing back to A01, and again to A02. This might alleviate the problem and take care of the symptoms. It's worth a shot to flash it again.

 

Sorry to read about this situation.

Reflashing back to the old and then to the new is always worth a shot. Nicely put, DR650SE.

As for the rest of this talk about one person is proving it works and the other is proving it doesn't. Please, let's get a larger sample and not insult the effort that has been put into proper research techniques that do not fail.

I have no doubt, since seeing Joker's videos that whatever he's got - it works! But does that mean A02 is bullet-proof, or does that mean it is flawed because one other person with the XM CPU is still having problems? C'mon. Let's be reasonable. More people need to perform this update, especially those with 920XM CPUs. We're jumping to conclusions either way, by deeming it a success or deeming it a failure.

Hopefully, after we have about a feeble group of 10 people with these high-end CPUs and the update, we could then come to a rational conclusion.

Funny. This is almost sounding like the issue with A03 on the R1. It works for some people, but not for others. Ditto for every other fix and workaround. However, in our case, we actually have a large group of people who're still having problems, so those of us that are problem free are probably the 'freaks' in the pack.

 

As more and more folks get the new BIOS put on their laptops I am sure we will get that bigger sample. But so far only one out of those that have is having any problems. It could be something else causing it.

For those that do not have a problem, what graphics driver are you using? I know Draco had 10.3, but still not sure if he tried reinstalling it or going back to stock drivers and seeing if the problem still exist.

 

Sorry, I didn't see this before going to bed last night. I am at work now, but will check when I get home unless someone else can confirm it for you before then.

 

Hi,

i am using 10.3, but with 9.12, 9.11 and 10.2 all is fine too.

Best regards
Rolf

 

I think we have a fair amount of people with a 920XM setup that have yet to get their systems. I am also thinking that most of us that had our systems already ended up returning or asking for a replacement due to various problems. I think we will have to wait till a lot of the people in the ETA thread get their systems before we get any results.

 

I'd be very interested to discover whether they added VT support too.

 

Hi again,

@Dracomagus
I just watched your video and can say that i had exactly the same problems with my R2. It was a faulty graphic card or maybe the Xfire bridge. With single ATI i had no problems, with Xfire i had the same issues like you.

I got a replacement for both cards, now they are working well.

Best regards
Rolf

 

Guys,

For those of you that still appear to have flashing and flickering in crossfire after updating to A02, I'd highly recommend reseating your crossfire cable.

When I originally swapped my cards to the ATI's I had EXACTLY the same flickering on my R1 and was freaking out... Removed and reseated both cards and the cable and everything was then 100% perfect.

Given that that cable is a major pain to get connected to the master card due to its location and size, I can easily imagine how it could get poorly connected on a high-speed assembly line at the factory.

 

Ok, I went to bed last night, just woke up..

I will First try to check if my card is properly installed...

Then, I'll try "reflashing" the bios, if someone tells me how to do that.

For the other idead ( going back to stock Drive, I can try that as a third, but only to go back with the 10.3... with stock drive, you cant unplug your system of put it to sleep or it freeze. So fixing a problem to go back to another problem aint a good solution...

 

Hopefully it is something as simple as a loose connection. As far as the freezing I think that was mainly with the 9.12 drivers. I have the stock drivers (and others can confirm with theirs as well) and had no problems with freezing when unplugging the adapter. If you had the freeze problem with stock drivers then maybe you do have something wrong with one of your cards or a connection.

 

I have the flickering problem just with mass effect 2 so I will try the new bios

 

ok... anyone have a guide or something to know how to reach the vid cards and the cable ?