X36 BIOS are out!

That is odd when in thermoFan in the X32 (I'm using) it does not have a System temp reading. Just CPU, VGA skin & internal. But HWmon. Has the ACPI temp.

It's just weird. IMO

 

really??? my thermo fan do read System temp in x32

 

:O mine too, but I remmember I used to have system reading a few months ago. Strange...

 

I was really excited there for a minute and about to flash my BIOS but from all the results posted here it seems to me that x36 is not yet ready for prime time. Hopefully AW will pull the BIOS and fix these issues.

 

Not quite. Just give it a week or so.

 

I really hope you're right there. A rep point to you for keeping us posted, you deserve it.

 

thats because you have a newer version of thermo fan v1.0.0.4
the older version 1.0.0.2 reads system temps the new one doesnt

 

so whats the verdict is x34 or x32 th4e best?

 

I dont think many people would recommend the x34 so the x32 imho

Tom

 

Just flashed to x36 and for the moment everything looks good. I now have a latency of ~30-70 compared to the x34's 11k-12k. However, thermo fan reports my cpu temp at 80 degrees all the time - anyways read that it was some kind of sensor bugs, hopefully we'll get an hotfix soon...

Screeny of the latency checker :

 

I like your theme care to share ?

 

I'll be glad to share:

Visual style : Alduin by lassekongo
Wallpaper : _sub by jankin
Icons : MINDOCv2 (modified) Iconpackager by Grubygrub

 

Are you running Xp or Vista?Mixen

 

I'm on XP.

 

Got an email today from Roswell but wasn't really able to access my email until now:

 

Im using 32-bit Windows but my results are still high...

 

"Regarding the change on the fans speed, it is part of the solution we developed to solve the downclocking issues some customers where experiencing. As per our engineer, there are three intensities: Low (5000 RPM), Medium (5001-5900 RM) and High (6000 RPM). Anything on the Low intensity will not produce any noise, nevertheless if the system is running on High Performance the speed of the fans will go up and that’s where you can hear it running".

Wouldn't it just be soo much easier if theyd simply allow manual fan speed adjustments (Or at least a small selection of speeds in the bios) As it really is quite irritating at such high speeds... (Back to x32 )

Tom

 

Hey guys,

I was just about to flash the bios today, when I thought I would check here to see how X36 is performing. After reading the email from tech support, do you think it would be a wise idea to wait until they release the updated bios with the temp fix?

 

Well that isnt really a problem matey, its only the temperature reading on thermofan. Its the bloody fan noise that annoys me. God knwos how long itll take em to release the update (if atall).

Tom

 

Just burnt two discs. One with x32 and one with x36. Gonna take the plunge later today and see for myself how bad it is, but if the fans keep coming on all the time or they are too loud then there is now way I'm keeping it. Noise is just so a deal breaker for idle tasks when fans were handled so much better in x32 anyway.

 

Yeah, I admit it's annoying, but at the moment, the only way to dim down the fans is to switch over to stealth mode. It completely slows down the fans down to a silent level.

 

Try this - it works for x34...

turn on stealth mode, then turn it straight off. It should keep it silent

 

For that to work you'd need a stealth mode button that actually does something if pressed. Sadly, mine does nothing.

 

I was just about to post a "Been nice knowing you all but my machine just died" type of post, but I'm changing it into an "*** JUST HAPPENED!?!?!?!".

I tried updating to x36, but it didn't go as it's supposed to. I put the disc I burnt in the drive, rebooted and made the machine boot from the disc. I then hit R in order to continue with the update. The process started nice and the message "passed" started appearing repeatedly on the screen. Then all of a sudden the screen went blank and all the light but the power button turned off, all the fans turned off and in general no noise came from my machine. I then waited for a good 30 min for something to happen but nothing did. After a while nothing continued to happen. So I tried hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but still nothing. I expected to turn off the machine by holding the power button for 4 sec or so but the instant I touched it the "machine turned off". The only way I could tell was because the light on the power button disappeared, other then that nothing else changed. I then tried to turn the machine back on but the only thing that happened was that the light came back to the power button. Nothing else happened, no fans that started spinning or anything at all. So my first thought was F@#$, I just ruined my machine.

So I then removed the battery and the power chord, took a long cold shower and came back to try again. My first attempt yielded the the same result as previously. So then I decided to try with just the power chord and no battery. Lo and behold the fans started spinning. I wanted to enter the BIOS to see what version I was running but the boot seemed so much faster then usual so I didn't manage to hit the correct button in time.

Anyway, I'm now once again booted up and using my m15x to type this message.

Has anyone else ever experienced something similar to this on any system? I sure never have before.

 

sure you burned the BIOS to the disk properly? at what speed did you run the burning process? i usually turn down the writing speed to like 8x or even 4x to make sure all the data is written correctly.

PS: you can use everest to check the BIOS version (i think).

 

Burnt the disc at 4x in nero using the cd image project feature. It was an imation cd-r disc which is certified from 1x-52x.

I used CPU-z to check my bios version and it reads out as x32

 

mkay... wierd. any damage done?

 

I haven't dared reboot yet, but so far it seems fine. Nothing out of the ordinary.

 

seeing how you're still on X32, i'm guessing the flash went wrong (duh ) and the computer went into some sort of freeze-up/safe-mode, waiting for the user (scared sh*tless right about now ) to shut it down and reboot. at which point the notebook resumes "normal service".

 

Hehe, that made me smile but I don't think your explanation is quite right. IF the m15x is anything like other systems I've flashed then the flash should be a 2 step process. Basically there is an active and a passive part of the bios, call it the "memory" and the "hdd" if you will. The flash works so that you can't change the data on the hdd before the new bios has been loaded into the memory entirely and the checksum has been passed. I believe my system failed after the data was loaded into the momory but before the hdd was overwritten. This made the recovery for me a simple process of removing all power sources and waiting until the "memory" had lost all its data, at which point it had to reload the old x32 from the the "hdd" and could resume normal operations again. This is just my theory though.

 

yours sounds more reasonable, i was just guessing

 

Scary stuff right there! Arent we supposed to be on the phone with alienware will doing this stuff so if something goes wrong its no our fault?

 

eh, AW-James once said it was OK to do it on our own as long as we adhered to appropriate guidelines.

 

Well i'm lost guys.. I think I am just gonna hang about a bit for another week or so and see what the out come is.

But non the less, if it wasn't for Oceanus and Freeman I would have never have knows about the latency issue. Its all new to me, but knowlege is power.

Thanks a million guys and all the best!

D0A.

 

And what would be said guidelines?

 

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/alienware.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=b4lS5Nbh&p_lva=&p_faqid=5787

 

thats says we have to have a technician.......we cant go around doing this willy nilly

 

Here we go. Took me awhile, but I found the post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3245592&highlight=void+warranty+BIOS#post3245592

I would say as long as you follow the procedures in the link provided in my last post, it will not void your warranty. I had a feeling that quote was going to be skewed as more people point fingers on which Alienware representative had actually said it. I've been hearing around that either Alienware-James or Alienware-Armando had said it and unless someone could find a quote from either of these two representatives, I guess I was right.

In any case, does this answer your concerns?

 

Sounds reassuring, will hold these reps accountable then when my machine implodes

 

Well, I can now reassure you guys that my machine both cold boot and reboot just fine. I'm tempted to throw in my x32 disc and fire it up to see what kind of messages I get, though right now I'm kinda hesitant about any sort of modding for a while.

 

Using another brand of disc and a new download of the BIOS I once more burned the x36 to a cd and tried flashing my BIOS. This time it worked flawlessly. Furthermore, my stealth mode button actually works now. That's however it for the good news. The bad news is that the fans are absolutely horrible. They seem to be going full blast constantly. Even if I'm in power saver mode and everything but the busted temp reading of 80C is nice and low the fans still keep going strong. Then, if I switch over to stealth mode and power saver power scheme the fans are STILL LOUDER then max performance x32 at idle and no stealth mode. Thermo Fan seems unable to measure the speed of my second fan, but fan 1 seems to be spinning at an acceptably slow speed. I'll be flashing back to x32 shortly because the noise is driving me crazy.

 

I think I know why, it's because if the bios thinks it's at a high temprature (80c) then it's kicking in the fans. AW should fix it.

 

That does not seem to be the case. After doing some tweaking and getting powermizer and a cpu undervolt up and running the fans have finally settled and are basically silent at idle. No stealth mode required. Yet I have a feeling that x32 was slightly more quiet then this, but I could be wrong. Anyway, my current thought it that the only major problem is with the system temp sensor and it does not seem to affect system stability or fans. I think I'm actually gonna keep x36, at least for now.

 

whoo! alienware was telling the truth!

 

A updated to x36 and I'm not to happy.System temp is 80 degrees and laptop is very loud now.Can I go back now to x34 bios version?Please halp me

 

The system is not actually 80 degrees. It's just a bug that makes the system report the wrong temperature. I don't have the X34 BIOS on hand but if you go a few pages back, you can find the X32 BIOS. Burn it the same way you've burnt the X36 BIOS and flash it the same way.

 

Even if it is not 80 degrees laptops is very load.So I can downgrade the bios the some way like I upgraded,right?

 

Yes. You may.

 

How is the temp/fan speed fix going to be implemented? Is it a fix to the x36 bios or will we have to wait until the next bios version comes out to update our systems?

 

It should be a fix to the X36 BIOS. I don't think they'll wait until the next BIOS version to fix this issue.