m15x x32 rc1 bios update

ok, so, i know ive asked this elsewhere on the forums, so sorry if its appears i dont believe people who have already answered this question, but when i just downloaded the new bios (x32 rc1) it states that it should only be updated whilst on the phone to a cs agent or the warranty will be void. some people have told me it is ok to go ahead and update the bios without phoning alienware, so i just want to hear from a few people who have done this?
i only want to do it because the quick touch buttons dont work after the laptop goes into sleep mode when i shut the lid. does this actually help, ive read mixed thoughts about it!?

 

some say it helps, some say it doesn't. i believe more people have said it helped with the touch control issue.

 

One of the AW staff (it was either Steve or Frank) confirmed you could install this yourself without voiding your warranty.

 

ok, have either of you actually done this?

 

I have and it's not very difficult. The only scary parts are when Nero says "burn failed" (but ignore it) and when the laptop restarts immediately after the update process (I would have expected it to give me a "Update complete -- press R to restart" or something like that, some message)

 

ok then, hanks for all your input, ive just updated, i burnt the image using poweriso, and didnt get any burn error messages, restarted with disc in and followed on screen prompts. all went smoothly, how do i now check to see that my system says its now on x32?

 

Open up a program like CPU-Z and click the Mainboard tab. There it will list the BIOS version.

 

click on the start - assessories - system tools - system information

 

excellent, thanks all, my bios is now updated, ive changed my settings so the laptop goes to sleep again when i close the lid(id turned it off to see if the controls worked without it going to sleep,they didnt)and the quick touch controls work all the time now, so thats excellent. so i think, as it stands, i have absolutely nothing wrong with my m15x!!! wooo hooo

 

well that certainly sounds good. hope it's the same with mine...

 

when are you expecting yours whizzzo?

 

realistically i'm looking at delivery on or around the 14th of May. one whole month from order to delivery

 

well, one whole month seems reasonable to me, lol, but thats only as i had to wait around for nearly two for mine! im sure the ones they are sending out now should be spot on, they've had enough time and enough people ringing them up moaning that surely they mustve sorted it out!!good luck anyway

 

yeah well alienware is keen to advertise getting you your notebook in 14 days...

 

this is like lottery , we just have to hope it will be ok...
that's no good, come on AW...

 

when i spoke to support on tuesday i asked if i had the latest update of drivers and bios and she said yes. ive just checked and my bios is Quanta vX30 p3 18/03/08
this is the older bios version isnt it. as i only received my laptop last tuesday i thought it should have had the latest update but it doesnt look like it.
also shouldnt the bios update be on the AW update site or do you have to go searching for it normally.

 

yeah that's the older one, you're looking for x32. should be in MyHive.

 

X32 is the newest version, but it's still in beta technically, which is why your laptop wouldn't've come with it. Also, I hear the european AW sites don't have the 32 BIOS, but Lessaj uploaded it for others (search for his posts).

 

thanks for that.
there is quite a difference from the euro site and the usa site. the latter has lots more options and drivers.

 

oh yeah totally forgot that. sorry. i wonder why though. it's not exactly fair is it?

 

i downloaded the x32 bios of the euro site earlier today from myhive. so its definately on there!

 

oh ok, good, they uploaded it (there was a time it was only on the north american myhive)

 

im sure its been ok euro site a few days now, def since yesterday. i noticed on the nvidia site theres a newer driver for the 8800gtx, but that isnt on the euro site, and ive heard we should only use drivers off the aw site?

 

for now. No-one has found drivers other than stock which don't permanently downclock the GPU.

 

ok then, no worries. another question. ive set it so the laptop goes to sleep when i close the lid, or press the power button, now, i understand sleep is a low-power state, but i left it shut for half hour or so, and when i opened it, boy it was hot, the screen was very hot where it had been flat against the plastic to the right of the touch pad, which seems to be the hottest place.sleep doesnt seem to do much apart from turn the screen off. is this right? when i used to put my desktop to sleep it appeared to near enough shut down, yet my m15 appears to stay exactly the same without the screen on, just seems weird.

 

No, it does turn off more than the screen. What is possible is that (since the fans turn off) the heat from the computer being in use before started dissipating upwards into the keyboard and screen.

I would be very surprised if the heat is coming from something the laptop is specifically doing during sleep (because that shouldn't happen)

 

Another thing to remember is that heat goes upwards, right? Well, if you put the computer to sleep and then close the display, then the display will end up getting hot. The fans aren't running, so you're not blowing as much hot air out the rear of the laptop. The display is blocking the keyboard area, so the keyboard and the display will get hot from the heat that's now internalized in the system....

 

never had this trouble with my m5550...The whole system turns off completely.

 

Nah, I'm pretty sure that's what's going on here too. He's just feeling residual heat from earlier use.

 

ill try it in a minute, ill put it to sleep and leave it open for a bit to see if it all calms down, all the lights stayed on and it made the same amount of noise in sleep mode last night. ill give it another go in a minute.

 

Yours sounds like it actually isn't going into sleep mode, which is possible given the fact that Vista has a lot of trouble with sleep mode and laptops in general.

If your Bluetooth is on, disable it and then try going into sleep.

 

ive just spoken to support again and they said a new bios update is not out yet.
i know this is the beta version so as i MIGHT be sending mine back is it a good idea not to update the bios yet.

because my computer has been running a little slow at times they have also turned off a few things in config. now my mouse and mousepad are both active arggh!

 

ok, sleep update. with the screen down and set to go to sleep, or even just pressing the power buton, the screen goes off, but everything else stays on, so i changed it to hibernate, and that does actually turn everything off, but i have to press the power button and it boots and resumes windows to exactly where it was. so it seems i have to hibernate rather than sleep, otherwise with the lid shut everything stays on and with the screen down it gets very hot. in hiberntate, its basically as though the laptop is off.

 

Did you check the bluetooth?

Also, even if it's off, this is probably something that you won't be able to fix (because Vista just has a lot of problems with sleeping)

 

yeah sorry, after you said i turned everything off with my working touch controls hehe, bluetooth, wireless, and stealth all off, and still it has insomnia lol, only putting it in a big cave to hibernate works. no issue, ive set it to hibernate when the lid shuts which will save more ower anyway, although probably use more disc space no dount.
another question,lol, ive got lots. as and when new drivers become available, how do i know? will i be told by aw or will i just have to keep checking myhive?

 

You will probably have to check myhive.

I haven't yet updated anything, other than the BIOS and SP1, since I got mine at the beginning of February.

 

having only ordered my laptop a few days ago should I expect it to come with x32 bios upgrade?

 

I would say no only because X32 is still in beta at the moment and so they probably don't want to put a non-final version into the laptops. The upgrade process to X32 though is very simple, so you don't have to worry about that.

 

Hello I bought on ebay a PC Alienware m15x, the former owner for reasons I do not know, did not give me the data to access the download site Alienware.com.
I read on the Internet that was released a new bios, but not having the data for download can not download.
Is there some kind soul that can send me mail for the new bios?
Thanks to anyone who can help me.
Hello

 

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...td_adp.php?p_sid=b4lS5Nbh&p_lva=&p_faqid=5779

Try this link

Yemo

 

I tried but I have written that you can not send it to me and that I must try to contact the former owner, but he does not want to give me the data

 

it hugely helped, my m15x started the fans every few min's (when using no demanding programs) but as soon as I updated bios it was working like normal ony coming on when use demanding games or apps.