XPS 1645/47 BIOS A12/A10 available now

XPS 1645
Fixes and Enhancements
Support SLP2.1 feature

XPS 1647
Fixes and Enhancements
Support SLP2.1 protocol


-any idea what this does?
(note: silly Dell calling one a feature and the other a protocol. Seems like they don't know either)
Edit: Must be this, which isn't important to current owners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Locked_Preinstallation

 

It will only make a difference if you have to re-install windows for whatever reason. Though it will be nice to not have to call that stupid hotline everytime I do a fresh install.

Edit: Also, the vBIOS and ACPI tables between A11 and A12 are bit-for-bit identical, so it's likely that there really is no other difference.

 

Did you notice any differences with the new bios ?

 

I just flashed to it as a matter of course, won't be gaming for a few hours. I don't expect any changes. The fan is inaudible right now, but it's always inaudible when I'm doing nothing. I guess I should have 'benched' A11 before flashing, but I didn't really have this forum in mind when I updated. Sorry guys.

I just booted up and saw my Drivers+Downloads RSS feed had an update.

 

And another BIOS hits the fan (no pun intended, if any)...Now I know this might sound selfish , but could more people that were willing please try the 1645's A12 out give us feedback (like others above). Like during gaming (or other demanding GPU tasks) does it still have the GPU temp. cap (like every other 1645 BIOS except for A09)? Is the throttle scheme any different (maybe it's improved in someway)? Do the fans function any differently (more active or not)? Preferably people with the 4670 +RGB i7 combo, but any is fine. I'm still rocking the A09, and really don't mind keeping the status quo but I'm just curious.

 

I've just turned off the AC in my room, give it a sec to return to normal temperatures and I'll go ahead and load up Battlefield with my 5730 OC'd.

 

30 minutes into the game so far, max CPU temp 85 max GPU temp 80

I'm logging it if you want to have a look at the data, but there's no throttling so far so I don't see why you would want to. GPU is overclocked at 805/1050

 

Thanks gloomy. If you want and decide to put the log, that would be nice as well. In previous BIOSs, except for A09, the GPU throttle temp was about 84C. I don't really think 5730s really get that high, even when overclocked like yours is (only 80 on GPU OC'd in this system in nice ). Good to know it at least isn't any worse than previous BIOSs. I'd like to see some results from someone with a 4670-RGB-i7 combo though...I'm too skeptical to try...

 

I guess the real question is: is the performance/temps/fan control the same as A10 and A11 (were those temps you listed "normal" for you?)

There's no reason to assume it changed, but directly related to the above question: What is the GPU BIOS date? This is found in the CCC under Information Center -> Graphics Hardware

A09 is listed as 3/28/2010, and if I remember correctly, A10 and A11 is 5/11/2010. I would guess A12 will also be 5/11/2010.

 

07-25-2010

But I guess mine would be different since I'm using a 5730. I stopped playing. It doesn't look like Battlefield was going to throttle me anyway, if it didn't after forty-five minutes without external cooling.

 

That's for both the 5730 and 4670 vBIOSes.

 

I guess I'll just stick with A09.
After a loooong time I've finally figured out how to have a throttle-free 1645... Also I doubt they removed the 84c limit again.

Requirements btw:
-A09 (Else GPU>84c)
-Throttlestop
-Sleep laptop (else laptop forces lower multi or, with TS running, forces lower CKMOD)
-Refresh win7 powerplan from balanced->high performance (else GPU sometimes sticks on low 50% mhz)

I think you'll understand the annoyance when finding out the the cause of the throttling on my XPS. Sometimes only 1 one the above was causing throttling..then none and then all of the above. Bah

 

Can you tell me your ThrottleStop setting? And do you mind explaining the 'Sleep laptop' that you mentioned? As I'm experiencing throttling with my XPS 1645 when I'm playing L4D2. The odd thing is that it never throttle when I play SC2 with Ultra setting. I can play SC2 without ThrottleStop but L4D2 continue to throttle even with ThrottleStop on.

 

To install the new BIOS, all we need to do is double click or to prevent any error, is there a more proper way to install it?

 

TS: force clock modulation and clock mod 100%, multiplier 13x.

When i reboot my XPS with these settings, it will start throttling severely after ~15min. The XPS will try to lower the multi but TS prevents it. Eventually it will drop the clock modulation. TS still tries to hold it it 100% but when i touch a key it will drop to 12.5%.

Sleeping the laptop and resuming will fix the problem for some reason.

 

Well if u are so skeptical about running the setup file yourself and screw up your laptop, then you can call SUPPORT and let them connect to your system and do it for you.

P.S: They may install some other crap also while they are at it.

 

My Dell 1645 was randomly rebooting. Had this issue before but after disabling ATI HD Audio driver, I had not seen this problem again. So was a bit concerned.

In contacting Dell Support (this being perhaps the 5th time my machine had done this) and advising him of the event viewer error I was receiving, he advised to upgrade my BIOS from A10 to A12.

I did query him as to what this BIOS apparently resolves as the wording on the Dell site (as many of you already know) is rather vague. In reading this description to him, he simply said that fix would resolve the issue I was experiencing. Personally, I think he just flogged me off.

Since my machine had been idling for some time, I am beginning to think it my power settings rather than a problem with the BIOS. If this BIOS version proves to be a dud, I may need to flash back to A09. Hopefully this wont be too painful.

 

Does anyone know what version has the highest CPU throttle limit?

 

I don't think Dell changed the CPU throttle limit at all, they just changed the GPU throttle limit in one BIOS revision (XPS 1645, ATI 4670 only, BIOS A09, GPU throttling at 100C instead of 84C).

Dell's throttling of the CPU occurs at APPROXIMATELY 84C for the i7 quads. I say approximately because the CPU can go quite a bit higher with no throttling if the GPU is relatively cool. It's a weird algorithm.