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need help to unlock m18x r1 bios to work with gtx 880m


gaffycool

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Hi

I need urgent help to setup my alienware m18x corrently. Firstly apologies for any typos as I haven't slept in 2 days due to trying to sort this graphics card out.

 

I have an alienware m18x r1. I recently upgraded to an gtx 880m.. and this is where my life became living hell. I cant seem to install any drivers for it, as Nvidia keeps showing me the 'graphics card cant find compatible hardware'. I then did a lot of research and have found I have to flash the bios. I have been searching for hours on end trying to find tutorials on how to flash the bios, also an unlocked bios for the m18x r1, currently im on the A05 bios.

 

I do not know why I cant seem to install any driver, even when I try to mod the ini files it doesn't install the driver.

 

I am at the point now that I will donate whatever you need in terms of money I have paypal, just to get this all working, can anyone help me.

 

 

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Thanks for responding mate, 

 

I haven't given up yet I've spent too much on this card unfortunatly and need to get it working :( I have widows 8 professional, 

 

I just can't seem to install drivers for the card, everytime I do it I get that message from nvidia.. Can you inbox me your Skype I can't seem to pm anyone on here..

 

laptop specs:

current bios a05,

gtx 880m 

alienware m18x r1

i7-2790xm (I think)

16gb ram, 1tb hdd

 

Thanks for saving my insanity :P

 

 

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just an update to this, I ended up buying a subscription on here to download the unlocked a05 bios for alienware m18x, and I looked at the video on youtube by mr.fox to get the right overclock settings.

so now my bios is unlocked and settings are correct,

 

I am now trying to install the drivers for the gtx 880m and nvidia still cant find the drivers and is telling me that there is no compatible hardware.. I thought the unlocked bios would fix this, can anyone help...

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ive installed the gtx 880m modded drivers and now the card is working fine!! :) only thing is that for newer games nvidia message comes up and says i need a newer driver.. how can this be turned off or is there an updated modified driver available prefebly newer than 358 for the gtx 880m and m18x r1

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5 hours ago, gaffycool said:

ive installed the gtx 880m modded drivers and now the card is working fine!! :) only thing is that for newer games nvidia message comes up and says i need a newer driver.. how can this be turned off or is there an updated modified driver available prefebly newer than 358 for the gtx 880m and m18x r1

Single 880M nv_dispi.inf/PEG for AW laptops, clean install first 372.90  ->  368.69 -> 369.00 Dev -> 368.25

 

 Please follow the step by step instructions , 'safe mode' run DDU "Clean and Shutdown" option, remember to disable driver signing (F8)...delete the proper folders before installing drivers.

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2 hours ago, J95 said:

Single 880M nv_dispi.inf/PEG for AW laptops, clean install first 372.90  ->  368.69 -> 369.00 Dev -> 368.25

 

 Please follow the step by step instructions , 'safe mode' run DDU "Clean and Shutdown" option, remember to disable driver signing (F8)...delete the proper folders before installing drivers.

 

 

i just installed the 372.90, the game loaded and then the card crashed, directx error about the card being physically removed.. im just going through the other drivers in the list you mentioned, and im going in that order above.. 372.90 then 368.69 etc with the modded inf in each.. hopefully when im run the game with 368.25 it wont crash again..

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5 hours ago, gaffycool said:

 

 

i just installed the 372.90, the game loaded and then the card crashed, directx error about the card being physically removed.. im just going through the other drivers in the list you mentioned, and im going in that order above.. 372.90 then 368.69 etc with the modded inf in each.. hopefully when im run the game with 368.25 it wont crash again..

Clean install 368.69, no issues detected then stick w/ 368.69, otherwise install 368.25.

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1 minute ago, J95 said:

Clean install 368.69, no issues detected then stick w/ 368.69, otherwise install 368.25.

 

okay giving it a go now, will update you in a few mins, as battlefront is crashing same point everytime, so far tried 372.90.. ill try 368.69 now, also is there any specific changes i can make in bios to help the card, i followed the overclock video on yt from mr.fox and currently using his settings for the a05 unlocked bios.

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11 hours ago, J95 said:

Did you reboot after installing drivers? If not, run DDU and re-install 372.90 then reboot.

Are you overclocking your 880M, including CPU? Please run stock clocks for the time being.  

 

 

yes i rebooted after install, everything is stock at the moment, reinstalled 372.90 and then rebooted, and ran everything even on low settings in the game, but it crashes and comes up with that error again. I did google the error and some people are saying its down to ram and virtual ram, so i changed my virtual ram settings on system advanced settings and turned it off, then rebooted and game still crashed, now im trying the auto paging file to see if that works.. been at this 3 days now still havent managed to play  more than 1 min of battlefront :(

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15 hours ago, J95 said:

Did you reboot after installing drivers? If not, run DDU and re-install 372.90 then reboot.

Are you overclocking your 880M, including CPU? Please run stock clocks for the time being.  

 

 

still crashing about few mins into the game :( battlefront is however working fine even on ultra settings.. not sure what to do now as the reason i got the gtx880m was to play battlefront and my old amd 6900m crossfire setup did the same error and message for battlefront

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find your hardware ID.. since it's Alienware / DELL it will end with 1028  but should start with like 0551 or 055A etc...   

 

you can find this on the properties of the videocard in the device panel, and going to where you can scroll down to hardware ID's

 

Secondarily if you are going to install a non-WHQL tested driver/signed driver, you need to disable DSE (you can google disable DSE) it lasts a single boot. That's when you install the driver.

 

However - first make sure your in a dedicated mode, don;t know why you needed the unlocked bios for the laptop, but that is irrelevant. Maybe still good to have though. latest bios should have allowed you to hit the Fn+F5 key (if it's F5, I forget) to switch the graphics... essentially to be on the dedicated card only, is what you need.  In bios you would have needed to be set to UEFI and NOT have any legacy options enabled. 

 

once those options are disabled, (DSE, and your in a UEFI compliant boot) everything is digital, you should be able to use a custom modified driver. Easy as Pi. 

Now, if you have "installed" it and it is not strong, then i suspect your on the HD intel graphics. Check nvidia control panel to make sure your using the nvidia gpu and not auto.. and infact, check to see in device manager if there is a HD Intel , if there is, then windows will screw up and always try and force you to use the HD Intel, it gets only worse with each windows version too, in windows 10 it's really screwed up, anyways - if you are in full dedicated mode (PEG, UEFI compliant, DSE disabled...) there shouldn't be any issues. Though - each driver now becomes a hit or miss. 

Once we have the hardware ID, we can mod you a driver or check if things are the way they should be to be on the same page etc..

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On 29/09/2016 at 0:05 PM, Lee James Wood said:

find your hardware ID.. since it's Alienware / DELL it will end with 1028  but should start with like 0551 or 055A etc...   

 

you can find this on the properties of the videocard in the device panel, and going to where you can scroll down to hardware ID's

 

Secondarily if you are going to install a non-WHQL tested driver/signed driver, you need to disable DSE (you can google disable DSE) it lasts a single boot. That's when you install the driver.

 

However - first make sure your in a dedicated mode, don;t know why you needed the unlocked bios for the laptop, but that is irrelevant. Maybe still good to have though. latest bios should have allowed you to hit the Fn+F5 key (if it's F5, I forget) to switch the graphics... essentially to be on the dedicated card only, is what you need.  In bios you would have needed to be set to UEFI and NOT have any legacy options enabled. 

 

once those options are disabled, (DSE, and your in a UEFI compliant boot) everything is digital, you should be able to use a custom modified driver. Easy as Pi. 

Now, if you have "installed" it and it is not strong, then i suspect your on the HD intel graphics. Check nvidia control panel to make sure your using the nvidia gpu and not auto.. and infact, check to see in device manager if there is a HD Intel , if there is, then windows will screw up and always try and force you to use the HD Intel, it gets only worse with each windows version too, in windows 10 it's really screwed up, anyways - if you are in full dedicated mode (PEG, UEFI compliant, DSE disabled...) there shouldn't be any issues. Though - each driver now becomes a hit or miss. 

Once we have the hardware ID, we can mod you a driver or check if things are the way they should be to be on the same page etc..

 

hi many thanks for your anticipated reply, i have the settings already as you said and still it is crashing, i only unlocked to see if i can overclock the cpu but now im running it on stock

 

its just literally that directx thing now that im getting, either directx11::trymap or rendermap errors,

 

my device hardware id are below:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1198&SUBSYS_048F1028&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1198&SUBSYS_048F1028
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1198&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1198&CC_0300

 

many thanks for your help

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  • 10 months later...

Could you please direct me to the unlocked BIOS for the M18X R1? I have a 880m which I got a trade for my R9 M290X. There are a few link but most are broken.  My issue is that once I've installed the 880m in my system. Prior to that I've set A05 BIOS to "uefi" legacy disabled . I get one short been and my screen stays black. Second I've set Peg uefi off and on still one beep and black screen. Third I've set Peg to SG and uefi off and on and now I'm stuck at boot and bar will no furtherr progress. Legacy was disabled and enabled for all trials. My GTX 880m is a Clevo 8GB. 

Edited by BlackSheepA1
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