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change log:

Fixes & Enhancements Fixed issue: Under setup menu MSATA and ODD show "not detected".

good enough for me, thanks again svl7

So, did you flash A10 unlocked yet? Did this Dell fix seem to change anything on your system? Can you see any differences compared to the unlocked A09?
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys, I hope this isn't a completely dumb question lol. Would it be all right for me to use my thumb drive that I use for flashing my vbios to flash an unlocked BIOS, or do I need a blank bootable thumb drive for FPT and prr to work correctly? Just don't want to screw anything up since I've got nvflash and and vbios roms on my current thumb drive.

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FPT is a DOS tool, so you still need to boot DOS. Therefore yes, you can just use the same stick as you use for vbios flashing, you don't even need to change anything.

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FPT is a DOS tool, so you still need to boot DOS. Therefore yes, you can just use the same stick as you use for vbios flashing, you don't even need to change anything.

Great, just wanted to make sure there wasn't a risk of nvflash messing with the process. Thanks for all your help svl7.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I see... but since you can only flash the bios and not the rest of the firmware by using fpt it can be a bit problematic. Only the usb recovery method takes you back completely. However, if I'm not very mistaken then the A10 EC also works with the A03 bios, so in case you want to go this way I can prepare something.

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Thought this might be of interest in this Community. Beware of the Intel HD4000 driver with OpenCL support noted below. Also, if you are going to do a blind recovery flash, be sure to not deviate from the tried and true process.

I accidentally bricked my system installing the latest Intel HD4000 driver update with OpenCL support just this weekend. I did not realize it included firmware. It would not boot and was giving 8 beeps. I fought it for a couple of hours and finally decided to break out the big guns and fix it by doing a blind flash procedure with A03. After that, then I did a normal flash to A09 unlocked within Windows.

The procedure is explained here: M18x R2 Blind Recovery Flash. Follow the instructions explicitly and it may work for you. Be prepared to wait a long time. It took 128 beeps worth of waiting for me. Do not interrupt the process. When it is done with the blind flash, your system will reboot.


FYI - If you think you might want to install these Intel drivers, think again. DON'T do it... The first one is what bricked my system.

Intel® HD Graphics Driver (9.17.10.2792) with OpenCL 1.1 support for 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors (Windows 7/8 )
< DANGER!

Intel® HD Graphics Driver (15.26.8.2696) with OpenCL 1.1 support for 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors (Windows 7)
< Unknown Consequences

After I fixed my system using the blind flash, I started looking at the extracted contents and found it has a number of firmware patches integrated. The driver update seemed to work OK at first. As long as I was running IGFX things were fine. As soon as I attempted to switch back to discrete GPUs is when all heck broke loose.

When I was having the SLI cable issue I updated all the drivers, including the HD Graphics Driver. I will give this a try as soon as I can get a usb stick someplace here. Will that procedure work with the A10 bios? I am assuming it will, cannot hurt to try.

Edit: ok I DL both A03 and A10 and the uncompressed A03 is a single file not 9 like the post and the A10 bios does not match the naming conventions. I am trying to follow it to the letter but its not cooperating.

Edit 2: I used the bin file from the A10 and it started and read it then it beeped for a really long time, then it stopped. No reboot yet though.

Edit 3: Fail.. the system never restarted and now the power button does nothing.

Should not have deviated from the process. The only proven method uses the A03 BIOS. That's why I said to follow the instructions explicitly. See if your machine will power on after shutting it down. If it does not, try using the correct A03 firmware. The file has to be renamed. I really hope this turns out well, but experimenting was not a good idea. I know I would not have taken a risk so great.
The M18x R2 file for blind flashing is attached. It is the same file I used this weekend.

The USB stick you put it on does not need to be DOS bootable. If you follow the instructions, it should work. Unzip it to the USB drive. It is already renamed. Remove the battery, disconnect AC adapter. Put the USB thumb drive into the eSATAp port. (Don't use another port, only use the eSATAp - it is a USB combo port.) Hold down the "End" key and connect the AC adapter while holding the key down. After 125 to 130 beeps it should be finished. Wait it out... I hope what you tried already caused no harm.

Download | M18x R2 Blind Flash A03 file < use at your own risk.

If you have Windows 8 installed on GPT disks with Secure Boot/Fast Boot enabled, the drives might not be readable with A03. You may have to reconfigure them as MBR and reinstall Windows if you're not already using Legacy Boot. I don't know about this for sure, but this is a good reason to stick with good old fashioned MBR and Legacy Boot if it does not work with the newer UEFI "features" enabled.

Thanks Mr. Fox, I will give this a shot. I have a new motherboard coming anyway tomorrow, we will see if I can get it going before then. I have flashed thousands of other computers and I am aware of the dangers, I was hoping that the information shared here will help others from making the same changes that led to this. It was not a mistake to change from IGFX, this is a bug in the release for the driver that needs to be tagged and addressed.
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I see... but since you can only flash the bios and not the rest of the firmware by using fpt it can be a bit problematic. Only the usb recovery method takes you back completely. However, if I'm not very mistaken then the A10 EC also works with the A03 bios, so in case you want to go this way I can prepare something.

Thanks but I think it's probably a bit too risky just to get a working eject cd key on the keyboard control panel. Hopefully Dell will fix it in the A11 bios.

cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys... thought I would share something here that may resolve some issues that we see cropping up with M18x R2 owners. I have communicated this to Alienware Level 3 Support and Mr. Bruno by email so their phone support staff can help customers that experience what I (and it seems others) have been encountering. Referring to my above post... the problem was not the Intel driver update, but the discovery was coincedental to that update. The problem was discovered after that update only because I had to switch to IGFX to install the HD4000 driver and the failure occured when trying to return to discrete graphics. I spent a very long time trying to identify the problem. John and I spent a good while using trial and error and the process of elimination on this problem yesterday evening. Thanks @johnksss.

Issue: M18x R2 fails POST with 8 beeps attempting to switch from IGFX to PEG mode using FN+F7

Cause: BIOS setting for Non-Turbo Flex Support is “Enabled”

Solution: Leave setting “Disabled”

Corrective Step: Clear CMOS to restore default settings

Brother Johnksss and I discovered what is causing this when attempting to switch from IGFX to discrete graphics (PEG). The 8-beep error does not happen switching from PEG to IGFX... only happens when trying to return to PEG from IGFX.

If you have the BIOS option "Non-Turbo Flex Support" set to "Enabled" it will consistently fail POST with 8 beeps when attempting to switch from IGFX to discrete GPU (PEG). When this is set to "Disabled" switching between discrete graphics (PEG) from IGFX works consistently. We were able to replicate this on demand with both of our M18x R2 motherboards. This was happening to me repeatedly. Once it was identified as a probable cause going through the process of elimination on my system, John tested this on his. As soon as John changed this setting on his system, his M18x R2 failed POST with 8 beeps when trying to switch from IGFX to PEG.

I do not remember this being an issue with the M18x R1 motherboard and I do not know if the same problem occurs with the M17x R4 motherboard with Optimus/Enduro.

9NhqJwfl.jpg


Edit: this information is now a sticky thread at the Dell Community Alienware Club forum.
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Brother svl7... I know you don't need further validation, but I wanted to comment for those that are apprehensive about it that I have used your FPT and PRR tool method of flashing more than once and, as already demonstrated, it works perfectly. When I was trying to resolve the issue in the two posts above, I blind flashed to A03 at least three times, (using the stock A03 of course,) followed by a flash using stock A09, then the FPT version unlocked A09, and then stock A10 followed by the A10 unlocked FPT version with the PRR tool. Apprehension is understandable for the inexperienced, so additional affirmation that the process works extremely well might be appreciated.

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Hey guys,

in 2 weeks i´ll get my new M18x R2. Is there something to consider for flashing the A10 unlocked Bios?

On my M18x R1 everything works great with unlocked Bios!

New one:

I7 3940XM

2x GTX680M

32GB Ram

2 x SSD

@svl7

Thanks man, for u´re great work!

Got 2960XM(M18x R1) up to 5 GHZ!

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thanks for the amazing help and guidance by @svl7 i am happy to announce the unlocked A10 BIOS modded by yours truly! First post updated with the download link.

ONLY FLASH OVER A10 ORIGINAL!!

Cheerz!

Hi, I`m on A10 original bios right now, so to flash to the unlocked A10 bios shall I do the blind flash using the unlocked A10 QBR10EC.fd renamed to M18R2.hdr file? Isn't safer to flash A03 BIOS first and then flash A10 unlocked? Thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@svl7

The notebook has now arrived. So far I am very happy with it. The first benchmarks also already ran through. Now I am very curious to see how it runs with the A10 BIOS Unlocked and some overclocking...to the max ^.^

I will report how I get on with it.

The R1 is limited only by the temperatures actually me :/

kind regards

eQualize87

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Hello fellow m18x r2 owners,

I just upgraded the laptop to a 675mx and seemingly it isn't fully recognized by the bios, which just sees it as "Nvidia GTX".

The P0 state isn't recognized by Nvidia Inspector either:

post-9229-14494995120776_thumb.png

The card can go into P0 with AC power but stays at P5 when on battery power.

Also I can't switch to integrated graphics.

Will a modded bios solve any of this? Thanks

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