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Hey Everyone,

 

First off, YOU TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR FLASHING THIS!  YOU WILL NOT HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU MAY RUN IN TO BY FLASHING MY MOD!

YOU WILL NOT HOLD TECHINFERNO RESPONSIBLE, EITHER!  THIS IS YOUR CHOICE!

 

Now on to the good stuff... :)

 

I've officially cracked it - either by luck or persistence (I'm thinking LUCK, lol) - 

A11 UNLOCKED BIOS FOR m18Xr2 (UNLOCKED BY SVL7 FULL CREDIT GOES TO HIM FOR UNLOCKING!)

Here is what I've added/updated/modded/changed/etc...

ADDED LEGACY SUPPORT FOR THE m18XR2 -

You can now run Windows 7 with 900 series nVidia GPU's!  

Changed the Default GPU from PEG to IGFX - No need to tear down laptop anymore.  8-Beeps are a thing of the PAST!

Updated the Intel RST Legacy to v12.9.0.2006 (Supports TRIM in RAID0 - CONFIRMED)

Updated Intel RST UEFI to v12.9.0.2006 (Supports TRIM in RAID0 - CONFIRMED)

Updated the ONBOARD Video Card for the HD3xxx to v2171 - FROM v2132)

Updated ONBOARD Video Card for the HD4xxx to v2171 - FROM v2132)

Updated the LAN Firmware & PXE Boot from 2.0.5.9 to v2.0.6.6)

ADDED NvMe Support for m18xr2

ADDED M.2 support for m18xr2

Updated CPU Microcode to v29 for the 2900 CPU's

Updated CPU Microcode to v1c for the 3900 CPU's

Updated CPU Microcode for other supported CPU's if available! Sorry, I don't remember what version, but if it could be updated, it was!)

Updated GOP Driver for Intel Sandy Bridge

Updated GOP Driver for Intel Ivy Bridge 

Updated GOP Policy for the m18xR2

Raidriar added the "Package C-States Lock" to my bios mod - THANK YOU RAIDRIAR!

 

YOU TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR FLASHING THIS, AS FLASHING CUSTOM BIOS's HAS SOME RISK!!

I AM IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR PC BY FLASHING THIS MOD!!

 

DOWNLOAD INFO:

My BIOS MOD should be available in the download section of TechInferno!  They have KINDLY offered to host the file, thankfully!  

You MUST meet the minimum requirements of T|I in order to download files from their download section!  

PLEASE NOTE:  Do not distribute this file.  Please tell others that want the file to download it from TechInferno, as the file is GUARANTEED to be clean if you get it from here.  If you download it from anywhere else, there is a chance that the code will be changed, and may BRICK your laptop.  Therefore, PLEASE make sure you download from here and ONLY here! :)  

 

I'd like to THANK the following people for testing my bios mods to make sure they are safe for the rest of you:

Mr. Fox, Raidriar, Rengsey R.H. Jr!  Thanks for testing, I'm grateful!

RAIDRIAR, from nbr, needs an EXTRA shoutout for testing.  He was UTTERLY amazing!  He took risks no sane OR INSANE person would!  I owe him for testing this!  He deserves a LOT of credit for that!

 

 

Also, I do have an UPDATE to Intel Management Firmware v8.1.64 (I think), but that is a SEPARATE package.  If you are interested, you can do that upgrade, too.  HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE, if you plan on doing update you MUST do BIOS update FIRST - AGAIN, BIOS UPDATE MUST BE DONE FIRST!  AFTER bios update is done, then you can do IME update.  

If you update the IME then BIOS, YOU WILL BRICK YOUR SYSTEM!  YOU MUST DO BIOS FIRST, THEN THE Intel ME Update!

 

If you like this mod that I've done, please donate a couple KEGS of beer to me, as I put a TON of work into this.  I put more hours into this than I should have...  LoL :)

 

I can also confirm that this has been tested by MANY people.  Mr. Fox, Raidriar, and a few others, and they had NO issues.  EXCEPT that they were finally able to install Windows 7 while in legacy mode (set from within bios),  and the GPU works completely.  The only ting I am still working on is the throttling issue on ALL GPU's (Some worse than others).  IF you use Mr. Fox's modded drivers, 355.20 I believe, the throttling issue is minimal with the 780m GPUs.  Anything above those drivers seems to throttle all GPU's at a more extreme rate.  I AM working on this throttling issue, but I am not sure it's fixable.  But I will TRY!  

 

Again, I hope you ALL like this, and that it helps you out.  
Lastly, IF you flash my MOD and you decide to purchase another 900 series GPU, please make sure you use woodstackz, as he sells them at the best rates.  Please let him know you are purchasing the GPU because of this mod, as it will help me out a little!

 

I hope you like this!

 

Swick

 

Link To Donate:  PPButton.gif 

 

EDIT:  I forgot to put fparts.txt in the rar file with all the other files.  sorry about that.  I'm including it here on this post!

SORRY!

 

PS.  I AM working on porting ALL these mods to the m17xR4, but dont know if I can get LEGACY SUPPORT ported!  I AM TRYING,  but if I can't, I'll be able to port EVERYTHING else...

 

File download link:

 

 

 

 

Edited by Swick1981
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it's probably not up yet as the admin that runs this site only got the files from me last night.  It should be up any time now.  Check back every 6 hours is what I would suggest.  I'll post on NBR if it's up, just to let people know... :)

 

 

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glad I could help...  I am in need of 17xR4 testers.  I only have 1 and the time change is BRUTAL between us.  

 

Anyway, I'd be grateful if you all could help support my work!  I'll be able to spend time on the R4 for ya'll AND MANY OTHERS (possibly) if you can... 

 

Thanks,

Swick

Edited by Swick1981
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  • Guest changed the title to [Bios Mod] M18xR2 - Legacy Support now Available
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I forgot to put FPARTS.TXT in the rar file with all other files.  I've included the fparts.txt in the OP as an attachment.  the text file is there... 

SORRY!

 

I also included it in v2 of the NEW bios file...

Edited by Swick1981
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Great job, Brother @Swick1981. This BIOS mod is the best thing that has happened to the M18xR2 since @svl7 unlocked BIOS mods. I can confirm that everything works exactly as advertised. I borrowed a GTX 970M from the Alienware 18 and Legacy support for Windows 7 is for real, and the 8-beep crap with Maxwell GPU is now nothing more than an unpleasant memory.

 

I have not done the separate Intel Management Engine firmware update.

 

The M17xR4 deserves to have a future as well, so I would encourage anyone that owns an M17xR4 to help with testing.

 

Sockets and slots forever... death to BGA filthbooks.

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Theanks Brother @Mr. Fox

It's thanks to you that I even started this!!!!  You deserve SOME credit, too!  Just like @Raidriar (NBR) for testing! :)

Anyway...  I hope you are excited about hacking your AW18...  I can confirm that it IS possible!  hehe

Call when you can and lets change some settings that we dont have access to!  heh

 

Swick

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Got the bios installed last night. Its fully working on it now. Legacy mode confirmed working as well I even see premas bios text and the atheros display immediately on the screen on legacy boot as well. Really nice work and enjoy the case of beer i sent u money for! Definately deserve it for such dedicated work making a critical fix come to life.

 

On a side note where and how do u update the ME thing? Ive only flashed the bios itself.

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Thanks Infini,

I appreciate the kind words AND the beer.  Means a lot! :)

goto:  premamod.com

You'll see on his site he has the METool and it will update your system to v8.1.64 or 65 or soemthing like that.  STILL can't remember, lol!

anyway, that'll update your ME Firmware without any trouble!  I didn't even know prema put out a tool, as I've always been updating my ME (when I've had the "YOU KNOW WHAT") to do it, via intel's fwupd windows or dos program with the updated firmware bin from intel.  Prema makes it a little easier!  Download the Intel v8 for windows, and extract, and then run the tool.  You'll be SET!

ENJOY!!!  

Thanks again for the donation... 

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Thanks for that I found the 2012 v8.1.65 ME thing and installed it fine. Dunno what it does lol but if its updated software wont complain expecially since theres no longer any official support for the M18Xr2 bar the drivers on the dell site.

Edited by Infini
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Hey everyone, I was hoping I could ask for a little help. For some unknown reason my system all of a sudden when I turn it on will power on for a couple seconds the fans will go on and then they turn off. The lights are on but the monitor screen is blank and I can't do anything. I've tried the blind flash recovery method and for whatever reason my system will not accept it. In fact comma I try to do the blind Flash and there are no beeps at all. And I've kept it plugged in for an extended period of time with no luck at all. I have not flashed any new firmware at all and it's been working just sign and I have not changed anything. I am going to try the clear CMOS method but I doubt that will work as well. Again I have not changed any settings so I don't know what's going on. I could really use some help. Thank you

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5 hours ago, Swick1981 said:

Hey everyone, I was hoping I could ask for a little help. For some unknown reason my system all of a sudden when I turn it on will power on for a couple seconds the fans will go on and then they turn off. The lights are on but the monitor screen is blank and I can't do anything. I've tried the blind flash recovery method and for whatever reason my system will not accept it. In fact comma I try to do the blind Flash and there are no beeps at all. And I've kept it plugged in for an extended period of time with no luck at all. I have not flashed any new firmware at all and it's been working just sign and I have not changed anything. I am going to try the clear CMOS method but I doubt that will work as well. Again I have not changed any settings so I don't know what's going on. I could really use some help. Thank you

As we discussed, I think that motherboard has been a little bit dodgy since day one. The weird memory thing it had going on may have been an early symptom of where it was headed. I've had two M18xR2 mobo just die for no apparent reason, with symptoms pretty much like what you are describing. It may have a dead chip somewhere and be easy to fix, but I would not know where to start with trying to isolate the problem.

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Swick1981,

 

I have many questions with a case of been at the end of the rainbow =).  Thanks for all your effort and consider me a new resource.  I have a MX18R2 that I upgraded to a 3920XM but am still waiting on my 0MXJ5 Heat Sink before I try to overclock it.  I also have 690m sli's that I plan to replace with 980mxm's but I want to know who is the best vendor to purchase the 8MB cards with properly modified 100+W heat sinks.  I have flashed the new V11 Bios but am curios what benefit I will get from the Intel ME change?  Also, Will it make any difference if I load Windows 7 Ult 64 in Legacy vs Uefi?  If I use UEFI will it bypass the bios setting for the CPU and RAM???

 

Just trying to learn how to balance the new with the old.

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Sincerely,

Mr. Lt. Col Michael Corrunker

 

P.S.

Please let me know how I might be of assistance in testing.

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This happened to me too, thought my board was toast, It turned out that my Ram Kingston HyperX 2133 DDR3L doesn't yet play well since the flash. Mr. Fox has suggested it might have to do with the new SPD tables on newer sticks of Corsair and Kingston Ram vs. the 2+ year old version (that seemingly works as PnP, and the newer stuck doesn't unless reflashed with Typhoon Burner)

 

If this is the case & and you still have your factory nanya ram around, just put one stick of that in with your others and it should post. from there you can put in manual Ram timings. I read on another forum (http://tinyurl.com/jpwoakr) that M18x r2 doesn't seem to play well with the tCWL being over 9, at least that is something else to look into.

 

Don't take this as the solution just yet. I'm still trying to get mine working..

Edited by kkthebeast
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My G.SKILL Ripjaws 32GB (4 x 8G) DDR3L 2133 Memory Model F3-2133C11Q-32GRSL has not caused me any problems yet since the flash.

11-11-11-31

 

Though I've always wondered if this thing ran better with 4 sticks of 4G... the M18X R2 is not real friendly to 8G sticks

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Swick1981, thanks for posting this and keeping the m18x r2 still alive. I have a question, is it necessary to flash this bios whenever I change out my GPU cards. For example, I want to flash it now with my dual 680m setup, do I need to do it again when  I get my 980ms?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Concerning the throttles, we've been doing some digging and I want to drop this here, we've looking for the cause and this seems to resolve it, Kudos go to Infinaris over at Notebookreview for finding this :) and of course Swick :D we couldn't of got this far without ya!

 

The throttle for whatever reason only seems to be occuring from a cold boot.

I just turned my laptop on again and checked and it was throttling.

Restarted the computer accessed the bios switched to igfx and rebooted and accessed the bios again immediately and reset to peg....

No throttling on reboot.

From where I'm sitting it looks like toggling the gfx fixes the issue at least until you switch the machine off and then it throttles again so it looks like whatever causes the throttling is a bad setting somewhere. Might be worth seeing if someone were to shut their machine down and switch to igfx before switching off their machine.

Could be possible that the toggle sets the system up to work properly but its a bug from cold boot. Regardless I've rebooted the machine several times and everytime I toggle the gfx to igfx and back to peg it gets rid of the throttling for that session. If I restart the machine there doesnt seem to be any throttling either it seems to be an issue with a cold boot off of peg at least so far as from what i can see.

The question here tho is why does it throttle if booted directly on peg on cold boot but a simple gfx toggle seems to fix the issue?

 

Edited by 82280zx
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  • Klem changed the title to [Bios Mod] M18xR2 - Legacy Support now Available

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