MattyB

Are you using SG mode in the BIOS or PEG? I have no experience with the non-M GTX 980 but the 10 series cards have to run in SG mode on the M18x which causes power throttling. If you're on SG then try this and see if you get different results. Jump into the BIOS and switch back to iGFX, restart and switch back to SG. This sorts out the power issue on my 1070 but I pretty much have to do it on every restart. Just be carful though as I don't know what effect switching video modes will have with your 980. If it has to run in PEG then switching to SG may cause an 8-beep error and you'll have to reset the CMOS.

Hope you're staying dry!

It's a great laptop. The M18x R2 and M17x R4 are the pinnacle of what Alienware stood for after Dell took over. The 17 R1 and 18 are still great laptops but the quality (and looks) went downhill and once they started soldering parts on the 17 R2 then they were dead to me. Good luck with the upgrade and if you haven't already, check out the NotebookReview forum. What State are you in?

Is it the one listed on ebay for $750AUD? I'm pretty sure that the only one that will work with your heatsink is the vary rare Zotac version. If you compare the two you'll see that the GPU die is more towards the right side of the MSI card while on the Zotac (and other MXM cards) the die is more towards the left. There could be a way to get it to work but there may be some work involved. The card is also wider than a standard MXM 3.0b card so you may have to cut the chassis to make it fit. I'd be very interested to see how you go though. I have been thinking about selling my 1070 for around $650 but if you can get the 1080 to work then it would be pretty awesome.

Damn, that was a lot of information but good job! How much did you find the HDD cable for? They can be expensive. I still need to teach myself how to use the EEProm programmer. I got myself one but I have no idea how to use it. The M18x R2 is still one of the greatest laptops ever created. Yeah, they are falling behind with the power of modern laptops but they are still fantastic machines. The only letdown is the incredibly fragile HDD ribbon cable. Good luck with your upgrades! EDIT: You need to get yourself an MXM to NVMe adapter.....

I believe that's what it's for. How were you going to power it? Is this from the Zotac 1080? I believe it's the only one that has the die in the correct place for the heatsink.

You need to modify the nvdmi inf. This is the Dell one. The big list of Hardware ID's should all end in 1028 which is the Dell code. A basic description of how to do this is; 1. Download the latest driver from Nvidia 2. Start the Installer and let it fail 3. Do not close the installer but instead go to your C: drive. Find the NVIDIA folder and Copy and paste it in the C: drive. It will auto name itself as NVIDIA - Copy 4. Close the Installer 5. Go to Device Manager - Display Adapters - right click on Microsoft Basic Display Adapter - Properties - Details - Select Hardware ID from the dropdown. 6. Copy and paste the second line onto Notepad. This ID contains your GPU, Laptop Model and Manufacturer ID. For Example 1BA1 (GPU).....055A (Laptop).....1028 (Dell) 7: Open the NVIDIA - Copy folder and go into the Display.Driver folder and find the nvdmi inf 8. Scroll down to the long list of Hardware ID's. Find the last ID that shares your 4 digit GPU ID. (For my 1070 it is 1BA1) 9. Make a spare line below this ID. Copy and Paste this line into the spare line. 10. Change the 4 digit Laptop Model ID in the two spots it is listed to your Laptop Model ID that you pulled from Device Manager. This ID is the first 4 digits of the 8 digit number at the end of the line, before the 4 digit Dell ID (1028). 11. Scroll almost to the bottom of the inf and find the Strings. Find the last String that shares your GPU ID. 12. Make a line below this and Copy and Paste this line into the empty line. Change the 4 digit laptop code to your code like previously. 13. Save and close the inf and NVIDIA - Copy folder Now you need to restart the laptop and Disable Driver Signature Enforcement before being able to install the driver. If you don't disable this then you cannot install the modded driver.

Does the installer fail and say it couldn't find compatible hardware? If so, you'll need to mod the nvdmi .inf in the display.driver folder. Here is a good guide that should walk you through it. It may seen hard but it's quite simple once you do it a few times. https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php

It's odd that it shows it as a basic display adapter in one box but as the 770M in the others. Can you post the hardware ID of the 770M and also the line you inserted into the .inf of the driver? Can you also post the string line? Also just make sure that you inserted your modded ID line into all the hardware ID groups in the inf. There should be 3 groups of hardware ID's, one for Win7, Win8 and Win10. It's best to just put the line in each group to make sure you get the right one.

That is a little strange. If you did the .inf mod correctly then you should be able to change your settings. What is displayed under Display Adapters in your Device Manager? I'm assuming you have the 60hz panel so you should see the Intel 4000 and 770M listed. Also install GPU-Z and see if your 770M is shown correctly there with all the device information (vBIOS version. driver version, etc) When you inserted the hardware ID line into the .inf did you also add the String for the 770M and the bottom of the .inf file?

My only suggestion would be to head to the forum at NotebookReview and ask the guys there. There are still a few guys running these laptops over there.

It's been a while since I've done it but to create a bootable USB you need to grab an empty flash drive and use a program called RUFUS to convert it to a bootable drive. Then you'll have to unzip the BIOS file into the drive. restart the laptop and press F12 to get into the Boot Menu. Boot to the USB. the installations instructions say you then need to run the f.bat command and it should run the flash. Flash at your own risk though. Make sure you know what you're doing first and keep power to the laptop at all times.

Here you go https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-au/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=h9dy5 Technically there is no R2. There is the Area-51 M15x (pre-Dell) and the M15x (Dell) so many people consider the Dell M15x the R2 but it's just the M15x.

What issues are you having? Maybe I can help

No, nobody has worked it out yet. There are guys trying though.