MattyB

Are you trying to download from the downloads section? You should have enough posts now to get the downloads from free. Once someone activates your account then you can just go to the downloads section and grab the files you need.

You need to flash the BIOS. Did you get the BIOS from here? It should have the BIOS file plus a few other files for the flash. Instructions in the link below.

Yes that is what the function keys are for but that isn't SG graphics. The SG mode is swapping 'on-the-fly'. The function key swap uses the Alienware OSD driver and is a BIOS swap which is why the system has to restart after doing the change. SG mode isn't a default setting in the M18x or 18 so the unlocked BIOS is required if you have a GPU that needs SG mode to run.

SG mode is Switchable Graphics (otherwise known as Optimus for Nvidia). The M18x does not have this option available unless you have the unlocked BIOS and it's a requirement for the 10 series or RTX cards. Yes, RTX cards are available and do work in the R2 The unlocked BIOS is available here, on the first page of this thread.

Did you happen to get any before and after photos? Would love to hear more on this mod.

The 10 series cards need the system to be run in SG mode. I'm not sure if you can run SG mode with two dedicated cards. What would be the reason to run two cards not in SLI?

Awesome! Thanks, I like to respray old Alienware laptops as a little hobby. I use Noctura NT-H2 and it works really well. There aren't a lot of people on this forum these days. NotebookReview used to be the place to go but it got shut down a week ago. A new forum has taken its place and we are building it up to take NBR's place, although M11x owners are getting rarer.

That usually shouldn't cause an 8 beep error, the system should still detect the 980M and allow the system to boot. If you had another MXM laptop to test the card then that would help but my guess would be the card being bad, if you have the BIOS set correctly

I wish I never sold the ones that I had. It is such a great laptop. Honestly I was under the impression that all the i7 models had the 2gb 540M so you really must have got one of the first ones. You won't feel any difference if you had one of the other i7 options. It would make a slight difference in benchmarking scores but that's about it. The 2gb GPU makes more of a difference but still not a huge one. The 1gb is very limited once you want to try games past 2014. Many games started needing 2gb vRAM as a minimum. The biggest change will be grabbing an SSD. It will make things much faster. Both those games will probably run fine based on the minimum required specs for each of them.

980M's out of China are notorious for being DOA so I'm hoping this isn't the case for you. I've never heard that removing the memory can help but you never know. Remove all the memory and hold the power button down for 30 seconds (without any power/battery attached. This will give you a power and memory drain and it may help.

If the BIOS set to UEFI boot with Load Legacy Option ROM and Secure Boot disabled and you are getting 8 beeps then there could be an issue with the 980M. If you are getting a 5 beep code as well then your CMOS battery could have failed. It is only a C2032 battery which you can get from the supermarket for $1-2. If this is failed then it may be trying to reset your BIOS which could be the problem. I'd start by replacing this battery and go from there. If you are still getting the 8 beep error then the card could be bad.

If you have the R2 then I'd suggest the i7-3840QM. Technically you can install one of the extreme processors (3920/3940XM) but these are basically the same as the 3840 but fully unlocked for overclocking. The cooling on the M14x isn't really designed for overclocking. The R1 is limited to the 2nd gen CPU's so it would be more like the i7-2860QM

Is it different to the standard 015.022.000.001 vBIOS? There is this one on TechPowerUp but it's probably the one you already have https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/181795/181795 All I can see is that is says it's 0.9V

Couldn't really say. There probably isn't a lot to a BIOS file but I'm no expert.

Not sure sorry, I've never done it on an 18. The FD file needs to be renamed to an HDR file so that could be part of your problem. I'm just not sure what you have to rename it to. With the M17x R4 you rename it M17R4.hdr but the 18 will have it's own name to use. Maybe it doesn't matter what you call it, just as long as it's a .hdr Wouldn't want to say for sure, you'll have to do all this at your own risk.