captain008

@@LuckMechanic:

 

I'm sorry to hear your system is having trouble. So I'm gonna be honest with you, the m18x is not fully Windows 10 supported. Unless it has been fixed, Windows 10 does not play well with Alienware laptops with discrete Nvidia cards. One of the problems reported was screen tearing and failure (black screen). 

 

This is what I suggest, backup all your data and Windows 10 key to an external source like an external HDD or thumb drive. Download the official A11 bios from Dell and flash it. I would also make sure your RAID settings are turned off so all your drives show up as individual drives. I would also make sure your bios is set to legacy and I would install Windows 7. Windows 7 is fully supported on the m18x, and a clean install is a good way to see if the screen blanking, sound issues, and HDD issues can be resolved. 

 

I hope this resolved your issues, it sounds like an OS issue but it may also be a motherboard problem. 

 

As for upgrades, the best CPU you can put in your rig is the 3940xm. You can snag on on eBay for about $300. To be honest, the 3740QM is a decent processor and it may not be worth the cash to spring for the XM version. I have the same laptop and CPU and it works very well with gaming and demanding software. For RAM, 32 GB is the most supported but I have seen a thread over at Notebookreview were someone put in 64GB (4x16). While you are at Notebookreview there are several threads on putting in dual Nvidia 900 series cards in the m18x. You can get pricing at Eurocom and eBay. 

 

I hope this helps, it good to see other m18x systems still kicking. 

 

Also forgot, if your system gets back to normal, make sure you flash the modded bios so you can reap the rewards .

Thanks urmother93, I plan on installing it this weekend while its still free then ghosting it to an image. With all the bad posts about 10, being hesitant is an understatement. 

 I see a lot of people on this post are suffering from the 8 beep problem. This may sound like hind sight but Swick1981 has posted a link for a modded A11 bios at 

This appears to solve the problem with the 8 beep issue.

Hi guys out of curiosity, has Microsoft updated Win10 to prevent the screen and GPU bricking? I want to jump to 10 but can't risk my PC going to crap.

This is for those who upgraded to SLI 980m setup, has anyone ran into any issues with Windows 10? I hear Win 10 can brick the screen and graphics cards with bad driver installs. Is that still the case?

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?

Great post, thanks for the tear down pics. I needed some reference pics to play with in paint and these turned out wonderful.

Good day to all, I know this is an old topic but does anyone know if their is an unlocked bios for the R2? I am wanting to look at changing some of the clocks and settings to the Intel HD graphics, and maybe get some better battery life.

Alienware m18x r2

i7 740QM

32GB RAM

Dual Nvidia 680m in SLI

Windows 7 Ult