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G.R.A.M.P.S.

T|I Elite Legacy
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Everything posted by G.R.A.M.P.S.

  1. If your not allowed to repair it,

    If you are told you can't upgrade it,

    Do you really OWN it?

    Don't support THOWAWAY culture.

    Don't buy BGA crap!

  2. Cats don't like 8 beeps.

    Nobody does.

  3. You will need the A11 unlocked Bios by Swick found on this website. If you are running a single 980 an upgraded vBios is in my mind not necessary. If you have dual 980's its another story. You can (and should) download from this site once you have met the minimum qualifications for membership (i.e. posts) or you have purchased the Elite Membership. I did both and I am glad I did. If you are new to the M18x R2 you can learn all about it on this website. Enjoy! P.S. -You might be able to search and find an unlocked Bios download on other sites but there is no telling what your outcome will be. Always backup and know how to restore your Bios from a backup before you proceed. Hope that helps.
  4. I don't know if you ran across this but Mr Fox found a solution that helped me once: https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Solution-M18x-R2-Fails-POST-with-8-Beeps-Switching-Graphics-Mode/td-p/5626678
  5. Glad to know the M18xR2 is still alive despite "End of Life" from Dell. To my knowledge (limited though it may be) if you want Maxwell coverage (and you do) you will need the A11 Bios by Swick on this site pretty much guaranteed to work. Don't waste your time with the A12 on the Dell web site. Unlocked A11 works like a cool breeze. Please, you don't need to pay. Just post questions and you get access, just read the rules. Simple. This site is a gold mine for your Rig and many others. I have trolled many hours and cured many ills, solved many problems. Trust me, there are a great many authors here who stepped in whatever problem you are having and walked out unscathed and smelling like a rose. Its worth it to post a few questions. Worth It. Look and Ye shall stumble upon. Or not. Your mileage may vary. Good Luck. BTW, why only one 980M? Your Rig was made for two?
  6. When you installed the modded bios it might be set to IGFX by default. Try switching to PEG.
  7. Those clips are easy to break. Replaced my motherboard when it it happened to my R2. You might search for a fix but Dell did not make these clips replaceable. But If you do find a fix, be the first to post it. Thanks.
  8. I love Windows 7 and my R1 works just fine. I am not sure how UEFI would work in the R1. I hear others have done it. I'm just not ready to make that transition.
  9. The above trick worked for me. Once you clear CMOS, settings go to default. You should be able to see your card on the first page of the BIOS when you hit F2. I am assuming your card is brand new. You should NOT need to change the voltage settings; it should run with the default BIOS settings to POST. If you do not see the new 580m and your 560m works just fine you may have a bad card or the vBios may not be compatible with the M18xR1 (e.g. MSI) and needs to be re-flashed. These are possibilities. The 580m should be PnP if the setup works for your 560m which leads me to think there is something wrong with your new card or it is not seated correctly in the primary slot. I am out of ideas at this point. I would re-trace your steps and graze more threads.
  10. Try this: With your 560m up and running, go into the Bios and take a picture of all your settings (this may seem obvious but it is important; I have mine in my phone for reference). Once you have your M18xR1 running with the 560m, shut it down and install the 580m in the Master slot. After you have it assembled, try starting it up again. If you get the 8 beeps before you have a chance to hit F2, power the laptop down with the power button and try the following fix posted years ago by renowned Mr. Fox (thanks @Mr. Fox): https://community.dell.com/thread/6037 Remember when you clear CMOS all settings go to default and your new 580m should be listed in the first page of the BIOS. Then you can set the time and date and put in all the settings that you recorded earlier prior to install. If you new card does not show in the BIOS page, check to see if you video setting is set to PEG (not IGFX). Hope that works. -G *PS -Refer to the Benchmarking threads on this site and NBR (and there are pages and pages to read) to help with any overclocking adjustments and tweaks.
  11. Master is located to the left of the CPU slot.
  12. I don't see your sig but I assume you have a M18xR1 running fine on the 560m and you are trying to replace it with the 580m. Installation should be PnP. The M18xR1 is designed to have two cards, but will run on one card IF that card is in the Master slot. I think both the M18R1 and M18R2 will give you 8 beeps and a black screen if you try using only one card in the secondary. Perhaps with more details about your Rig and there might be a work around somewhere. Also, if you have the unlocked A05 Bios make sure that the Turbo Flex Support is Disabled; this a known issue causing 8 beeps and a black screen.
  13. Hello there. Yes AW18 is a very different animal compared to the M18xR2. Up to just recently, an unlocked Bios was only available in the latter. Looks like someone finally unlocked the AW18, found in NBR just today. Sounds interesting: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/release-alienware-18-bios-a12-unlocked.802249/ I would tread carefully before you unzip any files or execute any commands. Read about the warnings. May only benefit the MX cpus. Worth looking into BUT I would make sure to back up your bios first.
  14. This post has cob webs: Any follow up? Did you ever get your Rig up and running? Im just wondering since I just went through the same deal. Best Regards
  15. Yes, I was concerned about that too. But that problem has been addressed and if you look into the link in my previous post. You will see that each post by @J95 he methodically removes the offending folders PRIOR to hitting the install button. Let me back up and explain: You may notice when you first double click on the Nvida driver install, it automatically copies the install programs to the hard drive and looks for matching machine numbers (in the .inf folder). When it does not find the right ID number on your M18xR2, you will get a message that your 'system is incompatible'. You then close out the program and go your hard drive and find the Nvidia folder and from here you should put in the modded .inf in the display folder and then removed the offending folders indicated (repeatedly) by @j95 and finally THEN click the install button. You may find that this not only protects your screen from sudden death, it may also make you feel better and boosts your overall self esteem (LOL). But seriously, I too was reluctant to upgrade because of all the fear and loathing involved with doing something really wrong. But I did my homework, read each post carefully and in the end I can say nothing spontaneously exploded; everything worked as it should. And I was glad I upgraded: the newer games play much smoother and faster than the previous cards, the AMD 7970CF. True there is just a little CPU throttle every now and then (probably due to limitations of the PSU), but I can't really tell its happening and it doesn't affect gameplay. Take your time and do it right the first time. Good Luck. Have Fun!
  16. Hello there. I upgraded my M18xR2 from the 7970M to the 980M. I just peeled the plastic off of the heat sink and fitted the right thickness to each of the thermal pads. Definitely PnP. You should have no problem with Windows 10 (though driver installation is a bit different). But I currently have the Swick A11 modded Bios and Windows 7. The video drivers install very easily: I do not work in the computer industry, so I have spent a lot of hours reading and re-reading posts: Every question or curiosity you have about the M18xR1 or M18xR2 can be answered here and on NBR. Just look and ye shall find it, bro. Parts are still easily available for this legendary machine (though a bit harder to find). The problem is that you will need a modded vBios and a 330W power supply if you want to use two 980M cards in SLI (two will cause one or the other to throttle). This forum seems to recommend Preema vBios (currently unavailable on this forum though he does have a website I hear) but there may be others able to make one up for you -for a price (be careful, other sites may not be as safe). As for the M18x R2 there are many others who broke this ground years ago and know a lot more than little old me; you can read about their problems, pains and breakthroughs right here in this forum. Sorry I can't help more. But half of the fun is all about the 'getting there'. Right? Enjoy the Ride. Best Regards,
  17. Do you still need Prema vBios with this driver? Prema website doesn't seem to work. Anybody know how to get a copy?
  18. I wouldn't junk that card just yet: Look this up but I believe when igfx is running the primary card will read as "undetected" Your windows should detect it as generic video device. Once your modified driver is installed and you reboot the primary card should show up in the bios. I don't know about the 880's but I would try to find your vbios from this site to help the throttling. Hope that helps.
  19. Hello, I have been running the unlocked A05 Bios on my R1 and found a sweet overclock and I am happy with the scores. I was trying out different programs, like Afterburner, Throttlestop, Nvidia inspector and HWinfo64. I was happy with how everything was running, but noticed that when I go into the BIOS I can no longer change any of the values that I had set. I tried going back to the stock BIOS and found the same settings, but again I could not change any of the values. I have tried an earlier image of my system, but with the same result. When I flashed back to the Modded Bios, still the same overclocked settings that I am not able to change. Does anyone have an idea what might have happened to my BIOS? My R1 is still running great, but I can't change anything. I have never tried resetting CMOS or the Blind recovery method for the R1; would this be helpful? Do any of these programs (MSI AB, Inspector, etc) affect the control of or change the BIOS permanently? Thanks@Mr Fox: I saw a post on another site indicating to pick the option under the "Exit" reverting to optimal settings. The Bios works now and I can adjust the settings. Thanks.
  20. It was really interesting reading about the dual PSU Mod. I try not to get too serious with anything, especially overclocking so I don't think I will doing the PSU Mod anytime soon. As to the difficulties with the 880M and 980M, I have just picked up a couple of 780M's off of Ebay. The stock clocks are a real boost for my R1, making the Futuremark scores on-par with my R2. I intend to stick with them for now. Best Regards. Thanks@MrFox
  21. It worked! Though I must say there were a few very distressed cats in the house; those beeps ( I stopped counting at 100) must have sounded like impending doom to all! But then it stopped -and booted normally. Its running great now. Thank you! Thank you!
  22. Thanks again Mr. Fox. I have been reading posts for years about overclocking, most recently in the R1 and R2. I was reluctant to unlock my BIOS in the R2 due to my poor luck with flashing media in the past. I have read the threads over and over; maybe I am ready. Do I need to install this file in a DOS-bootable USB or can I just copy and paste? To boot or to brick, that is the question. [email protected]
  23. I would like to use the blind recovery method to "go back" from A10 to A03. My current bios is A10. How can I extract the files from the M18R2A03WIN? When I click on the packet, it immediately opens the flash utility in Windows. Then it stops before completion (probably because Dell now prevents downgrading to previous versions). I would like to run an unlocked Bios version, but I can't figure out how to extract the files from the packet M18R2A03WIN. Can someone send me a copy of QBR10EC.fd or M18R2.hdr? Thanks in Advance.
  24. I have downloaded and unzipped the FPT file for unlocked Bios A10, but when I use the Attachment 2741 and follow the directions on the first page of this thread I get an error message: There are no valid DOS system files at the specified location. I have checked my steps over and over and I can't see the error. I have tried changing my source folder and downloaded again and ran on a different machine, but I still get the same message. There must be something I am not doing right. Please help. Thanks in Advance.
  25. Hi there, I am also looking to install 780m sli in my M18xr1. Should I also start with the v344.75 as well? Thanks in Advance. P.S. Does it matter if I extract with 7-zip or WinZip?
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