Tseng

New BIOS was released by Dell - A11

Fixed issue: Under setup menu MSATA and ODD show "not detected".

Driver Details | Dell US

Alienware M17x R4

What laptop do you have?

Yes, you can.

I am able to flash the Clevo 80.04.67.00.01 on my msi GTX 680m. It works perfectly.

No need to re-install driver or anything.

can I use Clevo OV BIOS on MSI gtx680m?

After remove CMOS and system battery, you need to press on power to discharge. Just in case you have not done this.

Has successfully flash to the unlocked A10 BIOS.

Following the procedure as described:

1. Blind flash back to A05 BIOS

2. Re-Boot and enter BIOS to make necessary changes

3. Re-Boot and load Win7

4. Flash un-locked A10

5. Re-Boot and enter BIOS to make necessary changes (including unlocked options)

6. Re-boot and load Win7

7. Enjoy

Will we see an unlocked A10 BIOS anytime soon?

svl7, I am able to flash to unlocked A09 using the blind flash approach.

1. Using blind flash back to A05

2. Flash regular A05 using Dell stock BIOS

3. Flash unlocked A09

All the advanced A09 menus works just fine, I see a new option on A09 - UEFI boot.

Thank you svl7.

I use the unlocked BIOS A08 from svl7.

One of the function in the unlocked BIOS is to turn off Intel Graphics completely.

That's how I manage to use AMD 7970m exclusively on my M17x R4.

svl7,

The A09 flash does not work on my M17x R4.

The program will run and do some disk I/O, the reboot the system.

Then in the BIOS boot screen, it shows an error message "Invalid Secure Image", and boot back to Windows 7.

svl7, the unlocked A08 works perfectly.

All the advanced (hidden) menus are there, only issue is after flashing, the setting reversed to factory default.

Which is inconsistent with stock BIOS flashing behavior, but no biggie.

Thank you!

svl7, will you release an unlocked version of A09 BIOS?

I will hold on to A08 unlocked version until your A09 unlocked version.

Dell is pretty inefficient in this kind of things. Guess we will have to wait "one month" till the Dell people to finish all their internal processes.

Anyone from Alienware / Dell can follow-up on this one?

Is it really necessary for Dell to take so long internally just to publish working new BIOS on the web?

Anyone knows the msi vbios versions svl7 posted on 2nd post?

I just got my msi 680m this week.

It comes with vbios 80.04.33.00.24

If the msi vbios on 2nd post has more later version, then I will bite the bullet and flash it during the weekend.

I don't understand why Dell takes another month before posting to the web.

If it is good for new build system, it is more important that M17x R4 owners would need it as it could fix their issues or enhance their user experiences.

At least, when Dell decided to implement on new build system, they should be ready for current owners as well.

So, when can we expect to see A08 on Dell supprt site?

Did you flash your BIOS before this incident happen?

If so, you might have a bad flash.

You can find the blind flash process post on this forum and hope it could solve your bad flash.

Thanks Brian.

Is there any issue for the 680m to support 3D vision? My M17x R4 has 3D panel, would like to keep using it with 680m.

Here in Taiwan I am able to choose between msi and clevo GTX680m with 4G VRAM. If price is the same, which one would be a better choice?

I like AMD, but I am slecting between GTX675M, RadeonHD 7970m and GTX680M.

7970m has the highest C/P ratio. Plus AMD is catching up on driver pretty fast, in the meantime, nVidia is not doing very well on the kepler core driver.

I have a M17x R4 with 7970m, able to hit 925/1300 @ stock voltage.

Thank you very much!

Another option would be ordering a Dell BT375 or BT380 module for your R4. Then you can best for both worlds (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).

PS. BT375 is Bluetooth 3.0, while BT380 is Bluetooth 4.0, the dimension of both module are identical, and share the same cable.

Hi naldor,

Is the old heatsink compatible with your Clevo GTX680m module? Can M17x R4 handle the potential heat generated?

Thanks

1080p screen is an improvement for most of the people. Better in FHD movies watching and most of the games. You can lower the anti-aliasing to compensate the extra calculation required compare with 720p screen, yet probably still able to have better visual quallity. Stick with it for a few more days and see if you like it or not.

Scott, Thank you very much for this post.

I was using the M18x R1 guide to do the blind BIOS recovery, did not go anywhere.

Thanks for sharing the R2 guide, it saves my R2 from a bad BIOS flash.