Mr. Tom

Update to Unlocked A12 BIOS successful in all respects. Nice work Svl7! Thanks again for your help Klem!

If you find yourself in this situation, you might not necessarily have to flash your BIOS via bootable USB! I had the same issue: "0% available, (plugged in, not charging)" message. I was able to get around it and flash the BIOS by using Wordpad to edit the "platform.ini" file. If you see only the "M17XR3_A12_W32_X64.exe" executable file that you downloaded, you need to understand that this is a self extracting executable and you will need to use 7-Zip or similar program to see what's in it it. Install 7-Zip. Right click the file, mouse over "7-Zip",then choose "Extract...", and click the [OK] button on the window that pops up. It will create its own folder with the same name as the file. It is within this folder that you will find the "platform.ini" file that you must edit. Right click the "platform.ini" file and select 'Open with', then choose WordPad. When it opens the file, scroll down through the text and look for the section, "[AC_Adapter]". Just below that you will see a line that reads, "BatteryCheck=1". Change it to, "BatteryCheck=0". Save, then close the file. Then simply double click the, "InsydeFlashx64.exe" executable to launch the BIOS update from within the Windows environment! Touch NOTHING as the BIOS update process takes place. Your computer will restart when it is finished. If you encounter anything other than the usual boot to Windows desktop, you may need to restart your computer, enter the BIOS, restore Setup Defaults[F9], Save and Exit[F10], then hit [Enter]. It should be that simple. Oh! Always remember that "Simple" and "Easy" are two entirely different things. To win the Lottery, you simply have to choose the right numbers, but it isn't easy! I hope this gets as many people over the "0% available, (plugged in, not charging)" hump, as possible. Good luck to you all! And a big THANK YOU to Klem for verifying the .ini edit theory before I pulled the trigger on it! NOTE: It's a GOOD PRACTICE to flash the stock (Unlocked) version first, before flashing an Unlocked version! This way you can be sure that your Firmware is upgraded along with the BIOS.

Indeed! - Fist-Bump @Klem It appears that changing the "BatteryCheck" value in the "Platform.ini" file (from a value of ONE to a value of ZERO) was all that was required to circumvent the "Plugged in, Not Charging" condition with 0% battery that was preventing me from updating my BIOS! BOOM! Now at A12! Now that I've successfully updated to Dell (Locked) A12 BIOS (and the FIRMWARE) for the M17x R3, I will now proceed to implement the Unlocked BIOS using the same "Platform.ini" edit technique. What could possibly go wrong! ? I'm going to sift back through the threads to look for any cautions before making the leap to Unlocked A12. I seem to remember something about video settings... You know... This isn't even my machine! It's my neighbors! He paid $1000 for this thing about a year ago and it arrived with a busted keyboard and would only occasionally boot up. It's totally stable now with Windows 7, all updated drivers, and no blood in the device manager tree! Nothin' like taking a busted up machine and bringing it back to life!

@KlemWhat if I were to change the "BatteryCheck" value from 1 to 0 in the "platform.ini" file? Would that get me anywhere?

WRONG! This will not work within Windows command prompt. I sure would like to find a way to Flash the BIOS with a dead battery AND NO INTERNAL KEYBOARD (and therefore NO "END" key on the internal keyboard) as well. This forum is so HUGE! The answer might be in here somewhere, but even if it is you'll have to weed through all the conflicting, and sometimes WRONG information to find it! I've been trying to find a way around the Battery issue for over 2 weeks now. Seems I'm no closer to my goal.

According to the thread titled: "Alienware M17X R3 UEFI" My Idea of Going UEFI is going to be a little more involved than I thought. I better start doing my homework. With any luck, I might be able to find the items I need to cobble together an Alien-Frankenstien at a reasonable price given that these things are on the order of 7-8 years old, or given the fact that I'm currently between jobs, give up on the UEFI thing altogether. Having never used a forum before, it seems this is completely the wrong venue for my (above) post, even though I likely will need a BIOS mod to attempt to solve my "Plugged in, not charging" issue. Sorry about that. Will put all future posts in more apt locations!

Hi David, Welcome! It's pretty silent around here. There's allot of good resources here for learning if you are willing to sift through them! It's after 5 AM here so I'm logging off. Perhaps I will see you around sometime. Happy learning...

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and haven't really posted anything yet, other than on the welcome page. I'm about to start a new project I'm calling, "Alien Resurrection". It began about a week ago when my neighbor dropped off his M17xR3 at my house and said, "Make me a Clown Funnyman!". (I guess that was a reference to the movie, 'Wedding Crashers', when a guy asked a balloon artist to do the impossible...). Since that time I've been doing nothing but reading the forum. I've a TON of issues to work out with this thing! For openers: 1- The keyboard is trashed (If it's worth it, I would spring for a replacement) 2- BIOS and Device Manager DOES see the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M, but I cannot establish any communication with it. (NVIDIA Control Panel exists in Windows Control Panel, but will not open.) 3- Battery is 0% available (plugged in, not charging) ((...so using Insyde Flash within Windows environment is pretty much out of the question)) 4- It's at REV A08 and NOT-UEFI ready as far as I know. (I'm only going to bring it up to Rev once, then NO MORE BIOS upgrades, but need EXPERT advice on the best Rev to settle on.) It was non-functional when I received it, but I was able to get it running. It was super super slow- almost unresponsive, but I was able to put BelArc Advisor on it to get a look at what I was dealing with. It had Windows 10 on it, (I'm pretty sure THAT was a BAD idea.). Being that my neighbor and I had nothing to lose, I wiped it, by cleaning and re-partitioning the 800Gb drive, then did a clean install of Win 7 on it. I think that where I want to go with this M17xR3 is to upgrade the BIOS sufficient to do a clean UEFI reinstall of Windows 7, (if THAT is an unwise course of action, I would appreciate some input from more experienced techs - backed by strong arguments for doing what they suggest). I would like to chronicle the journey to document the experience for others to see. I'd like to break it down like this and fill in the rest of the outline later: I. Identify the unit and all the hardware within it, noting the limitations of said hardware. A. Diagnose everything, possibly doing some bench-marking for comparative purposes to similar systems II. Begin the actual resurrection process. A. Document all hardware, firmware, software changes made (In the preferred sequential order backed by strong arguments from more experienced users) 1. Outline the procedures performed in an easily understood manner, (including embedded links to knowledge resources both within and without this forum) III. Put the resurrected Alien to the test and provide some final bench-marking A. Document the bench-marking process in an easily understood manner, (including embedded links to knowledge resources both within and without this forum) IV. Prepare a summary of what was learned and where other hardware and software choices could, or should have been made. I'm in no real hurry, and it appears this forum isn't either. I don't have the $$ to spend right now, but once I'm back to work I'll have plenty. My neighbor certainly doesn't have the money, and there's a REALLY good chance he'll just gift the Alien to me when he finds out there's going to be some unavoidable expenses incurred. I'm on day 2 here at T|I and I have NO PROBLEM whatsoever biding my time and making the required posts to gain my promotion, so I say: Let the journey begin! I suggest a new thread to chronicle the experience might just be in order, but I will not presume to do so unless somebody important concurs. I'm going to settle in and be here for the duration of this project, so I hope I'll see some others around that take some interest in what I'm about to do. EXCELSIOR! Tom

27 pages to read on the history of BIOS Flashing, and I'm not even sure that should be my first move. Some very good laughs tho! Especially Otsego- first post he was all excited, next post he bricked his Computer! He should have gotten promoted just for that! I have allot more reading to do as I'm only on page 10 so I'll have to come back a few more times.

This individual deserves a huge thanks! A superb job of documenting his experience. Threads like this are why I decided to join this forum. Now I just need to find one that addresses my issue before I start a new thread and then get flamed for not taking the time to review the extended history and existing knowledge base.

Hi! I'm Tom. Just like 'garryrice30' posted on January 19th, I too have issues with a M17xR3 and that's how I found this site. I hope I can contribute something, other than affording people the satisfaction of helping some noob who doesn't even know how to use this site... I'm not sure where to begin... I'm often online looking for tips and advice and usually links to forums come up. I never really had much faith in the forums and I'm not even sure if I clicked the right field to enter my text into! I know a little about computers, but what I don't know far outweighs what I do know. I tend to do allot of reading, rather than posting, which makes sense considering this is the first forum I've ever signed up to! After reading some of the content, I'm not sure I can offer much in the way of computer related advice so I seriously doubt I can actually contribute anything useful. But I do have allot of questions. Now, if I can figure out how this forum environment works without having people flame me for doing it wrong, I just might get somewhere. Thanks in advance for bearing with me.