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M14x BIOS A07 and A08 released

svl7

By svl7
in Alienware M14x / AW 14

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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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Dell quietly released two new BIOS versions for the M14x, A07 and A08.

Changes for A07 are:

Modify SATA speed limit to SATA2

Link for A07

And for A08 it says:

update new VBIOS for N12-GTX2 graphics card

Link for A08

I'm not sure what the change of the SATA speed limit really means, maybe you can now get full SATA2 speed through the ODD, that would be great in case you use a caddy for a second hard drive.

A08 seems to be simply a VBIOS update for the 555m.

As always recently, Dell is pretty mean when it comes to information about the changes in the new BIOS revisions, these two points mentioned above are definitely important and I recommend to apply the update, but I also guess that there are some additional fixes and enhancements which aren't mentioned.

I'm gonna take a look at both BIOS and see what I can do regarding the volt mod etc.

Edit: Seems like A08 isn't up yet, it say file not found when I try to download it.

Edit 2: There's absolutely no difference between the VBIOS in A08 and the VBIOS in the older versions... seems Dell messed up.

Edited by svl7
update regarding VBIOS
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alroar Settling In

alroar

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just thrown the A08 at my M14x, cant see any enhancement. subjective fps in bf3 raised at bit (at little oc of 740), but i had it v-modded before. fans are unchanged as far as i can tell

you could shovel ur snow up over here, would love some. we only got damn rain in krautland.

//Edit: one thing i noticed: in the bf3 loading screen the gpu clock doenst go all high, it stays at a decent 201Mhz till loading has finished, before it was all up i think.

//edit2: i feel like the fans more active now in idle/low load

Edited by alroar
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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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With A08 im not noticing anything improved, Im not up for a full GPU analysis but the only difference i noticed was a notably quicker boot up after installing bios, but thats probably just an anomaly.

Lol, I just took a look at the supposedly new VBIOS, there's absolutely nothing changed... :D

Well, seems like Dell messed up, I guess that could be the reason why A08 isn't available on the support site...

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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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The fan is controlled by the EC, the VBIOS has no effect on the fan speed. They might have changed the fan settings, I have no idea, can't test it :)

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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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Hmmm... when I think about the semantics of the A07 change log I think they might really have limited the machine to SATA2 speeds, not improved SATA to SATA2.

This would explain the reports about the worse SSD performance. If this really is the case, I think it's actually illegal. If the machine gets sold with SATA3 capability as feature, then they aren't allowed to simply remove it later...

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alroar Settling In

alroar

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So, seems like Dell Released the proper A08, at least its available now as HTTP Download: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [united States]

let me know when you need some testing something

edit: i guess you already know, but if not: a source tells that dell checked the M14x before the CES in Las Vegas and found some bugs, therefor they released the new VBIOS that should prevent us/itself from destroying the machine due those bugs. thats why we are advised to update quick before any machine goes down.

edit2: maybe to avoid the SATA3 issue, take a A06/A05 Bios and just replace/insert the VBIOS from A08. But that sounds risky tho, since the sata part seems to be changed since A07.

ty schnuffel :)

Edited by alroar
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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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It's up on the European servers since yesterday, I downloaded and checked it, but the VBIOS is 100% identical with the one in all other BIOS revisions...

I don't think the file on the US server is different, I don't even know whether it's a different sever, but I'll check when I come around to do so, just now I can't do it since I first have to get all my files and tools again to do such things, my SSD just died an hour ago... :(

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alroar Settling In

alroar

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thanks for the info, good luck on retrieving/recreating your workspace. like you say, the bios files are most propably the same, so dont make any useless work for urself.

i still dunno what dell is trying todo here. we will see.

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mw86 T|I Addict

mw86

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It's up on the European servers since yesterday, I downloaded and checked it, but the VBIOS is 100% identical with the one in all other BIOS revisions...

I don't think the file on the US server is different, I don't even know whether it's a different sever, but I'll check when I come around to do so, just now I can't do it since I first have to get all my files and tools again to do such things, my SSD just died an hour ago... :(

im sorry your Intel 320 SSD died. The data is more important than anything and I have gone through similar years ago on regular drives. I am truly sorry for your lose these are nor recoverable files most likely. You should pursue justice from Intel... perhaps if you bitch about the data loss and the fact their bull firmware fix did nothing and that people are unsuspecting of these issues blindly thinking that Intel told truth on 8mb error firmware fix... Perhaps you could get them to send you a new 510 series or something with Sata 3.

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svl7 T|I Addict

svl7

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Little update: In the meantime Dell seems to have fixed the BIOS on their site, A08 now really contains a new VBIOS... so I recommend to all of you guys who flashed the A08 shortly after release to download it again now and flash it. This way you'll get the latest VBIOS.

EDIT: My bad, never mind this... I accidentally compared the A08 vbios to the A01 vbios instead of the A05... nothing changed between A08 and A05. No idea why Dell is saying this on their website.

Edited by svl7
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