[M18x R2] - 'unlocked' BIOS versions

[Guest]

Once again, we can thank pirates and thieves for stuff like abusing SLIC mods to ruin things for the honest majority. And, we can honor Microsoft with a one-finger salute for passing off their draconian Steve Jobs/Apple/Adolph Hitler-like methodology to circumvent piracy as a "Windows 8 Certification" ...as though that is something consumers can place confidence in. Trouble is, there are millions of technology retards that are willing to accept it out of ignorance.

[svl7]

Well... there's also the security aspect of this, but I think that was rather secondary when MS decided to require secure boot. Security is just an excuse for OEMs, UEFI vendors and and also MS to lock out users.

[chmod1337]

Once again, we can thank pirates and thieves for stuff like abusing SLIC mods to ruin things for the honest majority.

While I do understand your point and think it is a valid point, there is also another side to piracy.

A pirate is interested in compromising technology in order to make a profit,in doing so he also forces the industry to react. Leading to a cat and mouse game. In the first moment, this might seem undesirable and a waste of resources, which the consumer has to pay. But the cat and mouse aren't the only players in this game, big brother is part of the game as well. Governmental agencies (not always our own and/or trusted ones) use weaknesses in technology to spy on us, sometimes they even seem to have introduced created those technological weaknesses themselves.

Under this preconditions it might be desirable to have someone who constantly forces manufacturers to change technology.

Of course it is desirable that such work is done by honest hackers, but those usually do this work in their spare time. Pirates have a big motivation thanks to the money they are after and because they are actively using exploits, the force they create on the industry is much stronger.

I know, it might seem like a SLIC hack has not much to do with security. But when you look at some of the more advanced security exploits, you see that often a seemingly harmless technology becomes a lever to exploit the actual security flaw.

I guess what I want to say is, don't worry about the game change, it will soon enough change again giving someone else a momentary advantage.

[ma®ximum]

where is the "M18x R2 - BIOS A08 'unlocked' & Intel RST option ROM 11.6.0.1702" attached file?

Oh... right, good point.. seems I missed to upload it. Will do so.

Did I missed something? Is there an official A08 M18X R2 unlocked bios now with latest IRST OROM? How about getting brand new M18X R2 with A08 bios in it and getting this unlocked bios flashed over this stock A08?

Thanks!

[svl7]

Well, there will never be an 'official' unlocked bios I guess, but you can use my version if that's ok...

And no, once again... you can't flash a modified bios anymore unless you come from A03 or earlier, this means you need to roll back using the recovery method and then you can flash the modified version completely normal. Or you can test something else if you want to get A08 unlocked on your system, in this case contact me.

[svl7]

A08 unlocked with IRST 11.6.0.1702 added... at last

Check the first post.

And if you consider using it - read the first post.

[DarkSkies]

Once again, we can thank pirates and thieves for stuff like abusing SLIC mods to ruin things for the honest majority. And, we can honor Microsoft with a one-finger salute for passing off their draconian Steve Jobs/Apple/Adolph Hitler-like methodology to circumvent piracy as a "Windows 8 Certification" ...as though that is something consumers can place confidence in. Trouble is, there are millions of technology retards that are willing to accept it out of ignorance.

Well... there's also the security aspect of this, but I think that was rather secondary when MS decided to require secure boot. Security is just an excuse for OEMs, UEFI vendors and and also MS to lock out users.

All of this could me somehow accepted (or at least ignored) if only Dell/other OEMs at the same time paid equal attention to actually updating things that are supposed to be updated. M18x still needs working boost on nvidia cards. A BIOS option to set hdd passwords (using ATA commands) so we can finally utilize our SDDs encryption options at the disk/controller level would be quite great too. Naturally, practical updates are of secondary (if any at all) priority. They are after their market strategies and bullshit "just shut up and update, we know what's best for you" attitude (e.g. by not even attacking changelogs to the bios updates). This post is by no means a rant. I can navigate around bullshit and stay on clear waters (or at least just a bit brownish as once cannot escape everything they throw at us). Let's just face it. It is what it is.

[unityole]

so this means theres no choice but to pay for additional 250-300 to Dell for future alienware eh? looks like m18x R3 will be costly

[ma®ximum]

if you chose to buy M18X R2 today there no longer offer overclocked option on 3940XM, just 600eur extra for 3940XM over 3840QM and extra 100-300MHz stock clocks improvement for that 600EUR... so I rather chose 3840QM since you cant OC anyway and dont bother with OCing

[unityole]

actually on the USA alienware config site it still offers 3940xm oc to 4.2

[kzk5609]

but how could they possibly dare to lock out overclocking feature on xm chip? xm is meant for overclocking right?

[Oodle-Bear]

Hi, Oodle-Bear here (more commonly know as OB from NBR)

They have "locked" us out so that they can charge for doing OC'ing for us.

It's tantamount to crowd control and dumbing down of Pc users. Well,. at least trying to...?

OB

[svl7]

Wait, you guys say the overclocking menu for XM CPUs which was available in A03 and earlier is non-existent in the current (unmodified) bios?

Btw, still looking for a dump of A05.

[Oodle-Bear]

How do i get a "Dump", my M18X R2 is running a locked A05 BIOS...

OB

[svl7]

There are a couple of possibilities, in this case the easiest would be to just use this tool (Download Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0.zip) and let it dump it. It won't necessarily be a complete dump, but it should be fine.

[overdriven]

Hi

after updating to the retail bios SLI doesn't work anymore on my m18x r2 (dual gtx 680m)

can this unlocked bios fix it?

thx

[svl7]

Go to the bios and load the default settings, save and reboot. This might already help. It should already work in the stock bios, the unlocked won't help in this case, it just has more options available.

If it doesn't work you might need to check your SLI cable.

[overdriven]

hi svl7,

thx for you help.

i contacted dell and they told me that they need to change the mainboard, sli cable and both gtx 680m :/

[svl7]

Well, that doesn't really makes sense... especially when you say that the issue only appeared after updating the bios. Did you try the bios reset?

[overdriven]

yes i tried that but i recieved an error 25 when flashing over USB Stick (DOS) / Error 0x25 (Windows) from A08 back to A03

[svl7]

Actually what I meant is going into the bios menu and load the default settings, not reflashing the bios. There's an option in the bios which allows you to go back to defaults, might help.

If this doesn't help you could still try to remove the coin cell battery for a while, this would reset it as well.

[overdriven]

Sorry for misunderstanding!

Yes i tried to set it back to defaults too but this doesn't helped.

i try that now with the coin cell battery.

What i can say svl7 you give way better support than dell itself

EDIT: I've solved it! I used it this guide http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/1981-how-recover-bad-flash-alienware-m18x-r2.html

and flashed back from A08 to A03 and now SLI is there again so this is an bios issue

[DarkSkies]

Flashed A03 w/ 11.6.0.1702 over A03 w/ 11.5.x and everything's okay. Thanks svl7.

[3mbr@c3 my d@rkn3--]

Has anyone encountered a problem with the BIOS A08 (Unlocked) if using Windows 8 combined with Secure and Fast Boot? I'm using an Alienware M18x R2 and if I want to enable Fast and Secure Boot, I first have to switch to the integrated graphics but can't switch to the binary ones afterwards because the BIOS locks the option out so I'm stuck on the integrated graphics.

Has this been resolved with the unlocked BIOS or is this bug still present?

[svl7]

Yeah, I think I know why this is happens. This has nothing to do with the BIOS itself, just with the settings in there, and with missing drivers.

For secure boot and fast boot the legacy boot options need to be disabled, right? (Otherwise secure boot wouldn't make a lot of sense...)

If legacy option roms don't get loaded your system can't access the dedicated GPU, cause it won't find the vbios. Dell hasn't released an UEFI compatible vbios for the AW series so far, so all you can do is either allow the legacy oroms, or you wait for Dell to release a new vbios which includes UEFI compatible software. Clevo already has it, seems Dell is a bit behind on this.

A BIOS update won't help in this case, you need a different vbios.