[Bios Mod] M18xR2 - Legacy Support now Available

[xapachewolfx 0]

I got the black version and I really like the upgradability of this laptop i swapped out the cpu for i7 3940xm 32 gb of ram 3 1tb ssd and I'm waiting on my wifi 6 card to be delivered also going upgrade gpu once I get bios installed 

[Siplast 50]

You need to be running the same bios as the one that is modded . Swick bios is A11. PM KLEM for instructions or read his other posts.  

You can flash the bios regardless of the gpu you have installed. If you use the new functions before changing out the gpu you could run into a few hasles. This is a mod to your existing bios

[xapachewolfx 0]

Iwas able to get the modded bios on my laptop but when i try to modify the nvidia driver for the 1060 tell me it's not compatible does anyone have a modded 1060 driver download 

[Siplast 50]

Did you turn off driver sig. in windows ?

Look through your mod driver again and make sure you did not miss a string that neede to be changed.

[xapachewolfx 0]

yea i turned off the sig driver im going to start over and redo the modded drive i probably misses something 

[Siplast 50]

I had to mod the same driver at least twice to get it right.Sometimes more. Learn how to use the search function once you open the driver. It will only search one direction.

https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php

This is the guide I have used.

[xapachewolfx 0]

How do I get in to sg mode in the m18x r2 

[Siplast 50]

F2 to enter bios. Right arrow to 2nd advanced 4 tabs over. down arrow to video settings. Peg ,sg etc.

[xapachewolfx 0]

Thank you everyone for your help I got the 1060 to install 

[Siplast 50]

Great job !

[xapachewolfx 0]

Does anyone use epic games and has anyone run into this problem were it does a blue screen restart when ever you try to click on it but it work when you disable intel graphics 4000

[M18X2012 0]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:05 AM, xapachewolfx said:

Iwas able to get the modded bios on my laptop but when i try to modify the nvidia driver for the 1060 tell me it's not compatible does anyone have a modded 1060 driver download 

 

Do you have the modded driver for the 1060 yet?

Edited March 14, 2022 by M18X2012

[xapachewolfx 0]

Yea i do must of had a corrupted file some were because I reset my laptop and now everything is work fine 

[M18X2012 0]

I'm sorry dont mean to side track this thread. The reason I am looking to upgrade to the 1060 is because, the 675m have been showing their age and I Also started getting black screened. The Black screens started from when I F###ed up years ago, I packed the laptop in the backpack (I have the orion alienware backpack) thinking it turned off but it was still on. Later on that day i started Playing some KF2,  and the m18x  starts to black screen and noticed fan #2 not spinning Oddly enough only thing that went wrong GPU Fan #2 when out and i replaced it and went on another 2 years with no issue. Then, AGAIN I did it again! Packed in the backpack  thinking it turned off. I check for any issues this time and none, gpu fans are spinning. So I go on and start to game but this time the black screens would be consistent, I did everything to remedy the black screens, from reinstalled drivers to clean windows install and nothing. Concluding to what I dont want to do; opening up the laptop to repaste the gpus, it was overwhelming, since I don't know much about what I was doing, plus all that $$$$ I spent on the m18x.

I get ballsy and grab my TRAXXAS rc screw driver kit, TRAXXAS FTW (iFixit my A$$)

Repasted both GPUs with kryonaut, worked for a few days, black screened again, took it apart again and replaced the thermal pads. The pads were caking off (im guessing heat and age?) So i buy the pads, but purchased the wrong size thermal pads they were to thick ( need 1mm) so I thought what if....I Replaced those pads again but this time WITH THERMAL PASTE INSTEAD OF THERMAL PADS? I was like: whats the worst that can happen?  AND ODDLY ENOUGH...... NO CRAHES AT ALL! 

 

Can someone explain this? How come the thermal paste is working in place of the thermal pads?

Edit sorry for the grammar.

Edited March 14, 2022 by M18X2012

[xapachewolfx 0]

4 minutes ago, M18X2012 said:

I'm sorry dont mean to side track this thread. The reason I am looking to upgrade to the 1060 is because, the 675m have been showing their age. Also I started getting black screened. Repasted both GPUs with kryonaut, worked for a days, black screened again, replaced the thermal pads, but bought the wrong size thermal pads. Replaced those pads again but this time WITH THERMAL PASTE INSTEAD OF THERMAL PADS... AND ODDLY ENOUGH...... NO CRAHES AT ALL! 

 

Can someone explain this? How come the thermal paste is working in place of the thermal pads?

You sure you had them properly connect the first time because when was doing some testing on my laptops I would has the open with the heatsink off and the gpu on 

[M18X2012 0]

On 3/7/2022 at 5:10 AM, xapachewolfx said:

I got the black version and I really like the upgradability of this laptop i swapped out the cpu for i7 3940xm 32 gb of ram 3 1tb ssd and I'm waiting on my wifi 6 card to be delivered also going upgrade gpu once I get bios installed 

I got the 3920xm 240GB SSD, 750GB HDD, 512GB Msata and 32GB ram. 

34 minutes ago, xapachewolfx said:

You sure you had them properly connect the first time because when was doing some testing on my laptops I would has the open with the heatsink off and the gpu on 

Connected properly? The heat sink or gpu? I never removed the GPUs from their slot. Only the heat sinks. Could it have been the thermal pads? I mean they were caking off (brittle).

[xapachewolfx 0]

The gpu might have shifted when you removed the heat sink I wouldn't trust putting thermal paste any were but the gpu and cpu chips

[entangledinchaos 0]

Please forgive me for being a total newb on this.  Just want to make sure I get the process locked down before messing with it.  I originally upgraded my m18x R2 through Eurocoms modded A11 bios.  I originally had 2 GTX 870m in Sli.  If I remember I had to also get the vbios right across both cards. One of them has since died.  I'm upgrading to a MSI GT72VR NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 N17E-G1-A1 that will be in tomorrow.   I have a massive amount of reading and research to do but some quick pointers would be super helpful.    

 

Back to the drawing board. I had to reinstall Windows 10. Unfortunately the drivers I modified aren't working and no matter how many times I cmd it to go into Test Mode it doesn't. Unless I can figure these 2 things out I'm prolly going to be stuck. Might go back and install my lowly 870m but I can't even do that if I can't get into test mode. Did windows updates take this feature away?  Tried modifying the 527.37 driver.

 

 

My specs:                   Alienware m18x R2

 Operating System    Windows 10 Home 64-bit
        CPU                     Intel Core i7 3610QM @ 2.30GHz   
                                    Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
        RAM
                                      24.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
        Motherboard
                                    Alienware M18xR2 (U3E1)
        Graphics
            Generic PnP Monitor ([email protected])
         
          

Edited December 5, 2022 by entangledinchaos

[MattyB 38]

Rather than doing the test mode, Disable Driver Signature Enforcement instead. 

 

If this doesn't work then the driver .inf probably isn't modified quite right. 

[Petroholic 0]

Sorry for bothering you guys but one small question... Will the bios version fit the R1 model? I recently bought a cheap one and would like to tune it up... No matter the costs but i just love it's design

 

Already found a 2960XM to switch my current 2920QM... Atm it has crossfired Radeons 6970M but i found a matching single GTX1060 4GB (75W) with 100W Nvidia M18X heat sink and would like to use it I can choose left or right heat sink - which one would you suggest?

 

I know that setup is not meant to play modern games in high settings but it should run some of not the newest titles in med/low...

 

I'm not in a hurry but looking for some answers

 

EDIT :

 

Sorry i'm still learning AW so already figured out R2 bios won't work with R1... And probably 1060 won't work either... Have to take a look at 780 or 880...

Edited March 10 by Petroholic

[MyApocalypse 0]

I have a 1070 with some questions about the bios and etc.

 

In order to flash custom bios the stock bios should be same version or lower?

 

I am on Win7 will OS be compatible with 1070 GTX? I accidentally installed the GPU without upgrading Bios first last night and getting 8 beeps/no video this means i need the bios?

 

Just got into the scene. I have an M18x R2.

[godlikemouse 0]

Hi @MyApocalypse,

 

I can't speak specifically for the 1070, but I did this with dual 1080 cards and it required me to update to Windows 10 with the latest Swich custom BIOS.  One thing to note though as an aside, I recently installed AtlasOS instead of default Windows 10.  If you're not familiar with AltasOS it's basically Thindows 10.  One of the nice things about AtlasOS is that it comes with a custom GPU driver installation program that basically sidestepped the known driver issues.  I was having to manually patch the drivers, turn off signing, etc..  But with the driver kit that comes with AtlasOS I no issues.  The drivers just installed and now the laptop is solid.  I wanted to share this just in case you start having driver issues as a possible solution.

[xapachewolfx 0]

So altasos installs the gpu driver without me having to edit the nvdmi(somethinglikdat) file for the gpu driver?

[godlikemouse 0]

That's correct.  It has a preinstalled application for installing Nvidia or AMD drivers directly.  It downloads the installer, patches it and runs it for you.  I was pleasantly surprised by this and didn't expect it at all.

[xapachewolfx 0]

Nice thats great no more having to manually edit the file please send link for Altas