[Bios Mod] M18xR2 - Legacy Support now Available

[rawhide85 100]

Ran into a little problem. Flashed Bios Mod without issues but now my graphics card is not recognized. I uninstalled my NV drivers and now they will not install. Thanks

 

3630QM, GTX680m, 16GB, 250GB SSD, Win7 Pro 64

[Guest]

Did the problem start before or after you uninstalled the drivers? Does the GPU show any kind of problem status in Device Manager, or simply an error when trying to install the drivers? What driver are you attempting to install?

 

Have you tried re-flashing the vBIOS?

[rawhide85 100]

The problem started when I tried to install freetelly (Kodi) and got a GUI error. In device manger only the basic graphics device was listed (no GTX680), tried to open Nvidia Manger without luck. So I uninstalled the drivers. I tried to install the latest from NV, then dom's modded 602.2. No luck. Are referring to the swick vbios? I will reflash it if necessary. It seemed to flash fine. Thank you for your time.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, rawhide85 said:

The problem started when I tried to install freetelly (Kodi) and got a GUI error. In device manger only the basic graphics device was listed (no GTX680), tried to open Nvidia Manger without luck. So I uninstalled the drivers. I tried to install the latest from NV, then dom's modded 602.2. No luck. Are referring to the swick vbios? I will reflash it if necessary. It seemed to flash fine. Thank you for your time.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

No, I meant flashing the GPU vBIOS, not @Swick1981 system BIOS. Grab the one from @svl7 in the Kepler vBIOS thread. You have 680M, correct?

 

If the basic adapter in Device Manager has no problem codes, it could be just the driver is screwed up. I am not familiar with dom's 602.2 driver. What is that? 

 

I use @J95 driver mods from here: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/4906-alienware-clevo-aftermarket-upgrades-driver-support-modded-inf/&do=findComment&comment=151366

[rawhide85 100]

I will indeed try the GPU vBIOS. Then@J95's drivers. Fingers crossed.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Run DDU to clean out the old drivers and registry first. Kodi maybe did something weird to it. I doubt there is any hardware damage. Probably just a driver or registry corruption issue.

[rawhide85 100]

I'll try that tomorrow evening. I tried to flash the vBIOS with NVFlash but it didn't find a compatible device. Getting late so I'll give it a go tomorrow. Thank you for your help.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Guest]

1 hour ago, rawhide85 said:

I'll try that tomorrow evening. I tried to flash the vBIOS with NVFlash but it didn't find a compatible device. Getting late so I'll give it a go tomorrow. Thank you for your help.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

All right... sleep well.

 

What OS are you running? Is the BIOS set to Legacy or UEFI with Legacy Option ROM, or just UEFI? 

[rawhide85 100]

Win 7 Pro 64, legacy. I concur about a hardware issue as the only change I made to the system was flashing@Swick1981's Bios. Well, it maybe UEFI with Legacy Option ROM.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Siplast 50]

Does your GTX card show in the bios ?

 Double check to see If the bios function is set to peg.

[rawhide85 100]

Well,  the key was setting the graphics to Peg! I was able to install @J95's modded driver package. Thank you all for your help. +1

Now I just need to flash the vBIOS. 

[kaza 10]

I need your help, guys. Again. I have installed Swick's BIOS and 3940XM. And I have returned to full 32GB SDRAM Corsair Vengeance memory (2 x CMSX16G...1600C10 and 2 x CMSX8G...1600C10). I don't understand several things, may someone point me, please?

1. When I apply some memory OC in BIOS and F10 I get default 800 MHz 10-10-10-27 after the system launches (checking via CPU-Z and AIDA64). Why I can't OC the memory via BIOS? I have tried to load profiles, to modify my own profile, to apply 1866 MHz etc. The same result - just default settings after system launch.

2. Why AIDA64 and CPU-Z think that 2 of my 4 SPD are ...1600C1 instead of ...1600C10?

3. It seems that my current SPDs are the main perfomance bottleneck now, right? Can I OC them somehow or should I upgrade them? What memory to get for this CPU and laptop for optimal perfomance?

Thanks!

Spoiler

 

I also have some strange lagging while playing games with this CPU. At the same settings the old CPU (3610qm) was pretty smooth at gaming. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by kaza

[kaza 10]

Ok, maybe this will help someone with the same upgrade (Alienware m18x r2 -> i7-3940xm + gtx 970m):

1. I was using Windows 7x64 and A12 official BIOS. To start the upgrade I have downloaded the official A11 BIOS from Dell's site, installed it and then installed @Swick1981's A11 modded BIOS.

2. Then I have installed i7-3940xm and used Gelid Extreme thermal compound (thermal conductivity 8.5 W/mK) as the most reliable solution so far. I have not succeded in getting triple heat-pipe CPU heatsink and left the old double-piped.

3. I have downloaded latest modded drivers for GPU here.
4. I have installed gtx 970m card (Clevo) and met several problems: I had 75W Nvidia heatsink from some other card but it was too thick for this GPU crystal and I have changed it to my old heatsink from 7970m, just cleaned the copper area. I have used the same thermal compound (Gelid Extreme) for the crystal, Gelid Extreme thermal pads (12 W/mK, 0.5 mm) for memory chips on the heatsink side and Arctic Cooling thermal pads (6 W/mK) on the backside and other components (1-2mm). My screws for this card were from Clevo aslo.

5. I have launched the laptop then and tried to install the modded drivers - got the error message. I have restarted and switched to PEG into BIOS, restarted - got black screen and 8 beeps. Googled "alienware m18x r2 gtx 980m 8 beeps", found @Mr. Fox's article on Dell's Alienware forum's and followed his instruction.

6. I have succesfully managed all the steps and got the possibility to install the modded drivers. On the attached screenshot you can see what I have now. Everything seems to be fine, except of some PCI-component and other new unrecognised devices (PCI-controller ven_8086&dev_0153, 4 x ACPI\INT3403, 2 x ACPI\INT3404, ACPI\INT3400, ACPI\INT3402) in Device manager. Not sure what to do with them. 

 

Spoiler

And I have not installed any vBIOS so far because, actually, I saw no throttling/flickering yet... Clevo's card has "August 2015" mark on its vBIOS chip if it's important. 

Have found the unrecognised devices - it's DPTF. 
Got these results with no OC GPU and CPU: P9633 (3dmark 11) and 6591 (3dmark Prof, Fire strike). Seems to be a little low scores for these devices, but it's ok for now.

GPU seems to be OC via Nvidia Inspector with no problem and on default vBios. ASIC is poor - 64,2.

Edited December 18, 2016 by kaza

[kaza 10]

Does anyone know why I have so poor result in 3dmark 11 with gtx 970m? It should be around P10000-11500... Maybe it's all about new drivers (375.70)? Or my ASIC?

Or maybe I should ask about this not here?..

Edited November 14, 2016 by kaza

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, kaza said:

Does anyone know why I have so poor result in 3dmark 11 with gtx 970m? It should be around P10000-11500... Maybe it's all about new drivers (375.70)? Or my ASIC?

Or maybe I should ask about this not here?..

This is a good place to ask. Please post a link to the results you are calling poor.

 

Hardly anyone that I know of has 970M in the M18xR2. But, if you post those links we might be able to help determine what is going on.

 

You want to disable cTDP and use the BIOS overclocking option. Have a look at the settings I used with the M18xR2. Here is an album you can browse. Feel free to ask question about any settings that you are unfamiliar with.

 

http://imgur.com/a/eJlYG

[kaza 10]

@Mr. Fox, OMG, thank you very much for this album! I wanted to ask about A11 mod's best options too! You are right, I'm not familiar with a lot of them, because this is my first experience of working with unlocked BIOS + extreme Intel's CPU... Unfortunatelly, I can't post the link to the 3dmark results, but I will attach some screenshot soon. As I've been told, P9500-P9600 is a good result for non-OC'ed 970m with a stock vBios. And if I want to reach P10500+ I have to install some modded vBios.

 

 

BTW, since we all here, in Russia, are on sanctions now, it's difficult to get any spare parts since our currency is twice and half weaker to USD than it was 2-3 years ago... But, anyway, I have succeded in getting 3940xm for about USD 317. Not sure, is it expensive or not... And all this is offtopic, I understand. Gtx 970m was about USD 395, which is a moderate price, I guess.

Edited November 14, 2016 by kaza

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, kaza said:

@Mr. Fox, OMG, thank you very much for this album! I wanted to ask about A11 mod's best options too! You are right, I'm not familiar with a lot of them, because this is my first experience of working with unlocked BIOS + extreme Intel's CPU... Unfortunatelly, I can't post the link to the 3dmark results, but I will attach some screenshot soon. As I've been told, P9500-P9600 is a good result for non-OC'ed 970m with a stock vBios. And if I want to reach P10500+ I have to install some modded vBios.

 

 

BTW, since we all here, in Russia, are on sanctions now, it's difficult to get any spare parts since our currency is twice and half weaker to USD than it was 2-3 years ago... But, anyway, I have succeded in getting 3940xm for about USD 317. Not sure, is it expensive or not... And all this is offtopic, I understand. Gtx 970m was about USD 395, which is a moderate price, I guess.

Yes, just under 10K is about right for no GPU OC. 3DMark 11 scores will generally be about 1500 to 2000 3DMarks lower with W8.X or W10. In 3DMark 11 the results for the Physics Test and Combined Test have a major impact on the overall score, so an overclocked CPU is going to make a huge difference even if the GPU is not overclocked. If you want to mainly assess GPU performance, Fire Strike is a good measurement because CPU performance, even if it is very poor CPU performance, has a muted effect on Fire Strike. You can have a crappy CPU that is relatively weak and still get nice looking Fire Strike scores.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10110074

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11433405

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10236968

[kaza 10]

Here is my default 3dmark11's result.

Spoiler

 

Wow, this is almost my situation 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10236968

 

Edited November 14, 2016 by kaza

[Guest]

1 hour ago, kaza said:

Here is my default 3dmark11's result.

  Hide contents

 

Wow, this is almost my situation 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10236968

 

You'd likely see a nice increase if you overclock the CPU 4.3GHz to 4.5GHz and probably meet your goal of 10500+ for the overall score. Overclocking the CPU will increase the Physics Score and Combined Score and both have a big impact on the overall score in 3DMark 11. If you look at your Graphics Score only it is almost identical to the linked Graphics Score for the M17xR4. 

 

That being said, I would say your system is functioning normally for an Alienware as equipped.

 

 

[kaza 10]

21 hours ago, Mr. Fox said:

You'd likely see a nice increase if you overclock the CPU 4.3GHz to 4.5GHz and probably meet your goal of 10500+ for the overall score. That being said, I would say your system is functioning normally for an Alienware as equipped.

Thanks! 

[kaza 10]

I have purchased 980M with Clevo's cooling backplate. It took me 3 hours to cut some angles and holes with a metal scissors but I succesfully installed the card with its own backplate in M18x r2. There were several problems: screw holes should be repositioned, some parts of the backplate should be bend a little and covered with a scotch tape to prevent the heating transfer to other chips around the card, some part of the backplate should be removed to let the backplate hold in the postition. Also, there is some problem with a space for the south bridge heatsink - you should reposition it also after the card is installed. Anyway, it's all installed and seems to be working. 

Here are some screenshots. There is no trottling (under load, at stanby etc.). Don't know why.

Spoiler

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by kaza

[anonshin 0]

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Edited November 24, 2020 by anonshin

[kaza 10]

On 14.12.2016 at 3:25 PM, anonshin said:

I've upgraded M18x R2 from stock 675 to gtx 965m. The problem is that the IGFX mode cannot detect the card and when I switch to PEG it goes with the 8-beeps, again.

Any ideas ?  I will be grateful for any suggestions.

This

[anonshin 0]

----Information no longer valid----

Edited November 24, 2020 by anonshin
Solved the issue

[melwilya 10]

Hello guys! Does this bios mod  works with Quadro M4000M?   M series not the K.