[Bios Mod] M18xR2 - Legacy Support now Available

[aaronloveweed]

On 18/12/2016 at 3:06 PM, anonshin said:

 

Well, I came up with a solution for my case - hopefully it will be useful for someone else too.

...cut...

I flashed BIOS from this thread and still could not get it to POST with legacy enabled. Even on UEFI and Legacy option ROM.... nothing.... 

 

EDIT - SOLUTION:

Driver issue solved by disabling the Driver Signature enforcement and then following this tutorial to modify the driver

cut

Did you find a real solution to get pass POST with UEFI + Legacy enabled on DGPU? (Win7)

I think (but I really don't know) that my gpu microcode (970m 6GB Gsync version) wasn't into bios microcode or whateslse its naming

Edited March 8, 2017 by aaronloveweed

[Siplast]

I am running two gtx 980 sli. I have no issues running windows 7 legacy enabled UEFI. On the other drive I run windows 8.1. No issues on either drive. Peg enabled

[aaronloveweed]

Clap clap!
Sorry to bore but
PEG On my windows10 is working, beside, on Windows 7 only SG Mode is working.

Can I give you more info so would you help me or you're here to write random sentences?

[Siplast]

I will help you as I can and usually others here will as well. If Mr. Fox takes and interest he is always a great help. Please list your specs: cpu, ram, etc. Are you running a newly formatted windows 7 and is it 32bit or 64bit. If it is newly formatted was it done in UEFI ? Have you actually read through all of this thread as most of the problems have been discussed? What power supply are you using? You stated all is working well with windows 10 ? Any additional information would be great In trying to assist you. Hope you do not find my response random I just followed the suggestions In this thread and I have not experienced any issues running windows 7 pro 64 bit in legacy mode UEFI. Screen shots of your bios settings would be helpful as well as it cuts down on the amount of questions that need to be asked.

[aaronloveweed]

I will help you as I can and usually others here will as well. If Mr. Fox takes and interest he is always a great help.
Mr.Fox is always a precious source (rant vs bga and w10 are welcome too xD ) Bu thanks again for your help and interest.

Please list your specs: cpu, ram, etc.
bios: A11 by  swick1981 and svl7 (The Radriar's one from NBR also tried)
 cpu: 3920xm(ES)@4,2Ghz (0 flex)
ram: 2x4GB Samsung 2133 cl11 T1
gpu: 970M 6GB on Prema vbios 84.04.88.00.C1@stock clocks
ssd: Evo 250GB + Ocz Agility3 60GB
wifi+bt: Killer 1103
psu: standard Dell's psu 330w


Are you running a newly formatted windows 7 and is it 32bit or 64bit. If it is newly formatted was it done in UEFI ?
Not a fresh install, but the OSes where installed in uefi mode (from bios seems the uefi boot is located into EVO250 with win7, not on OCZ Agility3 with w10).


Have you actually read through all of this thread as most of the problems have been discussed?
I think yes, but the knowledge is an infinite learning, like in life, never stop to discover new things.. 

What power supply are you using?
330w original Dell's Psu

 You stated all is working well with windows 10 ?
Yes, all three modes are working well (IGFX/PEG/SG) on pure UEFI with no legacy,  no fastboot and security boot. 


Any additional information would be great In trying to assist you. Hope you do not find my response random I just followed the suggestions In this thread and I have not experienced any issues running windows 7 pro 64 bit in legacy mode UEFI.
As stated before in other thread, I think that my gpu has a slightly different microcode because in windows device manager is identified as:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1618&SUBSYS_05501028
from my research seems to be a Gsync version of 970m, maybe is this related too?

Today Im going to make a snapshot of my OSes in ext.disk and then make a fresh Win7 install in Uefi mode with legacy enabled, to avoid all possible initial issues.


Screen shots of your bios settings would be helpful as well as it cuts down on the amount of questions that need to be asked.
Here you go! Thank you very much

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19x9i4YLERSbUVUbEpNU2VNUUU

thx

 

 

[Siplast]

I have only had time to give this a cursory look but I will look into this further tonight and through the weekend. Are you running 32 bit windows 7 or 64 bit?

 

 

[Siplast]

Did you try running ddu to get rid of the old drivers ? Are you getting 8 beeps at start up when you run windows 7 ? Please describe what happens when you start up with bios set to peg running windows 7

Would you post a screenshot of main bios page when running windows 10 please ?

[melwilya]

On 1/20/2017 at 7:25 AM, melwilya said:

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

Okay, so its working in UEFI mode, legacy rom off, secure boot off, modified nvidia driver, version: 375.86

[aaronloveweed]

On 10/3/2017 at 11:36 PM, Siplast said:

I have only had time to give this a cursory look but I will look into this further tonight and through the weekend. Are you running 32 bit windows 7 or 64 bit?

 

 

Thank you anyway, as you can see from the latest picture in gdrive, yes it's 64bit

On 11/3/2017 at 2:46 AM, Siplast said:

Did you try running ddu to get rid of the old drivers ? Are you getting 8 beeps at start up when you run windows 7 ? Please describe what happens when you start up with bios set to peg running windows 7

Would you post a screenshot of main bios page when running windows 10 please ?

It's not a driver problem because the issue is present at bios changing even with no OS installed.

I erased partition and formatted the disks but after enabling Peg+legacy goes to reboot- showing prema's vbios number- black screen - beeping..

This 970m 6BG is a Gsync version and I think that modded bios A11 need to be updated with its microcode because after switching in PEG (with legacy, because in full uefi its working as intendend but only on win10) all I See is the Prema's vbios number, then the screen goes black and start to beeping

Edited March 12, 2017 by aaronloveweed
typo correction

[Siplast]

 I think that you are correct in your assessment of the issue being the gsync which was my first thought as well. This is the first gsync card that I recall in this thread. I will pm Swick and see if he might be willing to help. Unfortunately not many who have used his work have helped him so I am not sure If he is interested In further work on this bios. Lets see what he says

[aaronloveweed]

On 11/3/2017 at 11:19 PM, Siplast said:

 I think that you are correct in your assessment of the issue being the gsync which was my first thought as well. This is the first gsync card that I recall in this thread. I will pm Swick and see if he might be willing to help. Unfortunately not many who have used his work have helped him so I am not sure If he is interested In further work on this bios. Lets see what he says

yeah, a read a lot of post from him on NBR, I hope he will help me, obviosly I'll going to make a donation if needed. (very little donation made)

Best Regards, and thanks again to help me to find out my issue.

Edited March 13, 2017 by aaronloveweed

[aaronloveweed]

On 22/7/2016 at 1:53 PM, hackerboy said:

First of all, thank you for making this BIOS and share it with all of us !

But I have a regret to tell you that my M18x R2 is installed on 1617 of the 980M..  not a version of the 13D7

however, after the refresh of your BIOS file is still not able to switch LEGACY.   BIOS default IGFX can not read 980M. If modified for the PEG will be 8beep.

Could you please tell me how to solve this problem?

 

THank you so much !  

First of all, thank you for making this BIOS and share it with all of us !

But I have a regret to tell you that my M18x R2 is installed on 1617 of the 980M..  not a version of the 13D7

however, after the refresh of your BIOS file is still not able to switch LEGACY.   BIOS default IGFX can not read 980M. If modified for the PEG will be 8beep.

Could you please tell me how to solve this problem?

 

THank you so much !  

 

 

@Swick1981

Hi Swick, found same issue here,
so if you would add "id1617" and "id1618" will be great!!


Just for record, switching between PEG to SG made a performance loss from 1,6% to 8,5% as observed in 3dMark11 runs

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/12047576/3dm11/12044963

UPDATE!


@klem modified for me the m18x r2's bios to accomodate my request fo 970m gsync version, he is a really rare good person







 

Edited March 16, 2017 by aaronloveweed
added comparison

[Siplast]

That is great news ! 

[elflegolas]

how do i download the bios mod?it saids i dont have access right..

[Siplast]

5 quality posts or buy a TI membership

Nevermind, I see you are a member. Downloads at the top of the page then look for m18x r2

[Siplast]

Go to the first page of the thread and follow to the end of description. Click on bottom header and this takes you to download. Right hand side has download file header

[godlikemouse]

Hey Guys,

 

I'm running an Alienware M18X R2 with the Swick modded bios along with 2 GTX 980M video cards on Windows 10 Pro.  I've noticed that my 3DMark scores seem very low for dual 8GB cards.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to possible sources/fixes for this issue?  I've been trying to install different modded drivers, vbios and tweaking BIOS settings to no avail.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[godlikemouse]

As a follow up, when I say poor 3DMark scores, I mean the highest I can get so far is around 8000 on Firestrike for high-performance gaming PCs.  Every time I run the bench I get different, the usually run around 6800 - 7500.

Edited August 1, 2017 by godlikemouse

[Zoldago]

18 hours ago, godlikemouse said:

I mean the highest I can get so far is around 8000 on Firestrike for high-performance gaming PCs

Is it the systemscore or just the graphicsscore?

[godlikemouse]

@Zoldago Thanks for the reply, this was the systemscore.  I've managed as of last night to get this to 13000 for the systemscore.  I'm still working to get it up to around the 17000 range I know it can do.  For me, the major fix so far was that the 2 cards were actually running different stock vBIOS.  So I synch'd those up and boom, instant jump.  Overclocking the system and GPU yields a little gain, but not too much.  Perhaps flashing @Prema's vBIOS will help.  I've also hand modified the latest drivers and used NVIDIA inspector to turn off G-Sync.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Auron111]

Really nice to see Windows 7 is usable with the 9xx series, I'm sick of windows 10 I had nothing but problems with it on my M18x R2. 

Just saw someone selling a 980m 8gb for £300, might take up there offer now.  

[M18xSLI]

Hi, I have a 970m laying around unused & I cannot wait to flash this bios. Thanks for the hard work.

[LuckMechanic]

Hello Guys,

I have an AW M18x-R2 (pic below) and I have been struggling with this piece of technology for the last 2 years. I have read numerous forums and already attended PC service 2 times and all my attempts to sort the following issues have completely failed. I am writing here hoping for some advice as I am about to either sort out these once and for all or brake this laptop...

The issues I experience are as follows:

#1 - The screen goes black out of nowhere - While in use the screen goes completely black. I can hear that everything in the background is working. If I was playing music, the music continues and I can hear mouse clicking when clicking at random in the dark. All I can do at that point is to shut it down and start again. Sometimes the screen lights up, sometimes it doesn't. If I wait an hour I have bigger chances to have the screen back. I have currently disabled the GPU and the issue tends to happen much rarely, but for sure at least once every 2 days of use. My very basic IT skills have made me put the laptop in the fridge freezer. It lights up faster after that.

 

#2 - Sound - Sometimes, when I load the PC there is no sound and it comes with a message that audio is not detected. Ridiculous. I have tried all kind of drivers and I cannot find a consistent way of resolving this issue. Somehow It comes back at some point of time with god's mercy.

 

#3 - Hard Drive - I have an additional hard drive which is not detected. During the installation of the windows it was detected, but later it didn't show anymore?!?

 

I am currently about to try flashing Swicks's BIOS hoping that it may resolve some of this issues. I am just wondering if v2.00 from 04.2016 is the latest one available. Additionally, are there any modded drivers for Win10?

 

If I can get rid of the problems above I would kindly ask you to suggest any possible upgrades as I am willing to invest further.

*RAM - I am after the best possible that this laptop can accept.

*CPU - Is it really worth upgrading the current one?

*GPU - Not a hardcore gamer, but would like to upgrade to a good value for money one.

*Any other internal cables, fans, thermo-syncs, etc. that is worth changing/upgrading.

 

Any comments will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[captain008]

@@LuckMechanic:

 

I'm sorry to hear your system is having trouble. So I'm gonna be honest with you, the m18x is not fully Windows 10 supported. Unless it has been fixed, Windows 10 does not play well with Alienware laptops with discrete Nvidia cards. One of the problems reported was screen tearing and failure (black screen). 

 

This is what I suggest, backup all your data and Windows 10 key to an external source like an external HDD or thumb drive. Download the official A11 bios from Dell and flash it. I would also make sure your RAID settings are turned off so all your drives show up as individual drives. I would also make sure your bios is set to legacy and I would install Windows 7. Windows 7 is fully supported on the m18x, and a clean install is a good way to see if the screen blanking, sound issues, and HDD issues can be resolved. 

 

I hope this resolved your issues, it sounds like an OS issue but it may also be a motherboard problem. 

 

As for upgrades, the best CPU you can put in your rig is the 3940xm. You can snag on on eBay for about $300. To be honest, the 3740QM is a decent processor and it may not be worth the cash to spring for the XM version. I have the same laptop and CPU and it works very well with gaming and demanding software. For RAM, 32 GB is the most supported but I have seen a thread over at Notebookreview were someone put in 64GB (4x16). While you are at Notebookreview there are several threads on putting in dual Nvidia 900 series cards in the m18x. You can get pricing at Eurocom and eBay. 

 

I hope this helps, it good to see other m18x systems still kicking. 

 

Also forgot, if your system gets back to normal, make sure you flash the modded bios so you can reap the rewards .

Edited December 11, 2017 by captain008
Add recommendation to flash modded bios.

[JamesTang]

On 2017/8/1 at 10:06 AM, godlikemouse said:

Hey Guys,

 

I'm running an Alienware M18X R2 with the Swick modded bios along with 2 GTX 980M video cards on Windows 10 Pro.  I've noticed that my 3DMark scores seem very low for dual 8GB cards.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to possible sources/fixes for this issue?  I've been trying to install different modded drivers, vbios and tweaking BIOS settings to no avail.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Hi, I meet the same question. In NBR, Someone said you should change video setting to IGFX, then reboot, make sure everything loads, and then get into bios, change video setting to PEG, then reboot, it will solve throtting problem. Here is the thread I post.

forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m18x-r2-with-980m-perfcap-reason-pwr.813285/