AW13 R2 BIOS 1.2.12 / AW15 R2 & AW17 R3 BIOS 1.2.12

Any update?

 

Notice to anyone that did not update yet. DONT DO IT! I suspect with the removal of some sleeping states that it bugged my bios which caused the laptop not being able to put down to sleep, hibernate or shutdown anymore by software. Going to have a motherboard replacement tomorrow for this!

 

Man, does dell test their bios updates? Or do they just fix some code and then push it live?

 

Can you restore to an earlier version?

Nope been run around in circles by Alienware, Dell etc even on twitter.

 

Kinda figured you would. It's about all they do anymore...

 

So now, 'Pro' support has asked me for my graphics card details, and an order number for my amplifier - 2 weeks after I raised this. First of all i brought my amplifier second hand and don't have an order number, secondly the BIOS update is for my laptop which is under warranty...

 

I did but it didnt help. I think once some parts of the bios are written, it will stay like that until updated. Intel microcodes etc.

Anyway my laptop became extremely screwed up when it comes to shutting down and other powerstates. The rest works fine. Even flashing the bios is now quite difficult because the restart errors block the update data.

Alienwares dont seem to support a way to easily erase NVRAM & PRAM. Thats quite a problem now I think.

 

The issue where using hardware TPM for bitlocker doesn't work properly and it can't find the chip on boot isn't fixed in the BIOS either

 

Hmm after updating to 1.2.12 I no longer have ANY fans spinning when in windows(briefly spin during post). I ran the unigine heaven benchmark and fans never come one. Temps are still reasonable ~70c CPU and ~70 GPU, I did repaste yesterday. Noticed underneath laptop gets MUCH warmer. I have since reverted back to 1.2.8 and fans working again. Can anyone else confirm fans don't work with 1.2.12? Wonder if its an intel chipset driver problem in windows.

 

did you try putting bios file onto a usb flash driver and running the BIOS flash updater from the F12 boot menu on computer startup? I had to do this because updating bios from windows was failing.

 

Here is the latest from support, what a joke seriously I would volunteer and provide better responses.....

 

Alienware support is insisting the normal operating speed of the amplifier is pcie 3.0 @ x1........

 

That is the biggest ******** ever.

Yesterday they tried to replace the motherboard on mine it was doa. Now waiting for another technician. Cant use my laptop until then.

Thanks alienware for your latest **** bios. 5 days now without a correct working laptop which i use for my work.

 

It ended up not being actually DOA but an LCD cable not inserted correctly. All is fine nwo with a 1.2.2 bios. Not going to update it.

 

Did anyone else's fans stop working entirely after bios update 1.2.12?

 

I didn't notice that problem. I still recommend to go back to 1.2.2. Versio 1.2.12 is hell.

 

Do you guys think downgrading to 1.2.2 from 1.2.3 is a good idea and won't brick the system? Laptop came with 1.2.3 as stock.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

I have switched between multiple versions of BIOS' downgrading and upgrading and have encountered BIOS failed a few times but I have BIOS recovery enabled and it always recovered fine. I would redownload it and reflash and it would usually flash then.

I know some have had issues downgrading but I have never had an issue that was not recoverable.. Maybe I am just lucky,

 

Alright, but how this bios recovery function works?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Anybody know where can I get hold of the 1.2.2 Bios? Not available on the Dell website anymore. Thanks!

 

See here - http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/alienware-15-r2.html

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks to everyone above. I just got my R3 today, and I'm running 1.1.5. Saw the newer bios, and was gonna update but read this thread and know it's best to run 1.2.2 with my Alienware Amp. Definitely don't want the performance hit of 1x instead of 4x gfx speeds.

For those who use the amp, if you don't buy and use a graphics card for the amp right away, can you still use the USB ports? And I don't see a power button on the amp. I assume you plug it in, boot the PC, and it just works linking to the power of the laptop? I setup a shuttle desktop computer and a separate shuttle case I used as an external hard drive enclosure. I didn't use a power button on the enclosure, because the PC and enclosure were linked, so the power for one always ran with the other.

Thanks guys. Looking forward to the new gaming system.

 

I could not get it working without a GPU. I wanted to use the AGA as a PCI expansion slot for a SAS RAID controller as well as the extra USB ports. I tried that, an Intel NIC, and no PCI card. All 3 methods at best put me in this perpetual reboot cycle with Windows. I'd get errors screaming about needing a reboot to configure the AGA - this was several months ago so I do not remember the exact verbiage. After fiddling for a number of hours with uninstalling and reinstalling various drivers I gave up and haven't used it since as I'm waiting for the new Nvidia GPUs.

 

How do you use BIOS recovery?

Googled it but cant find an answer

 

Put the bios file on a USB flash drive hit f12 at boot up and there is a flash recovery option and it will install the downloaded bios exe.

 

cruisin5268d - Sorry to hear it didn't work for you. I got my laptop a couple days after posting, connected the amp, and I've been able to use the USB ports without issue. It's basically just a REALLY big USB hub at this point, since I wasn't using the PCIe slot at all, but it works great.

pathfindercod - Exactly. I downloaded the 1.2.2 BIOS from the web link listed previously, put it on my USB stick in .exe format, went into my older BIOS, pointed to the file on the USB stick, and was able to upgrade the BIOS without any boot cd's, WinPE usb sticks, or anything. It was simple and worked great! (Obviously not a "recovery", but if the recovery is half as simple, it's a no brainer.)

Overall, as usual, I feel very lucky to have Notebook Review's forums for figuring out the best info about my laptop. I've upgraded my video drivers to the latest versions since installing the Alienware drivers first, and everything seems to be working great! I just need to spend some more time installing my usual apps, and a few more games, and I'm going to LOVE my new notebook!

 

Does the AW 17 R3 / AW 15 R2 throttle like the R2/R1 did?
Do these use a "Hybrid Bios" that uses the battery for extra power?

 

Nope, this has been fixed now. I've tested this by running heaven benchmark and 8 threads of prime at the same time so the system is fully loaded. The 6820hk CPU stays at its maximum (3.2ghz) turbo for 8 threads (not OCed)
It still doesn't throttle when overclocking the 6820hk to 4ghz on all 4 cores and running the same tests.

They also come with a 240w psu by default now so no battery discharging under load

 

Still nothing from alienware support, they asking me for proof of purchase, which should be linked to the service tag? DUH!

 

Did you use Intel Extreme tuning to see if there was any Current Throttling or Power Limit Throttling?

Regardless I bought a 17 R3 so I will test myself

Im crossing my fingers they have fixed their crippled BIOS from the 17R2 / 15R1

Cheers!

 

I had to roll back to the 1.2.2. BIOS on my AW 15 R2. I was having the F1 to retry boot for my Samsung 951 drive whenever I did a reboot. Worked fine from a cold boot with the 1.2.12 BIOS.

Hopefully the next BIOS doesn't have that same glitch.

 

So this latest BIOS is bunk?

 

That's what the word on the street is...

I see they have just released a new BIOS update for the 13" so maybe the 15 and 17" will have a new one soon too.

 

So what is the BIOS that is suggested?
1.2.8?

 

1.2.2 is the one i recommend. 1.2.8 also has some bugs.

 

My laptop came with 1.2.3 do you recommend downgrading it from 1.2.3?

 

Hmm I'm currently on 1.2.7 and it seems fine minus the occasional restart I gotta do from a cold boot because it's not loading windows. I'm blaming the 950 pro for that issue.

 

I have a 951 that does the same thing. I blame the BIOS for not seeing the drive properly. No reboot issue after going back to 1.2.2 from a later BIOS.

 

Hmm, tempted. But surely there has to be stuff that's fixed in the later bios. Not including the most recent one that adds bricking features.

 

I wouldn't be so sure, all of the later updates seem to break things including reducing AGA performance and apparently in some cases, kill machines some time after updating (I'm looking at you, 1.2.12).

I've been on 1.2.2 since I had the reboot issues and my machine has not faltered since. The newer BIOS updates have not added any significant fixes as far as im concerned so, if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it.

 

Cool. Im going to stay on 1.2.3 until there is a new one out.

 

Funny, 1.2.3 is the one BIOS update that seems to have been permanently removed from Dell servers...

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/alienware-15-r2.html

 

Okay, so if anyone recalls about 1.2.3, it had these notes.
- Fixes & Enhancements
- Enhancement:
- Add dGPU-AMD for vRAM-8Gbits support
Essentially, it was a slightly modified version of 1.2.2. However, the R9 m395x isn't available to choose for the 15 R2 (at least in the US). Maybe there was something wrong with the "fix" for the R9 m395x, but we don't know that since no one here has an AMD 15.

 

I've been running 1.2.3 since it came out and it seems fine. However, it does seem odd that that version is the only BIOS not available. If there's something toxic there I'd hope to find out!

 

Keep us updated if there is something toxic though.

 

No need to update the Bios! This machine has served me well time and time again!


Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk.

 

Well, when the pascal geforce comes out, we might need to update bios. And you know what kind of fun can of worms that'll be.

 

Pascal will most likely cause a complete refresh of each model I suspect.

 

Oh I meant the desktop 1080 and 1070 cards coming very soon. I'd be amazed if you can just slot them into the graphics amp without any sort of update from dell.