AW15 R1 / 17 R2 Beta BIOS A06 (AWA)

EDIT: Official A06 out.
Have at it. It improves keyboard and palm rest surface temperatures. So a change in temperature readings and fan tables, most likely. But actual response will determine that.
Download Here
This BIOS may also likely be the base for the 15 R2 and 17 R3.

 

As stated in thread, it has wrong checksum. I'd say keep away until full release. But this looks optimistic somehow... L_Porras, could you say something more about this?

 

The checksum is only bad in that one VGA BIOS EFI. It will flash and work, but it might cause issues down the line with driver updates. With it being a BIOS flash, and a beta one for that matter, it's all at your risk. We do have a proper bootblock recovery for this machine that I found a few months back from the USBRecovery rom in the BIOS, so we're covered.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/bios-flash-issue.778528/#post-10051222

 

As much as I would hope this BIOS would be compatible with the refreshes, sadly some hardware has changed and won't be compatible such as Thunderbolt 3 and PCI.E M.2.. Sadly, those will require new BIOS's that won't be supported on the lines out now, unless they add code that is compatible and only initialized using "if" statements in the BIOS code. I don't see Compal doing that unfortunately.. Would be nice though as it would keep the BIOS updates more current..

 

Well, when I mean base, I mean the ground. Adding features to the base is doing more than what is present, and obviously, necessary changes will make some differences.
I'll update the OP with your post over at AWA. It's important for users to be cautious whether to update or not. This may mean that the "Golden" A06 won't have these errors.

 

The "golden" one will probably not have that bad driver.. This is a Beta after all, but it will still flash and work, just bad checksum on the VGA BIOS. A06 will flash fine, if the flasher detects the bad checksum, it will use the OPROM that's already on the machine as it's the same build since A00. This A06 also has older bootblock so it won't update, so we can recover if bad flash.

 

Awesome I'll try this when I get home and report back!!

 

I'm a bit worried to use this since it's a beta version but can somebody verify that is has fixes for CPU throttling issue or not?

 

So you guys reckon this is pretty safe to flash? I'm ready to do it now!

 

it's beta, expect some bugs, im so ready for a06 also. i want to hear those fanssss

 

So any feedback on A06? I hope the reason there are no feedbacks isn't exploded AW laptops

 

How high is high? (temps) because I was playing GTA V on very high settings today and my temps were never higher than 76°c on both the gpu and cpu. **A05 bios**

 

I wonder what is keyboard improvement? When I playing GTA V, control an airplanes, I can't hold W + 8 + 6 for moving forward and right turn, but I can do W + 8 + 4 for left turn. there is some extra combination that do not work and I don't remember it now. Will this fix this problem or not?

 

is that max temp from using hwinfo64 or current temp when playing? just wanted to know.. thanks

 

Lol, I get over 76°C when just idling on A05!! Max temps hit 91°C!

Were you using HWiNFO to put the fans to max speed by any chance?

 

I am always running between 72c and 78c while gaming. While doing productivity around 60~70c. But the fans arent even spinning up then it seems.

 

wow.. both you and chris wayne are lucky. if i use a05 idle is 60+ max. surfing the net using chrome or watching videos it will reach 70+ and on gaming it reaches 90+. these are max temp using hwinfo64.
hopefully a06 will fix heat problems.

 

Just flashed A06: it worked, but YMMV.

Makes me glad I had a touch-screen though, here's why... the BIOS flashed well (as expected), but what messed up is when the Intel Firmware Update command prompt appeared and blocked the whole operation. It was stuck doing nothing for ages (like one hour), plus mouse and keyboard operation was disabled. So... I closed it via touch EC firmware flashed successfully after closing that.

Edit:
Average temperature with my AW15 4710hq on A06 in a relatively cool room:
Starting from idle: 57-63'C (barely any fan noise)
Initial XTU CPU stress test: 77-80'C (light fan noise)
Extended stress test (above): 70-74'C (medium-light fan noise)
Light web browsing: 53-55'C (light fan noise = cooler than idle)

Keyboard remained very comfortable throughout usage. Thumbs up for fan profiles It's somewhere between A00 and A05, but pretty much the best of both worlds.

 

Any words on CPU throttling? (Probably a BIOS update won't be able to fix that but anyways, I still have a little hope)

 

Well, it didn't throttle before, and A06 doesn't make it start throttling now. As for fixes, not sure...

 

In all the thread I have seen, no one talks about the room temperature. Someone could be using the system in rooms with excellent cooling and low temps and getting low system temperature while others could be in rooms with high temps and getting high system temperature. Ambient temp can have a big effect on the system and people need to specify their ambient temperature along with the system temps you are reporting to understand the problem better

 

Well, I'm sitting in a 13'C room, if that helps. The way I understand it though, the fan table should compensate for warmer rooms by spinning harder (same temps, more noise). Kind of like how benefits of undervolting are hidden... unless it's really warm with hot air in, and even hotter air out (which is why undervolt benefits only really appear under load).

 

Nice one! I'm kind of put off trying the beta BIOS by the way the guys were talking about it! And I don't have a touch screen, so if I came across the same issue as you had, I might get stuck there! Maybe a USB mouse would work in that situation, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to try it out!

Fair play to you for trying it out! And cheers for posting temps! Please report back in a day or two and let us know how you are getting on!

 

So has anybody else tried this?

 

I'm travelling out of US, I have already got a dead pixel and I want to replace the screen right now. I don't want to risk the bios again.

 

Someone on AWA is using A06. His findings.
"1. Flashed OK with no issues.

2. Temperatures are not so good. A little better than a05 but it still need to crank some numbers on those tables.

Iddle: 45C (same as a00)

On max load: CPU: max 92, average 81, GPU: max 85, average 75. (a00 values: 85, 75. 78, 72)

Fans profiles are still in stealth mode and they take a lot of time to kick in, so max temps reach very high. 10 minutes into full CPU and GPU load and the fans never got to full speed spin

After ending benchmarks temperatures rapidly get low to near idle temperature.

Keyboard surface feels hot while on load, and warm while idle (not bad but... It takes about 15 minutes (of no use) to cool down from load temps)

Bottomline, not as good as the a00 but way better than any other released bios so far

3. Finally s3 resume throttle is fixed. Great job! (My note: Wasn't this fixed in A05?)

4. I saw a RAID option in the BIOS but I didn't test it because I only have one hard drive installed

Well, I'm keeping this BIOS for a while to see if I can find any bugs. I'll report back if I do"

 

Nope, just playing the game at very high settings, a couple of light apps in the background.

 

I think that in A05 they didn't fixed it completely yet. After several sleeps and wakes, I saw it throttle to 2.6GHz. I used XTU and see that Power Limit Throttling happen to 100% during the stress test or benchmarking. After a reset, It works normal.

 

Don't worry about the Intel video oROM (vBIOS), its just customized (which it should actually always be on a mobile system with internal screen)...nothing wrong there...

 

Can someone else here try A06 with multiple SSDs to see if RAID works?
Oh, and the same person who reported this said that the fan tables aren't as good as A00. Gets hot after 30 minutes and fans don't go full speed.

 

Just tried flashing the BETA BIOS and I'm now stuck here for the last 15 mins! Keyboard and touchpad are unresponsive and plugging in an external mouse doesn't work either. I don't have a touch screen.

Is it safe to power off and reboot the system?



Edit: the power button doesn't work either, so I'm going to have to let the battery run flat or disconnect it.

 

I wouldn't recommend this BIOS update for the faint of heart! I'm now on A06, but I had to disconnect the battery to get the system to shut down and luckily it booted back up.

I'll do some testing and report back on the temps.

 

I did some testing before I flashed A06 while I was on A00, and then ran the same tests on A06. So far the temps look comparable to me.

I ran the tests in the same room, within a couple of hours of each other. The outside temperature is 20°C, so it's a little cooler inside, but I don't have a thermometer. I have the AW15, i7-4710HQ & 970M, both at stock clocks for this test. I'm also running the 240W adapter.

I restarted the system, opened GPU-Z, XTU, CPU-Z & HWmonitor and let the system idle.
I took the idle temperature after 15mins, ran Heaven 4.0 for 15 mins and noted the max temps and steady state temps after 15 mins.
I shut down Heaven and let it idle for 15 mins, took the idle temp. Ran Prime 95 and noted the max temp and steady state temp.
I then let the system idle for a further 15 mins and took the idle temp again.

Here are the results I found and some screenshots:

BIOS A00:

- 15 mins idle: 52°C
- Heaven CPU max: 80°C,
- Heaven CPU Steady State: 68°C
- Heaven GPU max: 64°C
- Heaven GPU Steady State: 63°C
- Prime95 CPU max: 78°C
- Prime95 CPU Steady State: 72°C
- 15 mins idle after tests: 56°C

BIOS A06:

- 15 mins idle: 51°C
- Heaven CPU max: 82°C,
- Heaven CPU Steady State: 73°C
- Heaven GPU max: 64°C
-Heaven GPU Steady State: 62°C
- Prime95 CPU max: 76°C
- Prime95 CPU Steady State: 70°C
- 15 mins idle after tests: 57°C

CPU temps were a little bit higher on A06 for Heaven 4.0 and a little bit lower for Prime95.
The steady state temps were hard to get as they were sometimes fluctuating up and down a couple of degrees.

Keyboard temps on A06 felt good, but I will do a few hours of gaming and see how it is after that.

Note: Flashing A06 beta BIOS is definately at your own risk, it might be worth waiting for an official version or at least a beta version without the intel vBIOS flashing issue.

A00 Heaven 4.0:

A06 Heaven 4.0:

A00 Prime 95:

A06 Prime 95:

 

They told me the final version is set to drop anytime now on twitter, hope that guy is a good source...

 

Well i have A06 BIOS and i cant find RAID 0 OPTION anywhere ..... i am going to test the temps.

 

well i do the same test as kgh00007 and i didnt find a lot of changes, like 2°C less and nothing else. No raid 0 option and i hear the fans as the same speed as BIOS A05.


i have better temps stability because i made a repaste with IC Diamond 24, and i do an undervolt using Intel Xtreme Utility

 

i want to say that i made intel xtreme utility test .... i am going to do the same heaven test

 

i have a lot lower temps than you ... i am using IC diamond 24

 

did you notice that the max frequency in A00 is 3.1ghz and with A06 is 3.4ghz?

 

Just FYI an Alienware support rep told me that the issues that plague the 15/17 have been fixed from a design / engineering level in the new revisions and the bios fixes on the old ones are more like bandaids to get the systems to the best working condition they can. He was really candid with me and suggested to me I find a way to get a R3/R2.
Pretty awful statement but it was directly from an employee. He said he had one of these models and he was going to swap it for a revision.

 

Can you use XTU to check power throttling? I recently got a power throttling to 100% when playing GTA V, but I didn't notice too much changed during playing games, it's only ate more RAM.

I used A05 with 240W psu.

 

I want to add that the BIOS A06 reduce the temps while gaming ... that is nice

 

I find that hard to believe, as far as I know almost all the internals regarding cooling are the same.

 

You are talking about A06, but there is still no official release. Anyone knows when we should expect A06?

 

look in 4 page ... someone put the link to download

 

Nice! What settings have you using for your undervolt? I'm still trying to find a stable undervolt.

I just got my hands on some Thermal-Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste, so I might do another repaste when I get the time and see how well that stuff works!

 

More good news is that the CPU bug when you resume from sleep has been fixed properly in A06 beta.

I have been using sleep for the last few days and can confirm that the CPU is able to use the full 47W TDP after resuming from sleep consistently with no problems gaming or running benchmarks!

 

i have you better news i have 3.4 Ghz at less than 37 W, i reduce the TDP and made an undervolt ( it make that the battery last more) like 6 hours on battery while browsing or more.

here is my xtu profile. : https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=90B41C017C2C793A!769&authkey=!AHsvboyDde8Iq-I&ithint=file,xtu

and here... some tweaks to the battery plan

 

if you are going to repaste again, you should change the thermal pads too, for a premium pads

http://www.amazon.com/Fujipoly-mod-...8&qid=1442094153&sr=8-14&keywords=thermal+pad

this have 0,5mm of tickness