Force downgrade Alienware Area-51m Bios (or any alienware) to locked lower versions

fortunately this is not so; replacing the processor helped

 

so downgrading a bios kills CPU?

:s sounds intentional by AW

 

It seems this post would of been a key to me about an hour or so ago before I believe I bricked my 51m.

attempted downgrade 1.5.0 to 1.3.2 and I'm left with the 2 red and 1 blue.

 

Sorry for your loss, hope you manage to fix it.

Try to place a CPU in a desktop Motherboard. Would be interesting to see the results.

 

As for now the general concensus should be: PEOPLE NEVER REVERT TO BIOS 1.3.2. (3 people have broke their CPU and 1 his CPU and MB doing that on new system that came with bios 1.8.1 preinstalled).
Is it possible it will not break the cpu if you decide to attemps=yes some have succed many times but with older system. Is the gain in performance worth a new CPU chips (600$usd) NO.

User------------------bios pr installed-----------built time----------dead parts going to 1.3.2
@Normimb-----------1.8.1---------------------------early 2020 ---------CPU
@JonJadot ----------1.8.1---------------------------early 2020---------- CPU/MB (2 prts just in case)
@Pass_00 ----------1.8.1----------------------------early 2020---------waiting for outcome
@manitu -------------1.8.1----------------------------early 2020---------CPU

 

I still don't get how it breaks the CPU. I'd love to actually do some testing vs just listening to Dell. Have people tried to reseat the CPU? Tried doing a recovery bios and going back to 1.8.1? Clearing CMOS? I mean I was a tech for years and I've only ever seen a handful of bad CPUs.

 

I can speak for my experience. Reseat the CPU, i oponed the laptop, removed the cpu and inspect put it back in and new paste, Is that reseating the CPU? CMOS, i disconnected the battery and CMOS battery from the motherboard for few minutes holding power button. Is that clearing CMOS? I did not try a recovery bios because we cannot acces the bios when this happens.

I personnaly confirmed twice wiht dell repair center that the issue was only with the CPU and not the MB. My laptop came back with a new CPU and bios 1.5.4 i don't know why.
Hope this information can help.

 

Yes that was reseating the CPU and clearing the CMOS. You may still be able to recover the bios though: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...the-bios-on-a-dell-computer-or-tablet?lang=en

Yes dell said it's the CPU, I don't trust them. If they put 1.5.4 on there, that's likely what fixed it, they probably did it via recovery, lol...

 

@manitu had the same issue, he is from russia and they have no warranty there. So he bought a new CPU and it solved his problem.
I also find it strange that my laptop came back with bios 1.5.4 while i was flashing 1.3.2 from 1.7.3. It is still a mystery what is happening but for now, we should all avoid this 1.3.2 bios downgrade i believe.

@Pass_00 should attemp dell recovey right now. Just to be sure.

 

@manitu, you replaced the CPU and the system booted? Did you try going back to the original CPU after? Have you tried the original cpu in anything else?

 

They probably replaced the motherboard, or they detected a downgrade attempt and flashed the bios for you.

Ive once had a minor issue with Dell Alienware 18 motherboard (RGB not working correctly) they replaced the motherboard.

The guys working at DELL are professionals, I really doubt they benefit from scamming you over 600$.

It would be wise to document Motherboard revision's for those who bricked their CPUs.

You can also file a complain to Intel, Ive read similar incident happened to someone who upgraded his Motherboard Bios (ON A DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD).

Care.

 

thanks everyone for chiming in
No luck on all suggestions so far. Tried a bunch of different things. Does anyone have a link to the dell bios recovery usb 2 tool they speak of? I can't locate it.

In the time being I will try disconnecting battery and removing cmos battery. Push and hold power button. Also will leave it for minimum 30 minutes to ensure its cleared.

will post back

** randomly on attempt #?? I was holding esc and control plugged and long press power and got the solid light blue light... I released when light came on as instructed. It looked like it was attempting something then came back to 2 red 1 blue.. progress

 

Yes it would be a good idea to attempt going back to the original GPU. Just to be sure 100%. @manitu

They replaced the CPU not the MB according to Alienware tech support and i asked twice to be sure. Now are they telling the truth....i don't know but the 9900K performs about exactly the same as the one they replaced, Same undervolt, same CB15 score.

 

How much they charged you?

 

I'm late to the post but yeah, bricked mine.

Had briefly installed 1.8.1, but I was running 1.7.3. Went to 1.5.0 before attempting to go for 1.3.2.

A technician changed the board for a new one. Computer runs again. Wasn't charged anything, probably since I deemed the mobo defective due to severe coil whine.

My original mobo was rev 1. The replacement is rev 2.

Enviado desde mi HTC One M9 mediante Tapatalk

 

Well... had a few months of non-throttled bliss... it's back.

I'm being throttled again. Can't find a rhyme or reason and it's behaving a bit differently than the traditional throttle. Is it possible my thermals got so bad after only a year of use that I'm still getting throttled even on 1.5.0 Bios?

 

Check if AWCC allows for temperature control over the GPU. If it's locked to 75C, then you need to apply the fix.

Enviado desde mi HTC One M9 mediante Tapatalk

 

AWCC isn't installed atm.

 

Anyone flash back from 1.10.0?

 

Installed AWCC and I can't get anything useful under the Fusion section to load so I can't check and confirm the setting you are referring to.

 

Yes

 

does Tobi eye work with 1.5.0? Also any work around for G-Sync

 

Hi guys currently on
Version: 1.10.0

Want to push back to 1.7 as I want to be able to under volt, but worried about bricking has anybody bricked going back to 1.7?

 

CONFIRMED: Works on Alienware m17, downgraded from 2.5.0 to 2.0.4 which allows undervolting and now i can undervolt without issues (apart from that the undervolt does not help much).

 

I've downgraded many times, make sure you unblock any file you download first! Right click on the file, go to properties, then hit unblock from the bottom if it was blocked. To stop this stupid auto blocking of files for good, see: "Are you sure you want to run this file?" [Yes or No]

Here is what I recommend:


a) Uninstall Alienware Update AKA Dell Update and Dell SupportAssist otherwise they will keep nagging you to update your BIOS.


b) Flash the BIOS using the Recovery USB which you created using the guide I showed you earlier.


c) Immediately head into BIOS and make sure you disable Firmware Capsule Updates in the Security tab otherwise Windows will immediately upgrade your BIOS!


d) Once you're back in Windows, reflash the same 1.5.0 BIOS again but in Windows, I had to do that last time as I was getting weird behavior (I can't remember what exactly but once you have flashed 1.5.0 in recovery mode, you will be able to flash 1.5.0 again through Windows since you're not technically downgrading anymore you are just reinstalling the same BIOS) so do that to ensure the BIOS is 100% flashed correctly.


e) The moment the BIOS is flashed, go back into BIOS and load setup defaults then save and exit (from the last tab in the BIOS)


f) Now enter BIOS again, set your battery from Adaptive to Custom and tell it to start charge at 50% and stop charge at 90%. This will ensure the battery is never over charged and will thus prolong its life.


g) In the 2nd tab in the BIOS, I recommend turning OFF Power Share as that will drain your battery if your laptop had a USB device that needs power overnight (such as an external HDD or Game Pad)


h) While you're in the BIOS, ensure that Firmware Capsule updates are OFF

 

All done thanks bud !

 

Is there anyone who is able to edit a newer bios and stop the thermal throttling? so one can keep the security updates and new features like the better compatibility with new graphics cards in graphics amplifier? As if I do travel I dont want this problem of the graphics card throttling so easily.

 

Nope. http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1771#post-10981390

 

So I might be forgetting but does the earlier BIOS let you go above 87*C on the GPU?

 

1.5.0 will let you go above the new thermal limit of 75c, which has been set in pretty much every BIOS post 1.5.0.

 

Well I am on the latest BIOS and the 87 slider works fine. After the latest update of Alienware command center I did paste in the profiles.zip from another thread.


I do find that gaming on "Full Fans" works great.

 

So very fortunately for me someone on Reddit forwarded me to this thread. i have just bought an alienware M15 R1 with an i7 9750h and an rtx 2070 MaxQ. i recieved the laptop with the bios already in 2.4.1 brand new out of the box. thankfully after reading a previous comment on here of the guy getting to from from 2.5 to 2.0.1 on his M17 R1 which runs the same exact same BIOS as the M15 i decided to take my chance at it. i upgraded myself form 2.4.1 to 2.5 so i could be running the same software as the person with the M17 then followed the steps from OP and Voila i am magically now on 2.0.1 and have access to undervolting. undervolted my cpu to -160 this far and brought my heaven extreme benchmark from throttling all 6 cores to all cores capping out no higher than 83 for a 20 minute test. tomorrow i will be replacing the thermal paste with kryptonaught to try and increase performance even further. thank you guys so much for the immense amount of info and im happy that i can confirm for you guys that this has worked for me. also note though in OP's origanal instructions. on dells website in the bios download options. they already had and RCV file available to downlaod so i used that one instead of using the CMD to make my own from an HDR and it worked just fine. thank you again

 

Kriptonaugh, that's new

Seriously tho, don't use Kryonaut. Temps will be good for a couple of days and them they will get worse.

Enviado desde mi GM1913 mediante Tapatalk

 

Gelid Extreme, Phobya (though erosive to heatsink and die) I would personally recommend (non conductive)

If you want liquid metal you can use Conductunaut / Liquid Metal Extreme and one more Chinese liquid metal (I forgot the name )

bear in mind this liquid metal eats away a layer of copper forming a black mark.

 

Another way to do this (tested on my AW 15 R4), the way to downgrade is:
1) Place the .RCV 1.11.0 BIOS file on the USB drive
2) Rename to BIOS_IMG.RCV
3) Insert into any USB port
4) Turn off your pc
5) Hold CTRL + ESC, press the power button, hold CTRL + ESC until the BIOS update screen opens. (Do nothing on the menu)
6) Remove the USB drive from the computer and replace the BIOS_IMG.RCV file with the previous BIOS with the same name. (ex: 1.8.1.crv for BIOS_IMG.RCV) - On another PC, ok?
7) Insert the USB drive again into the same USB port.
8) Follow the process to update the BIOS.

In my case, undervolt is not working back again, but the BIOS is again 1.8.1 instead 1.11.1.

If anyone makes progress, share it! Here the temperature without undervolt is complicated!

 

This tutorial Works!!!!

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/m15-R1-can-t-undervolt/td-p/7554257

Just change the BIOS_PRE.RCV with the older bios in EFI partition
Restart in BIOS RECOVERY and make the ROLLBACK BIOS.

 

@S.K Do you mind if I copy this into the /r/Alienware FAQ? Or at least put a link to it, with credit to you of course.

 

Nope, why would I mind? The main purpose of this info was to help the community out and nothing more. Feel free to copy-paste all of it.

 

Hey can I ask a favor? You followed the guide above where it mentions going to EFI > Dell > Etc to get to where the BIOS.PRE file is located. Can you make me a list or show me a screenshot of the files in that directory?

I had a crash on my Alienware provided hard drive and that means I lost the recovery files and the Dell EFI folder so I'm going to try and create each directory manually and try to find the files that need to go in there to roll back my bios cause right now every USB version I connect it tells me I have an invalid header image. If you don't mind helping I would appreciate it!

 

This is such a great thread. It's nice to see all the involvement. Kudos @S.K

 

Be careful if have gone to 1.13 on the Area51m R1

I went to 1.13 and noticed the physics score dropped so I decided to Guinea pig the roll back as no one else seems to have yet. Everything went OK right up until the machine rebooted after making the usual BIOS adjustments to prevent the auto update due to firmware capsule updates. The machine did it's usual 5 or so reboots after I rolled it back, the splash screen came up, I entered the BIOS, all was good until I made adjustments and restarted, after which the machine wouldn't boot past the rainbow keyboard. Screen stayed off, there was no activity other then it was getting really warm to the touch, even more so then when I game on it, like the CPU was plugging away but the fans were not ramping up. I power cycled the machine after about 20 minutes of inactivity and was greeted the same thing, black screen and rainbow lights.

I plugged the roll back USB back in and powered down the machine and attempted the flash again. The machine booted up to the BIOS recovery and allowed me to do the BIOS flash again. Once again it did it's usual multi reboot thing and once the splash screen came up I entered the BIOS again and changed just the firmware capsule updates off this time and saved it. Once again the LCD stayed black and I had rainbow lights . I did the flash back once again and this time, because the screen would come on every time at this point, I left it and let it do what it was going to do. The machine did the usual splash screen, then rebooted again and then it came back up but it was updating using the BIOS update that happens when Windows does it for you, so clearly it was grabbing it from the internet, not the usual blue BIOS update screen. This time the machine did manage to boot again successfully and it appears to be working again, but it's on 1.12 instead of 1.7.3 or 1.13.

Maybe this was a glitch on my part, maybe something in the new 1.13 BIOS stops flashing back past 1.12, I don't know. I am done trying to give myself a heart attack today.

Just a warning for those going forward, if you try to go back it may or may not work. If you do attempt to roll back and experience the same behavior then you may have to leave firmware capsule updates on and let it do the update to get it back.

If you rely on 1.5.0 to use your machine your probably not trying new firmware updates anyways, but REALLY don't do it now.

 

Apparently I like to live dangerously.....I tried it again. Successfully back on 1.7.3 this time, so either I had a bad flash and when the machine updated to 1.12 it fixed that and allowed me to go back, or you can't go back from 1.13 to older version directly and need to possible go back to 1.12 and then further back from there, maybe it's a multi step process now.

IF this happens to anyone else, make sure you have a hardline plugged in, I don't think that the Wi-Fi will work before Windows loads. Hopefully IF this happens to anyone else the machine will do it's thin and download / apply the 1.12 BIOS through the capsule updates and get it going again.

 

Same problem here. I success downgrade my bios to 1.8.1 based on guides in this thread. but i not recovery the hability for make undervolting after downgrade. any way to recovery this options?

 

Alienware 17r4 BIOS 1.10
Followed exact instructions. BIOS version used: 1.9.0
Anddddd here is the result
I'm glad I got away from the BIOS undervolt lock.

 

Had my BIOS updated from 1.9.0 to 1.10.0 by a Dell Technician. Followed the steps on the first couple of pages, and I am back to undervolt land with 1.9.0 on my 15 R3. Really glad this thread exists.

 

What were the steps you followed to make this work for you? I'm trying to downgrade my 15R3 (Skylake) from 1.10.0 to 1.9.0, but I keep getting "ROM Image Signature is invalid. ROM Image update denied" when it boots into the recovery screen.

I get this whether I use the 1.9.0 install EXE, or the 1.10.0 install EXE (extracting with /writehdrfile). If I download the recovery BIOS image for 1.10.0 directly from Dell's site (which isn't available for any previous version, oddly), it works. I do notice, though, that the 1.10.0 RCV file you can download form Dell is 16MB. But the HDR files that are written by the update EXEs are 8MB. If I peek into them with a hex editor, the 16MB file is exactly two 8MB files pasted together, and neither of those matches the HDR file written by the Dell 1.10.0 EXE.

I'm kind of confused, and would love to get undervolting working again. Any hints would be great!

 

I just followed the steps provided by S.K and luciela (because I had trouble making the Diagnostic Stick). I already had the 1.9.0 BIOS file since last year (as in, February of last year), so I wonder if they made changes to the BIOS file.
In any case, I would first check if you are correctly making a Diagnostic Stick. I wonder if that might solve your problem.

 

Ok, I'll give that a few more shots, to make sure. Also, would you be able to send me the 1.9.0 HDR file that you used? I'm thinking that, for some reason mine might not be extracting correctly.

Are you using SecureBoot, and UEFI, or did you disable them to do the rollback?

I really appreciate your time to give me a hand!

 

I will double check if I'm using UEFI, but I do believe I am not using Secure Boot.
I can send you my 1.9.0 RCV file (I have already renamed it) if need be. Just PM me about it.

 

This is rather important, I have updated to the latest bios trying to fix my HDD not available.

I want to roll back to 1.5.0, can I do this normally now or I have to do it in steps?