BIOS Update Released - Throttling, GPU Performance issues. AW 14/17

Dear owners of the new Alienware 14 or Alienware 17 notebook, we've just posted the new A04 BIOS update for these two systems with some tweaks that will improve your GPU performance and clock speeds.

This BIOS update is intended only for the recent notebooks launched in June and should not be updated by anyone with the previous M14x or M17x systems.

Head over to the support site and grab your updates at:

AW14

AW17

 

Thanks, i'll receive my system tomorrow, will see with wich bios version will arrive and udate if necessary

 

Thanks Luis! Installed on my new 14 today. Will test it out tonight!

 

I can confirm that this fixed the throttling issue on my 14. Hooray, and thanks!

 

Yep me to, 9 hours of BF on mix of ultra/high settings, online on 64 player server. CPU maxed and hovered at 70 and gpu maxed at 58. Im pretty ecstatic!

Pretty dang potent 14 inch laptop!

 

League of Legends still gets pretty bad framerate drops on switchable mode, but my Tomb Raider benchmark is waaaay better now. Everything else seems to run fine with switchable on, but I haven't been able to play much yet

 

is it always recommended to update to the latest bios when they are released? guy at alienware tech support advised speaking with them to see if it was necessary for each individual service tag. he also appeared to suggest that flashing too many times could damage the motherboard. does that sound like good advice?

 

No, that sounds exactly like support staff that have no clue what they're talking about. What's going on with U.K. Alienware support?

 

we have a uk number here to phone 0800 2799751 but i think we are routed to slovakia. anyway, i think what the guy was trying to say was that it not good for the motherboard to 'jump' an update eg go from a00 > a03 or a03 > a07 etc. whereas going from a00 > a01, a01 > a02, a02 > a03 etc was fine.

 

Its ok to install the latest bios no matter what version your on. The bios code contains all the fixes in between. I update Dell optiplex machines all the time that have the initial a00 or a01 bios sometimes updating to a12 or a15, I have never had an issue out the dozens if not hundreds of dell machines I've done.

 

I notice if I hibernate my AW14 and then once I start back up again, max clock is 600MHz on the GPU.
Can this be fixed so I don't have to restart my computer each time I want to power off without losing everything?

 

What about the throttling issue on The M14x R2 !?!? Why are we getting shafted after waiting over a year for a fix?!

 

I have another thread concerning this, but I figured I'd post it here in case it is a common issue with the recent BIOS releases. Both BIOS A03 and A04 do not have the "USB Wake Support" setting in the BIOS advanced menu for me, making the only way to wake the computer from sleep by opening the lid or hitting the power button, which is very annoying when trying to use it as a desktop replacement with the lid closed. However, "USB Wake Support" is present and functional under BIOS A00. Can anyone verify whether or not they are also missing "USB Wake Support" from the A04 Bios?

 

I know I put this in your main thread, but I'm on A04 and I do have that option available to me.

 

@tangerines - On my system A04 doesn't have a USB Wake Support option. My unit shipped with A00 and I upgraded to A03 and A04 when they were released.

Very strange that @Tweak155 does have the option on his 14...

 

Are you serious? What about the M14XR2? Heaps of us are still having this throttling problem so why aren't we getting a fix after waiting for a year? I will NEVER buy another dell/Alienware product ever again with this kind of attitude towards genuine customers.

 

Were these changes reversed in A06? That's what I'm currently running and I'm getting throttling with or without Optimus enabled.

To make matters worse, it continues to throttle even after the GPU has dropped back down to 50 degrees.

 

overclock GTX 765M together with 4700mq 1600mhz 16gb ram 14 inch laptop Firestrike 3DMARK 2896 points with 9526 physics

View image: GTX765 M BEST STABLE OVERCLOCK

gtx765m best stable overclock all in one screenshot.

extra answers which are not available in screenshot;

i opened the case and put another 12 volt core 2 quad extreme fan on top of the fan. it is on the hdmi side of the notebook on the back corner, focus your fan on this place, or leafs of fan.
you can never achive 9500 phsics unless you do this.
if you limit your cpu to 3ghz case closed, 3.1 case open you can hit 8400
no easyly available laptop cooler can cool alienware ! just open the case and put it on a higher level than table op put it like a open book to the side with open case.

you can't stop throttling on overclock unless you lower the degree of the chip.

core 2 quad extreme had a bios setting which you disable (actually disable them all) and you can get rid of throttle nightmare

stop using other overclock softwares and flash v bios adding
nvflash -4 -5 -6 biosname

with -4 -5 -6 it force overwrites old bios. in my case it said it is different id so it can't

what i share is a 1 week work please tumbs up!

volkantekcan com