[Release] Improved M18x R2 Maxwell Legacy BIOS

I release here today my personal BIOS for the M18x R2. It is based upon svl7's unlocked A11, Swick's mods to A11, and I have changed back the boot images to default Alienware and Intel logos, as well as reverted the atheros LAN oprom back to the default version that does not take up extra boot time, since the oprom in swick's version cannot be disabled after hardboot. All other modifications done by swick and svl7 remain intact. Copy files from zip to root of usb in a usb-dos environment, run flash.bat. Simple. Tested by me on two of my M18x R2 systems, works without issue. I take no responsibility if you brick your system, flash at your own risk. Only thing left to do is to somehow enable 2133 for sandy bridge CPU in M18x R2 motherboard.

Remember, give thanks to svl7 and swick for their initial work on this. I release this freely to the public, nobody should pay for this.

EDIT 1/24/2020
LOGOS ARE FIXED FOR UEFI BOOT
Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GZ2NztBkAp_Xro1qtxWTIcjDH7CSgb8H/view?usp=sharing

 

Wow, thanks for this, I'll test it right away.

Btw I dont understand why this could't possible on M18X-R1 yet

 

flash size is different. m18x r2 flash size is about 1024kb bigger

 

So it basically boots faster than Swicks original modified vbios? I noticed you mentioned Atheros oprom is disabled, does this there is no ethernet? So what is the downside to this ROM if any?

 

Boots faster, retains original Alienware boot images, LAN works. all it does is revert to the original A11 LAN oprom version instead of the updated one with more options (that do not work)

 

Works as intended and thanks for this release Raidriar, that LAN boot screen was really getting in my nerves, a cleaner boot is much better.

 

Yes it bugged me too, that's why I decided to fix it and upload this. I got tired of not being able to disable the screen. Glad it works for you as well

 

K, I will try flashing to it later. + Rep.

 

Can I ask both of you @vulcan78 and @Raidriar a favor? Since you both have similar setups as me(980m) can you test the HDMI in feature and verify if it still works? I'm getting only a black screen when I try to connect anything in this port and I remember the time when i had 7970m crossfire it works just fine. Thanks in advance.

 

HDMI in works for me, in SLI and single mode.

 

Hum thanks for that, maybe a hardware issue then

 

Sorry I haven't flashed to it yet and I don't even have an HDMI cable on hand to test (980 Ti to monitor via Displayport).

 

I used HDMI a month ago. I have SLI and it was a pain in the @@ to get it to work. I tried several times to be able to connect it. Try another cable maybe. It seemed I wasn't making any conctat.

 

Hi need help please.

Is there a way to boot Win 7 on m18xr2 with a 970m onboard?

Is needed a vbios from @Prema or a modified bios only, or together?


Currently I'm on 84.04.88.00.C1 and when I set legacy to boot to Win7 I've got 8 beeps with bios number on screen and then black screen(so I'm removing bios battery at every try).
Same thing happen with hd4000 igfx.

On Win10 obviously is all fine (but is win10 meh).

thanks

 

Swicks or Raidriars modded system bios is all you need. Switch to intel gfx and flash it through dos.

 

Hi and thanks, I'm already on bios(A11) from Swick till month when released(last month here on NBR if i rembember right), maybe the issue is the UEFI located on different SSD than primary?
Like this https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...-huge-problems/&do=findComment&comment=104881

Or because my gpu's hw id isn't included in bios, because is
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1618&SUBSYS_05501028 (gsync ver)??

Many thanks mate

 

If you have installed the OS while you are on UEFI, then you cannot boot into the OS after going to Legacy.

I was on windows 10 and full UEFI, removed the GPUs (980m), installed modded bios, Reinstall GPUs, Booted to legacy and installed windows 7 x64.

Now I am with 980m SLI on windows 7 and latest modded drivers.

Switching to intel and booting to legacy still results 8 beeps?

 

Going to try again in a moment but if I rember well, I've already tried yesterday, thanks very much for support (this is my only pc)


Switching to intel and booting to legacy still results 8 beeps?


No 8 beeps, windows 7 is loading well (now I saw the bios alienlogo head changing, before the setting doesn't stick, so now I'll retry to switch to PEG)

SO windows 7 is booting fine with legacy + igfx but goes to 8beeps when select PEG (the only thing that show at reboot first of beeps was the @Prema's bios version)

 

I haven't tested the 970m but I believe it ia the same as the 980m. It should work.

If I get this straight. Switching to PEG and having already select legacy, the system boots and you can see the vbios version (by Prema) and then you have 8 beeps?

Do you have a single or a dual GPU (sli).

You can propably set the SG mode from bios ONLY if you have single GPU to see if it boots.

But before doing the above, check MrFoxs post on the dell community and try to see if those steps work. Credits go to him.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19501234

 

Thx really appreciate your help, Im'going to test SG+legacy

 

Yeah! ^_^ + rep 4 you mate

In SG mode + Legacy enabled the 970M boot to Win7 but the i see that hd4000 coexist in device manager (like optimus ).


Is there any performance degradation or issue by bootin in SG mode?

 

I am glad that worked, but still I don't understand why it doesn't work since 970m and 980m are similar. Propably it is the gsync model.

Now it is working like optimus. If you run a 3D aplication 970m will chip in and boost performance. If you right click on a game, an option saying with which GPU you would like to run, will show up.

The behavior seems like when we didn't have legacy available for maxwell and optimus was an one way route. Now with legacy, PEG is achievable.

 

now in bios I see both hd4000 and 970M at same time, so no performance issues on SG mode(why to prefer PEG mode)? Only remeber to check if swiching properly or adding trough nvidia control panel?

Best Regards

 

Yes, that is what SG is all about. Both GPUs co-exist. Battery life is better in this mode and also better longlife for the GPU since it is not active all the time.

Some games though don't play nice with optimus enabled. For some reason they don't utilize the PEG to work.

Glad it worked out, but I believe it is betrer to have it in PEG. Keep asking around and maybe a solution is there, or keep the pc like this since it is working.

Glad I could be an assistance

 

Got promoted @TI forum, now I'll try to flash bios a11 from Svl7&Swick1981 on top of mine (that from Raidriar).

Sorry to bore you all ^_^


edit: wow really ugly now with swick signature xD but PEG + legacy on DGPU is not working as before so I'm stick with SG Mode at moment see perf degradation trough 3dmark benchmark respect to my win10 in PEG mode (score about 4% better on w10, edit: 1,5% to 8,6% is the gain on peg mode, so I ask Klem at TI forum to modify the bios and insert the microcode of my gsync gpu)

 

Havent used this bios mod yet still using the swick one still. Only thing is i tried setting this SG mode on my own one.. and it wouldnt post. Had to yank the battery and CMOS reset to get it going again. My own system is a M18Xr2 with dual 980 and the 3920xm processor.

Not sure what it is with my one or wether I need to repaste and repad my CPU/GPU after all this time.....

 

SG mode doesn't work with DUAL GPU setups. That is why it was initially hidden in the options becsuse the M18x R1/R2 supports SLI/CF and selecting this will result to a post failure. I think I mentioned it in a previous post of mine.

SG mode is also useful for a bad vbios flash, again only if you have one GPU installed.

Are you having boot problems or heat problems?

 

Not heat related as far as I can see my GPU's normally operate around or under the 70'c mark.
CPU has spiked in the last while into the mid to upper 80s during gaming. I never removed the CPU cover when i installed the 980m's but its nearly 5 years and I'm thinking its gonna need a repasting at this stage anyways. Gonna repaste and stick in some new thermal pads too on the GPU's as I reused some of the original ones from the 675m's when I replaced them 2 years back.

Most of the issues I had with the computer tho was when I was cold booting the laptop it would get stuck and hang after the windows boot screen but before the login screen on windows 10. Issues never showed up as much on the intel one though sometimes the picture on the monitor would bounce occssionally. In the past the OS would also corrupt or suffer broken menus after a time forcing me to either try windows restore or roll back to a backup copy of the OS to repair it. In recent months this hasnt been an issue its stopped corrupting itself maybe due to a patch or possibly because I now keep it in sleep mode rather than shutting it down entirely. It's still twitchy though sometimes if I try to cold boot.

 

Just a minor update but I installed this BIOS onto my own M18Xr2 and its looking to be working fine on my own system as well. No more atheros showing so a little faster on booting now too.

 

@Raidiar there seems to be a small bug of sorts with this bios, when I set it to UEFI mode the other day the picture on the boot screen was tiny and the picture was off a bit. It didnt stop me from getting into the bios screen to set me back after 3 reboots but its a minor issue at least.

 

SAME EXACT ISSUE HERE - 980m legacy mode, stock vbios, swick bios, , im about to try SG hopefully maybe that works

the GPU worked 100% before bios flash so its not the hardware

EDIT: SG works!! still doesn't explain why PEG gives me 8 beeps....something that i need to figure out

 

Already answered elsewhere, you must insert GPU microcode in Bios to boot, and the Gsync are not included

 

ill be honest i just don't understand why I have to do this, why there were no warnings that I would have to custom modify the BIOS for my specific GPU if i understand you correctly? am I stuck running in integrated-only mode until then? i installed 345 drivers but even the control panel won't open so i really do not understand what's going on w my computer right now

 

Because Radriar and Swick have not inserted all gpus microcode when the bios was modified, so the gsync's version of gpus isn't present and not boot.

End


For driver issue:

Have you downloaded a modded .inf or modded your own ?

 

wouldn't this affect every single user with 900-series GPU's that flash this? it just blows my mind how there were no warnings or anything about this...isn't the whole POINT of this BIOS is to make the 900-series cards work in legacy?

 

copying this here because i just flashed this BIOS with the same result as the Swick one
==============================================
ok so giving this another go today - 980m 8GB Device ID 10DE-13D7 1028 (Dell) Vbios 84.04.22.00.12 - 8 beeps trying to switch to PEG with this BIOS and i need to know what the fix is

when booting in SG, i can see the dGPU in BIOS, in windows, even install drivers for it, but im still running on Intel
===============================================

im kind of stuck because the BIOS mod guys told me that my GPU device_ID is already in the BIOS code so there is nothing else he can do for me, yet PEG = 8 beeps so just running on Intel until i can figure something out i guess

according to my device ID - 10DE-13D7, i have a NON-GSYNC version of the 980m so really not sure where the issue is

 

Did u try the vbios from premas page? Try the non gsync one for the 8gb 980m the CLEVO one not the dell one.

 

i think i can't update the vbios now with this BIOS and i can't downgrade BIOS without having to swap GPU's because of legacy mode...right? i tried nvflash says "no nvidia card detected"

EDIT: i just DID update the vbios through windows in SG mode....same result 8 beeps when switching to PEG mode....i guess prema vbios are up next...then im out of ideas

EDIT:2: just tried Prema ....same result....im either missing something or i don't even know....what else is there to try?

 

Your machine is supposed to work, I actually using this config: M18X-R2 with two Clevo 980M(Prema V2) cards in SLI and using the very BIOS in this thread and its working wonders in PEG mode both in Windows 7/10 environment.... try using your videocard in UEFI mode to see it it works, If not maybe your card is somewhat defective.

 

i tried UEFI mode...and legacy too i think...im running win 8 UEFI right now so... and this card ran games 100% for months with zero issues before i flashed the new BIOS...its something simple im missing

EDIT: im considering throwing in my 780m and seeing if it boots on PEG mode with this BIOS...because right now im sitting without a working GPU anyway and it sucks

EDIT: i think im just going to flash A10 unlocked back on the system and call it a day at this point...i didn't really expect to encounter so many issues

EDIT: what's really irritating is that i can view the card, in device manager, gpu-z, nvidia inspector and even BIOS but can't boot in PEG with it....weird

 

so in the name of further testing i threw in my 780m and it booted right up in PEG mode....so that's nice but still doesn't get me any closer to answering the question of why my 980m isn't working so im just downgrading back to previous BIOS for now

EDIT: well this is getting interesting...put the 980 back in and it booted up in PEG mode....im open to explanations on that one

EDIT2: running in UEFI win 8.1 full PEG mode.....and i fixed this....just by taking it out and putting it back in? are you ****ing kidding me i just spent 2 days on this

 

Seems your GPU fails to initialize during boot. You could try loading setup defaults from bios and then switching to PEG. In a12 official it worked for me in pure UEFI without problems.

When I flashed swicks unlocked bios, I removed first and after the battery, the coin battery and pressed the power button for 10sec afterwards.

I could sent you some photos of my settings, but there are so many there and I am running legacy mode.

 

BIOS works fine, tested with Clevo and Dell 980Ms so something is wrong with the way you put the card in or the card itself.

Gsync cards not supported in case that wasn't clear.

 

its working fine now, taking it out and putting it back in solved the problem...don't ask me why its not like you can put it in wrong

 

maybe some debris preventing the pins for making proper contact.

 

ehh honestly highly unlikely considering how many times i've taken these apart i usually always wipe the pins and blow out the socket before i insert its just on autopilot by now

but either way its a happy ending i kept UEFI windows and have a cracked bios now....im happy

 

Thanks for this bios to you all!

 

Installed it myself aswell, as preparation for 970M upgrade, the upgrade went without a hiccup thanks @Raidriar

 

need to reinstall the system?