[SUCCESSFUL] Alienware 18 + MSI GTX 1070 MXM

On dual GPU laptops, the MXM slot is only wired for x8. Also, what 1070 are you using?
The 4K screen mod was considered a failure

 

A normal-MXM-sized 1070 Mobile.



So the standard heatsink was used, and no physical mods were necessary. I ordered Artic thermal pads and so far so good.

Whilst I was there, I joined the CPU heatsink to the GPU2 (now empty) heatsink, with a large & wide 1mm thermal pad. However, I am now trying to work out how to get GPU2's fan moving. HWinfo isn't doing it.

 

Nice mod. Good to know you have a gtx 1070 in that beast now! About the 4k mod, I tried wiring up the pins from the mdp port to make a edp connector it didn't work out as there is a detection wire in the lvds connector which has to be present otherwise you just get the lcd error beeps. As I was trying to be clever I connected the wire and it shorted the mdp IC and therefore the motherboard was rendered useless. There is a way I'm sure but it's above my level of expertise.

For the average person I would advise not trying lol as you might end up with a fried motherboard.

 

Yes, but which model MXM? The green PCB from Eurocom?

 

So it is the black 1070 card floating around on eBay?

 

Wow, it sounds like you gave it a proper go!

Whilst I was in there, I took photos of the existing connectors, I will then try to get pin out diagrams, and either also try to work it out myself, or get a Chinese company that specializes in custom cables to lend their expertise (and labour). I expect to be back in China at the end of the month, so I'll get to it then.

If I fry the board, at least its not BGA garbage, and I can replace only that, and not the cpu too.

Peace...

 

Also @ErikO what is the 3x3 AC wifi card? Is it plug and play?

 

Gents, it was indeed the 'black one floating around on Fleabay'. I only took the chance as it came as a Dell card to begin with. I didn't want any extra hassle of working an MSI / Eurocom / whatever nuances could have been silently awaiting me. I was sure this was gonna work, and so it did.

Some irregularities, my 34" 3440x1440 is only being fed 80Hz signal, not 100Hz as with the 880Ms, and I no longer see the G-sync option either.

 

I hope you can get it working so I can follow in your footsteps lol.

 

This is probably related to driver issues as the gtx 1070 isn't actually made for the alienware. It may not be able to utilise the full potential of the mdp port.

 

Oh BTW the fan will not move unless there is a card there and there is no setting in the advance bios to change is as it doesn't control it! The ec does, you can wire another fan into the cpu fan slot. The motherboard can handle that with no problem.

 

1300Mbps Azurewave AW-CB160H BCM94360HMB 802.11ac Hackintosh WiFi Card + BT 4.0.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1300Mbps...h=item5b3bd54291:g:jPsAAOSwx3NZZY6C:rk:1:pf:0

There is an Asus desktop motherboard that uses this as and add-on card. You need to identify that, and download & install that driver. Didn't bother getting the bluetooth working yet though, but the bluetooth works natively under Linux, so I know it works.

The included pig tails are not worth their weight in postage, you'll need to get either new tails made up (as I did), or buy new antennas with the correct ends on (better idea), as you'll lose signal in the connection. So instead of being 4 to 5dB BETTER than other laptops, I'm ~3dB below a 7260 2x2 now.... If I change the screen, I'll update the antennas.



Enjoy.

 

When you get the chance, please run a 3dmark11 performance/standard run. Curious to see how 1070 + SG stacks up against 980M SLI

 

It sure sounds like I've got some more wiring to do! Thanks!

 

3dmark11 is my favourite also, as was the first thing I ran, but upon completion, the default browser did not launch, and thus I got no result. I have corrected that in default programs.... Will try again.

 

Ask, and thee shall receive: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13014846

Please post your 980M Sli's score back...

 

Thanks

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12739553

 

Lol your guy's scores makes mine look weak: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13041117

Raid--how did you get your core clock so high on the gpu? Yours is like double mine!

 

Your core clock is stated at 540mhz, seems a little low

 

corrected: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13041253

 

You somehow managed a lower score...
Also, your CPU isn't OC'd

 

The Alienware 18 is a sh!t platform, M18x R2 is much better.

 

Is your score with GPUs stock or overclocked?

 

50/500 overclock 1.00V

 

Unlocked Bios A14 (VAS10A14) + mod for GTX 10xx for Alienware 18.
Flash at your own risk.

Download

 

Does this allow pascal gpus to work without sg mode?

 

Whoever has the GTX 10xx, must check if it works, there is too much different board revision.

 

no it won't work with the bios but u can use gpu in peg mode without any problem by connecting the mini display port to the hdmi port as i said in the other thread

Sent from my MI 8 Lite using Tapatalk

 

No Sir - the are uFL connectors, I believe.

I wouldn't bother with this upgrade, unless you are going to change the screen antennas completely - the loss incurred by having uFL to sma, or whatever they are, sent me from being 5 to 7dB better then my gf's machine, to 4dB below.

Its quite noticable.

But if you need that connection speed and don't care for range, go right ahead.

 

Yes if you need a shaving mirror - the R2 IS much better....

 

Very funny

All the best Alienware benches have always been done with the M18x R2, not the Alienware 18. M18x R2 has no power limit, Alienware 18 does.

 

It could be twice as fast for all I care - I wouldn't trade my 18 for ANY R2 on the planet.

I hated that R2 screen.

 

Don't they use the same panel though?

 

The M18xR2 has an edge to edge glass which looks amazing imo.

The 18 uses matte bezels which doesn't look as pleasant imo.

Idk why @ErikO is so salty but I would rather have a AW 17 R4/R5 over a 18 LOL.

M18xR2 will be engraved as one of the best laptops ever made for its time. @Raidriar @Rengsey R. H. Jr.

 

No. It's different.

I would choose an M18X R2 / M17X R4 / AW 17 R1 / in those orders , but not AW 18. the reason is because I had two died on me unexpectedly.... and maybe i'll get the new Area-M15 once i can fork up the cash when it's out on Dell Outlet .. heheheh

I have been using MSI GT73VR lately , and I am loving it so far.

 

How is the GT73 compared to the M18x in terms of build quality? And how's the sound? What specs?

My friend's AW18 died as well randomly...they were just made bad.

 

The hardware are nice. Has a lot of copper for cooling. Two fans.

It's all plastic except for the lcd lid and palm rest lol. It's bulky and has a lot of room to slim down. As for the speaker, it has really good highs and mids... but missing the lows.

It's in the process of selling on ebay. I'm trying to upgrade another dead MSI laptop, GT75.

 

I had 3 boards blow up. I stopped repairs after that. M18x R2 also has better response time and color accuracy vs higher brightness and better viewing angles in the Alienware 18

 

No 'salt' at all, just stating my opinion, to which I both stand by, and hold dear.

But for the life of me, I do not know if they made a 'matt' version of the 18 - mine is glossy, but not completely reflective, like my R2 was.

As I live on the road, I am forced to use my laptop's screen - I don't get the pleasure of plugging into an external monitor very often. And for me, I believe the R2 did me a disservice whilst typing documents, due to its reflective screen. I remember being so happy to see the back of it, after I'd tried my 18.

Say what you want about my 18, but shes' running just fine.

 

Ok, I bit on this...

Downloaded, extracted, from the choice of run uA14 or gtx_10xx, I ran the uA14 batch file.

Reported as successful, as far as I could see from the quick-scrolling-text output.

Rebooted, noted A14 was displayed, checked RAID enabled, set Service Tag.

Since I have a GPU in the graphics slot, followed instructions, and set 'Primay Display to PEG' (which I think is wrong), saved, rebooted....

8 beeps for LCD failure.

Tried external HDMI monitor, no joy / nothing, still 8 beeps.

Tried to reset bios to set 'SG' mode back - which I think it was on. (back off, ram out, bios and main batteries out, connect PSU, wait for beeps, slam in the ram), but was unsuccessful.

4 beeps for RAM failure. (usually my Hyper-X does this - so bios resets are usualy done with a generic 4GB module I have lying around, but I've no other RAM in here Asia to play with).

So anyone wth any ideas?

Am I actually getting bios reset, by being able to go from 8 beeps to 4 beeps? I think not. This, the archillies heel of the AW18, this bloody bios reset - is there still no other way in 2019?

Regards.

 

You still have to swap in ram. CMOS battery and main battery do not have to come out. Personally I used to disconnect the main battery, removed the RAM, connect AC, power on, let it two beep itself to death and very quickly between power cycles, put a stick of RAM in to force clearing of the NVRAM.

It sucks, there is no way around NVRAM since Dell was stupid enough not to include a key combination to clear the NVRAM, unlike Apple, who knows this is important.

 

Looks like I'm off to buy some more RAM then...

 

Doesn’t have to be expensive, a cheap 2GB DDR3L stick will work

 

4GB RAM 1600MHz Kingston was 1000THB here... and still not reset.

Going to return it for a 2GB second hand module I saw, and try again.

 

2GB module was gone... got unknown 4GB 1333MHz module for even more cost, but was able to return the Kingston. Small store selling this module refuses any returns. Oh well.

And yet it still doesn't work.

8 beeps, slam in the ram, re-powers, now 5 beeps (RTC), so reconnected bios battery, and just waiting whilst it continues beeping 5 beeps.

I think I remember someone saying if you just sit it out for 5 mins, it restarts and is thus cleared?

Fans are on too...

 

Correct, 5 beeps means NVRAM fault and then it will clear upon restart.

 

Hi, I never did get a full bios reset, the time - sure, but PEG was still enabled.

My solution was to pull the 1070M from the board, boot on Integrated GPU, and then change bios to SG mode once more.

I'm now successfully booted on A14 Unlocked, as I type.

I tried the gtx_10xx_A14_Flash batch file, assuming this is to flash the GPU? But it describes as an Intel Flash tool, and fails to complete, with Windows 7 complaining about it being a 16 bit application. So I don't know what is going on with that...

Thanks for being the only voice of help anyway. Its late, and I deploy for work very soon, so with no time to lose, it was 'last try', before getting a new board FedEx'ed to myself before bed, so I didn't lose a day.

Any advice with the gtx flash would be greatly appreciated.

Night all.

 

I cannot be of more help because my Alienware 18 is in a coffin. I did not author or test the A14 unlocked BIOS, I can only comment about the A12 unlocked BIOS I posted here some time ago. There is nothing to be gained by going to A14 except for Spectre/meltdown security patches which severely nerf CPU performance.

 

Hi, I thought I'd jump at the chance of using the Nvidia installer in the normal way, but it has been a pain in a back part of my body.

I realized today that I handn't 'slept' the computer again to run the gtx_10xx_A14_Flash batch file, did that, script appeared to complete. Rebooted, bios boot order needed resetting. Booted, and 1070M not seen. Back to bios, and IGFX set as default. Changed to SG, 1070M seen again. Checked GPU with GPU-z - ID has now changed.

Downloaded latest Nvidia drivers - nope. Same error as before, which will require me to generate the modded driver again - the whole point of engaging in this exercise in the first place.

Sorry I bothered now.

 

The 980m is the last card supported officially by nvidia. If you want to download and go, get s 980m. Maybe we can work something out for that 1070 you got