AW18 980m SLI issues.

Hi guys hoping someone on here can help. I have upgraded my gpu’s from 770m sli to 980m sli. First boot I got the Alienware logo come up but had faint blue lines running vertically across screen, so powered off and opened back up and checked all connections to make sure they was all seated correctly. Assembled back up and fired system up.

System would turn on as all the lights would come on but had a black screen. So I tried the ram hot swap and was able to boot into windows. Went into device manager and get 2x unknown device with yellow triangle. Restarted and went into bios and it was set to igpu. Changed to PEG and restarted. Still shows unknown devices in device manager.

So I thought the cards don’t have a vbios so are not being recognised. So I tried to install Prema v2 bios. Ran bat 1 file got c prompt window come up and then do it’s thing and then said unsuccessful, then I tried running bat 2 file which same again c prompt window popped up but this time I got error no display adaptor detected. So I turned system off and disassembled again and made sure cards were seated correctly which they were and then noticed sli connection on 2nd gpu had come off. So reconnected and reassembled.

Turned on and I still get unknown device in device manager. So tried to run premas bios again and now all I get is c prompt window pop up and disappears in a second. With all the frustration this process had caused me I may have done something wrong. The .rom files show they open with winrar which I know is wrong. Can’t figure out what to set the open with option to. Googled this but there’s not much info on what program is generally used to run .rom files.

Deleted premas folder from desktop and redownloaded but the .rom files still come up as winrar files.

I have no clue what to do so hoping someone a little more experienced in this can shed some light.


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install Dell's vbios before Prema is highly recommended you need to run the .bat files as admin, or force flash then yourself via CMD. you also should have kept the graphics drivers installed. Try and installing the graphics card driver so the card then should be at least generic VGA Adapter

 

Tried dell bios in cmd, comes up with error message “no nvidia driver adaptors found”


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yeah you should have kept drivers... try to install the drivers

 

Tried many times. This is what I get.....




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I have no experience with the AW18 but is modding the INF required with the 980m's for this laptop?

 

no I do not do that with mine so I don't think so

 

hmmm ok... lets try to force flash premas vbios then... throw everything from premas vbios onto your C Drive like right in the first panel of it where u can see program files and windows etc. then you want to run CMD a an admin and to cd c:/ then try to flash the first card with
nvflash -i 0 -6 -f 980MPMA1.rom lemme know if this flashes

 

Pretty sure the M18x R2 needs .INF Modding

 

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you did it wrong do cd c:/ not just c

 

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separate lines cd c:/ then enter..... then run the command

 

try running it as nvflash -i 0 -6 980MPMA1.rom

 

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your in PEG Mode?

 

I had in peg mode. Just went into bios and it was back at igpu


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in driver manager both gpus are disabled correct?

 

Am now tried same thing and got this




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right click them make sure they are disabled and try again

 

they should show u as generic VGA under display adapter.... you could try a system restore back to a point when u had the Graphics Drivers for your 770M and hope for them to show up as at least Generic VGA so you can flash vbios

 

Disabled them and tried again but still comes up with error messages


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try the system restore, another alternative instead of system restore would be to put 1 or 2 of your 770M in (with both 980Ms out) and install GPU Drivers then put the 980Ms Back in and see if they show up

 

To before I installed gpu’s and deleted old drivers?


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yes back to a point when u had GPU Drivers

 

Only 9373 items to go


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System restore done back to the 3rd.


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hmmm try driver install

 

Should I disable all the ones that show up under other devices?


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for driver install no

 

I get this when I go to view and show hidden devices




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Ok so I remembered that igpu will be active again now I restored so went into bios changed to peg tried installing driver and got some progress.




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Driver still not installed huh... you could try reinstalling windows....

 

when in driver manager when u se the 980Ms as unknown device can u right click and uninstall them?

 

Won’t I just be better off going down the system image road?



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Yes


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try that then restart

 

Uninstalled all the unknown devices, restarted and they are all there again.


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fresh windows would set up your whole pc with basic drivers, right cause when u setup windows it gathers basic drivers for u to boot

 

Can it be something to do with having a12 unlocked bios?


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nvidia driver wont install?

 

No just tried and same thing as before.


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doubt it I use mine with the A12 Unlocked Bios

 

@woodzstack @Raidriar Can you guide this man through installing 980Ms into his AW18, I cant seem to figure it out

 

In the process of doing a system image restore. See how that works out. Will keep you updated.


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Standard GPU testing procedure:
1. Use DDU to wipe all drivers, reboot
2. Install latest nvidia driver, reboot
3. run unigine or 3dmark and test stability
4. if unstable, consider full OS reinstall + full driver updates + latest GPU driver
5. if the problem persists, likely the GPU is damaged at the core or a power component.

 

Is it best to use DDU in safe mode?


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