AW18 980m SLI issues.

you got new and additionally tested GTX 980M graphics cards.
Harware ID 13D7 with original Clevo V-BIOS 84.04.22.00.12

 

Well I’ve had guidance from the forums. People walking me through step by step. People who have the exact same system as me with the unlocked bios. Gone through settings individually but still no joy.


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Maybe you did something wrong, I do not know.

We will see, after the graphics cards were checked

 

All I’m wanting is dell bios flashing to the card. Any descent vendor would flash the cards to the appropriate bios before shipping out. Especially when they have been notified prior to purchase. Also when they advertise for Alienware 18 and clevo. To some people that would be misleading. Everyone’s not a computer genius and we all have to start somewhere. This wasn’t my first install of gpu’s. Done many before in different systems and never had this problem. Plus isn’t this why forums such as this were made? To help each other wether your a complete novice or a computer veteran.


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We will see what is with your cards.

 

Pretty much. When selling AW cards, then the AW vBios should be on the card.

 

Yes otherwise what’s point advertising as for Alienware if their shipping out cards with clevo vbios. That’s misleading and miss selling in my eyes.


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you got new and additionally tested GTX 980M graphics cards.
There are photos of the graphics cards that were made just before shipping

Harware ID 13D7 with original Clevo V-BIOS 84.04.22.00.12
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/181023/181023

the same V-BIOS 84.04.22.00.12 is also used by DELL
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/182494/182494

 

That’s not the point. The cards should have been shipped with the dell vbios. Why would you send me cards and then a link over email for me to download dell vbios? You wouldn’t have done that if they were the same. Doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t advertise as for Alienware if your going to ship cards with clevo bios. Simple. All I ask for is when you receive the cards, flash them with dell vbios and send them back. It’s not hard.


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That can't be correct. The "dell VBIOS" you linked has a build date of 2014-09-05 00:00:00. The Dell MXM 980Ms did not come out until Late July/August 2015, and the official Dell 980M vBIOS was made public in September 2015. Official Dell GTX 980M VBIOS is found here:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=9W9F7

In M18x R2, 980M VBIOS does not matter, as EC controls both fans independent of the vBIOS. However in Alienware 18, Dell vBIOS is REQUIRED to activate proper fan control. That aside, both cards should POST regardless of what vBIOS they are on, as I have booted Clevo vBIOS and Dell vBIOS cards in the M18x R2 and Alienware 18.

 

He has a R3, and it didn't even read the card/s.

So either vBios required due to EC or cards broken, pretty sure they aren't broken tho, so I'll assume it's because of vBIOS.

He tried running both SLI and even tried both in single slot with iGPU, nothing would read them, secure boot off, UEFI on etc, then he tried to use legacy and still, nothing. The Bios cannot detect the cards at all.

 

He also got his 770Ms working, which means the board is fine. This leaves one of two things: Either the 980M is damaged, or it has a bad vBIOS flashed to it, and I'm more inclined to believe the latter. Putting the system in SG mode, booting up a DOS USB environment, and loading NVflash and a proper Dell or premafied Dell vBIOS onto the same device wil allow him to flash the 980Ms from the DOS environment. i've done it countless times.

 

770M work fine without issues, they get read normally. It isn't "the", it's more "they" he bought 2x 980M's which both cannot be read by the system. Again, either bad cards or vBios complications, not even the DOS enviroment can do anything about it if the cards cannot be read at all, we don't talk about unknown device, we talk about as if there is nothing in the system at all. I did some research and so far I haven't have anyone who upgraded from AW 18 R3(but plenty on other AW 18 models), so I couldn't confirm or deny if they have weird vBIOSES, but considering the fact that prema has seperate AW 18 vBIOSES around (note, not "AW Bios", but explicit "AW 18 vBIOS") makes me believe that Dell might have done somthing weird to their 18 inch R3 model.

Every card with Clevo vBios should run on a "normal" AW system, even tho modded drivers would be needed, this case however is completely different.

 

Let me throw few cents at this discussion, since I recently went through the same upgrade. I bought a pair of 980m's on ebay from a Chinese seller and they arrived with dell vbios since I specified it was for aw18 Viking.
Seller had shipped both cards with dells master vbios flashed, so I spent few days figuring out why the fan for second card would not spin without manual controls via hwinfo, but after flashing dell's vbios with their utility second fan started working just fine. Even with originally shipped bios devices were both discoverable in os with correct hardware id's etc. So yes, there is something weird about vbios for Viking since second gpu fan controls seem to be tied to daughter card vbios.
I'm still to push the system to its max as I'm waiting for replacement battery. Old one has failed long time ago and while it didn't affect sli 770m's, I am running into power throttling on just the psu with sli 980m's. Also had some drive crashes when either of the cards requests too much power (especially noticeable with games that don't support sli), which I'm hoping working battery will fix.

 

Atleast your cards were showing up. Mine are non existent in bios or device manager.


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Yeah, that's why I thought I'd give you my side of the story. I thought it smelled funny that they weren't showing in either bios or os.

 

Been sent back to clevo centre in Germany to be looked at.


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I’ve shipped my cards back to the clevo centre in Germany and am waiting for hardcorecustoms reply. Keep you guys updated.


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Just a quick update. As you guys may know I sent the cards back to Siggi in Germany. Was told the cards were damaged. Here are a few pictures I was sent.




So I was told by Siggi that he would hopefully get the cards exchanged for new ones. Had to wait just over a week until clevo centre in Germany got a new delivery of 980m’ s from Taiwan. Cards got delivered, tested and shipped out. Recently installed, flashed with original Dell 980m sli bios and they worked. Showed up as Nvidia GFX in bios and GTX 980m in device manager. Since then I’ve flashed Prema V2 and am very happy with my upgrade. Cards run @ mid 70’s while gaming with IC Diamond. Just like to thank Siggi from Germany for the cards and everyone on here who attempted to help me.

Thanks folks



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Quick update. Today I started playing pubg and it was lagging on high settings, which I thought was awkward as I’d played same settings day before. Went into nvidia control panel and there was only one card showing. Checked bios and same again. So I took out both cards and put GPU 2 into slot one to see if it would work there, no luck. So basically another dead card. This has done my head in. Installed Saturday just gone. Got finished late so didn’t do any benchmarks. Sunday morning run heaven benchmark and played 30 mins on gta v and one game on pubg. Today played not even a full game before I realised.


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Wow... ****ty luck

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Trust me dantee I’m pissed.


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Anyone see anything that could be wrong?

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Return and find a new seller

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Contacted siggi. He said it will be defective and to send it back and a new one will be shipped out. It’s costing me a fortune in postage. £45 each time I post


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If you receive a defective item, why should you pay for the return shipping? And since you're using GBP (EU), it's illegal to ask the buyer to cover return shipping and / or restocking fee.

Threaten with legal action if your seller still force you to pay return shipping.

 

He insists I send it to clevo centre and they would refund me. But the thing is I purchased from him so why should I be the one who has to run around. I asked him to pay for shipping or refund me £45 to my PayPal account to cover shipping and he could claim it from clevo but no keeps making excuses. I will give him some time and then I will have to go down the legal route.


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Excellent.

Exercise your customer rights, never be scammed!



Clevocenter is CEG, which has been known for shady business. I recommend you deal with @woodzstack instead.

 

Here’s the problem a dear friend has spotted. He also said there’s a solderball right next to it that’s come away.




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ouch

maybe @Khenglish can help you if you're actually in the states

 

I’m located in the UK


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looks like someone attempted a repair, did you know if this was a used card when you purchased it ?
Where did you get it from ? (just curious, good way to warn people)

 

I’ve reached out The European Consumer Centre based in Germany for assistance.


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You can also see in the pictures discoloration, it's subtle, but it's there. Color variation from one side of the card to the other. Bet we could spot more visual indicators if we inspected it closer.

 

No woodzstack this is supposed to be a new card which supposedly was shipped from the factory in Taiwan and then tested by the clevo centre in Germany before being shipped out to me (second time shipped out as first 2 were DOA). Siggi is the name on eBay and in here he’s known as Hardcorecustom.


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Just like to add that he has been helpful up to now but that’s not the point. I shouldn’t have to keep paying for postage of cards that are faulty.


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1. I have nothing to do with CEG-Hardcorecustom or Clevo-Systems or Clevo-Extrem

You want to communicate through the forum

No problem.

I exchanged the graphic cards out of goodwill.
It can be clearly seen that the voltage was raised in your graphics card.
The report from KAPOK is still coming.

You get new graphics cards and write in the forum that you:
''I've flashed Prema V2 and on very happy with my upgrade. ''

I wrote you to flash only with original Dell VBIOS

Flashing Unauthorized VBIOS is a warranty loss.

A registered letter does not cost 50 euros
But 15 euros

So what do we do now?

Are you sending the video card to the Clevo Service Center?

 

You can not do the whole story.
Therefore, do not give too hasty advice.

 

I tried dell then prema. But the cards were faulty so did not flash either. Premas bios is a dell bios just with a few tweaks.


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If you have nothing to do with hardcore Custom or whatever, why is your forum name such ?

Then why are you defending them, I'm confused, are you this guys seller ? What company are ?

 

Actually all Prema vbioses I've seen are voltage increased vbioses, there might be ones I haven't seen that do not do this. Not that I blame prema for anything wrong here - it's simply a different solution then I would provide - maybe aimed more at the enthusiasts with experience and such.

I'm with the seller on this one, I've personally one on one always asked my customers not to use Prema's extra voltage vbios unless they knew what they were doing, for fear of issues happening.

I do not think or believe it is his vbioses fault or anything such as that - just the cards and equipment and setup simply not being ready for it, in most cases.

First step - always make sure your power is clean - if you do not have extensive information on that - and do not have proper equipment - do not start playing with things that are very voltage sensitive, because spikes can cause issues.

Cheap 20$ powerbars do not count, because they are usually garbage and it's still not an AVR. You would use a 20$ PSU in your expensive desktop would you ?

Anyways - cards can be fixed easily enough, and it does seem whomever the seller was, based on that guy who responded - said they would give you a courtesy replacement or refund or something, that's really cool of them.

I personally avoid all these issues by doing the flashing for my customers in a safer environment and having the cards tested first before shipping, that includes closer examination individually to not ship out faulty products - that's just Quality control, and saves me headaches like these for example if this was related to one of my sales.

When people go to buy a card from someone, ask them to flash it for you, if they can't then don't buy it unless your some crazy insane expert and know what your doing.

 

You write guesses here, without knowing what's right.

The name Hardcorecustom has been around for a long time and has 0% to do with CEG-Hardcorecustom.
Therefore, I do not want my name to be associated with CEG ...
many users know why. You do not seem to know that, does not matter now.

 

Your right it was a guess, but you are a reseller, yes ?
You told me in PM you sent this man multiple cards out of good will, no consumer would be able to keep doing that, I assume.

Anyways sounds like you both need to separate from each other - because it doesn;t seem to be working out for either of you.

Not saying anyone in particular is at fault - but the one thing that seems to be common here is the laptop. If it keeps killing cards, maybe it is the culprit.

buy an all new laptop good to go, save yourself the hassle, and if this guy sells cards a plenty, maybe he can make you a deal on a laptop - if not there are plenty of us resellers around these forums.
@Raja786

 

@tanzmeister will sell u a clevo P870DM-G for a Good Price. I also have my AW18 for sale cheap all needs is a new motherboard u have the storage gpus and cpu already plus u should be at 32GB Ram if u use the stock 16GB Ram

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It never happens when I put my 770m’ s in. So it’s not the laptop.


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Could have been the Overholt on the cards then from premas vbios... Maybe the cards just couldn't handle it?

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I’d expect the master to fail as it does more, but it’s the slave that failed.


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Does it not boot? Cause a possibility could be you have the 230w PSU and not the 330w unlikely it would fry the card though...

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MasterCard was ok. Slave wouldnt come up in bios or device manager. So opened up and swapped slave to first mxm port and nothing. I have the 330 w psu.


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I figured it was unlikely to be that but always a guess