Alienware 18 Bad vBios Flash

I was wondering if anyone can help me out with an issue.

I have an alienware 18, I flashed a vbios from a vbios modder, basically modified version of svl7's vbios.
I had svl7's vbios running before that just fine.
After the flash the system does not post. The lights turn on, CPU fan spins up,but does not boot/post

I tried a power drain, removing CMOS and Power drain, Removing a stick of ram and power drain. Any clue as to what I can do?

 

Did you flash the BIOS or the vBIOS?

 

flashed a vbios

 

Iirc, you should be able to reflash every card, when installing them in slave slot 1 by 1. That worked for the older models m17x and m18x.

 

Ill try that out in a bit. any specific procedure?
take both out then use iGFX, or ?
and how do i tell which one is the slave slot? im assuming right side?

 

Did you flash one or both cards?
Primary/Master = Left / Secondary/Slave = Right

 

I flashed both cards

I tried to boot up with one card on the right side, it wouldn't go through.

removed both cards, the device can boot up (as expected)

I will try to make it boot with a card on the left side. unless there is a trick i can do in the bios

 

I couldn't get it to work with either cards on either side.

without the GPUs I was able to boot to windows, switch to iGFX.
Went to device manager, uninstalled hidden devices. It would boot up with a card in either slot. booted to USB to flash older vbios, but it says it cannot see any nvidia GPU. (tested for both primary and secondary) When I booted back to windows and switch to binary GFX, We go back to square 1 with no booting when either card is in a slot

 

The AW18 BIOS tends to be a bit finicky from what I've read about it, you could reset the BIOS, do a power drain, then try again to flash.


But
@Mr. Fox
@Raidriar
@Rengsey R. H. Jr.
@ssj92
maybe can help you better.

 

flash aw18 unlocked bios with cards removed, set video mode to sg, re-install both nvidia cards, make bootable dos USB key with proper vBIOS and nvflash DOS version, reflash both cards, switch back to PEG mode.

 

Where can I get the unlocked bios for AW18? I did see a thread a while back, but im assuming there is something else?
also this does work on the AW 18 viking ? because it didnt have an option to switch graphics previously

 

[Release] Alienware 18 BIOS A12 Unlocked

 

Nice seeing you around Mr. Fox

I looked at that thread, but the download link does not seem to work?
Also do I need to edit the service tag or message pythonic for one specific to my system?

 

Hi Bro. I have no idea. Maybe @Raidriar can help with those questions. That BIOS mod came about 2 years after I no longer had an Alienware 18, so I am not familiar with anything relating to it.

 

Links work fine, just tested first two links.

You need to flash A12 official dell BIOS & then follow guide to flash A12 unlocked.

You only need to contact pythonic if you want to restore your service tag, otherwise it'll have someone else's system service tag.

SG graphics mode (with one GPU installed at a time) is the way to recover your GPUS.

SG is Optimus mode (both iGPU & dGPU enabled at same time)

 

How do I get a hold of pythonic?

is there a way of backing up the dell A12 with my service tag and then flashing the unlocked one, so that I can recover it from the original later?

 

Im working on it right now. managed to get the unlocked bios working. flashed both cards. Going to test it out now all together.

Even kept my own service tag.

 

Everything in the post still works....*sigh*

I've retired from the scene for a reason lol

 

All fixed. thank you guys!

Any idea on how to disable this btw?
https://imgur.com/a/1WZqyEq

It pops up before the alienware screen and I think sometimes after?

 

That splash screen is there by design and you cannot turn it off unless you want to use a stock vBIOS instead and have less performance.

 

Turn on UEFI, if on windows 7, then you need legacy rom enabled which will keep the splash screen.

 

Any attempt to remove this will brick your card. Svl7 put this in as a fail safe when people were stealing his work and selling it as their own. Notice he has quit this kind of work, Prema has gone private, etc

 

Thank you for the info. I had UEFI enabled previously, and you are right it does remove that splash screen. I was just hoping to keep the legacy bios enabled with all the messing around I do lol

That explains a lot lol. Klem modded the svl7 vbios, and told me to test it out. Explains why the cards got bricked lol

We all know the original author of the vbios, and thank him greatly. its just a couple of seconds on boot, nothing too bad.

It's only sad to see what Alienware has become over the past few years. They had such great systems once upon a time and with every iteration, they seem to get worse and worse. Personally I'm not quite sure what to get as my next system, as this AW18 is getting dated, and even 980M's are 340USD each. Area 51m looks tempting though lol

 

@Mr. Fox has quit the notebook scene, @ssj92 has the A51M, my Alienware 18 blew 3 motherboards and I’m using my M18x R2 so long as it is usable. I don’t think I will be returning to the Alienware brand, look at the ports in the M18x R2 vs what is available on the A51M and it’s just a bad joke at this point.

 

Yup I'm left with the M18xR2 until it dies and I'll be keeping my Area-51m until it dies as well. Probably done with AW at this point as well.

My sister has AW13 R3, GF has M14xR2 so I do keep tabs on those sections as well although I mainly support M18x & Area-51m series here.

I owned AW18 and it was a joke compared to M18xR2, AW took the wrong direction with that design.