Alienware 18 Bios A09

Dell has released the Alienware 18 Bios A09 driver
Driver Details | Dell US

 

Sounds like this could go either way. Hopefully that's not *all* they did.

 

Hopefully, they made that silly warning go away. It was obnoxious and irritating, and served no useful purpose on an enthusiast machine... much like UAC in Windows. Other than that, A08 was pretty good considering it was not unlocked like a proper enthusiast machine BIOS should be.

I'll try this new BIOS maybe tomorrow.

 

Let us know any feedback you have about it. @OP thanks for sharing!

 

They are on a role lately... Maybe they will win back the hearts of the enthusiast and reclaim the space they seems to be loosing in the community. My 18 is still on a05 I think. It is working great so I was scared to mess up a good thing...

 

No problems with A09 as far as I can tell. I need to go back to Liquid Ultra before I can get too crazy with the overclocking. Handles 4.5GHz no problem and manual fan controls still work, so I give it my nod of approval. Not sure what they changed with the warning... still there, but easy enough to ignore. Brother Pathfindercod, A09 is definitely better than A05, if for no reason other than having manual fan controls.

Unfortunately, not unlocked. I am still hoping for the day that we see release notes that read "remove Secure Flash firmware signature requirements" so we can unlock it and make the machine fully functional.

Spoiler

 

Hello, this is an unrelated question. Does anyone know if the SLI cable on the AW18 is the same as the one on the M18x? If not, can the M18x one be used for the AW18?
Thanks.

 

The connectors on the ends of them are the same (standard MXM SLI socket) but they are made differently. I prefer the new design because the ends do not need to fold over the top of the SLI connector and they have a little tab type of handle to pop them off more easily. I have not tested to see if they are swappable, but if the length is not a problem it probably is interchangeable. My gut feeling is the M18xR2 SLI cable might be too short to reach on the 18.

 

when you say fans are unlocked , you mean they can be changed using hwinfo64. I can get them to work the way i wnat , but then sometimes, I can no longer manually adjust the video card fans. Anyone know why this is the case? I go from being able to control 3 fans, 1 cpu and 2 gpu. After a reboot it then goes to fan 1 and 2 in the same choice and the video cards start to burn up?

 

Hey master fox, would you reccomend to 4900mq users to upgrade to A08 or either 09? I'm still with the 05,and I vaguely read somewhere about XTU settings not sticking after the shutdown,also the fact of Throttle Stop as must have after the bios upgrade

 

If you're not running ThrottleStop, you should be. It works to great too not use it. Once you determine what settings work best, apply them in ThrottleStop and set it to run as a Windows Task as log-on and you're all set. It makes easy work of it, plus you can set a total of 4 CPU clock profiles that can be easily toggled with a key combo. Plus, it does some things XTU does not. As its name implies, it helps to stop or eliminate CPU throttling brought on by idiotic power-saving tendencies known as C-states.

I would definitely recommend A08 or A09 for the benefit of manual fan control irregardless of whether one is overclocking or not.

 

Ah.....the definitive answer.....thank you, sir! :thumbsup:

 

I'm on the Dell website and it doesn't show me A09 for my AW 18. I clicked the OP's link as well and it took me to a page that says, "No driver found. We couldn't find the file you are looking for. It may be that the link you followed to get here is not working. Try checking the URL/address for errors or visit the Support page and select your product to begin a new search."

Was it a mistake and they took it back off?

 

I grabbed A09 last night, A08 is all that is showing now on the Dell support site.

 

Wow, they took it off.

Glad I grabbed it yesterday

 

Does anyone have the actual download in their C:user download folder? Maybe someone could send it to me through email.

 

Man, what a shame. Seems like the best one released so far. I wonder why they pulled it?

You can download it from my OneDrive space. [ Download Alienware 18 BIOS A09]

Here's a nice 4930MX 4.3GHz XTU profile if anyone wants to try it. View attachment 4.3-Mr. Fox-Share.zip

It should get you results like this...



When you reboot after applying this XTU profile, it may take up to a couple of minutes for XTU to reapply the settings. If you do not wait it may appear that it did not work, so give it a few minutes. The XTU service is a delayed start in Windows. If it does not automatically reapply them, launch XTU and apply it manually if you need to. You won't need to reboot a second time.

 

Mr. Fox, you are probably sick of hearing this but, thank you so much. I downloaded it and now I'm going to check if I have more oc options. Really cool of ya!!

 

Like Psychokill said, it doesn't show me A09 on DELL website either.
Thanks very much Mr Fox for download link. I'll try A09 and your 4.3 XTU profile this weekend. I'm running A08 and glad with the results.
Last weekend I repaste my 2xGPU and CPU for the first time using Gelid GC Extreme and temps now are fine when gaming and benching (I'm using HWINFO64 too). I think my monster now is able to run this 4.3 profile.

 

Nope, thank you is always nice to hear. Glad I could help. Maybe the reason it is no longer available is a great incentive to download it, LOL. I know my 4930MX performs better with A09 than it did with A07 or A08... performance is on par to A05 with manual fan controls.

Also, don't be alarmed if your system freezes or shuts off the first application of the XTU profile. It is common with XTU and ThrottleStop that the first time there is a really major change implemented to the BIOS from within Windows for it to either freeze or shut down. Same thing happens, for example, when you use ThrottleStop to enable adjustable voltage for the first time. I can only speculate why that is. I don't have this issue with the M18xR2. The Turbo Power Lock thing in XTU that has to be disabled is another example. I am going to guess it might have something to do with some nasty anti-overclocking settings that SMI vomits into the NVRAM that XTU or ThrottleStop are successful at erasing.

This is why it is so important to be wary of BIOS updates. You never know when they might "fix" something that is not broken and that we don't want to be fixed.

 

Mr. Fox, I setup 2 XTU profiles using A08 BIOS and I'm using one of them. Every time before flashing a new BIOS, do I need to disable the XTU profile I'm using or can I leave it the way it is? Do you recommend some procedure to not mess things up?

 

Umh.. I ve just downloaded TS 6.0 and i'm feeling kinda puzzled on how does it work or on how should I pair it with XTU. Is there a throttle stop guide for dummies out there?

 

If you follow the link "http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html" maybe can find some answers and how to. Go to the first posts and then to page 218 and read Mr Fox's post # 2175 and #2179.
We are in the same boat LOL.

 

Yup, still only oc lvl1 for the 4910mq. I guess I'm doomed to not overclock (won't be able to use your profiles Mr. Fox since that is for a 4930). It's fine, I don't understand half of what to do anyway

 

Brother rbatts - I don't disable any of my XTU settings before flashing the BIOS unless I have stuff cranked up really high, like above 4.5GHz. I you have concerns, before flashing go into the BIOS and choose the option to reset defaults. It certainly won't hurt anything to be safe if you have concerns about it being overclocked at the time of flashing.

Brother Psychokill - You can look at the screen shot I posted early that is showing XTU settings and set yours as close to the same as the 4910MQ allows you to. I'm not sure you can set higher than 41x4 anyway. I think 4.1GHz is the max, but I don't recall for certain on the 4910MQ. You will know because the setting will not go any higher.

Brother Rum - ThrottleStop 7.00 beta is what everyone should be using with the Haswell CPU at this point. It has the most configuration options. There is a link to that in uncle webb's signature. http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide-218.html#post9709985

ThrottleStop has a "TRL" button and a "TPL" button. Whatever settings you find work well in XTU can be set in ThrottleStop.

The TRL button is where you set multipliers and voltage. You can have 4 profiles. I usually go with #1 as my max overclock profile and set other overclock profiles as lower settings.

The TPL button is where you set the power limits. This is a static setting that applies to all profiles, so you need to set power limits that support your max overclock. It will work fine for lower multipliers and lower voltage.

Click the "Options" button and set the PowerSaver C0% to 100. You can choose which default overclock profile to use for AC and Battery and set other options on this screen.

You can see the settings I am referring to in the attached image. Feel free to copy any of the values. (The screen shot does not show profiles 1, 3 and 4. Is showing my default OC profile for AC power, which is profile 2.)

 

ya doin god's work mister fox, my reputation button says its out of ammo so i'm just there throwing my money at the IPS panel of the 18. I'll check it and tell you back

 

My brothers 4910MQ has a max of 4.3Ghz just as a side note. It runs that wonderfully now that its running A08 at 4.3Ghz before it could barely do 4Ghz stable so im certainly happy with A08 and not worried about A09

 

was trying to dl this from you but its not working

 

Try the link again. I changed it to the cloud folder instead of directly to the file. Maybe that will be more reliable.

 

Please Mr Fox, I'm trying to find ThrottleStop 7.00 beta to download it but the only version I can find is 6.00. Do you have any download link to it?

 

Woot what can I say, Mr. Fox is using OneDrive now. Sometime ago I saw you pretty pissed about Win 8 forcing OneDrive on everyone. I downloaded the A09 BIOS, thanks. Will test it on 26th, Saturday. I will also repaste my liquid ultra by then. Hopefully it's not caked up.

If you look carefully, you will find the link somewhere in this page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

 

I have been using OneDrive, SkyDrive and whatever it was named before that since they started offering free web storage space. I have three different hotmail/MSN/Outlook accounts and have stuff that has been on Microsoft servers for several years. The only thing I don't like is Windows integration and I still refuse to allow that. I was really hot under the collar about that, and I still would be if there was no way to disable it.

I had to put it there anyhow because my Google Drive is getting full and I don't want to pay Google for extra storage space. I also do not allow Google Drive's app on my system. I prefer to manually upload files through my browser and nothing is allow to synch with the cloud.

 

Hello

I am wondering why you have control over 3 fan like thise while i only have fan 1&2 .....



i have a alienware 18 with 2 nvidia gtx780 and intel i7-4900mq .... should i have control over 3 fan too?

 

When you start Hwinfo, instead of "Run" click on "Settings". Under the "Safety" tab, un-check "EC support".

 

Thank you, O Great Wise One.... .....I was a tad slow heading for the download and missed out.

 

It seems that Dell has taken down the A09 guys, I couldn't see it on the Support section anymore. BTW, I had downloaded and flashed it onto mine already. Have no idead why they've done that.

 

After I flashed with the A09, im having issues with the cpu. I cant even run cinebench cpu test without any overclock at all now.
What happends is that it takes about 5-10 sec then system shuts down completely.
I had the A03 bios before i flashed it to A09.

I dunno, maybe this has something to do with them recalling A09.

 

A lot of us started out with A03 and have applied every update. What, if any, settings have you attempted to change? I would start by going into the BIOS and setting defaults if you have not already done so.

What are the temps when it shuts down? The Haswell CPU shuts down at 100°C and it also shuts down if the power settings are not appropriate.

 

It shutted down so fast it was hard to see the temps going up even in XTU monitor.

What i have found out since last post is the following:

tried to use ur 4,3 xtu profile but it said invalid. Checked the XTU update feature inside the program, it said up to date but was version 4.2. Uninstalled that and installed 4.4
Now ur profile works. However, ur settings straight out of the profile shuts it down just starting steam.. True story.. I then turned it down to 4,1 with same settings. Worked fine.. Then i pumped them again to 4,3 and turned the votage setting from default -> 1,22 (core voltage).
This seems far more stable. I can now run fire strike test without shutdown. BUT cinebench cpu test still makes my computer fail. Although, it seems to run to hot now. Watching XTU monitor while cpu test was going, it hit 100C and throttled then shutdown.

Ambient temperature here is around 24C atm. Maybe try with somewhat lower voltage to reduce heat?

 

That's a little warmer than ideal ambient temps for overclocking, especially with Haswell. Default voltage is too much for 4.1GHz so lowering it should improve the temps. You should be able to run at 1.165V, 1.175V or even lower at 4.1GHz. Just be careful going way too low or the machine may have trouble booting. Go down in small steps to avoid issues. If you go a little bit too low you will start getting Windows lockups and WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (0x124) STOP errors (BSOD) and will need to increase it to avoid that. These errors will begin to occur before booting problems arise. You can also use HWiNFO64 to force the fans to run full blast while running benchmarks and that should help also. If it still gets too hot you may need to repaste the CPU.

 

A09 is back again

 

Do you have any ideas why it was removed and replaced?

Interesting my dell support page has changed. I need to re reg my machine.
It now shows updates by current configuration and allows for auto install of updates.

 

No idea man. I was using A09 without any issues before it was taken down. After re upload i just re flashed once again just in case.

 

i just reflashed it too... nothing changed it seem's

 

That's good news.....all this skullduggery showing and then hiding and then showing it again was making me nervous. Paranoia sets in....

 

yeah all this secrecy around those bios update lack of information is baffling me.

 

Well, right now i'm not sure what to think anymore.
I have just used my computer with the standard OC lvl 1 overclock settings. Witch also offered me a firestrike benchmark score of 7900-8200 depending on each test. with ur profile settings @ 4,3 i get low scores like 7100-7300. Makes no sense to me why this is..

Now as said, i had my settings on OC1, and my computer works ok. I can play WoW without crashes etc.. Since the weather has changed to much cooler. The ambient temperature inside my room now is like 20C. So I thought i would try to see if i could get my computer to run a benchmark test like cinebench. So i started up XTU again and loaded the profile i got from you @ 4,3ghz. The computer freezes just launching a small app, i rememered this from earlier but then bumping the voltage somewhat to 1,22V made it stable 3 days ago. The stable profile i had saved was loaded (1,22V). Still unstable.. Watching the temperature, its around 50C the cpu core temp when it crashes...

I dunno what to do in this case anymore. If alienware would have reached out and recalled my computer for a refund i would do it in a heartbeat.

 

What CPU do you have cwathne? Chances are pretty good that nothing is wrong other than using settings that don't work well for your machine.

A good friend of mine has a new 18 with 4940MX. I spent several hours helping him overclock it the other day and found that his 4940MX requires substantially more voltage than my 4930MX does. It also has trouble overclocking (or we haven't found the settings it needs yet) beyond 4.5GHz. It doesn't seem to behave well at at all above 4.5GHz. His runs best at 4.3GHz. My 4930MX handles 4.5-4.6GHz without any problem at all.

What I am getting at is that you will need to try different values until you discover what your CPU likes best. Using my profile may not be ideal for your CPU, even if it is a 4930MX like mine. Haswell has a huge variance between processors. With Sandy and Ivy there was a little bit, but settings were easier to share and then tweak. They would at least put you in the ballpark as a good starting point. That's no longer true, unfortunately. With some Haswell CPUs settings that work well one on CPU can even make another machine totally fail to POST. We saw several examples of that when the Alienware 18 was first release.

 

I would like to ask everyone with i7-4800MQ what temps are you getting while idle/gaming/stress testing in Intel XTU/wPrime or Prime after updating to A09 ?

 

Mr. Fox is it possible to post your friends settings so that I can have a comparable template to work from since I also have a 4940mx chip. When it comes to voltage I haven't tried anything yet.