Alienware M18x R2 with 980m - Possible throttling fix

After several tests on my single gpu M18x R2 and @Infinaris SLI setup, we have come to a workaround for the throttling problem occuring with the 980m. I am not sure if this can help 780m SLI or 880m SLI systems, but they are welcome to try.

Do the following and post results.

An unlocked BIOS is needed and one can be found from here or here
Also I would suggest flashing Premas vBios from here

1) Power up (or reboot) and keep pressing F2 to enter BIOS
2) From the Advanced menu and Video Configuration, select as primary the IGFX
3) Save and exit and boot to windows.
4) Wait till all your aplications are loaded and reboot
5) Press F2 to enter BIOS again.
6) From the video configuration select PEG
7) Save and exit and boot to windows.
8) Benchmark your system to see if it throttles.

Use an OSD software like Riva Tuner Statistics Server and HWINFO and benchamrk with 3D mark11

Keep an eye on clocks and utilization. Clocks should be maxed and utilization should be above 97% (except the physics test).

When in throttle free mode, rebooting doesn't bring back throttling so you can safely switch drivers to any version you like.

Sleeping doesn't seem to bring back throttling, but vanishes Soundblaster Recon 3di for those that has this particular problem! Another sleep and awake might bring back the SB!

My system is:

GTX 980m from @woodzstack here
Premas Clevo V2 Bios from here
Swicks modded bios from here
Aftermarket drivers from @j95 from here version 365,10

If installation fails to install 365.10 then try the following
DDU your previous installation in safe mode.
Reboot with Digital Driver signing off
Ran a command prompt with administrator rights
Use the following commands

bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON

Exit and run installer

I hope I didn't forget to mention anything, please let me know if I did

Post your findings and ideas and maybe we can find a permanent solution to this problem.

UPDATE 31/8/2016

I am not sure if it is the drivers since v369 but you can also try this "setting".

From inside the "Advanced menu" and "Video configuration" a line below the GFX select, states the ""Pci express graphic".. Inside select the value for the PCIE reset delay to "300ms".

After this setting. throttling does exist but only downclocks the GPU core to 1036MHz and not below that. The clock fluctuates beetween 1127 and 1036. Tesed with prema V2 public and dell vBios.

GPUz states pwr as throttling, but performace is not affected.

3D mark is above 11k even with cold boot.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11540027

 

I do noticed a difference on the 3Dmark11 scores. My system:




Only difference is that I have Clevo's VBIOS and Driver 352.80

I think you are on to something @jerryzago .

 

This fix appears to work for now. I will test it further and see what happens.
So far in all games that I've tested, I get higher fps and no throttling after doing the switching.



This issue has been so irritating as of late but now I feel that it has been fixed.
Thanks by the way! I would have never found those unlocked bios files if it weren't for this post!

 

posted in wrong thread while reading two

 

People who said a clean install of windows helped them with throttling, actually didi the switch from igfx to peg to install drivers.

I assume first they install intel HD drivers and then nvidia and then benchmarked the system. So it wasn't a clean install after all

I also tested dells vbios. It doesn't throttle, but clock fluctuates keeps rising slowly between 1036 and 1126 mhz and gives a lower benchmark.

I believe this is the normal boost technology. It ups the clock when utilization is constantly 99% till maximun is reached. Also runs cooller since voltage is from 1,000 to 1,052.

Prema has disable it and give better performance with clocks at max boost and voltage constantly at max.

Anyone tried 365.10 driver? Mine fails during install. I disable driver singning but I never get the 'install driver on your own risk' screen.

 

365.10 works perfectly for me on windows 10.

If you have windows 10, you have to disable integrity checks and enable testsigning in order to install this driver.

To do so, open command prompt as an administrator, then type the following;

bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON

Now try running the nvidia driver installer.

 

I didn't knew that drivers signing and the above commands were needed at the same time. Installed just fine and throttle free!

 

i have trouble installing the driver. what is the process of making it work ?

 

What error message are you receiving?

If the driver installer can't find compatible hardware, then you will need to do the inf mod to the driver, which is fairly simple.

 

Usually I just get the modded inf from j95 off techinferno and after a DDU i reboot with the no 7 option of disabled driver signatures and install just fine. Does ask to manually allow the driver install during installation tho.

The only thing I dont like about windows 10 atm is I always have corrupted files with a sfc /scannow even with a clean install and on the rare occasion I get a corrupted start that forces me to use system restore or restore from a backup image.

Regardless the only thing that seems to fix the bloody throttling atm is to flip to igfx and back to peg to get a proper boot. Otherwise it throttles when pushed beyond a certain point. The only question that needs to be solved is why its throttling on cold boot and whats the setting thats being incorrectly applied?

 

Would it be possible to dropbox the modified driver for me ?

 

Download the driver from j95 over at techinferno, DDU your previous one and enter windows selectinf the disable driver sighning.

Before running the installer, run an elevated command prompt as admin and run the two following commands

bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON

I did that and installed just fine on me

 

Only problem I'm having atm is windows keeps corrupting on me after a few days forcing me to reinstall a backup image. Dunno if the system just doesnt like alternating between the 2 gfx cos its getting really irritating. Always had this issue with it that the os would not stay free of corruption for whatever reason.

 

That is weird. Possible an application that doesn't close properly and reports an error during boot, tells windows that there is a problem.

I had many of these on windows 8.1. I just choosed the option to restart my pc and it booted fine. Two or three days later, It failed to boot again, but it managed to last 4 months without restore or any form of fixing.

 

Its been an annoying issue as far as I'm concerned on my own laptop. I dont know what the cause could be I've used /sfc scannow on a fresh install and it will show errors that cannot be fixed. Laptop will work fine for a while but then I get odd errors or the os wont work. Other day it was giving a critical process died error forcing me to restore from the image backup and yesterday It wouldnt let me select where to save files in firefox and the Alien FX would show errors. Tried sys restore and only ended up with critical process died again forcing yet another restore from backup image.

Really dont know where the problem could be unless the hardware on my laptop is just getting worn out. Funny thing is I restore from the backup image and it works perfectly fine.

 

Possible a hard drive may corrupt files. Run an SMART test and look results. Try speedfan than runs tests and compares them online giving suggestions. A low level format to the harddrive that has the OS will help. If you have a raid array, all drives might need that.

Maybe it could be a ram problem. When an error comes up, boot again using only one dimm and see if this helps.

Lastly an antivirus that isn't windows 10 compatible and 'attacks' system files.

Norrow down to what causes file corruption.

 

The SSD is rather new its a msata evo 850. I seriously doubt it could be that. Ram might be an issue but I'm not sure. I dont use raid tho all drives are standalone.

AV is kaspersky never had issues with it.

 

A small update. It seems it is not needed to boot windows when switching from PEG to IGFX.

Just let it reboot and enter bios to change again fron IGFX to PEG and you could still be throttle free.

Perhaps an idea would be to mod the bios to always boot from IGFX when the system shutdowns. And when we turn it on, we can select the PEG manually and be throttle free.

I am trying to find if a certain app or cmd runtime can reset the GPU (like soft reset) in a way AMD makes the VPU recover. I will get to it when I have the time.

 

Look for hdtune to check your drive, could be a bad connection or like jerry says possible bad memory? I'd run a mem test and a hdd test to see which ones giving you fits, mines been running good (knock on wood) I'm considering picking up my second 980 in the next couple of months.

 

I should of updated this but this works as well , are any of you running sli and tested this fix to see if it works with both cards as well?

 

Checking my msata drive but its looking like the whole things fine on hdtune. Dunno if the ram could be an issue tbh I might run a test but dont wanna go replacing the ram for nothing tbh. Funny thing is the issues are hit and miss. Sometimes I start windows 10 on cold boot and some stuff may not work but restarting fixes it. I dont see any issues with the ram itself games work fine but I'm not ruling it out. Dont know if the mobo could be damaged either tho it doesnt give any errors on clean installs for example I can install windows perfectly fine its usually something that shows up later.

 

I think it might be the crappy OS to blame. I have experienced similar random file corruption issues with Windows 10 on all of my systems. I have needed to reinstall Windows 10 or restore from disk image due to unexplainable file corruption more times than I have any OS ever... It's crazy, really. I was speaking to a computer tech recently that does field service for Dell and Lenovo and he tells me he has replaced more desktop, server and laptop HDD and SSD that have failed since Windows 10 was released than he has in the previous 25 years combined.

 

I would try either 8.1 or 7 before you think it's a hardware problem. I don't remember the link but @Mr. Fox have certainly the link for cheap Win versions you could try (if you haven't other Os available).

 

Isnt the ssd for sure it showed up clean.

Running a memory test now. Could go to windows 7 again for a while (I might use it more once microsoft removes that gwx program) but I also had signs of corruption with windows 8.1 as well in the past. Was occasuonally glitchy as well the last time I reinstalled that OS.

 

Right here... http://www.kinguin.net/software-games/

I have purchased Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 from this web site and all work fine.

You still have your Alienware Windows 7 DVD? If so, might as well use that.

 

I've all 3 OS's available for my system including an image backup of my windows 7 installation. Did a memory diagnostic there and its not showing any errors on the ram.

Mr.Fox could be right it could be the OS itself just not sitting pefectly well expecially since it relies on older 8.1 drivers to work like the OSD and Command Center and the like.

The system seems to remain stable so long as I dont start switching the gfx too much in the past it seems to crash or stall when it comes to initialising the graphics drivers on boot as well from what I've noticed.

I might consider replacing the ram anyways since its been in the system a few years and it could be worth trying to get something with a faster memory clock. Think Mr.fox posted something there a while back about getting ram to run at 2133mhz but cant find the post....

 

Corsair Vengeance 2133 and G.SKILL Ripjaws 2133 both run full speed with no mods on the M18xR2 as long as you are running an Ivy Bridge CPU. If you run a Sandy Bridge CPU on the Ivy Bridge mobo it may drop to 1866. But, yes, if for some reason it does drop we can bump the tCKmin a couple of clicks with Thaiphoon Burner if we need to. That tweak was necessary on the Alienware 18, but not the M18xR2. The problem @Swick1981 was having with the speed dropping fixed itself when he replaced his 2960XM with a 3940XM.

Here's a link to the tCKmin tweak mentioned: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-support-testers-needed.789322/#post-10218917

 

Ive the 3920 CPU in my machine so I might just buy em and see if it helps the 32gb stock ram runs at 1600 it seems on my system so I wonder if swapping it for those ripjaws will make a difference....

Just ordered 32GB of the ripjaws 2133 ram to replace the stock ram. Dunno if it'll get rid of the problems I've been having but if it improves the speed of the laptop itll be worth it and even more so if the corruption stops.

 

Go up to 2133 speed wouldn't improve the speed of your laptop much. If you bench, yeah you will get higher numbers. And this is good enough reason to get faster ram

 

Interesting...the HyperX runs 2133 no issues in the M18x R1 with 2920XM, wonder why it would do that in the M18x R2

 

I don't know. We never figured that out. We even tried flashing the SPD from my Vengeance 2133 sticks on his newer version of the same modules (there were minor differences) and nothing worked. We bumped the tCKmin and everything. As soon as @Swick1981 replaced his 2960XM with the 3940XM it instantly ran 2133 with RAM set to "Auto" in the BIOS. The HyperX 2133 that I had in my M18xR1 ran 2133 without any tweaks, but it was also much higher CL timings and was not as fast as the Vengeance 2133. The same Vengeance sticks that worked at 2133 plug-and-play in my M18xR2 were not bootable in my M18xR1. Using Vengeance RAM with the M18xR1 motherboard was frequently problematic (many posted about their issues in this forum), but not the M18xR2. Perhaps it had something to do with the limited SPD range in the M18xR1 BIOS. The HyperX PnP 2133 worked automatically with timings that were not present in the M18xR1 BIOS if you attempted to manually configure the timings.

 

Probably for the same weird reason that 880M SLI worked flawlessly in some guy M18xR1 (dont remember nick) and when he upgraded Motherboard to M18xR2 they started throttling. It's a lottery what you get nowadays

 

One more update. Latest drivers installed, no problems and no throttling using the GFX switch

 

I am on the latest drivers 368 something and there is no throttling at least when gaming. Fallout 4 seems to run flawlessly. Will try doom soon, but can anyone else confirm this?

 

Yep I'm 368.25 as well, games working flawlessly!

 

Not seeing any throttling on my own system with those drivers either so far.

Edit: Usual cold boot throttling is there but gone with gfx toggle in bios.

 

Is this with or without GFX switch + 368.39?

UPDATE:

Still broken, 780M SLI throttles when CPU is under full load, CPU throttles when GPU is under full load

 

I am not doing the GFX switch. Just cold boot. I usually cold boot with battety and when windows load, I plug the AC. Recon 3Di disappering problem is also gone this way, and no throttling with the 368 drivers!!!!

 

The only throttle I get is the Power Throttle because my Sli setup and the 3940xm are power struggling with each other. if I stress the system with throttle stop my system has the power problem but without throttle stop the gpu's maintain speed.

 

Have you eliminated the possibility of the throttling being due to wattage starvation from the single 330W PSU with a Killawatt meter?

Mr. Fox and others have stated correctly that overclocked 780M SLI, especially if overvolted, can pull down north of 500W (full system power draw I believe).

 

Thanks for the corroboration, just read this after posting my last post above.

 

The potential throttling issue is the reason why I am interested in replacing 680M SLI with a single 980M as that should be good with 330W even OC'd.

 

yes, they're undervolted so it's impossible for them to over-draw power

 

Hmmm, while not likely, do you think it could be your PSU is on it's way out?

 

No. nVidia has crappy driver support for anything pre-Maxwell. Maxwell will go the same way soon now that Pascal is out and about.

 

So after a while, all you guys are using this trick to be able to use recent Nvidia drivers or did you go back to old Nvidia drivers?

 

I'm using the latest driver in conjunction with this trick. It's only tedious if you end up with Display Driver Failures and have to restart as the trick needs to be reapplied every time.

 

thanks for the feedback Vulcan. Those DDF happen often? what causes them?

Other users of this trick?

 

No, they only happened because I tried running to much frequency on the core, i.e. +149 (1275Mhz) vs. the +136 that is currently very stable.

Let me know if you need help getting the newer drivers to work, you will need to modify them with a .inf file as there are no official drivers for 980M in the M18x R2.

Also, if you've yet to do so, I HIGHLY recommend Prema's vbios, I picked up 1k points GPU in Firestrike with identical clocks simply going from the default vbios to Prema's.

You can expect about another 3-4C higher peak load temps though so have that aggressive Hwinfo64 fan algorithm ready! Also don't forget to elevate the back of the laptop.

 

Also I didn't discover this until recently but any hotfix driver will work without modding. But if you can use @j95 awesome drivers that is the way to go.