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    Bios update schedule

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by jtravapd8578, Jan 27, 2015.

  1. jtravapd8578

    jtravapd8578 Notebook Consultant

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    I feel like it's been forever since our last bios update (I realize it hasn't) has anyone spoken with anyone who works for ALIENWARE to find out what changes or fixes they maybe cooking up? Or are we gonna just be stuck for awhile.

    Also the problems people are having with 980's , does the bios play a part? Could that be holding up the next update? Just curious .
     
    jtravapd8578, Jan 27, 2015
    #1
  2. Zero989

    Zero989 Notebook Virtuoso

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    There is no next update.

    "The Alienware 18 is no longer supported"
     
    Zero989, Jan 27, 2015
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  3. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    That's right... end of life... SOL... kaput, nada, no mas... just like the M18xR2, M18xR1 and the beasts before them.

    But, don't worry about it. It is what it is. What you have now is better than anything they sell as an alternative. And, to be fair, as far as I am concerned the Alienware 18 does not need a new BIOS. It only "needs" to be unlocked somehow, by someone with the brutish hacking talent or bootleg tools needed to exorcise that cancerous Secure Flash demon.
     
    Mr. Fox, Jan 28, 2015
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  4. jlyons264

    jlyons264 Notebook Evangelist

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    I would like to say it could be brute forced open but what little I know about secure bios and what I have read it can't be crack due to the public/private keys needed... if dell would give someone the private key part it could be done. but I don't see dell doing that with the direction the company seems to be going.
     
    jlyons264, Jan 28, 2015
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  5. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    It might accidentally get leaked some day. There are tools that can circumvent it, but they are closely guarded. I posted a link to a video last year, (but I probably cannot find the post again,) from a InsydeH20 BIOS Developer conference where they spoke about it being exploitable. The ambitious person with SMD soldering skills can do like svl7 did to his AW17 and replace the BIOS chip with a socket and a removable chip that can be popped out, reprogrammed, and snapped back into the socket like a desktop BIOS. We are not "supposed to" be able to dump the content of NVRAM... they went out of their way to try to block us, but the RAM removal shock treatment works like a charm. It might be something as unconventional as that weird act that can break it, but who knows. Having an unlocked BIOS would be nice, but it won't give the Alienware 18 everything it needs to be off the hook amazing. It will still have the power-handling limitations, and that is a bigger problem than the locked-down BIOS crap.
     
    Mr. Fox, Jan 28, 2015
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  6. jlyons264

    jlyons264 Notebook Evangelist

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    I am not saying it isn't possible... just unlikely... and I am not saying I have been looking for broke motherboards in my spare time... I just might be looking at what it would take...

    I seen the video you are talking about... there was some videos from somewhere else about it also... or maybe there wasn't anything about it...
     
    jlyons264, Jan 28, 2015
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  7. Mr. Fox

    Mr. Fox BGA Filth-Hating Elitist®

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    I agree... very unlikely. If there was money to be made in the venture and a high demand for it, it might be less unlikely. We are an elite minority.
     
    Mr. Fox, Jan 28, 2015
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