Bios version A02...

just received my new m18, and it has bios version A02.... anybody else have this... I thought there was only A00...

 

I'm interested in this myself!

 

Just got mine in as well.
Also have A02 version bios.

But there still is NO bios update from Dell's site :shrug

D.

 

May add support for the new cards?

 

That would make sense, although I would prefer if they fixed the bluetooth + crossfire issue.

 

Would also be nice if they (Dell) addressed the Aero problem too.......and cured world famine....neither likely to happen any time soon....

 

What if someone does a backup of the bios A02, can it then be installed in any M18X or not?

 

No luck regarding the BIOS?

 

Necro IF ... a big if ... no one has done this by the time I receive my replacement I will get on it ... but Its not even shipped yet.

 

They need to hurry up and release the A02 bios....

 

It seems that these new posters that just recently received their systems with the A02 bios haven't been encountering the problems that users with the older bios are experiencing. I don't know if that really means anything though.

 

I would very much appreciate it if someone could back up their bios and post it here for early M18x adopters to install.

 

I just got my m18x replacement with the A02 version so ill try to back it up when I get home tonight.

Do I use an external app because I don't recall seeing the option on the bios screen.

 

Thanks a bunch for offering your time to help. +1 rep

Universal Bios Backup Toolkit V2.0
Works 100%. I just tested it. Click "read" then click "backup bios" it will save it as a rom file.

M18X A00 Bios
Here's a copy of the A00 bios that I backed up if anyone needs that.

 

Well, we now can back the old bios up, and how can we re-install them if anything goes wrong?

 

OK, I just backed up my A02 bios using the software Nicholaus posted.

Here you guys go
Alienwarem18x-A02.rom

NOW, how do people go about reflashing their bios from this?

D.

 

Thank you. +1 rep.

 

Thx man, +1 rep! Now how do we install it? I've been investigating and they only speak about flashing through a usb device in DOS or burning it to a CD. Another thread said that we could run it in Win 7. I'm confused now lol

 

I could be wrong but dont you need to create a bootable USB and flash the bios by booting from USB?? (just like we had to when ChrisM released the test bios for the sleep issues)...........

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...sh-drive-flash-aw-bios-updates-under-dos.html

This is just how I THINK you would do it, better to get clarfication before proceeding.......

 

We just need some sort of flash utility. The problem is finding one that works with the InsydeH20 BIOS. It can be done through windows or a bootable disk/usb.

 

Im thinking the method that several of us used to flash the test bios for sleep issues on the M17x may work.....maybe not.....dont really see why it WOULDNT work.....

 

Insyde Flasher
Extract the folder and place the A02 bios in it. Rename the bios file to BIOS.FD and launch the program. Your fans will spin up to 99999% and it will flash the new bios. I got an error message at the end but the bios flash worked perfectly. Make sure you reconfigure your bios settings. as you can see from the color of my windows, the aero problem is still there...

I did some research and found out that the message has something to do with an EC update error. Just ignore it and click OK. Apparently it's a function for UEFI bios which we don't have.

 

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm now on A02!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
+1 Rep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've also updated my bios, on A02 now, now let's find out what good things this BIOS will do.

+1 rep to you Nicholaus.rossi! :-D

 

....anxiously awaiting results. Currently traveling with my M18X and stuck in an airport for a couple more hours. Pretty interested in seeing how this thread develops when I get home later this evening....

 

I just emailed my AW contact to see if he can provide me with a change log for A02.

 

Glad I didn't get the CF

 

It would be nice as well if Dell issued the video glitching problem and the fact that we are stuck with old drivers, they should allow us to install drivers from Nvidia directly...i am seriously thinking of selling this laptop and going back to an Asus single card one, at least my old one never gave me so much problems as this one....

 

I'd also like an up to date video driver from Dell or the ability to use the AMD drivers w/o popup error windows.

 

I just got home from my business trip and checked my M18x. It already has the A02 BIOS also. But, it's great that we have a way to re-flash our BIOS if we want or need to. I don't understand why Dell is not posting the updated version, unless there is a greater than normal risk of bad flash with the Insyde BIOS. Or, maybe they just don't want people like TheWiz fixing the things that they are not bothering to take care of like TheWiz did with the M17x R2 BIOS.

Spoiler

 

They didn't fix the 1.resume/sleep brightness issue, 2.Aero Bug or 3.hanging at post with certain USB devices.

What exactly did they change besides adding a 2?

 

I just got home from my business trip and checked my M18x. It already has the A02 BIOS also. But, it's great that we now have a way to re-flash our BIOS if we want or need to.

Spoiler

My guess would be they modified something to add some sort of support for newer hardware, like the 6990 and 580.

 

It's more than likely just added support for the new video cards.

 

I was told yesterday that they can't fix the Aero bug through software.

 

I think they could be wrong about that. I'm almost inclined to think they are clueless. The Aero bug has responded very favorably to software changes as noted on that thread. LINK

 

I hope their wrong. If they aren't, then it's their loss yet again No freezes with upgraded cards/motherboard with A02 so far ...I'm still gonna switch once my new M18x replacement arrives.

 

You may not have to switch if your new M18x comes with the A02 BIOS already installed as did some of ours.

 

That's true. I really don't feel like teaing down the replacement to apply ICD 24 again.

 

I would not take it apart to do that unless you have an issue with temps. I'm having no temp problems no matter how hard I push things. ICD24 is awesome, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

I woke up to the Aero Bug. Re-booted to Aero bug. Lame....going back to default settings.

 

Do you have CCC disabled at startup? I used MSCONFIG to turn it off a couple of days after my M18x arrived. Just trying to think of reasons you may be experiencing the Aero bug more frequently and that question came to mind.

 

I did when I had the issue. Not now.

 

You might want to go ahead and disable CCC at startup and see if it helps reduce the frequency of the Aero bug. There is no earthly reason for it to be running in the background. CFX works fine without it and if nothing else you will not have the annoyance of the error message if you switch to the IGP. The NVIDIA Control Panel also does not need to be running in the background at startup.

When I decide to update to Catalyst 11.7, I am going to remove everything with Driver Sweeper and CCleaner and manually install the drivers from Device Manager to see how things perform without any traces of AMD software. I can already control just about everything I need to using RadeonPro.

 

Because of my upgraded Nvidia Cards I am running Verde 275.33 driver. I disabled it earlier at boot with msconfig. Since disabling I have seen the Aero Bug once at boot.

 

Are you running SLI with that Nvidia driver?

 

.................................

I will explain my situation to you in a PM.

When I install drivers I uninstall previous drivers>run ccleaner>run driver sweeper>restart>install new drivers.
When the AW techs install the video driver they do it individualy for each card through the device manager.

Next time I have them do this I need to pay more attention.

 

If you are running them in sli, you may want to post how you were able to install the verde drives and keep sli enabled as many people (myself included for the few days I had the 460m's) can not get sli to work once we install the verde drivers.
(I personally tried 275.33, 275.50 and while I could get them to install with modified inf's, I could get sli to work... heck.. could not even get the control panel to start up to try and get sli to work)

D.