It seems A07 has damaged my Alienware...

Well now it looks like I'm stuck with not being able to use SLI, not being able to even see the fricking screen correctly (min brightness) and only being able to use IGFX if I want to do anything properly.

Timeline:

• Flashed 888 MHz vBIOS and works great
• A07 is released and A07 Unlocked by svl7 is released
• Flash A07 Unlocked BIOS
• During flash, screen goes black, fans stay at 100%
• Go to dinner (25 minutes)
• Come back still like this.
• Hold power button down to turn off and turn back on, flash seems fine, BIOS reads A07. Restore to default as the readme says.
• Turn on PC and screen is dim (min brightness), Brightness slider has disappeared and function keys do nothing.
• Run Heaven to see if I get 900 MHz instead of 888 MHz, realise I'm stuck on 324 MHz.
• Talk to an expert on the forum and they say to try uninstall NVIDIA and use their recommended 302.77
• Do that. Uninstall NVIDIA and reboot.
• Oops, now I can't reboot because when I log in, system freezes. So I need to use IGFX to turn off Precision and HWiNFO64 (from startup)
• Now I can reboot and I reinstall NVIDIA 302.77. Does nothing.
• Problems AT THIS POINT: EVGA Precision X reports that SLI is disabled and the power target slider doesn't do anything (just says %). NVIDIA Control Panel has no option for SLI, only PhysX. Brightness Slider doesn't exist. Function Keys do nothing.
• Reflash stock backup vBIOS to both GFX cards and reboot. Still does nothing.
• Update NVIDIA back to 306.23. Still does nothing.
• Attempt to reflash unlocked A03, cannot do that... some SMI error code.

So from this it looks like I am now stuck with A07, cannot get the Discrete graphics cards to work, cannot reflash back to A03, cannot move off 2D clocks, cannot get brightness to work... BRILLIANT. Remind me why I bought this?
Any ideas what so ever?

EDIT: With the help of johnksss, I have managed to Blind Flash back down to A03 and then back to A03 Unlocked and I will leave it there until I either see more positive reinforcement about A07 or A08 comes out.

DEFCON 5.

 

I warned every one that going to A07 might be a mistake if you were on any thing before it.. as I completely screwed mine by going backwards..

Just call them and tell them whats going on.. by chance can you check to see if your having ICC errors? that was the issue i had by trying to go backwards..

But I got flamed all over the place for doing this...I hope the same doesnt happen to you.. Best of luck!

 

I'm already contemplating returning this and trying to get a refund because i have just about had it with locked BIOS and all that crap. I mean who pays for the system... How do I check ICC?

 

im not trying to rub this in but me and johnksss did this very thing and it turned into a hate thread agaisnt me real fast.. and I/we warned people against doing this.. I hope it works out for you tho..

 

My problem isn't about getting A07 and going back to A03, it's the opposite way around, this was released officially by Dell today on their website and svl7 just unlocked it. That's what I flashed.

 

I understand that and we warned against going from A03 to A07.. hopefully Johnkss can help you out.. I told him to get ahold of you..

 

does flashing to the regular A07 work?

 

Nope, but all systems have been RETURNED TO NORMAL.

With the very patient help of johnksss I have learnt how to Blind Flash my BIOS back to A03 and then back up to A03 Unlocked, and I'll leave it like that for now. Also downgraded my NVIDIA driver from 306.97 to 306.23 as it allows my custom vBIOS to run at 900 MHz rather than 888 MHz, increasing my Heaven score from 160.0 to 161.4, and the Min FPS didn't even go below 60 (Vsync), Max FPS was like 368.

Thank you very much to johnkssss (I'm not sure how many 's' in his name, don't shoot D: )

DEFCON 5.

 

lol. No problem!

 

So what were the issues?

 

Either complete driver incompatibility or a bad flash.

 

Can someone perhaps post a how-to on how we can one can safely downgrade from A07>A03?

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

You can't do it at the moment

 

Can you or johnksss post a how to on how we can downgrade from A07 to A03???? Thanks in advance...

 

Maybe you did not notice the post, but John responded to the question after you asked the last time.

 

My bad... lol been so loopy these past couple days with long days at work... sorry didn't see that.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

You can blind flash back but only if your Alienware ORIGINALLY CAME with A03, and it is by no means "safe".