M15x A08 Bios Released - 3/9/10

Hi All,

Just thought that i would start up a new thread to discuss the new A08 Bios, which is now available to download from Dell.

Bios file can be found here
Release Notes are summarised below, or you can download from here

BIOS Information:
BIOS Revision: A08
EC Revision: 1.16

A08 System BIOS Release Notes:
1. Implemented Turbo Ratio limits to default values. << throttle fix, unless your running an extreme cpu. i.e. 920xm/940xm
2. Improved touchpad polling rates.

Note: The bios utility has also been updated, you can now create a bootable ISO, CD from the utility, or a USB bootable device to update the bios

Regards,

Ryan

 

for the first time the Bios utility allows you to create USB boot device as an option

 

Well, that description doesnt show too much promise for a throttling fix. At least the touchpad is better. Can anyone confirm the throttling? (My M15x left today, so I cant)

 

Hey Wattos,

From an initial Mafia 2 benchmark, the CPU throttling could be fixed, however im still seeing GPU throttling issues, although thats using the Nvidia drivers. I will reinstall the dell drivers and report back with the results.

I can confirm that the touchpad feels a lot nicer now though

 

that sounds fantastic.

What about 5850 owners? Do you get any throttling now?

 

i can't stop squiggling on the touch pad, it's like a different laptop!

i'd like to hear more about the throttling as well

oh btw, watto's the bios didn't break your alienfx app at least

 

UPDATE TO MY POST ABOVE:

I have just reinstalled the dell drivers, and holy sh*t! 42fps on the Mafia 2 benchmark.... exactly the same as what i was getting with the A07 bios whilst using rivatuner and throttlestop....

 

waaa great news!
happy for ya ryan!

 

just downloaded, gonna flash it now and test it out, sweet.

 

Thanks! Borderlands also works without any issues, only played it for 5 minutes but she runs beautifully, around 45-60fps on the highest settings!! This thing feels like a completely new machine! No more messing around with throttlestop or rivatuner for me

 

the way it should be!
this is great news.

i think i'll keep throttlestop around... i've gotten quite attached to the app <3

need more users reporting findings

 

t-stop can still be used to oc, seem the brought the multi down on the extreme cpu's.

 

Man thats good news!

At the danger of asking something thats already asked and covered on a weekly basis:
When you changed to the Dell drives, did you just install them "on top" of the nVidia Reference drivers, or was there any removal involved in the process?

I remember reading a post about that some days ago (can't find it now), but I don't remember if that was for the ATI drivers.

 

Just uninstall the Nvidia drivers, restart, install driver sweeper and run the application, tick nvidia display drivers, clean, and then restart again. This will remove any traces left from the Nvidia drivers. Once your laptop has restarted, just install the new Dell drivers and restart again. Job done

 

Hey Inap what you mean they brought down the multi for the extreme cpu? So is our cpu still run x25 across the board. Have you test any game with it without using throttlestop?

 

yeah they brought the multi down to 25x-24x-18x-18x
so no more 24x or 25x across the board.

 

even with TS?

 

yeah ts and eleet reporting the same. i just ran oc'ed 26x across the board and the cpu is throttling. not enough power to oc sadly. i posted the results in the throttling page.

 

@ryanwhite123: Do you see throttling with BIOS A08

 

in order to install the new bios does one just download and install it or is there any other precautionary steps needing to be taken? I also uninstalled the alienware touchpad driver will this new bios put the driver back or will it continue to use the windows one and just improve on that? Thanks for the help guys im not really that great with the "tech" aspect but im more than competent and willing to learn. Thanks again!

 

So the bio decrease the multi which fix the throttling but if you use throttlestop to oc it then it throttle? Even you increase the TDP/TDC and it still throttle?

 

i only did one run so far, let me do a few more to confirm.

 

I have only tested 2 games, but it looks to me that the throttling issues with the GTX 260m are now fixed

 

Bios Installation:

Download the A08 bios file and run it. It will extract and open the utility program automatically. You will be given the option to burn the file to either an empty usb storage device, or a blank disk. Once you have selected this, restart and hit F12 as soon as the Alienware bios screen comes up. You will then be given a list of boot options, either select the dvd drive or usb drive, depending on how you burnt the new bios file in the utility software. Once you have made your selection, you will be prompted to hit 'B' to continue the update, thats all you need to do. Your system will now run through the bios update automatically, do not turn off or touch the laptop whilst its doing this, it should only take 3-5 mins.

As for the touchpad concern, the new bios update will not reinstall the touchpad drivers, it just improves the feedback to stop it jumping around. You will need to redownload the drivers from the dell website.

Hope that helps!

 

thanks ryan +rep for you even tho mine wont do anything, helped out immensely

 

Yay touchpad is smooth now

 

ok A08 seem good, after 2nd run of vantage with the rise in the tdp i got much better results.

 

so do we live in a perfect world and did Joker win the lotto?

 

i'll let the screen shot of the bench do the talking, heheheh
on A07 I can barely hit 19k cpu with same setting.

 

me likes!!

now, I cant wait for my new M15x to arrive. I guess I just made it in time to return it :X

 

hi people, i'm a new member from italy i just installed new bios.

my config is
I7-920X
GTX260
4gb ram
now the gpu is ok i play badcompany 2 very smooth , but the cpu is fixed at 17x 2,2ghz during 3d play , wen i return to desktop the clock goes back to 3,2ghz and moves up and down between 3,2 and 2,9 (24x 22x multiplier)

 

I'm pleased that the bios update worked. As your your concern with the cpu speed, the reason why the clock speed drops down to 2.2ghz during gameplay is because bad company 2 is using all 4 cores, whereas your desktop only uses 1 or 2 at higher clock speeds, and downclocks the remaining cores to conserve power and reduce heat. This is normal for turbo boost. Some applications run better under 1 or 2 cores, so your 920xm is smart enough to figure that out and then move power between the cores depending on the application.

Please look at the 5th slide on this link to understand how turbo boost works

 

thank you for your reply so i can say my M15X now is working very fine
thank you much

 

I've updated and yup the touchpad is much improved, as for the throttling - I haven't had any issues so far with the i7 840qm and the 5850 so hopefully it will continue that way.

On a random side note: which drivers are better? the "optional beta" ones on the dell site or 10.8 from that ati site? (for 5850).

 

ryan, i might be stupid here but can you please link me to the touch pad driver, im either blind or special ed lol

 

the touchpad driver is here: under input devices. but the new bios is what is fixing the polling rate.

Drivers & Downloads

 

Does the AW utility only let you burn on CDs and not DVDs? I've tried and it doesn't let me. Thinking of saving an image and then burning it with Nero on a DVD. Will that create any problems?

 

dvd are fine too, but cd's should work for you. also they have a usb utilty now also.

 

I'm happy to report that early testing shows that I can OC my GPU to the max and see no throttling in Furmark...

... that is until my GPU hits its thermal limit and downclocks itself

Looks like I need to replace the thermal paste. My GPU was heading up to 97C before downclocking itself (I believe they do this at 100C- it's not Dell's fault, this is built into NVIDIA cards as a safety measure to prevent damage to the card).

So... yeah, I need better cooling. But hey, it's not throttling for no reason now

 

What you need is some OCZ freeze.

 

awesome, thanks...i had uninstalled the factory touchpad driver as per the "just got my m15x thread" now i need to put that bad boy back on there to get this touch pad working proper. Thanks a bunch..just download run and install? I dont need to uninstall the whole alienware command center app correct?

 

yeah just download and install over the existing one.

 

If you have an Extreme CPU like the 920XM or 940XM then you are still going to need to use either ThrottleStop or ELEET to set the turbo multipliers to the same value like they used to be in the previous bios versions. This new bios that reduces the maximum turbo multipliers back to the default Intel values will reduce your maximum power consumption but it will also reduce your full load performance significantly. Post a wPrime benchmark with your turbo multipliers set up the way the older bios versions had them set up and compare that to how bios A08 has them set up and you will see a BIG decrease in performance on the Extreme CPUs.

Decreasing performance is not something you should be smiling about.

 

epic touchpad, love it

 

Love it, the first time I logged in with the touchpad, and it is beautiful. Gotta hand it to Dell for finally getting this done. Feels like a different laptop altogether now.

 

I have the 920xm, will i notice a big difference in real world gaming, or just benches? Could you explain how it decreases performance compared to A07? Thanks.

 

I dunno, but I think this BIOS also fixes some AlienFX glitches.

 

That what I think too. I always use throttlestop no matter what so fixing the throttling or not is not important. By updating this bios I still have to use throttlestop to increase my multi back to where it use to be. So I rather keep the old bio version and continue running throttlestop.

 

In a 920XM, when all 4 cores are being used and are in the active state, bios A08 will limit the maximum multiplier to 17. If that load has you going over the Intel default TDP/TDC limits for your CPU then you will get zero turbo boost and the maximum multiplier will be limited to the default which is only 15. With bios A07, Alienware used to have this set so all cores would run at the full 24 multiplier even when fully loaded.

You will notice a huge difference when doing any multi-threaded benchmark and you could see decreased CPU performance in any modern game that is multi-threaded. This is something people need to be aware of. At least it's not throttling, it's just running slower. I can't wait to see a couple of before and after wPrime benchmarks so you can see the full impact on performance. Anyone doing video work or 3D rendering work is not going to be happy with this latest fix.

Edit: The new bios seems to get rid of clock modulation throttling so I recommend it for that reason but if you have an Extreme, you are still forced to use ThrottleStop to get full performance out of your 920XM or 940XM CPU. Now if you experience any throttling it will be because you overclocked your CPU and this problem won't be Dell's fault anymore because they have set your CPU to run at the default Intel spec. Very clever of them and their lawyers.

 

Yup, they circumvented the power problem by reducing consumption on extreme CPU's, thus freeing them of any responsibility for further throttling. A proper fix would have been an increase in power consumption limit + PSU upgrades but Dell did what made the most financial sense. I'd be curious to see how testing of this bios holds up in a few weeks. The first few hours everything always seems rosy until a problem rears its ugly head.

Still though, initial testing looks good and I hope this resolves the throttling issues for the majority of users out there which I suspect it will. Took long enough to get a fix out there. I didn't win the lottery though...