M15x A08 Bios Released - 3/9/10

no i haven't tried that game yet, for gaming my core maxes at 75 and my ram around 78. but i'm running 1.15v, i should get better temps if i lowered it.

 

If you lower it will you loss any performance?

 

Updated from A06 to A08 and the BIOS POST time went slower by 3 seconds!!
Anybody else experienced this?


On a side note, is it possible to switch back to A06 by reinstalling the A06 BIOS?
Nothing to worry like the Command Center - alienfx nightmare?

 

downgrading should be no problem but i wouldn't go any lower then A05.

 

Yep. A06 works great for me.

Thanks!

 

I haven't gotten around to monitoring my GPU temp on A08 while performing a graphic intensive task much less my CPU temps. Out the gate my GPU temp at idle is higher on A08 than on A07. See my earlier reply shown above. That being said, I'm sticking with A07. I'd love to take advantage of the polling rate fix, but it's simply not worth the trade off. I have my laptop running all day long for accessing email and basic web surfing. I like my M15x running cool and quiet during the day which is simply not possible on A08, at least in my case. Anyone else experiencing this issue? At least one other forum member here has so far.

 

Just a note for AW M15x users with SSD who are concern on their boot time (power on to desktop)

Confirmed:
A08 BIOS POST time is slower than A06 by 3 seconds.

Flashed to A06 again and my BIOS POST time went back to the usual time


Its either smoother touchpad or faster boot time

 

Same problem here where can I download A07?

 

http://ftp1.us.dell.com/bios/M15x BIOS A07.iso
think that's it

but why not just use an overclocking tool and "underclock" it? then you can reset to stock when you want to play games etc.
i have to do that all the time with the 5870, i have temps of around 35-45 depending on my ambient with the clocks set to 150/100. then i just reset it to stock when i want to play a game, simple and effective. don't forget the older bioses had the throttle issue. i don't see a problem with the new bios unless you're using the extreme series...

 

I noticed that if I've suspended the system a few times during the day, the GPU doesn't clock down from 500MHz (260m) as it should when it's idle in windows desktop.

The CPU idling on 500 MHz brings idle temp to around 50c (from the usual 42c I've got in idle at 200 MHz).

I'm not able to consistently recreate it, so it might be something else - but I've only experienced it after the computer coming out of suspend.

I'm using a Desktop Gadget to constantly monitor the GPU/CPU Clocks and Temps.

They're here if anyone want them: http://blog.orbmu2k.de/sidebar-gadgets/gpu-observer-sidebar-gadget - the CPU gadget is on that site as well. Just use google translate to get the site in English. The gadgets are all in English. God knows why the author doesn't provide a translation him self.

 

I have noticed the following changes after installing A08:

1. Improved touchpad performance
2. Audio crackling through headphones has reduced immensely, and
3. Improved speed overall.

Recommend it to all M15x users.

 

This touchpad feels so much better now! I can actually use it, although the one on my M11x is still much better

 

How can I check my Bios
whats on my laptop ?
Please

 

go to start and type dxdiag in the search box

 

Oh My GOD , Touchpad very smoth , GTA IV & Crysis running like hell , oh yeaaaaaaah baby !

......! I'm feelling happy with this BIOS updates , i'm going to kiss a Dell BIOS coders who make this ......

 

I hope future games not too demanding that cause our baby throttling again..or if this happen hope dell/alienware do something about it..

 

This bios is fantastic. The touchpad is a HUGE improvement. There is no throttling at stock speeds or with the 5850 oc'd to 900/1025. There still is a little big of crackling over headphones but it is greatly reduced. Here's hopin A09 offers just as much "wow."

As happy as I am over this bios... This should've been what the laptop shipped with. It shouldnt have left the warehouse before this bios was developed.

 

thank you

 

Touchpad is working great now! Still having throttling issues, but I am using latest Nvidia drivers vs. AW/Dell. Seems to be a little better though. Tried two games WoW and Battlefield BC2. Noticable in both once unplugging. Plugged in achieving well over 40fps in BFBC2, and over 60fps in WoW. Specs are...

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
System Manufacturer: Alienware
System Model: M15x
BIOS: Ver A07 1.00
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU M 620 @ 2.67GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 260M

 

Hey jedi how are you throttling as ive not experienced it at all with the 620m proc. also have you tried using throttle stop to correct the issue or riva tuner?

 

Power is greatly reduced when unplugged, games are not to be played unplugged generally...

 

I haven't used throttle stop yet as I am always wary of using software I'm unfamiliar with and not sure how to use it, also where to get a safe copy and latest ver. Any tips are always welcome of course. As for the 620m, it does throttle down as soon as you unplug it, my framerates go south. And granted as the poster after you commented, one usually doesn't play unplugged for gaming. But once in a while at a cafe' or airport I may be so inclined, and it also affects my DVD/blu-ray playback so it isn't just a gaming issue.

 

what you are experiencing is normal. the laptop simply does not have enough power to support full performance on battery power. there is a few things to make it less worst but your battery life will go down the drain, on full power you can expect maybe 30mins of game time.

2 things you need to help, is throttlestop and amd clock tools. you will get 100% of the cpu power back but only maybe around 70-80% of the gpu power.

on page 20 of this thread is a post by unclewebb, he is the maker of tstop and has a link in his sig. once downloaded just open it up and tick the 3 boxes in the upper left hand corner and turn on tstop. thats it. only extreme cpu owners have more options.

 

Appreciate that info, I know I'll sacrifice battery power, and I rarely play any games when on battery, but nice to know I can. Thanks again.

 

I don't normally work the M15x, but I have been given a statement from engineering regarding the A08 BIOS release and my co-worker is not available this evening... Please see below. Thx!

The A08 BIOS is designed to offer M15x and M17x-R2 users enhanced stability.

As has been pointed out on this thread, the A08 BIOS for both M15x and M17x-R2 assign the processor’s Turbo Ratio limits to Intel’s default values, thereby allowing Turbo Mode to dynamically adjust core frequencies in real time. For M15x users this should immediately resolve any performance issues they may be experiencing.

The M17x-R2 has a greater threshold for both thermals and power draw than the M15x, and this has kept M17x-R2 from exhibiting throttling issues to the same extent as the M15x. However, we have discovered certain scenarios which lead to similar errors that can be attributed to the prior Turbo Ratio limits. To ensure the highest possible levels of system stability, the A08 BIOS is meant to fix these potential errors. Some users may experience a minor decrease in CPU scores, but that should be limited to benchmarking software and extreme CPU-intensive applications such as real-time rendering. Even then, it should be negligible. Users should not notice a performance decrease in casual use or even intense gaming.

 

can you explain in detail what are the scenario?? The performance decrease are negligible, however the money we paid for extreme cpu and then resulting in decrease performance are negligible too?? correct me if i am wrong..

 

i avoid the throttling by disabling the battery. did any of you guys tried this?

 

yeay my mouse works like it's supposed to

 

I uninstalled touch-pad driver, how I can reinstall it.

 

get it from here:

Drivers & Downloads

make sure to select win7 and its under input devices.

 

Engineering is looking into this. Sounds like the performance drop (at least on the M17xR2) is higher than expected... I hope to have some updates early next week.

Thx.

 

Brian, is there any chance that future bios versions will allow the user to modify cpu settings if an extreme is detected? I think a lot of people here with the extremes are really itching to be able to modify some settings of their own rather than leave it on auto.

i do a lot of rendering/music editing and this has effected my compile time by a lot more than just 10%.... unless it just takes around 1h longer per pass... i'm just saying.

 

There is no need to suffer. Open Throttlestop and set the multipliers (Turbo Ratio Limits) to 24-24-24-24. Then open the Turbo Power Limits window and set TDP (W) to 85 and TDC (A) to 80. Voila. You will have (or regain) all the power you imagine you have lost, but watch your temps.

 

^^ and that's exactly what i've been doing, however some of my work involves using linux so throttlestop isn't exactly an option... either that or spend a lot of $$$ for the windows equivalent. temps are fine btw, always < 80C with over 4 hrs @ 100% 88/78 tdp/tdc and 25x multi

i guess i could just xfer that portion to the desktop using esata if i need it faster

*edit*
actually rev, you just got me thinking perhaps i could do that portion virtually, since i no longer have the nvidia, i don't need the cuda 3d support.... hehe

time to change my setup me thinks.

 

Good to hear. Great cooling on that M15x.

 

Just installed A08, noticed less downclocking on my 920xm

 

cdcohen, prior to a08 only increasing the tdp/tdc in throttlestop was required (along with the chipset clock mod%), however with a08 setting the multi to x16 on a 920xm will force full clocks just the same as a07. i guess the issue for me is more or less throttlestop under linux but i fixed that as i type this... linux in a virtual machine under windows, works since i don't need 3d.

if you set the tdp/tdc high enough, you will notice that it does not downclock at all (at full load - try something like wprime/prime95). This however increases the temps by A LOT and needs to be handled properly.

The cooling on the M15x is fantastic, best i've seen in a 15" laptop, its a shame they just slap on generic goop rather than just go the extra inch and add some quality paste for a few dollars. If using throttlestop like i am however, i suggest you spring clean your laptop every few weeks making sure dust doesn't build up, because the extra heat being produced needs to be dissipated.

 

I get:
NTLDR is missing
Press CTRL ALT DEL to restart

whenever I try to load the bios from a memorystick?

edit: Nevermind, I just had to reboot again and it worked. After installation boot up was definitely slightly slower, but that's booting from a bios update so I guess that's expected, hoping to see an improvement in gaming (drops from 90 FPS to 20).

 

i got an error stating that my power brick was not the recommended 150W...press F1 to resume...I was given the error 2x after pressing F1 the first before Windows started. Any ideas?

 

You can disable the A/C adapter warning on the Power screen of the BIOS.

 

Well I left GPU-Z opened on a 2nd monitor, ran SC2 and my GPU clock speeds never moved from the 380/760~ low area.

Has this bios generally fixed GPU clocks or just CPU? ..because I am wondering if its something I did, I removed all of my rivatuner changes that I plugged in following the guide here..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-investigation-stock-clocks-overclocked.html

which didn't help.. could it be driver related at all?

 

i had the same problem ...uninstalling riva tuner and reinstalling driver was a solution for me

 

When I start flashing from USB it gets me something like this error:

Part ID is not in table of supported parts. Press any key to exit.

Any idea whats wrong?

May that be a problem that my m15x is from pre Dell time so my version of bios is the one not supporting dell flash?

 

You're probably trying to update the BIOS on an older model.

M15x and m15x are different models

The Bios in here is about the core iX models of last year, with the Nvidia 240/260 cards Ati 5850 etc. I.e. the one that you see on the website right now for purchase.

 

Yeah, wrong model. Check the picture on the support page.

 

I am not happy at this point... please check out the throttling thread. A08 has for sure 100% throttled on me in WoW now for the 4th time.

 

I have an Bios A01! can I upgrade it straight to A08 without doing other lower upgrade first like A07?

sorry if my question is silly...

Thanks

 

I've been running WoW all day at 1920x1080 at ultra settings. At one point I had stealth mode (forced throttling) and the game went from a solid 60fps to a nearly solid 58fps.

Perhaps it's not the computer but the installation? I'm running a fresh install and as I said it runs at full speed even when in stealth mode. Have you tried a different video driver perhaps?

I can't imagine a game as light as WoW (graphically) throttling the machine. Having said that, I've only installed the basic client, not the expansions. Even then I think the game is much lighter than, say GTAIV or Crysis.

Do they throttle too? I'm wondering if it's something else causing the problem?

EDIT: I think I know what it is - WoW uses so little of the GPU it goes into a lower power mode while running. Still runs at 60fps just the GPU clocks lower since it's not being used fully.

 

Not silly at all. From the Release Notes:

"To update to this BIOS your system must have BIOS A02 or later. If your system does not meet this requirement, you will be updated to BIOS A02 and then will be updated to BIOS A08."

 

Well its not something that is graphicly intense that seems to cause the throttling its the extreme use of the cpu along with the gpu.
Wow actually uses more cpu to calculate players etc, more so then most other games. This can be seen by being in a populated area where there are often countless players around, dropping even a geforce 400 series down to 30-40fps even with a quad core.

It seems to only happen when I am in instances (dungeons) where there are 10-25 other real players playing along, and also during very intense graphics situations.

This is a fresh install of windows, (just had a warranty replace two months ago), fresh install of wow, latest dell video drivers, and bios a08. Stealth mode was not on at all. This for sure was throttling.. I believe its the intense cpu usage that trips the throttling. Plus by the way wow uses more gpu power then u think. Look at a load meter

With all this said I will be testing with other games to see if I can get it to do it.

However all this does not surprise me, if you look at how high the power draw has been peaking (from peoples kill-a-watt posts) still with a08 that still shows something.