Plz help.. bios upgrade

I purchased an Alienware mx15 r2 and I got scammed. After trying it out for a bit I noticed the display drivers kept crashing and sometimes reloading but sometimes requiring hard reboot. So I tried everything from updating drivers, adjusting power option, etc... basically all that's left to try is updating my bios which is currently at A06. I'm aware I can't update it straight to A09 so I'm attempting to upgrade to A07 and go from there. I'm stuck on the creating bootable flash bios. I made a bootable drive with Rufus and just copied the bios ISO image onto the usb. When I reboot I do get the bios upgrade screen but I don't know what to type into DOS.

 

You need to download the executable files, not the ISO files. Extract the executable to the root of the flash drive you formatted with Rufus and boot from it. Once you are at the DOS prompt, type the letter "F" without the quotes and press Enter to start the flash process.

Try the A09 executable first and if you get an error that you need a previous BIOS first, try A08 and then go to A09 from there. I am pretty sure you can skip A07 to get to A09.

A08 BIOS Files:
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/R279747.exe

A09 BIOS Files:
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/R293649.exe

 

When trying to extract to the root I select the usb drive but I only see BIOS and LOCAL.

Sry I'm a beginner here ...

Rly appreciate the help

 

Try the A08 Bios first. Run the R279747 file and it will ask you to extract it. Just choose the default folder and let it extract. Once it is done, navigate to that folder (which should be C:\Dell\Drivers\R279747). In that folder you should see an executable file called "M15x BIOS A08." This is an executable that will give you the option to format a USB flash drive directly. Insert an empty USB flash drive and give that a try.

The A09 executable is different as it contains only the BIOS files and not a program to create a bootable flash drive. For the A09 you will need to use Rufus first to create a bootable drive and then copy the extracted A09 BIOS files directly to the root of the USB drive. Hope this helps. I don't have my M15X in front of me, otherwise I'd give more detailed instructions.

EDIT: I think the A08 BIOS program runs automatically once you boot from the USB drive you flashed it to so it should not require any user input to run. I also read some release notes and it looks like you need A08 first before A09. Dell states that to get to A08 you need at least A02 so you are covered there.

 

Yeah when I saw the A08 had its own utility I was excited but turns out I need a usb no larger than 2gb or cd rom disk. Unfortunately only have 16gb usb and dvd-r. That will have to wait until I find a store selling 2gb usb. In regards to the A09 update, you've already cleared up so much. But what I still don't under stand is after I format the usb with Rufus, what do u mean by extract to root? Is that just slang for extract to the usb. Or is there a specific folder in the usb I extract to.

 

im not sure if I'm being clear , I apologize. What I mean is , what's my exact target folder when I extract the executable A09 file.

 

1- Double click the R293649.exe file
2- Extract the contents to the default folder (C:\Dell\Drivers\R293649)
3- Navigate to that folder and select all the files in that folder (press CTRL and A), then copy those files by pressing CTRL and C.
4- Navigate to the already formatted (using Rufus FreeDOS option) USB flash drive. Press CTRL and P, and all those files will now be in the root of the USB drive. Root refers to the very top location of a partition.
5- Restart and press F12 at startup (when you see the Alien Head logo)
6- From the boot menu, choose the USB Bootable drive
7- Once the drive is booted you will be in DOS (black screen with white characters)
8- Type the letter F and press Enter. The BIOS process should start.

 

Thanks a bunch! Hopefully this fixes my graphics driver failer issue. I really hope I don't have a bad cpu or gpu

 

What are the specs of your laptop (cpu/gpu/ram/hard drive)?

When you got it, did you do a fresh install of the Operating System?

 

Core i7 720 QM 1.60 GHz, 6 MByte L3 cache

GeFore GT240M

8 GB ram

300 gb

I bought it with Windows 8 and just upgraded to 10. If bios upgrade doesn't work I will try clean install of Windows 10 and if that doesn't work il resort to taking it apart for a cleaning.

I'm sure you already know this but if you buy second hand do full diagnostics before paying lol !!!

Lesson learned

 

Welcome to the Alienware forums btw You have a pretty basic M15X but the great thing is that there's lots of room to upgrade. When you are ready to upgrade, we'll be here to help

Taking it apart to clean it is the first thing I do when I get a used laptop. Here's a good video on how to take it apart:


I usually clean mine with rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth and some cotton swabs. You also want to get some compressed air to clean dust from the heatsink fins as well. If you are removing the heatsinks, you will need to clean and reapply some thermal paste to the CPU and GPU. There are lots of good pastes out there but the best standard pastes I've used are Gelid GC Extreme and Arctic MX-4.

When I'm done with inital cleaning, I use some car wax in spray form to freshen up the plastic parts and magnesium chassis. I usually use a dab of rubbing alcohol on a microfiber cloth on the plastic screen cover.

You will also find that there is some cloth tape holding some cables and wires underneath the keyboard. If you remove this tape, it won't stick well again. You can remove it and replace it with gaffer tape or plain electrical tape, although the gaffer tape is better because it won't leave a sticky residue.

Windows 10 is known to have a few issues with the M15X. I'd suggest sticking with the trusty Windows 7.

That's all I can think of for now. Hope you enjoy your M15X. It's an old model but built like a tank. They don't make them like this anymore.

 

If problem persists after everything should I upgrade my gpu to GTX460 ... I saw forums discussing that it may not even be the gpu but rather the cpu ... In that case I don't think the repair/upgrade would even be worth it considering the computers age...

 

Thanks for the overwhelming info and support its hard to find this kind of help when your a newbie

 

You can't game much with the 240M GT but it's good to keep it as a backup. I personally would not get a 460M GTX; it is an outdated card. A good cheap upgrade would be the Firepro m6000 (AMD Radeon 7870M) or if you have a bigger budget an AMD 7970M or Nvidia 680M GTX are great choices. The fastest card that works great in the M15X as of now is the Geforce 970M GTX but it's still very expensive.

I am running a Firepro m6000 currently and I love this card. It's powerful and was cheap (around 70USD).
I built a 2nd M15X for a family member using a 720qm and Firepro m6000 and he loves it. He games a lot more than me and hasn't complained yet about performance. With this card and the 720qm you also will not need to upgrade the stock 150W power adapter.

You can easily overclock the m6000 and then it reaches Geforce 765M GTX levels

There's a huge thread concerning the Firepro m6000 in the M15X:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m6000-7870m-gpu-thread.785735/

EDIT: We were all newbies once and I still consider myself a newbie in many aspects

 

This is really encouraging I thought it would cost much more to reach new gen game playing capabilities but I noticed prices fluctuate between sites . eBay seems good any other recommendations for good deals?

 

the 460M compared to the 240M he has now is still more than triple the performance, so i wouldn't say it's bad per say... it can still run any game out there, but newer ones need to be run at lower res and details. It is however geting outdated like kosti said, and you can get a M6000 for a couple of $ more and it has a much better price-to-performance ratio . What games are you planning on playing?

 

il be playing mostly pokemon go lol but I also Play cod, gta,

 

Either 460M 5870M or M6000 will be sufficient for your needs imo

 

After doing a fresh install of Windows 7 my m15 is running perfectly. I still haven't updated my bios from A06 yet so I'm curious to see how well it can run Windows 10 once I do. Big thanks to Kosti I can't believe I didn't think to install Windows 7 sooner

 

Spoke too soon, but runs much better. Driver only crashes while gaming now, allaround the pc is faster. All that's left is to upgrade bios and restore back to factory default but I doubt that will help ... I was wondering if anyone has heard of this driver error occurring after upgrading gpu?

Also I've been monitoring my gpu temps it's been running around 40C so I don't have a problem with my connection, maybe my gpu is too outdated

 

Update the BIOS and take it from there.

 

Yes still waiting for my 2gb usb stick from Amazon. Can u link me a tutorial for installing the fire pro 6000? It would be my first gpu change ever so a very detailed guide would be great.

Running Alienware m15x core i7 720 QM, 8gb ram, 300gb hdd, niveda gt240

 

Should I get the Fire pro M6000 or M6700

6700:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-Dell-Pre...893540?hash=item35f8a5f964:g:AaEAAOSw7ThUhGY3

6000:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-For-Dell...798879?hash=item2a5ed75d5f:g:sLkAAOSwX~dWiLlL

 

Both cards r M6000 >_<

 

Oops