*OFFICIAL* M17x R3 Owner's Lounge Thread - Part 3

[FantomexX]

i don't see any cons...i'm on the unlocked A08 bios and my computer is rock solid.

if you move down to A08, you will have to put your SSD into slot 1 (the harddrive caddy in the middle of your laptop) if you want consistent SATA3 speeds all the time. Slot 0 would downclock to SATA2 randomly which they fixed with bios A09 (it just downclocked them to SATA2 permanently lol)

Okay, how do I go about obtaining an unlocked A08 Bios flash? And what program/tools do you use to write it? Also, I'd like to backup A09 incase things don't go right.

[katalin_2003]

You don't need the unlocked A08 to regain SATA III bandwidth, just download the official one and follow the steps, it's pretty straight forward.

Also, you don't have to backup your current version, it's available on Dell's site as well.

A08 sBIOS:
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...ductCode=False

A09 sBIOS:
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...ductCode=False

Unlocked A08 sBIOS:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2vw45vmgsk2vt7l

[FantomexX]

According to the notes on what it fixes for A09 BIOS... It says it fixes a SSD compatibility issue...

Any idea on what the issue was before? I don't want to flash this bios and then have my SSD not work right?

EDIT/UPDATE: One more thing I noted when I booted into my BIOS settings for A09, the SATA interface is currently set to RAID mode. I imagine I will want to change that as the second hard drive I ordered just for storage which ISN'T an SSD. I don't want to RAID them together as RAID 0. They can just be seperate. Guess I'll take screenshots of my current BIOS settings as I don't know what A08 will change everything to.

[bigtonyman]

According to the notes on what it fixes for A09 BIOS... It says it fixes a SSD compatibility issue...

Any idea on what the issue was before? I don't want to flash this bios and then have my SSD not work right?

EDIT/UPDATE: One more thing I noted when I booted into my BIOS settings for A09, the SATA interface is currently set to RAID mode. I imagine I will want to change that as the second hard drive I ordered just for storage which ISN'T an SSD. I don't want to RAID them together as RAID 0. They can just be seperate. Guess I'll take screenshots of my current BIOS settings as I don't know what A08 will change everything to.

Dell's "fix" for SSD compatibility was to downclock to SATA II. So A08 is the way to go. if its in RAID now its gonna need to be the same when you update the bios so the computer will boot into windows. It's a weird setting, but it doesn't actually RAID your drives.

[FantomexX]

omg... You have got to be kidding me.. when I removed the ssd with its bracket off from the bay 2, a small piece of tiny washer from beneath the screw fell off soo easily and is now hidden within the damned chasis!! NO!!!!

If I turn it on now, im sure I'll have a short and bye bye m17x r3...
Now I need to completely disassemble this laptop... This was not how I wanted my day to turn out..

Is there any detailed videos on how to get the black chasis part off beneath the laptop to see the whole mobo?? *cries*

EDIT/UPDATE: Okay... I got the damn washer finally out after strategically shifting my alienware from side to side and got it to slide out from underneath the black chasis cover... omg.. That was luck!

Now, do I really need that tiny little washer on the screw ? It won't stay on if I place it, it keeps falling off... I don't want it to fall inside the mobo again somewhere!

Well, I got it all reassembled again.. it booted up fine.. BIOS settings look proper. The SSD is in the middle bay instead of Bay 1/0.

In the BIOS it says my SSD in in Bay 2, tho its supposed to be bay 1? Cause 0 is the one thats not consistent with SATA 3?

Here is a CrystalDisk Mark test now with A08 and SSD in middle Bay 2(still shows it as SATA/300, but these rates are higher than my previous benchmarks I posted):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 451.713 MB/s
Sequential Write : 400.679 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 297.062 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 392.105 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 14.041 MB/s [ 3428.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 45.938 MB/s [ 11215.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 292.673 MB/s [ 71453.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 146.766 MB/s [ 35831.6 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 28.0% (130.8/466.7 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/04/19 12:37:06
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Compared to previous benchmark with A09:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 259.228 MB/s
Sequential Write : 244.937 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 195.506 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 230.303 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 10.597 MB/s [ 2587.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 39.103 MB/s [ 9546.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 195.203 MB/s [ 47657.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 139.478 MB/s [ 34052.3 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 25.2% (117.5/466.7 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/04/18 20:06:30
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

[SlickDude80]

You are now running SATA3...anything over 375 MB/S is SATA3

So all is good

[FantomexX]

Nice... ^_^

Nevertheless, I'm glad I didn't short it out.. i can't fathom the thought if I didn't recover the mini washer under the hood.. lol..

Now the only question that remains from me for now..(which got drowned in other replies and never answered)..

How can I get the cursor speed from the trackpad to how I specified it in the control panel?? Everytime I set it and then go to logoff or reboot, it reverts back to the default slow movement speed..

[bigtonyman]

Have you tried changing it under the app in alieware command center? That might be part of the problem.

Btw, Congrats on the new SSD

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using tapatalk 2

[FantomexX]

Have you tried changing it under the app in alieware command center? That might be part of the problem.

Btw, Congrats on the new SSD

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using tapatalk 2

The only settings within Alien Command Center that I can change for the touchpad is the pressure sensitivity and accidental contact, plus scroll speed for scrolling in general.. but NOTHING for actual mouse speed on screen.. >_<

[bigtonyman]

The only settings within Alien Command Center that I can change for the touchpad is the pressure sensitivity and accidental contact, plus scroll speed for scrolling in general.. but NOTHING for actual mouse speed on screen.. >_<

well I tried to go into the mouse area in command center and got an error. Re installing some drivers to see if I can get them to work.