M1330: A brief History of BIOS Revisions

[traveller]

"A05 is still the best, long live A05!"

Just kidding - clearly anyone with a new CPU or a non Cu-modded 8400M GS or with the "won't eject my Dawn-of-the-Dead DVD" syndrome needs A12+... .

Speaking of which, I've compiled a [rough] list of "known" changes & associates threads:

A15 - Jan '09 (aka Boot-up and/or Fan speed up and/or Down revision...)
1. Enhance Fn+F8 function
x. Support for 8GB memory is... back! (Thx 2 Sesshomaru)

Note that they also added the following: "Please update VGA driver to version A10*(Vista 32bits)/ A05(Vista 64bits) Or later for optimal performance of system"
Clearly this BIOS revision is aimed at a problem with switching between LCD &/or an externally attached monitor (and I doubt that there has been any tweaking done to either boot-up or Fan speeds... ).
*"A10/A05" represents nVidia 176.44 (23 Oct. 2008) and Intel 7.14.10.1409 (7 Jan. 2009) driver versions. My guess is this issue is only with the Intel Integrated graphics.

A14 - Nov '08 (aka hound-dog revision)
1. Added enhancement for Wifi sniffer function.

A13 - Oct '08 (aka removed-from-the-official-list revision)
1. Added support for new versions of Intel CPUs.
2. Added support for 8GB memory.

A12 - Jul '08 (aka speed-up-the-fan-even-more revision)
1. Added enhancement for thermal control.
2. Update GM965 Graphics VBIOS from 1466 to 1588.
3. Update Intel CPU family name.

A11 - Jun '08 (aka speed-up-the-fan revision)
1. Added enhancement for thermal control.

A10 - May '08 (aka the Killa revision / eject-the-disc-already revison)
1. Improve compatibility with Dell Wireless 1390 & 1490 Dell WLAN.
2. Improve system performance on Resume from S3 with Driver Verifier enabled.
3. Added enhancement for optical drives.

A09 - Feb '08 (aka Penryn revision)
1. Updated Intel uCode.
2. Added support for New optical drives.
3. Support new CPUs.
4. Added enhancement for thermal control.
5. Added enhancement for MediaDirect control.

A08 - ? (aka never saw the light of day revision)
1. ah... huh?

A07 - Jan '08 (aka no one really knows... or cares revision)
1. Added enhancement for thermal control.
2. Update GM965 Graphics VBIOS from 1466 to 1588.
3. Update Intel CPU family name.

A06 - Sep '07 (aka battery-eating revision)
1. Enhance the function of the media eject button more stable in multi-CD/DVD installation.
2. Update the nVidia video BIOS to 60.86.45.00.40.

A05 ~ Aug '07 (aka top secret revision)
1. they removed it from their ftp sites before I could jot down the updates...

A02 - Jul '07 (aka VIPs-only revision)
1. Made the sound more stable when close the lid during audio playback.
2. Support the newer version of the Intel processor.

To be updated as necessary.

[NoteLil]

For some reason, this thread made me smile. Am I losing it???

PS. By the way, what happened to A03 and A04, are those also top-secret?

[jnewell]

Presumably smart owners have been archiving these in case they want to go backwards (or forwards again)...

[hish2m]

Originally Posted by jnewell

Presumably smart owners have been archiving these in case they want to go backwards (or forwards again)...

Ha ha, count me in too. Thanks traveller, for this list.

[traveller]

Originally Posted by NoteLil

Am I losing it???

Originally Posted by NoteLil

...what happened to A03 and A04...

Yeah, good question, not to mention A01 and A00 (at least Dell seems to start with A00 on everything else).

When I first got my 1330, I spent a lot of time on this board (probably too much time, lol) but I never heard of anyone with any of the "missing" revisions. My only guess is that they were internal (alpha, maybe even closed beta) revisions and just to keep things [internally] in order, they upped the rev. levels.

Furthermore... revisions A05 & A13, which were officially listed for some amount of time and then removed were probably deemed to have major faults and thus remove after the fact. Again, I can't come up with a better explanation for their sudden disappearance...

[NoteLil]

Yeah, I'm glad I check this forum from time to time, otherwise, I would had ended stuck with A13 for a long time..

[tabten5]

So is there any difference, in fan speed / temperature terms, between A12 and A14? Will I notice a drop in GPU/CPU temp if I upgrade, or a decrease in my fan usage?

[jnewell]

The ones that I've seen on the FTP website are 2, 6, 7 and 9-14.

[traveller]

Originally Posted by tabten5

So is there any difference, in fan speed / temperature terms, between A12 and A14?

I really doubt it, seeing as Dell was quite "open" and indicated a so-called thermal control enhancement with the A07, A09, A11 & A12 revisions.

And I'm slowly getting used to A12's thermal control policy and the fan still cuts off when my Notebook's idle... (well, at least for a minute... ). With A12 (and the Cu mod) I have the following pattern when idle (defined as viewing "still" material in a browser, etc.):

Fan ........ GPU ........ C0 ....... C1
OFF ........ 54 .......... 37 ....... 39
3054 ....... 48 .......... 30 ....... 32

So the fan trigger-point with A12 is either Core @40C or GPU@55C.

I will load A14 (after all, the "enhanced" sniffer / catcher feature can come in handy when in an Airport or cruising by coffee shops in some foreign town, etc.) in the next days and I will check not only the fan & temp stats, but run my usual battery of tests (TAT, Sandra, 3DMark, PCMark) - just to be sure there is no decrease in productivity.

I hate it when a vendor throttles HW in order to make up for a thermal cooling design issue. It's bad enough that we're loosing out on battery life (even if it is only a small percentage)...

Speaking of which, I'm pleased to report that, unlike A06 & A09, A12 doesn't throttle my CPU when @ "85% TAT" load I ran TAT @85% for ~10mins and my CPU Cores hit 81/75 respectively, without throttling [the CPU multiplier] down

[7oby]

Originally Posted by traveller

So the fan trigger-point with A12 is either Core @40C or GPU@55C.

I'm convinced it is much more sophisticated.

At least it will be something like:
state fan off ----(Core >=40°C OR GPU >=55°C) ------> state fan 3000rpm

And I'm pretty sure memory temps, chipset temps etc. will also have some influence on the transition trigger.

Originally Posted by traveller

Wifi sniffer/catcher [...] or cruising by coffee shops in some foreign town, etc.

Did the sniffer/catcher feature change? I think it works as in any other BIOS version. Doesn't it?

What changed is that you can configure the behavior regarding cell cards when using the WiFi switch.

There are two switches: Wifi and sniffer.