980m SLI Alienware 18 issue

[Theguywhobea]

So, I picked up some 980ms, installed them in machine and booted into Windows, they showed up but I knew they had Clevo VBIOS'S on them, so I downloaded Dell's Alienware 18 specific VBIOS flash utlilty, started it, and now my screen is black and nothing has happened for about 25 minutes now, I don't want to shut it off because ya know, bios stuff, but I'm not sure what else to do.

[genexis_x]

@sicily428 can help?

[sicily428]

1 hour ago, Theguywhobea said:

So, I picked up some 980ms, installed them in machine and booted into Windows, they showed up but I knew they had Clevo VBIOS'S on them, so I downloaded Dell's Alienware 18 specific VBIOS flash utlilty, started it, and now my screen is black and nothing has happened for about 25 minutes now, I don't want to shut it off because ya know, bios stuff, but I'm not sure what else to do.

is your laptop a m18x r2?

[Theguywhobea]

20 minutes ago, sicily428 said:

is your laptop a m18x r2?

Nah it's the proper AW18. Pretty sure at least one of the 980m's is fucked now though. No POST and 8 beeps codes.

[sicily428]

4 hours ago, Theguywhobea said:

Nah it's the proper AW18. Pretty sure at least one of the 980m's is fucked now though. No POST and 8 beeps codes.

what cpu?

[Guest Generallee]

5 hours ago, Theguywhobea said:

Nah it's the proper AW18. Pretty sure at least one of the 980m's is fucked now though. No POST and 8 beeps codes.

They were both plugged when you started flashing the vbios ?

 

 

[Theguywhobea]

3 hours ago, sicily428 said:

what cpu?

4930MX

3 hours ago, Generallee said:

They were both plugged when you started flashing the vbios ?

 

 

Yes, both of them were installed when I started Dell's flashing ultility, which is just some fancy nvflash scripts.

 

Hopefully there is some way to rescue my potentially bricked 980m, otherwise RIP $400. Not that I was doing any of this to be cost efficient in the first place.

[Guest Generallee]

10 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

4930MX

Yes, both of them were installed when I started Dell's flashing ultility, which is just some fancy nvflash scripts.

 

Hopefully there is some way to rescue my potentially bricked 980m, otherwise RIP $400. Not that I was doing any of this to be cost efficient in the first place.

I'm affraid nothing can be done on the software level, you'd have to desolder the chip containing the bios on the card itself and somehow reprogram it, which is very hard

[Theguywhobea]

6 minutes ago, Generallee said:

I'm affraid nothing can be done on the software level, you'd have to desolder the chip containing the bios on the card itself and somehow reprogram it, which is very hard

Yeah, I might see if someone on the notebook  review forums can help me out. Otherwise I think I'm gonna  go back to only messing with desktop hardware haha.

[sicily428]

19 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

4930MX

Yes, both of them were installed when I started Dell's flashing ultility, which is just some fancy nvflash scripts.

 

Hopefully there is some way to rescue my potentially bricked 980m, otherwise RIP $400. Not that I was doing any of this to be cost efficient in the first place.

so that shoud be a AW 18R3. do you have a stock bios?

 

check this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/aw-18-r3-possible-upgrades.809742/

[Theguywhobea]

5 minutes ago, sicily428 said:

so that shoud be a AW 18R3. do you have a stock bios?

 

check this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/aw-18-r3-possible-upgrades.809742/

Yeah I'm using the stock Dell A12 BIOS, looked through that thread, not sure what I'm looking for though.

[sicily428]

11 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

Yeah I'm using the stock Dell A12 BIOS, looked through that thread, not sure what I'm looking for though.

you are righ that is a wrong link

check this

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/step-by-step-980m-install-in-alienware-18.768916/

[Theguywhobea]

1 minute ago, sicily428 said:

you are righ that is a wrong link

check this

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/step-by-step-980m-install-in-alienware-18.768916/

Yup, I did exactly that except I used Dell's VBIOS's instead of Prema's. It booted into Windows, both 980m's were recognized in the BIOS, I ran Dell's flash utlitly, it started flashing the first card then the screen went black and it never recovered. I waited an hour at the black screen before shutting it down, when I tried to boot it again it failed to POST and I got 8 beeps. I can't think of what could have possibly went wrong other than I should have just use GPUZ to flash the VBIOS's with Dell's roms instead of using Dell's program.

[sicily428]

1 minute ago, Theguywhobea said:

Yup, I did exactly that except I used Dell's VBIOS's instead of Prema's. It booted into Windows, both 980m's were recognized in the BIOS, I ran Dell's flash utlitly, it started flashing the first card then the screen went black and it never recovered. I waited an hour at the black screen before shutting it down, when I tried to boot it again it failed to POST and I got 8 beeps. I can't think of what could have possibly went wrong other than I should have just use GPUZ to flash the VBIOS's with Dell's roms instead of using Dell's program.

are those used cards? or brand new?

[Theguywhobea]

6 minutes ago, sicily428 said:

are those used cards? or brand new?

They are used, I bought them from someone else on the NotebookReview forum. The originally came out of an Alienware 18, but he had flashed them to the Clevo VBIOS's when he transferred them to a Clevo machine.

[sicily428]

Just now, Theguywhobea said:

They are used, I bought them from someone else on the NotebookReview forum. The originally came out of an Alienware 18, but he had flashed them to the Clevo VBIOS's when he transferred them to a Clevo machine.

you could ask if that user  used a prema vbios or a prema bios

[Theguywhobea]

Just now, sicily428 said:

you could ask if that user  used a prema vbios or a prema bios

I don't think he did, when I asked before he just said they were Clevo BIOS's. He hasn't been able to give a ton of details either since his Clevo machine is now out of commission hence why he sold me the 980m's. I had also asked him for some help on flashing the BIOS's and he said do exactly what I did, and now I think one of them is bricked haha.

[Theguywhobea]

53 minutes ago, sicily428 said:

you could ask if that user  used a prema vbios or a prema bios

I feel like I'm kinda stuck now too, I mean, I can't really trust this machine to flash VBIOS's anymore, and I really REALLY don't want to end up with two bricked cards, I think I might just throw the 880m's back in and sell the remaining 980m, cut my losses.

[sicily428]

1 hour ago, Theguywhobea said:

I feel like I'm kinda stuck now too, I mean, I can't really trust this machine to flash VBIOS's anymore, and I really REALLY don't want to end up with two bricked cards, I think I might just throw the 880m's back in and sell the remaining 980m, cut my losses.

my suggestion is for asking with a dedicated thread in the AW18 section on NBR forum. there are many owners of that AW and may be someone can help you with bios or vbios.

I think also eurocom can give you support but that's not free