Alienware 13 R3 motherboard chip location

[Fjolfrin]

Hello there.

 

I've posted before about my laptop, and I'm thinking of hard flashing an older BIOS version using ch314a because there is no other way to downgrade. I want to downgrade because Dell doesn't allow undervolting in newer BIOS versions because of some Intel security issue, but my laptop which I bought for 1.500 euros is now less performant than the tower I built for my mother for 200 euros because of overheating...

 

For the time being I want to see if I have correctly located the BIOS chip, and then I'll see for model number and whether I can actually do the job with BIOS programmer.

The picture is from AliExpress (link). Does anyone know if this is actually the BIOS chip for this laptop?

 

Thanks!

[Aereldor]

Hi. I have an Alienware 13R3 and there IS a way to downgrade. I did it because update 1.9.0 and all further updates disable undervolting (as do all future Dell laptops).  It comes down to renaming the older BIOS file to a .rcv instead of a .exe. This will allow the bios recovery tool to recognize it on a USB stick or similar media. There's a way to do this without the USB stick but honestly I forgot how. 

 

1. Enable file extensions in File Explorer Options on your Windows (Start -> File Explorer Options -> View -> Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" and hit OK.
2. Download your required Alienware BIOS version from Dell website and rename it to BIOS_IMG.EXE. Now the fun part:
3. Place the BIOS_IMG.EXE file that you just renamed into the root of a drive, say C:\ drive for example.
4. Start -> Run -> CMD (right click and select Run as administrator)
5. Type C:/ and hit Enter. It will take you right to your C drive root where the BIOS_IMG.EXE file is located.
6. Type the following command: BIOS_IMG.EXE /writehdrfile and hit Enter. It will create a file named BIOS_IMG.HDR on your C drive. Rename that to BIOS_IMG.RCV as we'll use this as a recovery image. Both images are essentially the same.
7. Now, you have to create Dell Diagnostic USB stick. For that, use this article and SKIP steps 7-10 in it.
8. Copy BIOS_IMG.RCV from your C:/ drive onto the USB root. Make sure that the following 3 files exist on USB root when you are done: BIOS_IMG.RCV, DELLBIO.BIN and DELLRMK.BIN. DO NOT DELETE THE REMAINING FILES (IF ANY)!
9. Now turn off your computer and plug the USB stick into the left USB port beside the thunderbolt 3 port.
10. Press and hold CTRL + ESC and press the power button to boot into BIOS recovery mode. Keep holding the two keys after releasing the power button until you reach the recovery screen. Once there, use the recovery option to flash BIOS.
11. Download and store away the files that you think might be needed in the future into a local storage or your email account just in case Dell makes any changes to them in the future. http://forum.notebookreview.com/styles/default/xenforo/clear.png
12. DONE!

 

Guide from here - 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/force-downgrade-alienware-area-51m-bios-or-any-alienware-to-locked-lower-versions.829542/

 

I would DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMEND messing with the motherboard. In the event that you mess it up and need a new one, dell customer service are shit and will send your replacement with the wrong CPU, wrong GPU, broken shit, or all 3. And you'll be out $300ish regardless (they've market it up from the $180 it used to be because of some idiot reason)

[Fjolfrin]

15 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Hi. I have an Alienware 13R3 and there IS a way to downgrade. I did it because update 1.9.0 and all further updates disable undervolting (as do all future Dell laptops).  It comes down to renaming the older BIOS file to a .rcv instead of a .exe. This will allow the bios recovery tool to recognize it on a USB stick or similar media. There's a way to do this without the USB stick but honestly I forgot how. 

 

1. Enable file extensions in File Explorer Options on your Windows (Start -> File Explorer Options -> View -> Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" and hit OK.
2. Download your required Alienware BIOS version from Dell website and rename it to BIOS_IMG.EXE. Now the fun part:
3. Place the BIOS_IMG.EXE file that you just renamed into the root of a drive, say C:\ drive for example.
4. Start -> Run -> CMD (right click and select Run as administrator)
5. Type C:/ and hit Enter. It will take you right to your C drive root where the BIOS_IMG.EXE file is located.
6. Type the following command: BIOS_IMG.EXE /writehdrfile and hit Enter. It will create a file named BIOS_IMG.HDR on your C drive. Rename that to BIOS_IMG.RCV as we'll use this as a recovery image. Both images are essentially the same.
7. Now, you have to create Dell Diagnostic USB stick. For that, use this article and SKIP steps 7-10 in it.
8. Copy BIOS_IMG.RCV from your C:/ drive onto the USB root. Make sure that the following 3 files exist on USB root when you are done: BIOS_IMG.RCV, DELLBIO.BIN and DELLRMK.BIN. DO NOT DELETE THE REMAINING FILES (IF ANY)!
9. Now turn off your computer and plug the USB stick into the left USB port beside the thunderbolt 3 port.
10. Press and hold CTRL + ESC and press the power button to boot into BIOS recovery mode. Keep holding the two keys after releasing the power button until you reach the recovery screen. Once there, use the recovery option to flash BIOS.
11. Download and store away the files that you think might be needed in the future into a local storage or your email account just in case Dell makes any changes to them in the future. http://forum.notebookreview.com/styles/default/xenforo/clear.png
12. DONE!

 

Guide from here - 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/force-downgrade-alienware-area-51m-bios-or-any-alienware-to-locked-lower-versions.829542/

 

I would DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMEND messing with the motherboard. In the event that you mess it up and need a new one, dell customer service are shit and will send your replacement with the wrong CPU, wrong GPU, broken shit, or all 3. And you'll be out $300ish regardless (they've market it up from the $180 it used to be because of some idiot reason)

Thanks, however I have tried that but it did not work on me. I have actually tried different versions of this solution, and all I would get would be either a message that I cannot downgrade the bios, or the bios installation would just quit after the "EC firmware update" progress bar.

This tutorial was for an area 51m if I recall correctly? The USB port configuration described is different than the one in the 13 R3. Truth be told I've only tried to do the update from one USB port, maybe I'll try it again using another port just in case it makes a difference.

Did you try this method? Did it work for you?

[Aereldor]

44 minutes ago, Fjolfrin said:

Thanks, however I have tried that but it did not work on me. I have actually tried different versions of this solution, and all I would get would be either a message that I cannot downgrade the bios, or the bios installation would just quit after the "EC firmware update" progress bar.

This tutorial was for an area 51m if I recall correctly? The USB port configuration described is different than the one in the 13 R3. Truth be told I've only tried to do the update from one USB port, maybe I'll try it again using another port just in case it makes a difference.

Did you try this method? Did it work for you?

Yes. Like I said before, this worked perfectly on my 13R3 just a few months ago. I found my undervolt settings greyed out, and actually did this a bunch of time, little by little, until I got back to version 1.8.0. That's where I'll stay. Every BIOS update after that just introduced problems. 

[Fjolfrin]

5 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

Yes. Like I said before, this worked perfectly on my 13R3 just a few months ago. I found my undervolt settings greyed out, and actually did this a bunch of time, little by little, until I got back to version 1.8.0. That's where I'll stay. Every BIOS update after that just introduced problems. 

Thanks a lot! I'll persist more this time now that I know someone actually made it. Not a lot of people have 13 R3s and most answers I got weren't that helpful, so I really appreciate it!

[Fjolfrin]

53 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

Yes. Like I said before, this worked perfectly on my 13R3 just a few months ago. I found my undervolt settings greyed out, and actually did this a bunch of time, little by little, until I got back to version 1.8.0. That's where I'll stay. Every BIOS update after that just introduced problems. 

So I’ve just tried it multiple times with version 1.8.0.

At first I would get an error message saying that ROM image signature is invalid, which was gone when I plugged the USB in the usb C port on the right using a dongle.

But again every time I have the same problem I had before. After the “writing main block” task is done, it goes to “EC firmware Update”, and when this is done it all goes off abruptly. It spontaneously shows a message that I don’t have time to read (it’s like for one frame’s duration), the screen goes off, and the laptop restarts.

In videos I see that other people get an “updating main firmware” message instead the EC frimware thing I’m getting.

 

Did you have this problem at any point?

I believe I followed the rest of the instructions to the letter.

 

[Aereldor]

11 hours ago, Fjolfrin said:

So I’ve just tried it multiple times with version 1.8.0.

At first I would get an error message saying that ROM image signature is invalid, which was gone when I plugged the USB in the usb C port on the right using a dongle.

But again every time I have the same problem I had before. After the “writing main block” task is done, it goes to “EC firmware Update”, and when this is done it all goes off abruptly. It spontaneously shows a message that I don’t have time to read (it’s like for one frame’s duration), the screen goes off, and the laptop restarts.

In videos I see that other people get an “updating main firmware” message instead the EC frimware thing I’m getting.

 

Did you have this problem at any point?

I believe I followed the rest of the instructions to the letter.

 

Now that I look at the driver page, the latest version - 1.12.2 - has a warning that says you cannot downgrade to 1.9.2 or anything older after upgrading. I don't know if there was a similar warning for other updates, I just know that you've never been able to downgrade the BIOS via windows, you always had to do the dell diagnostic USB method.

So try flashing back to 1.10.0 and then flash back again

 

I've always told people to never update a dell BIOS unless absolutely critical, this is why. 

[Fjolfrin]

8 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Now that I look at the driver page, the latest version - 1.12.2 - has a warning that says you cannot downgrade to 1.9.2 or anything older after upgrading. I don't know if there was a similar warning for other updates, I just know that you've never been able to downgrade the BIOS via windows, you always had to do the dell diagnostic USB method.

So try flashing back to 1.10.0 and then flash back again

 

I've always told people to never update a dell BIOS unless absolutely critical, this is why. 

I actually am on 1.10.0, not 1.12.0🥲

maybe I’ll try downgrading to 1.9 and then to 1.8?