M18x R1, cmos/graphics cards

Question

I have a 2012 M18x R1 that I just got home from having the dual nvidia 560m cards replaced with dual 780m. Here’s where it gets weird. My system sees both cards, but only as standard vga. It does not see my integrated graphics card (not even in bios), but it’s using it to display everything because the new cards aren’t installed. Believe me, I’m ticked at the so called professionals who won’t stand behind their own work. I digress. I pulled the cmos battery in an effort to clear everything, but after I reinstalled it, I got the 5 beep error. No matter what I did to reseat it, I still kept getting the beeps, so I replaced the cmos battery. You guessed it, it’s still beeping. Is there a trick I’m missing? I’ve tried pulling the battery and cmos, pressing fn and power and instead of booting, it just keeps beeping.

help!

mattyb3 · Accepted Answer

If the driver wouldn't install when the Device Manager showed the Standard VGA then either the driver wasn't modded properly or you didn't disable driver signature enforcement right before trying to install the driver.

First thing to do though is work out the cmos error. If you replaced the old battery with a correct new one then hopefully the BIOS reset will work. Did you try jumping the cmos pins with all the power removed? After doing this you will get a 5 beep error again but holding the power button down and doing a hard shutdown and then powering on again usually clears it up. If you're still getting the error after this then the new battery is bad or there's an issue on the board.

If you can get the error fixed then the rest should be pretty easy. If you go into the Device Manager just see what is listed under Display Adapters. If you just see the Intel 3000 graphics then you're on iGFX mode and if you see the two 780M's then they will be listed as Standard VGA or Basic Microsoft Display Adapters. If you only see the Intel 3000 then press Function - F7 to swap GFX modes. If nothing happens then you'll need to install the Alienware OSD driver and try again.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=pdp1d&oscode=w764&productcode=alienware-m18x

Once it reboots then check again and you should see the 780M's. Now you can restart again with Disable Driver Signature Enforcement and install the modified driver. If it doesn't install then the driver isn't modded correctly and I can walk you through fixing it.

There is sometimes a conflict with the HD Audio and the 780M on the M18x R1 and M17x R3 and the unlocked BIOS is required so you can disable it before installing the cards. Some people don't have this issue though.

You can't have switchable graphics with SLI, it doesn't work in these dual GPU laptops. By Switchable Graphics, I'm referring to Optimus which switches it 'on-the-fly' rather than having to use Function F7. The unlocked BIOS will open up the option though and it will work if you only want to run a single 780M. I had to use SG mode with my GTX 1070 in my R2 since the 10 series cards won't work in PEG mode with an LVDS display.

mattyb3 · Answer

Hey mate, I just replied to your post on Alienware Arena but it's probably easier to discuss it here.

Is it still beeping 5 times or has it switched to 8 beeps?

Without a display driver installed, the cards will show in Device Manager as Standard VGA. Newer laptops will call them Microsoft Basic Display Adapters. You need to run a modified Nvidia driver for any cards newer than a GTX 580M in the R1. Below is a guide on how to mod a driver.

https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php

You could try resetting the BIOS by removing the power adapter and system battery. Then remove the CMOS battery and bridge the two battery pins on the motherboard with a screwdriver for 5 seconds. Make sure power is not getting to the machine.

You could also try removing the 780M's to force the system to switch to iGFX mode. It's a big job removing the GPU's in the M18x but it isn't too hard. You have to remove the LCD assembly and palmrest.

Here is a detailed disassembly video from the M18x guru, MrFox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32eTtv6QRnc

EDIT: Just to explain the video modes on the M18x, there are two default settings, iGFX and PEG, which can be switched using the Function keys in Windows (with the Alienware OSD driver installed) but there is another setting which is available with the unlocked BIOS. This is SG mode

iGFX - Integrated Graphics (Intel CPU)

PEG - Dedicated Graphics (Nvidia or AMD cards)

SG - Switchable Graphics (using both Intel and the dedicated card, ie Optimus for Nvidia)

When on iGFX, in the BIOS it will show the Dedicated Graphics as Not Detected. In PEG mode it will show the Integrated Graphics as Not Detected. In SG mode, both will be detected. SG mode is not available when you have two dedicated cards installed.

Beakymoose · Answer

Thanks for the reply! It still only does the 5 beeps, which I don’t understand unless I got a bad brand new cmos.
I do have a software engineer friend who modded the driver so it would work for my laptop, but it wouldn’t fully install because it would try to find the integrated card and stall.

Definitely before with my 560m, I could see the integrated and discrete cards in bios and switch between them with fn+f7 (I think it’s f7). I will probably have to try taking the cards out and see what happens. Just as a quick question, how do I get to the precious switchable graphics mode?

I really love how I paid $500 for professionals to do this, but I got a non working paperweight.

A51-06 · Answer

Try this please and let me know how it goes:

You receive error: Stop error code 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) after you install Windows Updates (microsoft.com)

If that doesen't work I recommend a clean install of windows 10 and then before installing a modded driver, make sure its in disable driver signature mode.

Beakymoose · Answer

Okay, I have good news and bad news. The good news is the cmos solution worked this time (I’m not sure if it matters, but I left the cmos battery out for almost a week before trying it).

On to the bad news. Windows won’t start. Not in safe mode, either. I did a system restore, no dice. It’s doing startup repair now, I’m not holding my breath. I do get a bsod. The bsod error starts with 0x0000007b, which I believe is a hard drive error, correct?

I’m Im just Alice falling deeper into the hole. And it’s not Wonderland.

Beakymoose · Answer

As I said before, Windows 10 is incompatible with my Nvidia 780m graphics cards. I found this out when I went to upgrade to 10 from 7. I have tried every solution in that link except the ones requiring my computer to be able to log into windows and download something. I can’t get into Windows. I don’t have another computer. The bsod error I am getting is a data corruption error, not a disk failure. Would being able to run a disk defragmenter help? And how would I do so in my current situation?

mattyb3 · Answer

Windows 10 works just fine with the 780M, it's just a matter of setting up the system and getting the driver modded correctly.

Good to hear you got the CMOS error working. Pulling out the battery for a while resets the BIOS just like jumping the CMOS pins.

Disk Defragging is only helpful for older mechanical hard drives. If you are still using old HDD's then I'd suggest scrapping them and grabbing a decent 2.5" SSD. You will find a HUGE difference in system performance. If you want to keep your current drive(s) then you may need to do a clean Windows installation. If you need help on how to do this then I'm happy to help. If you don't have access to another computer then you'll need the original Windows installation CD that came with the laptop.

A51-06 · Answer

I agree with mattyb3 here. 780m is a supported GPU in windows 10.

Beakymoose · Answer

Okay. After nearly losing the remnants of my sanity, we have success. In the end, I couldn't even reinstall windows from a bootable drive. I had to do some fancy footwork to get a cmd window without windows so I could wipe my hard drive and just reinstall windows. Drivers successfully modded and working. Thank you, all of you, for helping. You're awesome

mattyb3 · Answer

@Beakymoose that's great to hear! If you need any more help, feel free to ask. I've just started rebuilding/refurbing an R1 and R2.

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M18x R1, cmos/graphics cards

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