Alienware Windows 8 Installation Guide

Question

For those struggling or thinking about taking the plunge, here's how I got Windows 8 Pro working flawlessly on my M18x R1. This makes Windows 8 work the way I want it to work, which might not line up with Microsoft's idea on how they want me to use it.

OK, here is my "down and dirty" tutorial. Nothing out of the ordinary, extra fancy or materially different from a basic Windows 7 setup, except for a couple of bullet points, which made it work the way I want it to work.

Clean install! Avoid upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8. (You *might* need to upgrade to activate your Windows 8 Upgrade key for the first time. I was able to do a clean install using the upgrade media.)
Set the BIOS for RAID (not AHCI) even if you do not use RAID
Install Windows to UNALLOCATED DRIVE SPACE (delete any old partitions)

See this thread for more tips: Windows Installation Guide
Windows 8 has native driver support for almost everything (including Intel Chipset and Management Engine). Windows 8 set up everything automatically in the M18x R1 except for the following installations:
- Installed Intel RST so I could have the RST Control Panel [Download RST 11.6.0.1030]
- Installed M18x R1 Windows 7 version of Alienware OSD and Alienware Control Center
- Installed M18x R1 Windows 7 Freefall Sensor
- Installed M18x R1 Windows 7 Card Reader
- Installed NVIDIA GTX 680M Drivers (modded because of the M18x R1 hardware ID, same as Windows 7 - see this post)
- Installed AlienAutopsy: Download AlienAutopsy
- Installed AlienRespawn: Download AlienRespawn
- Installed Windows 8 Media Center (free for a limited time): Add Features | Microsoft Windows
- Installed this for Start Menu: Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu
- Installed this for Sidebar Gadget support: 8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8
  
  Note: Security software is not needed with Windows 8. It has built-in antivirus/malware/firewall protection. I only installed Vipre Internet Security because I already owned a lifetime subscription, but it needed an update to work correctly with Windows 8. If you are experiencing dropped or blocked network connections under Windows 8 with an aftermarket security software package, consider uninstalling it and using the native protection. It may be your software not functioning properly with Windows 8.

Tesla1856 · Accepted Answer

Good work. Should be helpfull to m18x-r1 users making the upgrade. So you are saying clean-install right?

I was able to use the Win-8-Pro-64 Upgrade ISO to clean install, but it was part of a dual-boot, so I'm not sure if that is a valid test.

I would be interested to hear about app and game compatibility and performance after you have used it a while.

Nice config by the way (almost reads like a desktop).

BJFox · Accepted Answer

Nice guide. I might just wipe my current windows 8 installation and redo it. I'm having so much trouble getting my games to work on it. The lag in it is UNBELIEVABLE. And I'm talking games like Borderlands and Stalker, these are 3 year old games, if not older that my M18x R4 should have NO problem running. I would love to shrink my Windows 7 Partition and move everything onto Windows 8, but not until everything is working smoothly as it should.

I feel like I'm trying to play my games on an old Pentium machine, not a cutting edge laptop. :P

Silvercloak

My first Windows 8 installation was an upgrade and it performed absolutely horribly. I have never found OS upgrades to perform to my satisfaction, so why I thought it might be different this time is an unsolved mystery. For the sake of self-respect, I'll call it optimism rather than stupidity on my part. It almost made me write off Windows 8. Did you upgrade or do an actual clean install? I recommend nuking all of the existing drive partitions (including any recovery and EFI partitions) and allowing Windows setup to create new partitions during the installation process.

Because I am a geek and like the challenge of solving problems, I was not going to take it on face value as being an unworthy endeavor. A clean installation and allowing Windows 8 drivers to natively support everything possible eradicated all of the performance issues. I wish it were always that simple.

As outlined in the opening post, the only drivers I installed were the few for which Windows 8 did not already provide native support. My Windows 8 setup actually has higher FPS in games and higher 3DMark11 and Vantage benchmark scores than my heavily tuned Windows 7 installation did.

BJFox · Accepted Answer

AWESOME I did everything last night and now my rig is kicking ass. YAY!!! Awesome! Glad it worked as well for you also.

BJFox · Answer

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. It runs better than most desktops, too.

davidwhittemore · Answer

So what do you like better? I have an almost identical system, just with SLI 580M and a non-extreme processor. I'm curious if it's worth the headache and hassle.

BJFox · Answer

I think Windows 8 is awesome. I don't spend much time on the 'Metro' tiled Windows 8 menu. I don't care for that aspect of Windows 8, but using it my way I find it is an improvement over Windows 7.

davidwhittemore · Answer

My only concern is those modded drivers and stability. This is going to be a strictly gaming machine, so I wonder if it's not logical to keep it Win7.

Silvercloak · Answer

Nice guide. I might just wipe my current windows 8 installation and redo it. I'm having so much trouble getting my games to work on it. The lag in it is UNBELIEVABLE. And I'm talking games like Borderlands and Stalker, these are 3 year old games, if not older that my M18x R4 should have NO problem running. I would love to shrink my Windows 7 Partition and move everything onto Windows 8, but not until everything is working smoothly as it should.

I feel like I'm trying to play my games on an old Pentium machine, not a cutting edge laptop. :P

Silvercloak

BJFox · Answer

My only concern is those modded drivers and stability. This is going to be a strictly gaming machine, so I wonder if it's not logical to keep it Win7.

Works flawlessly for me. The driver I am using is not modded and stability is unaffected. The INF file is modded, as it has the hardware ID for the M18x R1 added to it so that Windows can identify the graphics cards as being GTX 680M SLI. I did this tweak myself using Windows Notepad. It's super easy. But, the driver files are standard NVIDIA drivers. The INF file merely gives instructions to the operating system and the Windows Installer application. Without adding the lines of code to the INF file, the hardware ID is not recognized because there is not a matching line of code in the INF.

So, it's not a big deal... just an inconvenience that Dell/Alienware could easily fix for us by giving NVIDIA the hardware ID so they can include the code in the reference driver INF.

davidwhittemore · Answer

So with a 580M SLI setup, do I need to do anything specific? I obviously want Windows to see the hardware.

I don't understand why they're not supporting R1. It's a $4500 machine that's a year old (actually mine is a week old since it was a replacement). At this point I'm about to list it on eBay for 2300 and be done with the company. That's terrible business practices.

Silvercloak · Answer

Well, I DID do a clean installation (I set up a Dual Boot with Windows 7, that's as CLEAN as I'll go). And then used the drivers that were offered up in another thread on this Forum. But anyways, I'll do a reset (without formatting partitions as I'm afraid to lose my Windows 7 stuff) and then I'll try and do exactly as you posted on the beginning of this thread.

Hmmm... Might not hurt to get a backup hard drive and back EVERYTHING up before I screw around. :P

Silvercloak

BJFox · Answer

So with a 580M SLI setup, do I need to do anything specific? I obviously want Windows to see the hardware.

I don't understand why they're not supporting R1. It's a $4500 machine that's a year old (actually mine is a week old since it was a replacement). At this point I'm about to list it on eBay for 2300 and be done with the company. That's terrible business practices.

Man, I love my M18x R1 (and my M17x R2) and I would never dream of selling it. You should have zero issues with 580M SLI because that was a standard hardware configuration that is sold and fully supported by Dell. The newer 680M and 7970M GPUs (whether made by Dell or Clevo) are 100% compatible with the M18x R1. They work as well as when they are installed in the M18x R2. Of course, the advantage with the M18x R2 is that PCIe 3.0 is supported by Ivy Bridge and only PCIe 2.0 is supported by Sandy Bridge. But, that makes no difference where compatibility is concerned. (This gives a slight performance edge to Ivy Bridge due to increased bandwidth and higher memory bus speeds.)

My current M18x R1 (my second one) originally shipped with GTX 580M SLI. I upgrade that to 7970M CF and then GTX 680M SLI. The issue is simply the nature of how things work. The M18x R1 never came from Alienware with 7970M CF or GTX 680M SLI. The hardware ID for each of those video cards is different if you install them in the M18x R1 than it is when installed in the M18x R2. For exampe, the hardware ID suffix for the 680M GPU installed in the R1 is 048F1028. If you stuff that same GPU into the M18x R2, the hardware ID suffix becomes 05501028. The part of the hardware ID relating to the GPU itself is 11A0 and that remains consistent on any platform.

So, what occurs is because Dell never manufactured an M18x R1 with 7970M CF or 680M SLI, the reference drivers do not have the necessary code and when you try to install the driver the installer sees a problem and will not continue. By editing the INF (a simple text file) and adding extra lines or editing existing lines, the installer package says "OK, cool, I see a 680M (or 7970M) is installed" and it goes ahead.

All that Dell/Alienware would need to do is contact NVIDIA and say, please include the following hardware ID for your drivers:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_048F1028&REV_A1
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_048F1028
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&CC_0300

Since they have not done that, NVIDIA will not update their GeForce drivers. That's the only reason we have to edit the INF. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is an inconvenience and not a problem. If I have to live with it, so be it. It will not deter GPU upgrades, but it would be nice to not have to tinker with that when installing newer drivers.

davidwhittemore · Answer

That was a good explanation. So since the 580M SLI was standard with the R1, I won't have any issues? What drivers should I install? When I go onto Alienwares website they obviously have nothing for Win8. I just figured if they don't support it, something isn't going to be configured correctly? Or is that a bad assumption?

Tesla1856 · Answer

And I'm talking games like ...&#xa0;Stalker, I just found this ... so sad &#xa0; http://kotaku.com/5905102/stalker-2-cancelled-developers-say-but-new-game-survivarium-lives Sure, I'll probably try it on release, but Stalker wasn't really broken. All single-player&#xa0;needed was the new/updated engine. For online,&#xa0;maybe 4-6 lan/online coop (against the Zone and its AI) would have been cool. &#xa0;

Silvercloak · Answer

AWESOME I did everything last night and now my rig is kicking <ADMIN NOTE: Profanity removed as per TOU> . YAY!!!

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Alienware Windows 8 Installation Guide

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