Q-1

Hi! Thank you so much for the detailed information on the possible upgrades. I really appreciated it! It looks like dual AMD R9 M290x is also a great option and costs less than NVIDIA cards (I checked eBay). Will they work without BIOS modification? If I go that route, do I still need to change my current heatsinks? And, will my current Crossfire cable (from dual HD 6990M) work on R9 M290x? Or do I need a different one? Also, if you have spare working batteries for m18x and are willing to sell, I would love to buy one. But I'm in the US and unsure if sending laptop batteries here by mail is possible.

finding a new or even used working battery for m18x is almost impossible Hello. Thanks a lot for your reply! I found 100w NVIDIA heatsinks on eBay and will probably order them today. Hopefully, 880m will work without unlocked BIOS. It's too bad I can't update my BIOS because of the battery. I think finding a new or even used working battery for m18x is almost impossible. The seller said the battery worked before he shipped the laptop to me. Maybe it somehow got damaged during shipping. LEDs on the battery pack are blinking, and the diagnostic shows a battery error: "Your battery has experienced permanent failure." Anyway, thanks again for the information!

Hey everyone! Recently, I acquired a really cool machine - an Alienware m18x R1 (it cost me around $180), which I want to refurbish and upgrade. It seems to work fine (except for the touchpad, for some reason). The current configuration has i7-2720qm, 16GB of RAM, and dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M (2GB GDDR5) in CrossFire. Current BIOS version: A02. The battery is dead because when I tried to check the charge level, it just flashed with three LED lights, and the laptop won't power on without a charger. Unfortunately, I can't find anywhere to buy a new battery. Also, there was no HDD, no HDD ribbon cable, or caddy. I already purchased an HDD cable (9JP9M) and a new CPU (i7-2960XM). I also want to upgrade GPUs and have a couple of questions. I researched and discovered that the best GPU that will work on R1 is GTX 880m. I found a couple of DELL 880m options on Aliexpress and NVIDIA SLI Cable. I want to install dual 880m in SLI, but do I need to change the heatsinks to be able to do so? And do I need custom NVIDIA drivers? Also, I need to update the BIOS to an unlocked version first, but since my battery is not working, will it be problematic to do so? I would appreciate any advice. Thanks a lot!