Alienware 17 R1 Ranger (2013) (Haswell) BIOS Unlocked

[Ashtrix]

To all Alienware 17 R1 Ranger owners this is a re-created archived post of the now retiring NBR forums. Please feel free to post your adventures with it. Thank you

 

Dedicated to NBR users - Striker1234, Papusan, Mr.Fox, MogRules, Reciever, MahmoudDewy, Eeposaurus, loafer987, Javers, Pythonic2016 (who unlocked the BIOS), Remek002, Nomad, IVHOTEP, Mr.MogWai, Maxware79, Clamibot, Raidriar, Baqir, ssj92, J95, Woodzstack ++++ all other NBR refugees and owners & BIOS modders - Prema, Svl7, Johnksss.

 

Unleash your beast with this long awaited Unlocked A14 BIOS !! Use the same Sleep bug and flash & you can always roll back if you need any warranty support.

 

Much thanks to Striker for this, He has been really proactive for pushing the Zotac mod and this, +rep bud for the invaluable contribution.

 

- Remember this BIOS Mod is made for the Striker's 4940MX CPU so when you are flashing     this onto your machine make sure you are doing an NVRAM reset first to let the BIOS settle for the default values for your CPU /RAM  HW before it bricks itself upon changing the custom values, Make sure you know what you are tinkering with,  NVRAM reset on these machines is a PITA.

 

OR

 

Please request the modder/hacker to do the same for you with a little of donation which keeps them pushing for this kind of work.

 

- Also I had requested another hacker to share his work on Techinferno for the support of this machine to host an Unlocked sBIOS, It was a month back. If anything comes up  I'll keep it updated.

 

Below are some of the quick links for getting out most of your Alienware 17 R1 Ranger

 

- Cheatsheet for the Alienware 17 regarding Windows 10 / Pascal / Maxwell / Fan mod / EDID etc

(The above linked site "TechInferno" has Crypto miner, It might infect your machines with malware, Caution Advised, risk. It has so much info please use AV if you want to use this site, thank you sorry for the trouble

 

I will try to move that info to NBR here, thank you for your understanding)

 

- Booting with Maxwell / Pascal without "FULL UEFI" without Dell's support is very hard unless someone ports the code from the Alienware 18 to the Alienware 17 like Swick did it for the M18x R2's updated Unlocked BIOS mod.

 

- A few more tips for this machine - Dolby driver, OC tips (old thread), Resource Index Mr. Fox, Alienware 17 Teardown pics by Mr. Fox, Battery tip for maxing the life, Looking to mod the battery cells ? (2021 - Alienware 18 Battery Mod info page 1 and page 2 thanks to tomX and Senso)

 

- NVRAM reset Step by step by Mr. Fox

 

-  Blackscreens - 980M ? (This thread has more useful info too which can help with other GPU    upgrades or issues)

 

- 120Hz upgrade for Alienware 17 by Mogrules - A must if you want to run Pascal I suppose.

 

- Pascal MXM upgrades >> Quadro P5000 M17x R4 Upgrade (Should work with AW17 too but need 120Hz) / Zotac 1070 Upgrade / MSI 1070N upgrade

 

- (2020 update) NBR Cooler Mods on Notepal U3 - thread 1, thread 2, post 1, post 2

 

Svl7, Mr. Fox, Woodzstack Finally the Alienware 17/18 got the unlocked BIOS thanks  to the exploit in the secure flash lol.

 

Update #1

Intel DPTF & the Custom Fan tuning via BIOS (Only for MX/ Extreme Unlocked CPUs)

 

Update #2

Service Tag fix in case you already flashed the provided update by Striker instead of a personal BIOS mod

 

BEWARE

Info below should be pinned to the first post:

Flashing modded BIOS from here will "inject" OPs service tag into Your machine. If You want to keep Your tag You MUST ask pythonic for personal mod

 

 

Update #3

Updated Intel Microcode (v22) BIOS, the effect on OC/UV isn't tested on this machine at the time of  updating this. PLUS also how it fares vs the Microcode bug hack on Haswell is yet to be determined.

 

Update #4

How to Recover from a "Corrupted BIOS" +  Knowledge on Recovery BIOS defaults <- Very very Important. Please read you'll know what to do after performing this Recovery task without ending up with a GPU related Beep code, especially on a dGPU only machine.

 

note: this is different from the traditional NVRAM reset on Haswell Alienwares.

 

Update #5

Updated Unlocked BIOS (A14+), New Year gift from javers, Has  nice updates for the 'BIOS Recovery' + a lot of stuff baked in. Check post for more juicy details.

 

Update #5.1

As since the original zip isn't there with all files, Please use this zip (SHA -1 b08b095640236b52636078903f2034fc78e20d30) which has all the files required for the "bios.bin" unlocked BIOS flashing, make sure you extract the A14+ bios.bin to this zip contents and then copy all files to C:\ then proceed with the instructions below (posted from the original readme.txt file you can find in the zip)

 

flashing:

use the Sleep Bug !
Unpack the archive and copy the into 😄 HD root place !
Then open Comand Promt with Admin Rights (CLI window C:\), put your laptop
into Sleep Mode and then Wake-Up It, atger this execute these comands from
CLI window :

fptw64 -f bios.bin -bios

 

Note - this zip doesn't have bios.bin, please use the above (update5) / below (update6) for the bios file.

 

Update #6

Happy New Year 2019 fellow Rangers, a revision A16 for the lovely lady 17 is here from remek002 with v22 microcode only and driver module upgrades. So no Spectre performance downgrade. Also mind you there seems to be a few BIOS defaults that might differ to the A14+ and remember to change the service tag.

 

Update #6.1 *Only for Windows 10 users*

If you are running an sBIOS even with a lower microcode = v22, there is a high possibility that your Win10 installation automatically updated your microcode to the latest, meaning your CPU will have all mitigations for the Spectre and Meltdown, which will cause significant ST (Single Thread) performance loss, so to avoid that, before doing anything on the Windows10 installation, just disconnect the Internet and please follow below, clicking both the links below.

 

- Controlling the Microcode update file in System32 folder, thanks to Unclewebb

- More information on the same, thanks to Papusan.

 

They will allow you to control the Win10 OS level BIOS Microcode patches instead of MS.

 

Archived Links for future reference (one, two, three), also just an FYI, Haswell 4th gen Core processors are not effected by Plundervolt (SGX issue) which causes to lose the ability of Undervolting.

---

Update #6.2.1 (2022)

The BIOS links are out of date. I will update with the A14+ BIOS with a mirror.

Updated the links 6/5/2022 with Unlocked BIOSes to choose from.

Javers version of A14+ - LINK

Remek002 version of A16 with Microcode downgraded to v22 a.k.a no Spectre and Meltdown - LINK

BIOS Files needed for Flashing, simply copy the bios.bin and follow instructions in the zip (Readme.txt) - LINK

 

Service Tag changes that you need to do (need HxD tool to hexedit)

Javers - CHANGE1 is what you should look for in HxD and replace with your Service Tag.

Remek002 - YOUR_ST, follow readme.txt.

[Reciever]

As someone who also participated with input regarding this modification I thank you for preserving it.

[aldarxt]

This is very much appreciated and good source of invaluable knowledge, thanks for the effort!

[Ashtrix]

Updated Unlocked BIOS files with link in OP.

 

BIOS versions include

Javers - A14+

Remek002 - A16 but with microcode v22,

Remek002 - A16 but with microcode v25 (note - this will reduce your Haswell processor ST/MT performance by a large factor and not worth

NOTE - I do not have the Unlocked v25 microcode Unlocked A16. Do not flash official A16, they patched the sleep bug you will lose both Unlocked BIOS option AND Worst microcode making the machine a huge junk.

 

[ssj92]

Ah I need to find a way to port the swick M18xR1 module updates and microcode to M17xR3 bios. Also need to do same from M18xR2 swick bios to M17xR4. I don’t think those two got these updates

[aldarxt]

7 hours ago, ssj92 said:

Ah I need to find a way to port the swick M18xR1 module updates and microcode to M17xR3 bios. Also need to do same from M18xR2 swick bios to M17xR4. I don’t think those two got these updates

Wait, I installed the bios you posted for the m17xr4r  [FPT]-M17x_R4_BIOS_A11_-_[unlocked]V2   and they are working fine, you also posted the A15 unlocked

M17x_R4_BIOS_A15_[unlocked]v1.4   but I did not install the A15, Maybe If what you are talking about might help with the GTX 1080??? But I have no clue about porting them but sounds intriguing

[Csupati]

Hi , Ive already upgraded my Ranger with a quadro P3000 lvds screen and optimus, so it works in there without any problem. I did order a P3200 to it and its on his way, im gonna share the upgrade, but now my question is that i can see the 120hz screen upgrade. As i see its needs the lcd cable that is edp but its 40 pin (kinda confusing to me after the p370sm3 with 50pin ) and the screen that is 120hz and (discontinued) 3d feature. If i buy a normal edp 40 pin screen witch is ips but not 120hz and 3d it will work?

[Ashtrix]

2 minutes ago, Csupati said:

Hi , Ive already upgraded my Ranger with a quadro P3000 lvds screen and optimus, so it works in there without any problem. I did order a P3200 to it and its on his way, im gonna share the upgrade, but now my question is that i can see the 120hz screen upgrade. As i see its needs the lcd cable that is edp but its 40 pin (kinda confusing to me after the p370sm3 with 50pin ) and the screen that is 120hz and (discontinued) 3d feature. If i buy a normal edp 40 pin screen witch is ips but not 120hz and 3d it will work?

 

Good to hear your upgrade.

 

First is eDP is this port on the AW17 R1, and the cable is also separate. N392W part number for eDP cable. I do not remember the pin count for this sorry.

 

 

As you can see eDP is that one which is labeled on the left it's 30 pin from what I can recall. Also the teardown pictures are from OP it's mentioned but again here's the Full Album on AW17 R1 Teardown

 

Screen part number if you want from the 120Hz Display thread (it's in the OP, here's the link anyways https://archive.vn/0HLPD , has more info on displays which you can buy like different revisions).

 

3D Emitter is not mandatory for this upgrade and 3D Vision is sadly dead. Turing was the last which had Nvidia 3D Vision support.

[Csupati]

Thanks for the fast reply, i suggest that theres no other way . Finally my p3200 arrived,  its working in optimus , no issues ! And got some Hyper x 2133 mhz cl11 32gb kitsfor it as well.

 

[Csupati]

Maybe im gonna try the m6700/6800 3k screen.