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New Bios 1.08 - BE EXTREMELY WARY....

post #1 of 32
12/16/03 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Been having some serious issues with the new bios upgrade, and I recommend NOT installing this fellas. If you DO decide to upgrade and flash your BIOS, PLEASE be cautious and burn the original 1.05 BIOS files to disc before doing so - read below). Luckily, from most of you, what I've read it's hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes, it's pure havoc on your system.

Granted, yes, it does control the alien eye LED's, but I would rather have them blink anyway. Seems to me like AW rushed through this new BIOS without troubleshooting just to deliver something everyone wants (controlling the alien eyes). I should have known....

I installed the new BIOS over the weekend and received a CMOS error on reboot. I checked my BIOS and nothing looked out of the ordinary. What did seem odd was Windows running a bit slower, and then while browsing the internet, everything instantly locked up. I held the power button in (CTL-ALT-DEL wouldn't work).

On reboot, I wanted to run in safe mode to see what the issue was, and it froze on checking, specifically on the "mup.sys" line. Frustrated as hell, after several times rebooting, it kept doing the same thing, and when trying to boot up normally, it just hung on a black screen.

Knowing it had to be a BIOS upgrade issue, I went to my desktop pc, logged in to Alienware, and downloaded the original BIOS (1.05) and flashed it on bootup. Everything solved.

I'm hoping downgrading the BIOS after upgrading it doesn't cause havoc on my system now. I'm hoping my problem will help some of you who decide to flash, if you encounter what I did.
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post #2 of 32
12/16/03 at 3:17pm
What you received on reboot is a "cmos checksum error." Thats sometimes normal after a reboot. Once you go into the bios and save the settings you should be able to boot right up.

As for the MUP.sys this file is actually the "Multiple UNC Provider" loader. Is directly related to network adapters suring the startup sequence. A common issue is that your on-board wireless nic setting is set to "enabled" in the BIOS, and you don't actually have a card installed.

if you don't have an internal wireless nic go back into the bios and turn it off, that should solve the problem.
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post #3 of 32
12/17/03 at 12:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Time-Pilot
A common issue is that your on-board wireless nic setting is set to "enabled" in the BIOS, and you don't actually have a card installed.
I do have the wireless a/b/g card installed....

The problem is with the 1.08 BIOS flash....it screws up my system. The original 1.05 works fine though (what I downgraded to).
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post #4 of 32
12/17/03 at 12:27am
Yuck! Must be something not compatable somewhere?!? The difference in our systems is the A/B/G card. Do you know of you have the V1 or V2 system board?
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post #5 of 32
12/17/03 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 
I've only had my laptop 3 weeks Time.....any idea off-hand? If not, how can I tell? It seems like the people who received their laptops before me and have installed the 1.08's have no problem. Mine is newer...strange....
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post #6 of 32
12/17/03 at 1:18am
It's a V2 for sure. Only the very early M2's were V1's.
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post #7 of 32
12/17/03 at 2:50am
That is odd, I've had no errors after the 1.08 bios flash. You will get a checksum error but that is normal...you only have to save your bios settings again to solve this problem. After you downgraded have you tried flashing your bios again with the 1.08? Maybe the first flash wasnt completely successful.
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post #8 of 32
12/17/03 at 8:05am
I have version 1. And I suffer problems with the the New BIOS. Tech said they are working on a solution and the gentelman I spoke to said that he will research it and call me back tonight. If I get an answer Ill post it. Ow to be more spesifice about mine. Is I ahve problems with the ACPI.SYS. So windows wouldnt boot, and It wouldnt letme reformat.

Be glade ya got version 2, Im stuck with Max of 400Mhz Bus speed, and they told me that it was gonna coast $1.099.00 just to purches the Motherboard version 2. Then I still would have to get RAM and such.

Phyro
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post #9 of 32
12/17/03 at 3:34pm
So drew, do you have revision 1 mobo?
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post #10 of 32
12/17/03 at 10:02pm
Thread Starter 
It's version 2 for sure...and to be honest with you guys, my system seems to run much more fluid and is definitely more stable with the 1.05 BIOS.

HOWEVER, I'd love to get control over those eyes with the 1.08 BIOS flash (without it screwing up my system....any ideas?!?!?
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post #11 of 32
12/18/03 at 1:00am
I originally had a freeze up on the ACPI.SYS file on the 1.08 . Reverted back to 1.05 Never got a call from the tech. So I went and updated the BIOS back to 1.08 to play around. Then when I restarted I got stuck on the MUP.SYS, were as the night before it was the ACPI.SYS. I went in the the 1.08 BIOS that I recently updated,

Put Boot devise priority on the CD-Rom First

Disabled the eyes.

Went into IDE config--> Harddisk--> and enabled the 32bit trans fer.

Went in to SuperIO Config --> and set IR PORT 3F8/IRQ4
Onboard Parallel Port 3F8/IRQ7
Parralell port mode Normal

put Power button on on/off

Windows wouldnt boot then so I proceeded to reformat. Now I got my system back to normal, and I got controll of the eyes.

Re-formating is a pain and I hate doing it my-self but that was what worked for me.

Note: I had backups of all my information prior to calling the tech, just do some backing up if you are gonna reformat.

Phyro
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post #12 of 32
12/18/03 at 1:08am
That just doesn't make sense! Lets get down to the nitty gritty per say my MUP.sys file version is 5.1.2600.1106, whats yours? Also for the sake of this post do you have internal wireless?
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post #13 of 32
12/18/03 at 4:23am
Phyroinstinct,

So what your saying is you left the 1.08 bios installed and formated your drive...and everything is fine since the format?
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post #14 of 32
12/18/03 at 9:18am
Yes I have a wireless internal A+B card... and yes I left the 1.08 installed reformated and it works great now... system feels the same as the 1.05 just with eye control. I am as confused as you are... I dont understand why it worked. I though (from readings) that the MUP.sys file conflicted with the BIOS, thus a reformat wouldnt fix it. But it did. And I though I would post those BIOS settings just incase it has somthing to do with that. Im no pofessional but I do know what I did, and it worked.


Phyro
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post #15 of 32
12/18/03 at 9:20am
Ow I just cheaked the file version. The file version of MUP.SYS is the same as the version you have posted.

(LOL, my spelling is horible. I had to edit each one of these to fix common mistakes)


Duno if this info helps.
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post #16 of 32
12/18/03 at 1:14pm
Thread Starter 
WOW. I'm certainly not going to re-format over a simple BIOS tweak as controlling the eyes. It's certainly not that important (and I like the eyes blinking). As I said too, my system runs much cleaner and more stable with the 1.05 BIOS.

There has to be some way around this without reformatting though....
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post #17 of 32
12/20/03 at 8:17am
I have not notifiyed AW that I solved the problem on mine own yet. (That it required a reformmate) I was waiting for there call, but in "My personal Support" section the guy that helped me had placed it to "resolve" and never called me back. I ran across a forum thread on the AW official forums were the tech was telling anyone, that now recieaved the errors after the BIOS update, to go and reformate. And that reforamting ws the solution. Sound wired. I would think that they are working on somthing to reslove this.

Best of luck. If I see any forums that post a solution Ill let ya know.


Phyro
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post #18 of 32
12/20/03 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
Phyro, without seeing that post on the AW forums, I started to reformat too...

I'm about 1/4 done of re-installing my software, and I'll tell you this, it runs SO much cleaner. My 3dMark03 scores went up to 2980 without OC'ing too!

However, on a Windows XP Pro reboot / shutdown, it takes about 10-15 seconds to SHUTDOWN (after saving preferences)....does yours do the same?
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post #19 of 32
12/20/03 at 6:34pm
I had just the opposite circumstances. Mine use to take long to shut down, and fast to load. Its just the opposites now. It boots Slow But when I hit the shutdown button, Bam its off. And the 3d markes scores are nice ey?

Best of wishes twards the rest of reforamting. It a pain. Isnt it?
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post #20 of 32
12/22/03 at 3:01pm
Thread Starter 
Installing the new touchpad drivers did the trick. WINXP Pro now boots up and shuts down in a blink.
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