14 DAY TRIAL // Alienware's Area-51 m15x gaming notebook has had quite some issues since it was introduced on the market. You might remember the fact that the extremely expensive mobile gaming rig was reported to have shipped with only a part of the advertised lighting areas enabled. Recent reports claim that the notebooks started to develop cracks across its casing, that might be associated with overheating issues.
More than that, it seems that the graphics performance is also throttled down as a result of the system running too hot, which cripples the gaming experience. After all, given the fact that the notebook is pitched at the high-end mobile gaming niche, users would expect to take full advantage of the computer's graphics power.
Alienware has released a BIOS fix aimed at improving the system's graphics performance by increasing the GPU fans' number of rotations per minute up to a safe 5,400 count. The new BIOS fix is known as version X29b P3A30, and is currently available to the owners of an Alienware Area-51 m15x machine. It can be retrieved by mailing the Alienware support team or, if you have not registered your notebook with the company, you might get it from the web.
The update process seems to be hassle-free: all you have to do is to burn the image to a CD-ROM medium, then restart the computer with the disc inserted into the optical reader. However, in order to get the best results, you'll have to obey a few essential guidelines, such as connecting the notebook to the AC power grid and disconnecting all the third-party peripherals.
Also, it's mandatory that you don't turn off or restart your computer during the update process, because you will get your BIOS corrupted, and the system won't boot anymore. According to the first users that have flashed their BIOS, the update is functional and the fans will start spinning as soon as the graphics cores turn hot.