BIOS settings - M4300

[Hervé]

Here are BIOS settings that are known to work on M4300 with nVidia Quadro FX 360M GPU under SL, Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks. These settings were tested and verified with BIOS A11 and A15 (don't go beyond version A15).

 

Onboard Devices:

. Integrated NIC = enabled
. Internel modem = enabled
. External USB ports = enabled
. Parallel port = Off (or anything else)
. Serial port = COM1
. PC Card and 1394 = enabled
. SATA Operation = AHCI (ATA found to be working too, having forgotten to change to AHCI)
. Module Bay Device = Enabled
. Flash Cache Module = On or Off
. ASF Mode = Off
. Microphone = Enabled
Video:
. Ambient Light Sensor = Off
. Brightness = max
. Brightness (AC) = max
. Primary Video = Onboard Video
Security:
. Admin Password = not set
. System Password = not set
. Internal HDD PW = not set
. Password Change = Permitted
. Password Bypass = Off or Reboot & Resume Bypass (or any other value)
. Wireless Switch Change = Denied
. Wi-Fi Catcher Change = Denied
. CPU XD Support = Enabled
. Signed Firmware Update = Disable
. TPM Security = Off
. TPM Activation = Deactivate
. Computrace® = Deactivate
Performance:
. Multi Core Support = Enabled
. Dynamic Acceleration = Off with Merom T7xxx CPUs (otherwise FSB speed is reduced), On with Penryn T8xxx/T9xxx CPUs
. SpeedStep Enable = Enabled
Power Management:
. Auto On Mode = Off
. Auto On Time = xxxxxx
. USB Wake Support = Enabled (allows waking from USB when laptop is plugged on mains; no Sleep/Instant Wake issue experienced)
. Wake on LAN/WLAN = Off
Docking:
. Undocking Method = Hot Undock
. PCI Slot Monitoring = Enabled Silent
. Universal Connect = Enabled
POST Behavior:
. Adapter Warnings = Off (or Enabled)
. Fn Key Emulation = Scroll Lock
. Fast Boot = Minimal
. Virtualization = Off or Enabled
. Keypad (Embedded) = Fn Key Only
. Mouse/TouchPad = Touchpad-PS/2
. Numlock LED = On
. USB Emulation = Enabled
Wireless:
. Internal Bluetooth = Enabled
. Internal Wi-Fi = Enabled (keep to Disabled if you have an Intel card, they're not supported and need to be replaced)
. Internal Cellular = Enabled
. Wireless Switch = All
. Wi-Fi Catcher = Enabled
 

[Hervé]

 Whilst the above parameters were also tested Ok with BIOS A17, CPU performance was subsequently found to be degraded with that latest BIOS version. As such, it is highly recommended to stick to BIOS A15. During testing, degraded performance was encountered on 2 different M4300, each fitted with Intel C2D T8300 2.4GHz CPU and the apparent problem repeatedly confirmed through benchmarking:

1. BIOS A15 -> Geekbench (32bit): 3391
2. BIOS A17 -> Geekbench (32bit): 2470