Cant update Area 51 R2 Bios

i have the same Opinion regarding Dell Support. really impressed so far.

yeah, i figured the Tech Guy would do what the Work Order says and nothing else.

Thank You for confirming that you don't need to Update BIOS in Order One by One. i assumed it would work if you Update from A01 to A11 but now we know for sure.

you are Welcome. anytime again.

O no, It already had A10 on it. However I can say I tried updating from A10 to A12 and it did fail and gave me some error code. I had to go to A11 then A12 installed just fine. Maybe dell got smart and put a failsafe in? 

ha. my Mistake. i thought i saw A01 for some Reason. my God. i can't bring myself to read carefully lately. most of the Time i just glance over the Posts. i was watching TV with my Tablet in my Hands and answering some Posts here and there. lol

maybe i should stop posting for a Week or two.

well Thanks for Clarification.

I'm struggling with this issue too. I have a system which shipped with Win 8.

Background story: While under warranty I updated to Windows 10 Home and after two weeks on the phone with the wonderful folks at Alien support in Costa Rica (jealous) and a tech coming over and replacing the HD we finally realized the issue was updating the BIOS to A03. I kept the original drive, which was still good, and installed it as a second HD (re-formatted and used for temporary storage).

I've read all the threads and followed the instructions but no go.

In Windows I run as admin the A04 exe it runs, the progress bar lights-up all at once, not from left to right, and the "Success!..." trope appears. Reboot is the only option. No change.

I did try the A12 update from the support page initially. Same no change.

I've done the power drain - no change

USB flash - no change

Question:

Besides the Dell support page instructions, which are not working,  are there precise sequential instructions and procedures including prerequisites somewhere else? can the reader provide such for this decrepit techie.

Also, If the BIOS chip is kaput, as one contributor suggests, wouldn't that manifest in a system failure?

Is it necessary to disable Windows Defender and Kaspersky Anti-Virus (or any other) programs? Disable Secure Boot?

Also, the 30 - Errror: Problem opening file for reading, seems to suggest some sort of compatibility issue?

Pleading for mercy from the Tekunohegemoni

Hi JollyD.

your PC is working because the Motherboard can still read the BIOS Data but you can not install new BIOS Version. everytime you Update the BIOS, old Version needs to be removed first. that is the Part where the Update Process fails. there are different Types of Defect. BIOS Chip has a tiny Flash Chip which locks up sometimes. you know how you can flip the Swhitch on SD Cards so they can't be overwritten? same happens here exceppt it is a Defect. you can read the BIOS Data but you can't overwrite it.

about your other Questions:
it is recommended to close all Apps when installing BIOS. so yes, try to close and disable everything you can before you open the BIOS File.
i took one for the Team. i downloaded and opened the BIOS File on a non Alienware System. it worked but said "no Support for this Motherboard" and did not throw an Error. and yes. i knew what i was doing. it would ask me again if i want to Update BIOS or not.

Thank you for your informative reply.

So let me try to fully understand my procedure:

Prerequisites

1. Download Alienware BIOS updater for A04 (A03 is current)
2. Disconnect ethernet cable (security)
3. Disable all anti-virus including Windows Defender, (recommendations for any other Windows10 processes to turn-off, disable or uninstall?)
   a) What should the Boot settings be? Secure Boot Disabled? UEFI Enabled?
   -- if/than change Boot settings by rebooting into F12, change and reboot.
4. Shutdown
5. Drain power (remove AC power cable, remove battery, hold power button 20+ seconds) will this remove the old BIOS
6. Reinstall battery and AC power cable

Install new BIOS

1. Start Windows 10
2. Right-click Alienware_Area_51_R2_A04.exe and run as administrator
3. process completes "Success...", "reboot", Yes.
4. Windows 10 reboots with new BIOS (A04 BIOS)

Did I miss anything?

Thanks to all

Hi.

actually a good Summary overall. that is how it should work assuming your BIOS Chip is okay. three Things:
1. skip BIOS Versions A04 to A07 and update to Version A08. that is how i did it.
2. i updated BIOS with Secure Boot Enabled but you can disable Secure Boot if you want.
3. the Order is a bit off.

Pre-requisits:
1. Download BIOS Version A08
2. shutdown
3. Power Drain:
- Disconnect all Cables including Power Cord
- remove the Coin Cell Battery
- hold the Power On Button for a Minute (20 Sec might be not long enough)
- Install Coin Cell Battery
- connect all necessary Cables
your old BIOS Settings are erased now.
4. Boot into BIOS Settings (F2)
- BIOS > Boot >
- Legacy Mode = Disabled
- Secure Boot = Disabled (for now)
- Boot Option #1 = Windows Boot

Install New BIOS: (i'm gonna Copy & Paste some Parts here)
1. Start Windows 10
2. Disconnect ethernet cable (security)
3. Disable all anti-virus including Windows Defender. don't disable Processes manually via Task Manager, just the ones you can see in the Task Bar.
4. Right-click A08 BIOS File and run as administrator
5. process completes "Success...", "reboot", Yes.
6. Windows 10 reboots with new BIOS (A08 BIOS)

repead the Procedure with BIOS A10, A11 and A12 Versions.

once you are done don't forget to Adjust BIOS Settings. Date, Clock, XMP = Enabled, OC Level 2, Secure Boot = Enabled, Install Secure Boot Key.

Good Luck.

Quick update. 

:-(

I likewise tried the procedure with a USB flash (changed UEFI to Legacy boot) and received the "30 - Error: Problem opening file for reading" where the  file extracts but then produces the error.

I'll give it another try tomorrow but it looks like, without a service plan in place, I'm stuck at A03. 

I need to get back to my web dev class work before I burn more hours tinkering.

Thanks for you help. We did produce a good procedural for others.

shit

sorry to see it didn't work.

sure. no Problem.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I just went through all of this with AW support, today. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have neglected BIOS updates since 2015 so I thought I would share my path to resolution.

I have an Area 51 R2 that is used primarily as an rendering/artistic workstation, I had never updated the BIOS on it. I was starting at A01 and was having the exact same problems described by others in this thread/forum. After walking through it all with support they suggested rolling back the OS to Windows 10 1511 or 1607, I couldn't find an old ISO so I, skeptically, installed an inactive copy of Windows 8.1. Presto, all the BIOS updates started running successfully. Once everything was updated I restored my system drive from a disk image and I was up and running again.

I had tried everything in this thread (and many others) short of trying to find a replacement BIOS chip. So if you are having issues updating your BIOS, snap an image of your system. Download a Windows 8.1 ISO, install it and give it a try.