Failed BIOS update Alienware Desktop Area 51

Counting yours, that's about 20 bricked Aurora/Area-51 motherboards now ... from failed A10/A11 BIOS updates. And those are just the ones we know about (that people posted forum messages about it).

Would be nice if Dell finally acknowledged the problem and at least let us know they were looking into it.

Yes ... if the machine won't BIOS post, you have to contact Dell about a motherboard replacement.

If you want, you can wait for Dell_Chris-M to get back from vacation (I think it's soon). He has helped others get it done.

Just do a little searching here, and you will see all the messages. There should be 5-10 messages found. As I recall, one IT support person lost about 1/4 of the machines in the office. The rest is a mix of X-58 based Auroras and Area-51s.

After contacting Dell they are telling me that i have to pay £450 to buy a replacement motherboard as its down to customer error & i must've shutdown the pc during the update! They then said i shouldn't have tried to update the BIOS anyway without an engineer present even though on their own website it recommended that i should.

In the quote they sent me it is written they are trying to charge me with out of warranty repair & out of warranty service when i still have 160days left on the warranty & next business day service. 

I have sent an email to the complaints dept as i was fed up of getting the run around on the premium rate phone line and basically accused of lying, the guy kept insisting i must've shutdown the pc myself during the update. No reply as yet, or even acknowledgement of the email. Here's hoping they get around to at least replying next business day.

Im not sure whether its good or bad news that other people are having this problem when attempting to update.

mark47p,

I need the following in a private message to escalate this. Click my username, click Send Message -
Email Address:
Name:
Shipping Address:
Phone Number:
PC Service Tag number:
Reason: Dell Bios failed corrupting the motherboard CMOS. No POST

Notes = After contacting Dell they are telling me that i have to pay £450 to buy a replacement motherboard as its down to customer error & i must've shutdown the pc during the update! They then said i shouldn't have tried to update the BIOS anyway without an engineer present even though on their own website it recommended that i should. In the quote they sent me it is written they are trying to charge me with out of warranty repair & out of warranty service when i still have 160days left on the warranty & next business day service. I have sent an email to the complaints dept as i was fed up of getting the run around on the premium rate phone line and basically accused of lying, the guy kept insisting i must've shutdown the pc myself during the update. No reply as yet, or even acknowledgement of the email. Here's hoping they get around to at least replying next business day. Im not sure whether its good or bad news that other people are having this problem when attempting to update.
mark47p

Just to let you guys know about the outcome of this, been away for a few days hence the delay.

Within 2 hours of Chris_M telling me he'd emailed euro dell on Fri 6th i had a very apologetic phonecall from a guy at executive customer support who arranged for an engineer to come out to install a new MB for me yesterday.  Same guy also rang me back to see if everything was ok after the engineer had been. I told him i was unable to make sure everything was fine as i was away so he emailed me his direct contact details so i could reach him if i had any problems. Excellent customer service received and my faith in Dell restored.

Cheers for the replies guys, big thanks again to Chris for his help.