17 R4, bios recovery not working

Hi @rlongthorn  thank you for sharing update.

Thank you for saying that as POST cycles through hardware tests, it cannot verify the existence of screen, CPU, etc. hardware. The system was working, but now looks completely dead except for rotating fans and diagnostic alerts. Sometimes USB or other devices can cause this to happen. Unplug all devices, including the mouse. Using a bright light, visually check all the ports to see if they show any signs of damage, dislodged copper connectors, shorting foreign objects, etc. Anything that looks out of place. 

Was hoping that pre-post F12 ePSA would reveal any problems since OS does not start, but ePSA requires a working screen. The HDMI socket may not get a signal under these fault conditions, but it is worth trying to use an external monitor, TV, etc. because we are running out of diagnostic options. 

Your opening post and thereafter mentions 7 beeps. We have speculated this could be a false positive because CMOS may have 'lost' its storage of the BIOS settings. Has the coin battery been replaced? 

Just wondering if POST did not find the RAM card(s). Try reseating RAM cards to check that this is not the real problem. 

Hi, @crimsom @Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 , I actually had the original NVMe drive it came with. The bios recovery partition was still intact. I tried the F12 recovery and pressing down the CTRL + ESC key, but no luck. Also, I recall not having the CPU in performance mode because the fans went nuts when I put it in that setting. I would only change it for editing videos/pictures or playing games. So cant determine why the update will brick my laptop. I even tried sending it to a local computer repair shop for them to try a bios injection tool and they were unsuccessful. I have tried all your new suggestions. 

• removing all connected all other usb dives from usb ports 
• Checked all ports for damages
• resetting ram cards 
• connecting to an external monitor

The only thing I didn't do was replace the coin battery. I rely on this laptop a lot for running my personal business. Unfortunately, I had to purchase another laptop to do my work due to tight deadlines. I am shipping the laptop to Dell now to repair it. I have invested too much into this machine, so this is my last resort. Just can't understand how they can release an update that can potentially brick such an expensive laptop. Many thanks for the suggestions guys. 

Oh! you have the CPU led error? That happened to my 17 r4. I fixed it after getting a heart attack over my dads one by disconnecting the battery and leaving it alone. then I pressed the power button after I plugged in the AC adapter and voila done. It blinked the first time again, then it booted but said that the CPU fan was having errors and it cant startup even though it clearly was.

@crimsom @Mike Asare 

Hi guys thanks so much for your replies.

I have spent a few hours this afternoon trying all sorts, the bios is giving a 3,1 code before the 3,3 which is code for bios battery, I have previously checked the battery with a voltmeter and its giving 3.1V which is good, however this afternoon I just changed it out for the heck of it just in case.. still no joy and still showing 3,1 code.

checked all USB ports, tried external screen, even tried the DDR4 out the girlfriends laptop and tried mine in hers which was ok, cleaned the RAM slots to make sure there was not crap in there, I cant see it being a physical issue though as the laptop was working, it updated & restarted and then it wasn't.

Rather than using a cloned drive I just fitted the NVMe drive from the XPS straight in the R4 in case I had a cloning issue. - no joy.

as @Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006  suggested I did a reset by removing the bios battery and waiting 15 mins, still no luck.

The only thing that did change is the laptop goes straight into to 3,1 & 3,3 code straight away now where as before it would take 30 secs of thinking about it before spitting the codes.

To reiterate my codes:

When I press the power button once momentarily I get the 5 spins of the CPU fan followed by the 7 beeps and 2,1 code(CPU fail). then fans slowly ramp up to full and stay there, nothing else happens. - Blank screen.

When I press the power button momentarily followed by a long press of 4 secs I don't get the 5 spins of the fan or the beeps I just get the 3,1 code (coin battery) followed by the 3,3 code (cant find image), sill blank screen.

I have tried all of the above with the renamed .exe file to RCV and also with the RCV file downloaded directly from the support website, I have noticed that there is a file size difference between the two however. the EXE file is 11,034KB and the RCV file is 16,384KB - I wonder why the dramatic change in file size?

Also I have tried both the above files using the "writehdrfile" command in command prompt as I read that a renamed executable isn't readable unless you do the "writehdrfile" which again changes the file size this time smaller.

Finally As a last ditch attempt to solve the problem I entered the XPS cloned dell recovery image partition labelled "ESP" I found the backup bios images (which were for the XPS) in folder :\EFI\DELL\BIOS\RECOVERY\BIOS_CUR.RCV and BIOS_PRE.RCV and replaced them with the image downloaded from the dell site BIOS_IMG.RCV for the 17 R4, This also had no effect at all.

Does anybody know if the ePSA pre boot assessment is loaded from the motherboard (on chip) or is it loaded from the storage device? if its on chip or part of the BIOS NVRAM is it possible that the BIOS update could have bricked this part of the firmware also?

the laptop isn't getting to the stage in its POST where it can look for the BIOS image, so I would like to know where this part of the POST comes from.

im sceptical to send my laptop back to DELL as the cost of a repair from will probably cost more than the laptop is worth, @Mike Asare are you able to tell me how much yours cost as the laptop is probably only worth a few hundred bucks now.

im pretty angry @ dell for issuing an update that bricks a 4 year old laptop knowing they are all out of warranty with no support.

Anyway rant over, thanks for your continued support guys, I appreciate it. 

Hi @crimsom thanks again for sticking with me.

So I did what you suggested and I do get a small change in the power button LED color, when I power on by the short press and then long press (to skip the 5 cpu fan cycles) the power LED turns from blue to yellow for a short period before again giving the same 3,2 and 3,3 codes in blue and red. reading the manual I believe the yellow LED means the battery is below 10% however it has been plugged in the whole time?

I took your idea one step further and unplugged everything from the motherboard, with exception of the DP cable, the power button cable, the battery DC in, and one stick of ram.. so everything else (keyboard, Tobi, touchpad, RGB, speakers, USB board, DC power board) were all disconnected. in once instance I even disconnected the display and plugged an external monitor in. -  all the same. I don't believe anything external is causing this situation.

Did you have any luck finding if the ePSA is on ROM, CMOS, or Storage device for the R4?

Thanks,

Ry

hi @Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 

I'm not too sure I follow your suggestion, can you elaborate a little?

thanks,

@rlongthorn I am still waiting for a quote from Dell. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully its not a ridiculous price since its technically their driver update which bricked the laptop. 

I have the same exact issue. For me I started my Alienware 17 R4 up and everything worked fine. Then I got a popup telling me that I should update my BIOS because I have never done so in the 3 years of having the laptop. So I figured why not, I don't have anything planned for the day anyways. When it tried to install I just got a black screen with the fans on full blast. After 5 minutes of nothing happening, I turned it off by holding the power button. 

Now every time I turn it on, one of the fans spins on and off about 4 times and then the keyboard lights up with my custom light pattern but I only have a black screen. The laptop beeps 7 times to indicate a faulty CPU (lol I only tried to update my BIOS) and the fans spin on high. I get the 2,1 light code which also indicates a faulty CPU. Sometimes I can get the 3,3 light code by pressing the power button randomly.

So far I've tried resetting the CMOS by shorting the CLPR1 pins but that had no effect after several attempts. I've followed all of the advice on this thread with no success either. 

I had swapped out the default 2.5" HDD with an SSD last year so I figured I would put back in the 2.5" HDD since I still have it. I thought maybe this could contain a restoration image. Now, after pressing the power button, the fans still spin on and off around 4 times, then I hear the HDD start up, and then I get the 2,1 light code and 7 beeps with the keyboard illuminated with my custom light pattern. I can still get the 3,3 light code by pressing the power button randomly.

Quite frustrating....there has to be a way to recover the BIOS.

Hah no way, mine has also been retired to my closet and I also repasted my GPU and CPU! I'm actually more amazed than angry that clicking "okay" on my screen can brick a laptop. I live in Switzerland now so unfortunately, I think sending it to Dell is a bit out of the question. Especially since this thing weighs more than tank. I wanted to build a new PC anyways, maybe my laptop could feel it. Such is life and lesson learned, do not update your BIOS. I'll keep an eye on this thread for any possible solutions.

Would a motherboard replacement fix the issue? I'm not considering that as an option but I'm not too knowledgeable about this no-POST issue. I just think it would be funny if Dell quotes the other guy more than $600 to fix the laptop when you can buy a new motherboard for around that price.

Well depending on what config you want? I would get a cheap i7 board with the cheapest graphics option on it so that you can connect a graphics amp and it will save you money.

Hi @rlongthorn and @RIP17R4 and @Mike Asare  have been revisiting this thread's posts and it seems that you have all started with a very old BIOS.

The installation of BIOS updates must be done incrementally. One after another, without skipping a BIOS update. BIOS update files are not relatively large in nature. So a new BIOS update does not contain the cumulative updates of all the previous updates.

Hopefully you all know which BIOS version was installed when you started and can reinstall this update to restore the BIOS baseline to get your systems to work again. Or perhaps it is prudent to install the original BIOS that was installed at the assembly facility.

Now that the system is working, open your Local admin account and download all BIOS updates, view their full driver details on their BIOS update webpage, ensure the integrity of each BIOS update file by verifying their checksum value to ensure that all the download files are valid. If the checksum values are not identical, download this file again. 

You are now ready to start the BIOS upgrade process.

Please share an update. Thank you.