Hello Alienwarejunky, 

I received the m17 last week, got the message today to download and install it. All other drivers installed just fine, however it appeared the m15 R3/m17 r3 1.7.2 BIOS had hung. I clicked around after waiting about 15 - 20 minutes. 

I restarted the device, went back in to the Command Center and launched the SupportAssist. It found another intel drive, including the BIOS update that had failed. I'm now unable to click on "Home", "Troubleshooting", nor "Cancel" as well. I'm going to wait to see if it fails

Okay, for some reason the "Edit" feature derped out and didnt appy my changes. Round two...

So, I found out that the SupportAssist isn't checking what BIOS version you currently have. It then attempts to apply the latest version. To find the most currently version your system is using, follow these steps: 

1) Right click on Window Start menu Icon, select 'Run'

2) type msinfo32, check the version

If you have version 1.5.x (x being whatever that number is because I just updated to 1.6.1), you will need to go to the following URL to download the next version up from whats on your system: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/product-support/product/alienware-17-r3/drivers

Make sure to close out of all running programs before starting the manual process. It will reboot and auto-run until it brings you back to windows login screen

I hope this helps

Hi @Alienwarejunky  open and read BIOS webpage installation instructions, etc. Always download update files onto your system and then install, etc. 

Please note that 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 because the BIOS memory chip is small. Trying to install the new BIOS update version (without the intervening update versions) does not install the cumulative update attributes of all the previous updates. It is imperative that the Dell BIOS update process is followed, or unexpected problems will arise and there is a risk that the system will be bricked.  

Dell Alienware m15/m17 R3 System BIOS Version 1.7.2

If you are happy with my post, please remember to give Kudos to another user as a thank you. 

thanks for that info. I didn't know about the cumulative update requirement