x17 R1, inaccessible boot device while trying to fix keyboard only work in BIOS

Question

A little over a year ago I bought my wonderful Alienware x17 R1 laptop. A week before the warranty expires, the keyboard stops functioning. At the time not a big deal, I use a USB keyboard most of the time anyway. Well, yesterday I figured I would solve this issue. I read many posts about people having the same issue and came to the conclusion that it was a driver \ BIOS update issue, mostly because many people went the hardware replacement route to no avail until Dell replaced the entire unit. So I updated the BIOS to the recommended 1.18.0 released on April 7th, 2023.

Well, you guessed it, It only got worse. After the reboot, I now receive a bluescreen on boot claiming Inaccessible boot device and it shuts down.

Here is what I have done so far to attempt to bring the system back from the dead.

Created a USB WinPE 11 boot drive, took the Microsoft Provided Windows 11 22H2 WIM and injected all the latest Windows updates. Injected all the Dell Provided drivers specific to the Laptop, booted, ran Setup, it recognized the SSD drive in Windows setup, when Windows rebooted for the first time, you guessed it, BSOD Inaccessible boot device and it shuts down.

OK, so maybe it does not like Windows 11?

Took the Microsoft Provided Windows 10 22H2 WIM and injected all the latest Windows updates. Injected all the Dell Provided drivers specific to the Laptop, booted, ran Setup, it recognized the SSD drive in Windows setup, when Windows rebooted for the first time, you guessed it, BSOD Inaccessible boot device and it shuts down.

OK, so maybe it does not like all the latest Windows updates?

Took the Microsoft Provided Windows 11 22H2 WIM and Injected all the Dell Provided drivers specific to the Laptop, booted, ran Setup, it recognized the SSD drive in Windows setup, when Windows rebooted for the first time, you guessed it, BSOD Inaccessible boot device and it shuts down.

OK, since it started with the BIOS upgrade, lets revert.

Applied BIOS 1.17, nothing, reapplied BIOS 1.18, nothing. At this point I did notice that BIOS update makes several passes. It starts with "Updating main firmware", then "Update OEM EC Block", then "Loading New ME Firmware", then "Flash New ME Firmware", then Update OEM EC Firmware".

At this point it does something unexpected. At 0%, it reboots with no warning or indication that it has been successful.

At this point I conceded to defeat of round one. I called Dell technical support.

Boot to the BIOS, It sees the drive.

Boot to the diagnostics, all tests are successful.

Reset the BIOS to the defaults.

They politely offered to help me reimage my laptop for $99. I reminded them I have done so about 8 times now.

They offered for me to send the laptop to a dell certified support center for hardware diagnostics. I politely informed them that I was a Dell certified support center.

So, because the warranty expired ( a very short time ago), I now have a $3,500.00 paper weight.

I find it hard to believe that it is a hardware issue since there was nothing wrong with it prior to updating the BIOS upgrade.

Any help would be great.

NLM519 · Accepted Answer

I would like to add an update to this post.

For those of you (like me) who have spent 20+ years deploying Windows Operating Systems and think you have seen it all...

This whole time I was using WinPE to boot the system and deploy Windows. It had not crossed my mind (until last night) to create a bootable USB using only the original Microsoft Windows ISO to create the USB drive. Using this method I was able to get past the BSOD Inaccessible Boot Media error and my laptop is no longer a paper weight. I do however still have the Keyboard issue. If I can find a fix for it I will post it here.

mattyb3 · Answer

I would talk to someone from Dell about extending your warranty. You can still do this for a time after the initial warranty expires. If it is a hardware issue then this could be your best outcome. The original keyboard fault could still be hardware related while it seems like the second issue is firmware.

The inbuilt diagnostics aren't 100%, there could still be a failure on your SSD so you could try reinstalling Windows on a brand new drive.

panella87 · Answer

oh man i had the same problem, tried to downgrade to windows 10 because of the keyboard issue and i got the inaccesible boot error

I managed to solve it reinstalling using Dell OS Installation but still the keyboard issue is unresolved, spending hours at the phone and mailing Dell, no help from technician who really doesn't know how to help me

This is a more than 1 year old bug and hundreds of ppl are having it, it's insane how dell doesn't give attention to it.

Alienware

x17 R1, inaccessible boot device while trying to fix keyboard only work in BIOS

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