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Nniixx

59 Posts

49469

February 6th, 2007 12:00

E521 Bios update is faulty

I ran the BIOS flash on my Dimension E521 to upgrade to V1.1.4 last week

It has all been working well....I thought.

Tonight I tried to boot from a USB stick that was plugged into a USB port on my Dell 1907FP monitor, which I have done in the past, but it didn't work - just loaded windows.

I restarted and this time tried pressing F2 at the appropriate moment to get into Setup.

F2 didn't work, the keboard was not receiving power until Windows was in the final stages of loading.

Since the the only other USB device plugged in was the monitor, ie for the ports on it, I disconnected it and rebooted again.

This time I was able to use F2 to get in to BIOS.

I tried the monitor usb connection cable on each of the other 3 rear USB ports and the two front ones and it had the same effect, basically disabled the keyboard from booting into BIOS.

Also whilst the USB stick was plugged into the monitor it wouldn't work either whearas plugging it into a port on it's own it booted from it, so this would imply that the monitor USB hub is also not recieving power either until in Windows when everthing works fine.

Since the information for the 1.1.4 bios upgrade specifically mentions:-

"1. Fixed issue where the USB keyboard would not work in the front ports when a USB 2.0 hub was connected in rear USB port 2."

I'd say that there's still a problem around this whole area.

Enderschosen

31 Posts

February 6th, 2007 18:00

Have you checked you BIOS settings? With the new BIOS there may be a setting which disables USB devices until Windows starts or something. Double check the system setup.

Nniixx

59 Posts

February 6th, 2007 20:00

Yes they are all set correctly.

In fact they must be as I wouldn't be able to get into the BIOS using F2 when the monitor (hub) is unplugged and only the keyboard and mouse are plugged in.

Enderschosen

31 Posts

February 7th, 2007 04:00

have you thought about roling back to an older bios, the one you had?

Nniixx

59 Posts

February 7th, 2007 07:00

I did think about that initially, but after doing a search for 1.1.4 last night I found threads about people who had gone  back from 1.1.4 to 1.0.3 and killed their BIOS Chip thus motherboard.
 
I'll just wait it out I think, hopefully Dell see this thread or maybe I'll send them an email.

Majestic

9.4K Posts

February 7th, 2007 11:00

Nniixx wrote:
 
I'll just wait it out I think, hopefully Dell see this thread or maybe I'll send them an email.
You would be better off sending them a e-mail.  The Dell Mods very rarely acknowledge or respond to postings here especially when it comes to problematic BIOS updates.

pvandenhouten

18 Posts

February 8th, 2007 12:00

I received my E521 yesterday and I am sad to say that I have exactly the same issue. If I have a flash drive or external HDD connected the boot status freezes half way. Any ideas when a new BIOS version will be available?

Nniixx

59 Posts

February 8th, 2007 20:00

Ok so I decided to try and flash the bios with the same flash I had used already and it went through the steps saying it was eligible and it was going to upgrade from 1.1.04 to 1.1.04 and then it started off and after a couple of minutes said 100% then it sat there for about a minute and popped up a window that said Failure! Failure! Failure!
 
With the only option being OK.
 
So I clicked OK.
 
Now windows was still running and I pretty much knew that when I shutdown it wouldn't restart.
 
So I looked around a bit and everyone who seems to have got this Failure! message has had to call Dell and get a new motherboard installed.
 
So I shutdown and......it wouldn't restart. *&#^ !
 
So to anyone thiking of it, don't go down that path.

Nniixx

59 Posts

February 9th, 2007 03:00

See this, this and this Basically you need to get your motherboard replaced.

Message Edited by Nniixx on 02-08-2007 11:50 PM

Tony Little

2 Posts

February 9th, 2007 03:00

I have a C521 and I didn't really know what it meant, but the Dell Update program popped up and said that I could update my BIOS, so I said okay, and about 5min later I get this ominous Failure!!Failure!!Failure!! message. Now my computer won't do anything, I tried following the instructions given to me by the live chat support guy, but it didn't help. This s...the computer is only a month old.

Tony Little

2 Posts

February 9th, 2007 06:00

I will have to call them tomorrow. If I am still on warranty will they replace it or am I out of luck from that stand point?

Message Edited by Tony Little on 02-09-2007 02:04 AM

Majestic

9.4K Posts

February 9th, 2007 10:00

Tony, bad BIOS flashes are warranty covered.  You can check your warranty by clicking here and entering your Service Tag number.  The Service Contracts and Warranties tab will report the current status of your warranty coverage.

pvandenhouten

18 Posts

February 9th, 2007 15:00

Is there any news on when a new BIOS version will be available?

Majestic

9.4K Posts

February 9th, 2007 18:00

pvandenhouten wrote:
Is there any news on when a new BIOS version will be available?
Dell doesn't announce when or if they're going to be releasing an update.  They just appear in the Dell File Library. 
 
With that said there is one person that stops into this forum from time to time and always seems to have a little tidbit of "inside" information on future BIOS releases.  I suspect he or she is a Dell employee as there are few that visit the forum here.  Hopefully the person will stop in and join the discussion.

Nniixx

59 Posts

February 12th, 2007 11:00

So the technician rang me at 9.01am today and said "will you be home today" and I said that my wife would be.

He said "I'll be there between 1pm and 3 pm".

At 1.30pm he rings me and says "how late can I come there" and when I say "that's up to you", he says "I'll be there at 3.30pm".

According to my wife he turned up at 5.30pm.

She said he hardly spoke English, was rude and seemed like he didn't have a clue.

When she asked him if we would lose any data he said "I don't know, hopefully not" - that was my worst fear that he would wipe the drives or something.

He called me on my mobile at 6.00pm whilst I was on the bus and said "Did you have Windows98 on your PC becuase it's hanging".

I say "No, that's on the 2nd drive and I can't get it to install it just hangs. XP is on the first drive".

He says "OK I'll change the drive boot sequence in the BIOS". So basically he's reconnected the drives in the wrong order, luckily they are SATA.

When I got home at about 6.15pm he'd left.

The PC was on and in XP

After helping getting our boys to bed, I logged on and immediately notice that my card reader was not showing up - I shutdown, opened the box and saw that the cable was left unconnected at one end.

I swapped the HD cables around whilst I was in there and got into the BIOS which is now back at 1.0.03 and swapped the HD boot sequence back.

Happy days.

Ironically tonight the Dell Support program has popped up a window telling me there's a BIOS update I should download.

ROTFLMAO Dell that's toooooooooooooooooooo funny.

arbeitstier

15 Posts

February 21st, 2007 13:00

I've got a new Dell C521. There's the same problem: the keyboard doesn't get power. And it's even worse: there's no way to get the power switched on during the "F2-time". I should problably also downgrade to an older BIOS version. /Bernd

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