No startup after dell drivers update

You can try clearing BIOS:

1. Power off and unplug
2. Press/hold power button for ~15 sec
3. Open case and remove motherboard battery
4. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
5. Reinstall battery (right-side-up!)
6. Close case and boot with only mouse, monitor and keyboard attached

If that fails, you may have bricked the motherboard and  probably will have to replace it...

Wow!  It unbricked the pc.!!! Thanks so much!  I can get into bios. Although i now get a boot configuration file error:  0xc0000034

It asks for the os media (cd or usb)  but this was never delivered with my pc. I also can't find any windows serial anywhere.  Any ideas on how to fix this?

If the PC came with Win 8, there is no "serial number" for you to find.  It's embedded in BIOS. And now that you upgraded to Win 10, that wouldn't work anyway.

Can you get to the desktop or do you only get that error message? If you only get the error message, I'm afraid you may have to repair or reinstall Win 10. To do this you will have to download the Win 10 ISO file from the Microsoft site and make a bootable DVD.

Boot from that DVD and see if it automatically will repair Win 10. If not...

Sure hope your files were backed up on external media before you upgraded to Win 10 because everything will be lost if you have to reinstall.

Hi Rohe,

Thanks for your useful reply! Again your solution was spot on!

I downloaded an iso from the microsoft website, made a bootable dvd and managed to get windows 10 working again. I did not reinstall windows, but I could boot, "autofix" and then the windows boot worked fine. (although it shows a OS selection option between windows 8.1 and windows 10.

However, windows 10 now mentions that it is not activated. Before the windows update from 8.1 to 10 it didn't show this. How do I fix this? The pc came with OEm licenced windows version, but I can't find a serial? But it is legal.

Also, the pc still won't come out of sleep modus (or turned off screen). This was the reason for all the troubles. I read a lot of complains about this on the internet.  Now I have turned off sleep modus and screen standby modus, but I would like to get it working properly. Is there a proper fix for this?

Thanks in advance!

A fine pickle you got yourself into...

You can read this about activation issues, but I'll also ping my Dell tech contacts to see what they have to say.

In the future, if it ain't broke, please don't break it! :emotion-4:

BTW: What version of BIOS is running now? Did clearing BIOS revert it to A07 or do you have the latest?

the blank screen happens to often my computer is 2 weeks old i may return it, ive installed the newest bios A11 but still long black screens at startup,

sometimes when i pwr on nothing happens but a black screen then sometime later eventually it'll turn on, otherwise i have to pull the plug and try again.

the blank screen happens to often my computer is 2 weeks old i may return it, ive installed the newest bios A11 but still long black screens at startup, sometimes when i pwr on nothing happens but a black screen then sometime later eventually it'll turn on, otherwise i have to pull the plug and try again.

TEEBRRON- That sounds like an entirely different problem and you should have started a your own thread.

What version of Windows was installed when you received the PC, and did you subsequently upgrade to Win 10?

Have you tried disconnecting all devices except mouse, monitor and keyboard and seeing if you still have the problem?

Have you checked BIOS setup to make sure the boot hard drive is listed first in the boot sequence? You can also try turning Secure Boot off in BIOS setup.  

Microsoft's flawed deployment of Windows 10 requires one to Initially Upgrade from a previous version of Windows 8.1 or 7. Since it seems there is a dual boot its more like Windows 10 has been installed separately.

Although the Windows 8/8.1 UEFI BIOS Embedded SLP keys are robust and can't readily be pirated. Microsoft failed to make the Windows 10 setup detect their presence and hence do not register the device as a Windows 10 device upon initial clean installation.

You essentially need to reinstall you base Windows 8.1 OEM license and then upgrade to Windows 10 from it initially:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/upgrading-to-windows-10/

Hi Ron, currently bios version is A11. It did not reset to 7 with the coinflip. Unfortunately the new drivers were recommended by the dell website, the online scan function. Most of the problems got solved,  only not the sleep mode not rewaking issue,  and additional the activation issue. Is there an other way of re-entering the product key stored in bios? In Windows settings the 'Change product code' option freezes when clicked. Obviously formatting everything to clean install is not an option. By the way,  I did not reinstall a separate windows 10 os,  only downloaded a boot disk to recover windows. Any genius thoughts on this Ron?  Thanks in advance!

You can look at this Microsoft page to see if the first method will help you activate Win 10.

There's the possibility to revert to Win 8.1 if you're within 30 days of upgrading to Win10 and then do another upgrade to Win 10. Back up your personal files first! Then click:

Start>Settings>Update & Security>Recovery>Go back to..

Caveat: I can't guarantee this will work or will activate Win 8.1 or Win 10 when you upgrade again...

Natakuk4 is the expert on solving Windows installation / activation issues, and I tend to agree that your only solution may be to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 and upgrade to Win 10 again. :emotion-41:

If you don't already have it, you're still under warranty and in the US, contact Dell Tech Support to request Win 8.1 reinstallation media asap.