DELL Vostro 1720 BIOS upgrade failed. Restore BIOS?

Question

Hello!

I have a DELL Vostro 1720 which was running BIOS version A02 and windows 7 pro 64-bit. This computer came with a 160GB HDD and it was getting too small and too slow for me. The computer itself was still fine for it's purpose. I decided to upgrade the computer with a much larger and also faster SSD as I came across one for a bargain.

I was recommended to upgrade the BIOS to the latest version, which is Version A08 from 3/19/2010. I Downloaded the upgrade file from here: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/vostro-1720

I started the upgrade directly from windows and I could see the progress indicator going: Writing block 34/35 and counting down. When the block writing progress indicator reached 6/35 it came to a complete stop and mouse and keyboard became completely unresponsive as if the computer hanged. But as I have read on the forums and in the readme-file that this may happen during the upgrade progress and the computer should be left to do what it’s doing. So be it, I left the computer overnight and over the next day while I was at work, so more or less 20-24 hours, but nothing, it was still at 6/35. I decided to turn it off, but not even holding the power button pressed down helped to shut it off, so I had to pull out the battery.

After this it has never been able to boot again and doesn’t get to POST or even light up the monitor. It’s turns on, the fan starts for a second or two, the lights for caps-lock, scroll-lock and num-lock lights up and then the num-lock light flashes. And that’s it, nothing else happens.
I have tried having the computer without it’s chip battery, main battery and power supply overnight in hope to “reset” BIOS, but off cause nothing happens. I suspect the BIOS is corrupted as the upgrade hanged.

Now, what can I do to solve this and is it even possible to recover from this?

Mary G · Answer

Normally the only solution for a failed bios update is to replace the motherboard.

e-lite · Answer

Hello. Thanks for the reply. Well, that is not an option unless DELL is going to replace it for free.

MicroTest · Answer

I won't give you much hope but try this:

> remove the SSD harddrive - in case you have it already installed ( some of them cause problems-compatibility issues etc...)

> connect a VGA monitor and press F1 or Fn & F1(this works on an inspiron 1545 - you might have to check your manual) at powerup to switch from internal to external display.If you are lucky enough and can see something displayed on the external monitor and enter the BIOS post back - if not then you have to deal with a dead mainboard as Mary G already pointed out.....

e-lite · Answer

I have removed the new SSD drive and put back the old HDD and I have also tried completley without any of the drives. Using external monitor adds nothing new. Thanks for the suggestion. Im sure there must be some way, some tool and a fail safe to recover from corrupted BIOS.

ejn63 · Answer

There isn't -- either solution (a replacement board or having a shop unsolder the BIOS chip, flash it externally and resolder it) is likely to cost about the same.

MicroTest · Answer

The sad thing about the BIOS is that we don't get any proper information.I do "believe" that it is possible to reprogram the BIOS without unsoldering it.TV's,DVD player etc can all be upgraded if something is wrong with the firmware.To do this one has either to set a jumper or press a "secret"key combination to jump to a certain protected memory area where a basic mini OS which can never be overwritten is stored .This OS is capable of supporting basic functions to restore/reprogramming the firmware(in our case the BIOS)

I like to fool around with tiny PIC microcontroller and if a simple user like me can implement such a reprogramming feature(well - the code is from Microchip itself - I am not really good at programming but it's fun..) then I guess the big companies can do it much better.

Again : it's sad but for us a wrongly coded BIOS is untouchable....the only hope are freaks and geeks

www.bios-mods.com/bios-recovery

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DELL Vostro 1720 BIOS upgrade failed. Restore BIOS?

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