3 Posts
1
5258
DELL 7577 cannot install latest bios update after 1.4.2
Back in Feb, I installed the 1.4 update and with that came a whole bunch of problems, the biggest being that booting up, shows a black screen for 40 seconds and then the dell logo pops up, followed by the inability to enter sleep mode, which ends up rebooting instantly instead. I've been living with these issues, patiently waiting for the next bios update to come in, having failed to reinstall the BIOS as it just reboots back into windows itself.
Today 1.5 came out but as soon as I run the update, it reboots but then boots back into windows. I've tried several things like, flashing without the hdds and removing the cmos,with no luck.
I cannot afford to send it in for repairs as I need it for university work, and that I'm to broke to pay for repairs. I know asking here is a bit of a stretch, but I'm hoping there is someone else who's managed to deal with this situation.
sbpetrack
13 Posts
1
June 28th, 2018 15:00
I have an Insipron 15-7577 which went dead as a result of upgrading to BIOS 1.5.
After many hours of trying everything, I had a half-miracle: I took out the CMOS battery, waited 10 minutes, and put it back in. (you prob don't have to take it out, just disconnected it. I took mine out because i suspected that it was critically low on charge. But it was fine, running at 3.3v)).
When I started up the machine after I put the CMOS battery back in, the machine started up!! and of course it told me that I need to go into the BIOS to set the time and date (that's the effect of disconnecting the CMOS battery). It let me boot into the BIOS, and I was able to check every setting.
Unfortunately, af ter a successful romp through the BIOS, hwen I rebooted the machine, the backlight came on, and the fan too,. But the screen is still black.
I am hoping that there is some unattended or "blind" bios recovery flash procedure I can use. But perhaps for you, you won't have my LCD problem.
good luck!!
j_wolf
1 Message
0
June 27th, 2018 20:00
Hi Advent1013,
I have the exact same problem as you. Did anyone around here manage to install that upgrade?
Thanks
Dell-SreejithR
4 Operator
4 Operator
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3.4K Posts
0
June 28th, 2018 09:00
Thank you for your message. I will be glad to assist you on this.
What happens when you click on the BIOS file, does it show the installation log or does the system restart as soon as you click on the BIOS installation file?
Does the BIOS version change in the OS or in the system setup screen?
Are you installing BIOS from the support site or through the Dell support assist application?
For my reference, please click on the message tab next to your avatar– click “New Message” & search for my Dell username (Dell-Sreejith R) & send a private message with the service tag, registered name & email address.
What is a Dell Service Tag and how do I locate it?
sbpetrack
13 Posts
1
June 29th, 2018 06:00
I can't believe it, but i have indeed solved the problem. I'm exhausted from the effort, but if i leave aside all the false starts, the fix takes some 5-10 minutes!!
I really do think that it's likely that
1. What I did to fix my brick will in fact work for many (if not all) of the others' bricks; and
2. What I am about to suggest is not written in ANY of the documentation on "Emergency BIOS recovery" or the flash procedures. In fact, I didn't have to reflash anything, or to go back to a previous version of the BIOS.
I'm sure you rememeber my previous two mails..... Well, suddenly I realized that I had not in fact really properly reset the NVRAm. I had taken out the battery and the CMOS battery, but I didn't drain the residual power.
So all I had to do was reset the NVRAM, aka "clear the CMOS paramters."
If you go back and look at all the posters who have this problem, it becomes clear that all of them read very carefully the instructions about BIOS recovery, and reflashing etc etc. BUT NOWHERE in any of those pages does it state the obvious and helpful fact that after a BIOS upgrade, you need to reset the NVRAM.
It's even obvious why that's a good idea: the new BIOS might change the way it processes or uses certain BIOS parameters.
In fact, Dell *DOES* mention in the pages about resetting NVRAM that this can sometimes help with a NO POST/NO Video situation.
May I humbly suggest that Dell add a few lines to the documentation about BIOS recovery -- lines which explain that it can happen that users get stuck in a NO POST / NO VIDEO situation just after a BIOS update. This is nothing to panic about, but the fix is to thoroughly clear out NVRAM by removing the main battery, the CMOS battery, and then release residual ("flea") power by pressing the power button for a minute.
As far as I can tell, there are at least 5 posters who posses bricks of this sort right now, and one who unfortunately tried to resolder his BIOS chip, donig essentially nothing but costing him $1500.
I am exhausted from this effort, i must say, but i hope that it helps people. I hope that Dell conveys the suggested improvement in documetation to the powers that be.
Thanks!
scott
Advent1013
3 Posts
0
June 29th, 2018 13:00
Hello,
Thank you for your responses, they were super helpful, everyone's BIOS issues are usually different but your suggestion solved the most annoying of the issues for me which was the 40s start up, its been reduced to 10s. My laptop still reboots instead of sleeps and I still can't flash the latest BIOS but I won't shoot a gift horse in the mouth, so I'll cut my losses unless there exists a fix, if there is, ill be sure to comment it.
Thanks!
Advent1013
sbpetrack
13 Posts
0
June 29th, 2018 21:00
There are SEVERAL different ways to flash a BIOS, as I'm sure you know. It seems to me that if your machine boots at all, in particular, if it can boot from a USB stick, then it should be relatively easy to create a USB stick that boots DOS. (This might require you to enable legacy or "legacy compatible" boot in the BIOS or EFI parameters). If you can do this, then copy the BIOS flash .exe onto the same USB stick, boot DOS from it again, and then it'd be very strange if you can't run that DOS program and thereby flash your BIOS.
The fact is that I write as if I know what I'm talking about, but in truth I'm working with the same lack of information as everyone else. Apologies if I'm only suggesting something you've already tried.
I'm glad my first suggestion helped at least partially.
Best,
scott
sbpetrack
13 Posts
0
June 29th, 2018 21:00
Here are three last details about the solution (i.e. resetting NVRAM) to the "no POST/no Video situation" after a BIOS upgrade.
(NB: This was a very tiresome process for me, and at the end I was completely exhausted by it, so I can't guarantee that my thoughts were 100% rational at the end :). In particular, the following three things SEEMED to me to be true, and I read other posts that included this information. I just don't know if it's science or myth):
1. The second time I reset the parameters, I was upset that the video was still black afterwards. But I had read in some post that someone had this same problem, and his solution was to leave the battery and CMOS battery out OVERNIGHT. I thought that was a bit much, but I did in fact decide to leave them out for 15 minutes -- and when I reassembled the laptop, I had video again. So I can't tell you if one needs to have the batteries out for just a few moments or for several minutes (or what the worst case is). YMMV, since it's of course a question of how much charge is left residually in YOUR machine.
2. A similar remark is true about pressing the power button to release "residual" or "flea" power. To make things worse in this case, I read in some document of Dell (about some machine, sorry that I can't remember which) that said you need to press the power button for 20-30 seconds, but that you must be careful NOT to press it for longer than 40 seconds!! (I can't remember what bad thing might happen if you do). Bottom line is that once again, YMMV. I think that at one point I pressed the button for two minutes :).
3. Finally, it did seem to me that the first time booting after resetting the NVRAM took some time. People need to be patient. I'll be honest: the last time I did the procedure, I think I left out the batteries for 10 minutes, and I pressed the power button for two full minutes :). And then when I reassembled the laptop, and rebooted, the keyboard backlight came on right away and so did the fan -- but the video was BLACK. I was very upset. So upset that I decided enough was enough and I would take a break. I closed the laptop with the fan on and keyboard backlight on, and went to make a coffee. Except that I was so tired, I fell asleep immediately, at my desk, and woke up an hour later!! And when I did -- the laptop was on and the video was telling me that I need to reset time and date in the BIOS :). l cannot tell if you the machine took 90 seconds to boot, or took 45 minutes, or if it rebooted six times while i was asleep:),. I can only say that immediately upon rebooting, it looked to me like it hadn't worked, but that the fact is that of coruse i had succeded to reset the NVRAM, and the result was that the machine took some time to come to its senses and tell me that i need to reset time and date. I'll bet that at least some of the posts here which say "I reset NVRAM and it ddin't help" were due to this lack of patience. Or more precisely, to the lack on information from Dell about the fact that it might take a few minutes for a machine to light up at all after an NVRAM reset.
Quite frankly, this could well be a new feature of the wonderful 1.5 BIOS that I had just installed. For all I know, that BIOS is the first one which contains code which either waits or "does stuff" if the NVRAM isn't showing good parameters, so that its precisely the result of resetting the NVRAM that I need to wait a long time before the dialog comes up telling me to reset time and date. (For example, I don't know HOW the BIOS knows that the time and date it has is not correct, maybe the new BIOS tries to go to the Internet to check, and only after a timeout will turn on the video and tell the user to manually intervene. Your engineers thought that they were being clever by making the setting of time and date automatic, but in fact they were causing trouble because people don't know that this is happening, and so they assume that the reset failed and there's still no video).
Good luck, and my apologies to the guy who tried to resolder the BIOS chip and destroyed his warranty because I didn't discover all this fast enough. It's very maddening to think that as a result of Dell's not providing information to its customers, someone paid Dell MORE money.
Dell: please consider adding to EVERY document about BIOS upgrades that it may well be necessary to reset NVRAM manually afterwards; and that this is particularly likely to be essential if the machine does not POST or has no video immediately after a BIOS upgrade.
Good luck,
scott