17R 7720 SE: Lost BIOS Access

Thanks for the Tip Bill, noted. :D

Oh just posted in my last comment, A13 looks like it's still causing the F2/F12 problem for others that just upgraded to it. :(

Edit: That person was on A12 and had no issues with F2, used it and confirms it was working, now going to A13 they are in the same boat as us. I'll ask what they see in regards to Boot Priority as well. :( this doesn't look good.

I will check this as well when I get home this evening. On my first 7720 I went from a factory installed A10 --> A12. On A10 I had no problems with F2/F12 but once I flashed to A12 my problems with accessing BIOS and booting correctly appeared.

My current 7720 came factory installed with A12 and I have no problems accessing the BIOS with F2/F12 and no problems booting. I will install A13 tonight to see if I all of a sudden have problems.

Haven't ran an ePSA myself either, but then again I do see some postings around here about it failing on Video Memory Integrity mostly in the Intel+AMD setups.

I never should have installed A13. I usually run the ePSA assessment once a week when my new computers are in warranty. I ran it pre-installation of A13 and everything was fine, I updated to A13, allowed a complete reboot and power cycle and then attempted the ePSA diagnostics and I receive a Video Memory Integrity  Error during the Video Card test and then the system will reboot itself before it even finishes the memory tests.

I had video diagnostic fail  that with A12 and I forget what I did to get it back. I believe I downloaded drivers a second time with the Nividia being last.  I am quite surprised that A13 did not fix your problems. I am on A13 and ran POST  diagnostic, tested F12, F2 and all seems okay except the Option Rom will not trigger in Secure mode. Everyone seems to have different experiences flashing which explains why Dell was not flooded with our complaint by the thousands that have the 7720.

Someone stated the exact same thing over in the GPU Throttling issue thread about everyone seeing something different.

So far every time I tried F2/F12 I have failed.  And I have yet gotten Microsoft Boot Manager to Stick in my Boot Options list :(  But Like I sad they got the AES working.

No Error on my ePSA test it completed without any errors.  I'll look into what's going on see if I can find anything post back for you.

This is the first time I received an error during the ePSA. I am Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU. I think the 15R SE is the only one that comes in an Intel + AMD setup right? Here are some screenshots. If I left service tag anywhere please let me know, and could anyone else try an ePSA and see if they have problems, Thanks!

My memory tests force the computer to reboot, about 30 seconds after this test, I think it is still XMATS32.

Rafterman14: I would Create a manual Restore point just prior to updating drivers. Then do the following:

1)  Do a WIN key + X  and then select Device Driver. Go to Display drivers and make sure Intel Graphics 4000 says "working properly" and then write down the version number. Same for the Nividia .

2)  Go to Dell download site and update the drivers even if same version (but do not go backwards).

3)  Reboot + F12, and run the diagnostics again

You have a Restore point for drivers and registry that you can always use to get back where you are now.

My understanding is that the BIOS has two versions of each driver, one for BIOS and one when W 8 boots up.  I am not sure how or when the BIOS version gets loaded but I am guessing it does that on the POST to RAM  since  flashing the BIOS  seems too complex  and has a limited number of flashes in a lifecycle. When I have you looking at the device driver utility status above, we are only looking at the W 8 version?

If you have memory errors you may need to do same procedure to chipset drivers. Somehow the flashing process corrupted drivers.

Last resort I would go back to a prior restore point with drivers before the A13 update. Try it then you can always "undo" it to get back to where you are now. Always look at "programs affected" option to make sure of what is affected before the Restore.

Thought I was going to be able to do the update but reading the above comments by Rafterman414 and CyberMaxX360 makes me think I shouldn't.Bill is the only one that has it working properly with A13.Tip my hat to you guys,thanks.

I don't understand how it will work on one computer then another person tries it and it messes up,on the same(7720)computer.Aren't these all the same aside from personal configured options?

Do you think a factory restore would fix the issue? There is really nothing on the laptop anyway.

Thanks Bill, I'll check that out. I actually spent the last few hours using some third party tools and each tool passed on the memory test as well as the video memory tests. Based on these finds what you are explaining makes perfect sense. Hopefully it is some kind of driver mismatch problem and nothing else.

Look at the picture below:

Going to last good restore point is easy & less work.

To get the above:  Control panel, system, System Protection(far left menus above), System Restore, more restore points, select a point, scan for affected programs, then Next. Make sure Power Options is "NEVER" so it does not Sleep or Hibernate before you start and do not cancel or interrupt the process and keep plugged in rather than battery. Can take 10 minutes to four hours depending upon the changes you made since chosen Restore point. Just let it go and have a beer. 

No luck, I have no idea what the problem is. I re-installed the dell drivers, did a factory restore and still get the error. I looked up the error message and the few people that had the issue had to have a tech come out to replace the motherboard and ram. If this is something that will not get worse or cause performance issues or BSODs then I will probably just live with it. Last Dell tech that came out broke the laptop while taking it apart, I don't want to go through that again.