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Dell Inspirion 13 5738 New BIOS (1.4.0) breaks 32 GB RAM support
Hi,
I know that it has never been official to have 32 GB RAM support on this machine,
however I have been able to use it with absolute zero issue ever since, then I upgraded the BIOS to 1.4.0 from whatever came with the machine, the computer never booted. It stops at a screen saying "Boot Guard Verified Failed, System wil shutdown"
Only if I removed 1 strip of the pair of RAM it starts to work again.
While then I try to down-grade the BIOS simply by running the older version's exe files, on rebooting when it tried to install it, it said down-grade is not supported.
Not only did I spend a day debugging everything just to find this out (I was told by two technicians that my mainboard was dead and i should send it backl), now Dell is taking away the supprt which was originally there, plus no down-grading?
It would be great if there is a fix, not only am I wasting 16 GB of RAM, I also lost the dual-channel capability which essentially hampered the graphics performance.
DELL-Lijo J
532 Posts
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January 18th, 2017 13:00
Hi,
Welcome to our community. Run through the hardware diagnostics to isolate issues between hardware and software. You can click here to find the video with the steps to complete diagnostics. Let us know if you find any error and a validation code.
sandbochang
7 Posts
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January 18th, 2017 14:00
Hello, I did a short test with this tool earlier already, with just 1 strip of RAM it reported no error;
Then if I put 2 strips, either the factory 8GB + my 16 GB, or just 16GB*2 from me, the system can't even reach BIOS.
In short:
16GB Strip A on slot 1; slot 2 empty - working
16GB Strip A on slot 2; slot 1 empty - working
16GB Strip B on slot 1; slot 2 empty - working
16GB Strip A and B together - not booting/no BIOS access, showing the error above
16GB Strip A and 8GB Strip (factory) together - not booting/no BIOS access, showing the error above
*The 16GB strips were bought as a set of 2 for dual channel. I should stress that it has been working with zero BSoD for 2 weeks, on both Linux and Windows on the laptop.
From fully working to not booting/not able to reach the BIOS, the only change is really just updating the BIOS to 1.4.0 from whatever it was coming with the machine.
And I spent a day debugging it until I decided to revert it to the original hardware that I realized it was the RAM.
As of now, I have returned the machine to Microsoft given it is still within the return window;
I would not be testing further with the new machine for the BIOS, still I hope Dell can look into it. If it will be useful, I can also give details about the RAM strips I am using.
DELL-Lijo J
532 Posts
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January 19th, 2017 10:00
Thank you for the update. Since the machine is already returned to Microsoft, we’ll not be able to diagnose this further from our end. However, you can surely share more details, so that we can review the case.
verbage
25 Posts
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January 19th, 2017 17:00
Hello DELL-Lijo J,
Can you provide and information about this? I have a 5378 on BIOS version v1.2.0,A02, and it works fine with 2x16GB sticks. The release notes for v1.0.3,A03 and v1.0.4,A04 are pretty limited, and say nothing about this. If it is Dell's intention to make all future updates for this machine limited to only 16GB, I would like to know now. Thank you.
verbage
25 Posts
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January 25th, 2017 20:00
Hello,is there any Dell representative here that can answer this question. Thank you.
verbage
25 Posts
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January 31st, 2017 19:00
Bump... Can you, DELL-Lijo J, or another Dell representative, answer this question? Thank you!
ejn63
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February 1st, 2017 04:00
Since the system IS limited to 16G by design and specification, it's a moot point. Whether it was an accidental consequence of the coding of the new BIOS, or whether it was a result of some other change to the system, this model does not support 32G -- there's not going to be an answer to your question, nor is there any testing done that will address running the system out of specification.
verbage
25 Posts
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February 6th, 2017 19:00
Hi ejn63, the Core i7-7500U can support 32GB based on Intel's own specs (ark.intel.com/.../Intel-Core-i7-7500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz-). And for those who have tried it in the 5378, it seems to work flawlessly at least with earlier BIOS versions. So while I understand that Dell says one thing (16GB), the reality is different (32GB). Maybe Dell is using alternative facts ;)
Anyway, I understand they will not technically support running the 5378 with 32GB, and therefore, you are probably right that they will never answer this question--that's a bummer! But I would rather not give up this capability.
So this leads to the following question--sandbochang mentioned that he tried to downgrade his BIOS after upgrading to 1.4.0, but he got a message about downgrading not being supported. Would you, or anybody else, have an idea if it is possible to force or override the BIOS downgrade protection?
Thanks for your help with this!
imakichado
1 Message
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February 14th, 2017 15:00
I had this same problem after upgrading to BIOS 1.4. However, I was able to upgrade to BIOS 1.5 and with that, I was able to go above 16GB of RAM using both slots.
verbage
25 Posts
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February 20th, 2017 14:00
Wow, thanks for letting us know, imakichado, this is fantastic news!