E6510 Sudden reboot with latest BIOS

Same bug for me here on a brand-new E6420, BIOS revision A05. The first time after it happened and I booted to Windows, the the Nvidia-Card had lost drivers in device manager. Intel graphic card disabled: NVIDIA OPTIMUS was disabled in the BIOS! Same BIOS eventlog entry "ASF2 force off".

I think I'm gonna do a stress test to check if it's a temperature problem with one component. When it´ll happen once more, I´m gonna give the DELL support a call.

Please help to fix this problem, let´s find a pattern in the hardware we use! Therefore a few questions to all of you who had or still have the same problem:

- Do you use hard disk encryption?

- Do you use a SSD?

- Most important question: Do you have NVIDIA OPTIMUS installed (using Intel and seperate Nvidia graphic card)?

I bet it has something to do with Optimus. If not, it´s a strange symptom to the real cause.

On my second replacement E4310 motherboard (new memory, ....new most things actually). First replacement mobo was just bad, wouldn't flash to A07 though it ran. 2nd replacement also crashes. Speedfan doesn;t pick up any temperature issues, though that's not a guarantee.

I run docked mostly and all my failures have been while docked. Dell just replaced the docking station - 2 days so far and OK, we'll see.

I don´t think it´s relevant if the notebook runs docked or undocked/standalone. In my case it always happened undocked. Please take a look at the questions in my previous post to hopefully find a pattern!

Easy answers:

Do you use hard disk encryption?

- Do you use a SSD? (No)

- Do you have NVIDIA OPTIMUS installed (using Intel and seperate Nvidia graphic card)?  (No)

I run docked and use two monitors plus a headset - otherwise nothign special.

That´s really strange. But the "ASF2 Force Off" is basically nothing special - it also appears with an entry in the BIOS log if you manually shutdown your system using the power button ("hard shutdown").

Go on guys!

I was experiencing this issue with my e6420 a few times a day until I upgraded to the A06 bios.  After that, I was experiencing the shutdown about once a day.  This morning, I decided to disable processor c-states in the bios, and so far, I haven't shutdown unexpectedly.  

Hey, for me there are only 2 suspect hardware parts at the moment: The SSD and the RAM. I used RAM check tools and all found errors. Anyway, I didn´t have the reboots for at least 2 weeks.

I´m gonna run the BIOS update. The changelog says:

1. Addressed CD boot issues.
2. Addressed Hard Drives hang issue in AHCI mode.
3. Addressed Hard Drives encryption issue in ATA mode.
4. Fixed issue where the MAC address would be incorrect after disabling the Integrated NIC in Setup.
5. Added support for Signed Firmware Update Transition BIOS.
6. Updated to the MOB_P_11 version of the Intel microcode patch.
7. Updated to the 1.2.0 version of Intel System Agent reference code.
8. Updated to the 1.2 version of Intel PCH Reference Code.
9. Updated to the 1.2.1.1 version of Intel PPM Reference Code.

Maybe #2 is the interesting one, I´ll see.
By the way: The Dell Client System Update didn´t show the BIOS update, I had to download it manually from the technical support pages...

What about the "processor c-states" you disabled - could that really be the reason (in your case)? Or just a coincidence?

e-raser, I haven't had an issue since I disable C-states.  As far as item number 2 goes on the changelog, my HD has been running as RAID (not AHCI) since I received it, so I don't think that addressed my specific issue.   Let me know what you get on your end.  

Oh, and that post above is about a Precision M4600, Intel Core i7-2620M CPU @ 2.70Ghz 2.70Ghz, 8GB RAM, 64 bit Win7 Pro

I was getting this blackout, like a hard-shut had occured.  It SEEMED as though is was happening when Wireless, and never happned on-dock - and it happened within 5 to 45 minutes.  But, when I went off-dock and still wired, but WITH the wireless switch on, it blacked out again within 5 minutes.  So after running the built-in Dell Diagnostics, the report at the end showed that WWAN (WiMAX hardware?) was NOT installed though the software was on my desktop to get started with WiMAX and in two area of the BOIS WWAN was checked for use on the machine.  So, I unchecked them, and since then, I've running wireless (when the blackouts/shutdowns occured) and wired for hours, almost two days now.

I'll post again as the next week and/or two/three go by.  And if this seems to fix it, then Dell, you need to learn a bit about the ins and outs of your configurations. :-)

I am seeing this problem on a brand new e6420 as well. I replaced the system board as well with no change. I have updated the BIOS to A07. This seems to happen with or without a docking station. We do use har drive encryption, but I know that is not the problem because it happens with a non-encrypted drive in it as well. I am now experiemnting with the c-states control in the BIOS by turning that off and see what happens. This machine has a regular drive HDD, not an SDD.

By the way: Again no hint in the BIOS A07 release notes indicating our or one of our problems has been fixed/addressed:

Fixes/Enhancements

------------------

1. Addressed some express cards fail to be detected issue.

2. Addressed Hard Drives encryption issue in ATA mode.

3. Addressed some keyboard with USB Hub not accessible during POST.

4. Fixed issue where disabling webcam stops microphone from working.

5 . Fixed issue where battery temperature sensor throttling CPU at high temperature when external power.

6. Fixed issue where Video memory size limited to 256MB in WinXp.

7. Fixed issue where Free Fall Sensor protection doesn't work after resuming from S3.

8. Fixed issue where TPM measurements were not correct when authenticating via PBA.

9. Updated Intel ME Firmware to 7.1.20.1119.

10. Updated to the 1.3.76 version of the Intel PXE OROM.

Note:

1. Please note that if the A04 or before A04 BIOS is currently installed on your system,

you must first update to A05 BIOS and then flash to the latest A-rev BIOS.

The BIOS release has been validated on the following operating systems:

1. Microsoft Windows 7

2. Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2

3. Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3

Thanks for all your information, I won't let my main board be replaced by DELL in this case.

I'm currently running a long-term test in certain test conditions (undocked, docked, with/without LAN connected, etc.). For me it's pretty unclear again, could be a temperature problem (although in the BIOS there never was a "Thermal log" entry).

I'll keep you guys up to date.

In my case of this problem, I have not experienced it again since my posting on September 30 (2011).  Seems clear to me that the issue is about the BIOS trying to control hardware that is NOT installed...and boom! all goes black.