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M5510 BIOS 1.2.29 & 1.3.0 Prevent Windows 7 From Starting
Hello
Using Dell Command Update I opted to update the BIOS (listed as 1.2.29 even though 1.3.0 is the current latest BIOS) and the Thunderbolt Controller Driver 16.3.61.275, also listed were the Graphics Driver and Realtek Audio driver, but decided to do those later.
After the update Windows 7 startup logo would animate indefinitely and not load the OS.
I tried booting in Windows 10 with success.
From there I decided to update the BIOS to 1.3.0, but still Windows 7 would not load.
So I downgraded the BIOS to 1.2.25, and now Windows 7 started a boot time chkdsk. This by the way is difficult to ascertain because the output displayed is squashed into a tiny vertical space the size of my thumb running across the width of the screen looking more like a corrupt graphic than a legible text as it should be. But I knew it was chkdsk from previous experience. All I could do is wait until it was done. Finally Windows 7 booted.
Does anyone know why this BIOS update either 1.2.29 or 1.3.0 prevents Win7 from booting ?
Is this related to the Thunderbolt driver ?
Additionally, once in Windows 7 using BIOS 1.2.25, I ran Dell Command Update, and now the graphics driver previously listed for update is no longer listed. Yet another false positive.
Thanks
jphughan
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October 15th, 2017 21:00
Is your system set to boot in Legacy mode or UEFI mode? If it's UEFI, I'm wondering if the BIOS update is inappropriately disabling Legacy Option ROMs. Windows 7 requires that to be enabled. Typically that requirement implies that the OS you're booting is actually starting in Legacy mode, but Win7 has some sort of a dependency that requires that option to be enabled even when set up to boot in UEFI mode from a GPT disk. This incidentally is why Hyper-V does not support Win7 on a Gen2 (UEFI) VM; you have to use Gen1 (Legacy BIOS).
DELL-Chris M
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September 13th, 2017 07:00
Unknown as to why the BIOS stop Windows 7. First, I only update a BIOS to fix a specific issue I am facing. I never update a BIOS just because a newer one was released. That being said, under Windows 7, I would update all the other drivers to the latest versions. Then try one more time to get 1.3.0 BIOS to install and see if Windows 7 will start.
hectorchel
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October 11th, 2017 17:00
Hi,
Did you downgrade your bios?
timoto
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October 12th, 2017 06:00
Yes.
timoto
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October 12th, 2017 06:00
Yes. It was the only option to continue using Win7.
Incidentally upgrading the other remaining system drivers and then the new BIOS made no difference to the behavior of this issue.
timoto
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October 15th, 2017 21:00
Today I tried Bios 1.4.0 which also prevents windows 7 from loading.
Again I had to downgrade to 1.2.25 to regain access to Windows 7
timoto
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October 30th, 2017 18:00
The system is set to boot in UEFI mode.
So are you suggesting that I make the BIOS update and then check to be sure Legacy Option ROMs are enabled ?
timoto
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December 17th, 2017 22:00
So it is as jphughan suggested. The BIOS updates since 1.2.9 to present 1.5.1 inappropriately disable the support for Legacy Option ROMs. That's not cool.