Precision 5820 BIOS crash

Hello Lecotex! 
Another "happy" Dell 5820 user here with BIOS fail screen dead-dark-kaput problem.

Had first 5820 machine drop dead after two days of setting up Windows on it. The moment it bricked was when we tried to reset BIOS setting by enwoking "Restore BIOS to default settings" in the BIOS setup. The picture went byebye at the moment of "Exit and save changes" and no any chance to get the Dell logo back what ever we did (bios battery included).

Unisys replaced the mobo few days later, but the system died on them at the spot so they offered a complete replacement system be sent.

Replacement arrived several days later and again we tried to install windows on it (originally was delivered with Ubuntu) by booting from an SSD with Windows on it. It actually worked for two days (Windows 10), until we added a secondary SDD to the system (yes the system was off when we plugged it in). Needless to say that it never woke up again after that. To note the obvious the system remained dead even after unpluging the second drive, even unpluging the first and everything else didnt help, no Dell logo and power button nicely glows full white.

I never before experienced that changing a configuration (while power is off) of a PC could cause a permanent BIOS/hardware failure.
We had lost a significant effort and time on this so possibly we will be going for a money back next week.

cheers

Hi aelek.

I'm really disappointed of this. Our company has global contract with Dell, but this kind of (un)support is unacceptable. We just started to work on new huge project and I don't see why it should be delayed only because we stupidly trust Dell :Angry:

For me it is no go and the reason to not select Dell hardware anymore.

/Honza

Not sure if I'm having the same issue or not - but possibly it's related.

My 5820 got 'bricked' by a "critical BIOS update" pushed by DELL's Command Center utility, last Thursday (Mar 15).

I had Windows 10 Pro 64-bit on the system factory-configured.  It worked just fine as of last Thursday morning, then in the afternoon I got the BIOS update notification and foolishly chose to allow it to proceed (particularly as it was marked 'critical'.)  The update seemingly went through successfully - I saw the green completion message on screen after a couple of reflashes and reboots, telling me the system will restart one more time - then the system shut down and failed to start up.  It doesn't even POST.  Power button solid-white, and otherwise no symptoms or response from the system.

I spent a day with one of DELL's support techs on the phone trying to debug the system, swapping memory DIMMs around, unplugging/re-plugging the chipset battery - and ultimately the tech's conclusion was that the BIOS update somehow managed to fry my motherboard.  (!!!)  Without the system even reaching POST, there's no way to rollback the BIOS or do any additional meaningful diagnostics.  So the plan now is to completely replace the system (though I'll try to keep my system drive with its contents -- hopefully at least that component isn't fried...)  The tech told me DELL is on a 2-week backorder for motherboards, and about the same for new systems, so right now I'm looking at 2 weeks+ of idle time.

This tells me that either DELL has horrifically overextended themselves, pushing to max out sales while failing to maintain an adequate spare parts reserve -- or that my system is far from the only one DELL bricked via one of its updates, and the resulting massive spike in repair/replacement demand has overwhelmed them.  Either way, this is not the quality of service I expected when I bought an expensive "enterprise-grade" system with a premium next-business-day-on-site support plan!  I am extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with this turn of events.

Not sure if I'm having the same issue or not - but possibly it's related.

My 5820 got 'bricked' by a "critical BIOS update" pushed by DELL's Command Center utility, last Thursday (Mar 15).

I had Windows 10 Pro 64-bit on the system factory-configured.  It worked just fine as of last Thursday morning, then in the afternoon I got the BIOS update notification and foolishly chose to allow it to proceed (particularly as it was marked 'critical'.)  The update seemingly went through successfully - I saw the green completion message on screen after a couple of reflashes and reboots, telling me the system will restart one more time - then the system shut down and failed to start up.  It doesn't even POST.  Power button solid-white, and otherwise no symptoms or response from the system.

I spent a day with one of DELL's support techs on the phone trying to debug the system, swapping memory DIMMs around, unplugging/re-plugging the chipset battery - and ultimately the tech's conclusion was that the BIOS update somehow managed to fry my motherboard.  (!!!)  Without the system even reaching POST, there's no way to rollback the BIOS or do any additional meaningful diagnostics.  So the plan now is to completely replace the system (though I'll try to keep my system drive with its contents -- hopefully at least that component isn't fried...)  The tech told me DELL is on a 2-week backorder for motherboards, and about the same for new systems, so right now I'm looking at 2 weeks+ of idle time.

This tells me that either DELL has horrifically overextended themselves, pushing to max out sales while failing to maintain an adequate spare parts reserve -- or that my system is far from the only one DELL bricked via one of its updates, and the resulting massive spike in repair/replacement demand has overwhelmed them.  Either way, this is not the quality of service I expected when I bought an expensive "enterprise-grade" system with a premium next-business-day-on-site support plan!  I am extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with this turn of events.

(Note: this is a second attempt to make this post.  The original somehow 'disappeared' from the board after a couple of grammar edits.  I apologize in advance if the original post somehow resurfaces, duplicating this one...)

Hey guys,

Can you send me a PM with the affected service tags. I'll look into it for you.

Thanks

Sent by PM. Thanks

I have the same issue with my Precision 5820.

First it crashed when I tryied to update the Bios, the Dell assistance replaced the MB.

Then a few days later I run the bios setup, don't changed anything and after press "exit" it crashed again. No post, the Dell logo don't appear.

This second time I don't even was trying to update the bios, just had open the bios setup.

The assistence recomended replace the MB once again, now I am waiting for the piece to have my computer working.

Same problem here -- I'm getting my second 5820 replacement this week.  I see that there is an updates BIOS (March 21).  I think Dell finally got it.  Once you update the BIOS -- the 5820 is dead -- will not even POST.  Second time around they are just sending a replacement -- not even bothering to replace motherboard.  

I have installed Windows 7 on Dell Precision 5820 Tower machine and its giving Blue dump.

Error is

Just an update for you guys, in March we had our second 5820 crash and we opted then for a full refund instead of another mobo replacement. To let you know that we are still waiting for the refund from Dell and their authorized partner, now 4 months already! Very poor Customer support Dell, at least in Austria, EU. We have switched to another brand of servers and workstations in the meantime naturally and will not be going back. A warning to All!

How was this resolved?  A new motherboard?

Yes, eventually a tech came onsite and replaced the motherboard.  I lost about a month, before that finally happened; fortunately, I was able to switch to another project in the meantime - unfortunately, the impact on my overall productivity was still quite horrendous...

What happens if you reset the workstation NVRAM?

1. restart the workstation;
2. press CTRL + ESC until the BIOS recovery menu appears;
3. select Reset NVRAM.

I cannot believe an operating system can break a workstation so hard; there is a chance, however, it has modified some UEFI firmware environment variable that affect the boot process.  Think on UEFI as an excesively convoluted and bug-ridden operating system.

Having exactly same problems here with my Dell Precision 5820. Read this and was about to reach for the phone... Had took out CMOS Batt waited 10 sec holding power and replaced. Same black screen no bios splash. Occasionally it would shut down all on its own after 5 sec. Hard drive boots fine on another identical workstation. So it's hardware/BIOS.

THEN I tried removing CMOS batt and LEAVING IT OUT ON MY MOUSE MAT.

Used Argentum's trick of hold CTRL and repeatedly pressing ESC. Suddenly saw the Windows circling dots (no bios screen) then hey presto, Windows 10 appeared. WITH NO CMOS BATTERY IN THE MACHINE. Windows works fine, un-installed a few programmes. Network is fine.

So I'm now sitting here wondering whether or not I should power down and reseat (or replace??) CMOS battery. Or indeed, just leave the out. Will feedback, but in case this helps anybody else get at least this far.

Did it happen after updating the bios ?