XPS 13 9360 -- 1.2.3 BIOS results in 'no boot device found'

So after a lot of faffing around with this I've ended up here:

It seems that after 1.2.3 BIOS the PC can only register boot devices with the RAID setting enabled. If I switch to AHCI I get a BIOS message of 'no boot device found'. Prior to this when switching between the settings it would find the boot device, which would then fail to boot properly as it would be using the wrong storage driver. (Ie, I'd get a windows message of 'inaccessible_boot_device', rather than none found at all).

The kicker is I bought this laptop primarily to use linux; linux doesn't work with the RAID setting enabled.

Dell are sending someone out to replace the motherboard, but it isn't obvious to me now that there's anything wrong with it. I suppose it will help if it results in a BIOS downgrade.

@Giqles,

I was notified of the BIOS update concern here: twitter.com/.../811777030996062208

I have tried to replicate the problem and these are the results I have so far:

-Pulled a XPS 13 9360 DE ( Ubuntu 16.04 ) from lab. It had 1.0.7 and was in AHCI mode

-Switch the unit from AHCI mode to RAID mode

-Updated BIOS to 1.2.3 VIA F12 menu and USB key

-Rebooted

-System rebooted into Ubuntu no problem

-Changed from RAID to AHCI

-System again booted into Ubuntu no problem

-Pulled a Windows system and did the same as above and the only issue I had was when I switched to AHCI, we got the Windows advanced set-up menu. Which can be considered expected

So haven't been able to replicate the 'no bootable device' symptom on 1.2.3 but I'm not done. I have a question for you. What hard drive are you running? Have you placed your own drive in or are you running the factory Dell drive?

Pasting similar thread for visibility:

en.community.dell.com/.../20000065

@Giqles,

Just saw your post here where you advised that you're running on the stock hardware:

en.community.dell.com/.../20963243

Can you tell me which exact stock drive you have? My Ubuntu unit is running a TOSHIBA SG5 128GB.

Hi Justin,

I've bought an XPS 13 and I upgrade to BIOS 1.2.3 as a part of my latest driver/software updates. I've attempted to upgrade my hard drive with a Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB drive to get more memory (currently have the X400 128 GB that came with my machine).

When starting the machine with the Samsung hard drive in, it isn't recognized in the BIOS; however, if I put in the X400 that came with the machine, it boots fine. I'm not sure what the difference between the two hard drives would be that would cause this issue.

I tried both AHCI and RAID when starting the machine, as well as disabling the Secure Boot and tried Legacy ROM settings, but it wouldn't recognize the drive.

I also attempted to downgrade my machine back to 1.0.7, but even though it looks like the BIOS upgrade works, it does not go back (stays at 1.2.3). I checked to make sure that the downgrade allowed option was enabled in the BIOS before doing the downgrade, so not sure what's going on.

Hopefully, some of this information helps.

I bought my wife an XPS 13 for christmas. Also bought a Crucial MX300 1TB M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (CT1050MX300SSD4).

The machine works fine with the original drive. Before upgrading from 1.0.7 to 1.2.3 (why the eff does a brand new laptop from Dell not have the latest bios?) we attempted to install the new drive. No matter what we fiddled with (including turning off the RAID setting) we'd get "no operating system found" after Windows installed (it would install fine).

Upgraded to 1.2.3 and the problem still occurs. We've tried cloning the original drive, clean install of Win10, etc... After Windows installs, on first boot we get "operating system not found". We've tried all variants of the settings suggested in this thread.

I think Dell has a BIOS issue with larger drives. My wife is really bummed. We need the disk space for her photo collection.

@Tuxymamoru,

I think you're running into a compatibility issue there unfortunately. Since it's not detected even in the BIOS I don't think there's much that can be done about it. Now say for example your Samsung 850 Evo 500 was working before the BIOS update to 1.2.3 then I'd probably like to capture your unit in for Dell engineering.

You might look into a different model drive though. I can't promise any retail drives will work but we do have a Dell branded PM961 Tb we sell with and support with the 9360.

@Cekzy,

Did you try installing Windows in different boot modes? ( Legacy VS. UEFI )

@Community,

If you have a system that meets the below situation please send me a friend request with your information.

Situation: XPS 9360 that was working fine with a Dell OEM drive and/or retail drive with 1.0.7 then had a boot issue once updated to 1.2.3

I can consider obtaining a few captures as this point.

I may be having the same related issues - I upgraded to a 960 Pro on my XPS 13 (9360) - from Lite-on - both NVMe drives. To install the drive I had to switch to AHCI to make the drive visible to True Image WinPE based recovery environment. I initialized it in the True Image environment as a GPT drive (as the stock was) - after mirroring over a complete Image from the OEM drive with EFI and all other partitons and switching BIOS back to RAID the system worked and still works fine.

However - to take full advantage of the 960 Pro it would need to be in AHCI to install the Samsung NVMe drivers - and here the same issue comes up as in the original post. If I switch to AHCI the Laptop does not find a Boot devivc - DELL POST level error message - not getting to access the drive.

I issued a ticket, but given this and a few other posts I found I am not hopeful anything can be done before a firmware fix. Found one who did the same upgrade I did with prior BIOS who had it working in AHCI as it should (through secure boot enforced driver install) and who bricked the machine in AHCI mode with new BIOS

This is TuxyMamoru. Couldn't figure out login so used Google Account.

I went and bought a 960 EVO (which is recognized by the BIOS!). I can install Windows to it, but unfortunately, the drive doesn't boot up (very similiar to the many other posts in here in the fact the operating system can't load from the drive).

I've resigned myself to the fact that the drive won't work with 1.2.3, so I'm attempting to go back to 1.0.7 to see if it works there. I've attemped a normal reinstall through windows 10 (reflash fails with " BIOS Update Blocked due to unsupported downgrade" message), a reinstall directly from the BIOS F12 option (same message), a reinstall through the BIOS Recovery 2 option (which is very hit or miss in loading) (won't find file in flash drive), and have not gotten the reinstall to work with any option. *sigh* This is after changing the options around the drives, SATA, and BIOS Restore options in all different options I can think of.

Any thoughts on how I can get back to 1.0.7? Thanks for the help!

I have the same issue with a XPS 13 (9360) in Denmark. I received it yesterday, performed bios update, and then it started with the 'no boot device found'.

If I boot from USB stick (with Ubuntu), the SSD is available and usable from the OS.

Dell, how far away is a BIOS update?

This just happened to my brand new Dell XPS 13 (9360) - any news from Dell?

verandy, could you explain something to me?  I seem to understand the XPS 13 9360 uses an M.2 SATA SSD.  The Samsung 960 Pro is a M.2 PCIe SSD.

As far as I know, the 960 EVO ids also a PCIe SSD..  

Is there a Lite-on drive with the same product versions as the Samsung but are M.2 SATA drives?

@Community,

I've informally engaged a contact in Dell engineering. We've both tried to replicate the issue in question. So far we've been unable to. Maybe it's be because we're using OEM drives. The last lab system I worked on just today to try and replicate the issue did have a LiteOn NVME 4x, but worked fine on 1.2.3. It had Windows 10 X64.

Couple notes for you:

-BIOS downgrade back to 1.0.7 is prohibited by system firmware, even with the option enabled in the BIOS. You can try resetting BIOS defaults to see if that helps but the only way I know to get you back to a working state is to replace the motherboard. Replacement motherboards do not come with 1.2.3 out of the box. If you have this issue contact Dell support and explain the situation and feel free to show them my recommendation in this post.

-I need to capture a system in it's failed state along with the 3rd party drive used. If you have one that has a no boot issue after updating to 1.2.3 please send me a friend request with your service tag and email address. We'll work something out privately.