While waiting for a reply I read and watched a lot about updating the BIOS. 
My current version is 2.16.1 on a Win 10 Pro build 19044.2251.
After 2 hours of a black screen, I crossed my fingers and powered down. Rebooted.
I pulled everything off, anything connected to the computer, pulled drives, trying to get to a bare bones system. Double check that I did not have BitLocker on, no passwords in BIOS.
I tried again with 2.17.1, same thing. Tried with booting to USB, same thing.
Did a bunch of other updates, no problem.
Tried 2.18.1, same problem. 

The only thing I have not tried is going backwards with the BIOS. 

At this point I put everything back together because I have to work on some images.

But I would like to be able to update the BIOS.

So still looking for suggestions.

I hope you had a good reason to try to update your BIOS and that you didn't just brick-it/kill-it.

If  v2.26.1 was significantly newer than your existing version, it might have been better to do all or most of the others incrementally first. 

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@c_mannphoto wrote:

 

1. My current version is 2.16.1 on a Win 10 Pro build 19044.2251.

2. I tried again with 2.17.1, same thing. 

3. The only thing I have not tried is going backwards with the BIOS. 

4. But I would like to be able to update the BIOS.

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So, you are here:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=d97gn&oscode=wt64a&productcode=precision-7920-workstation

And click "Other Available Versions".

1. Sounds fine to me for Windows-10 Pro 64bit.

2. If it must be updated, yes ... that is the one I would try first.

3. No, please don't do that or try that.

4. Why? v2.16.119 was released Nov 2021. That is fairly new and appears to be working fine.

What is the resolution of the Monitor you are using ? Bios updating can go weird with a 4k connected.

This said, as Tesla pointed out, why do you want to upgrade the bios ? Unless there's a real necessity, it's better not doing it

The main monitor is a 4k BenQ.
So maybe if I take that off, the update might work?

As far as updating Dell shows it as "Critical" so I just assumed it was important to do since mine was that old.

Yes the system is working correctly, Could it work better with the update?

Yes, using a normal monitor "may" fix this issue you are experiencing.

Well, the updates for the bios are usually marked critical ( not always anyway ), but mainly because they could be fixing some security issue with the intel cpu.

Thing is, as far as I know there are no real exploits in the wild + there's the antivirus and the fixes added to windows... so all these bios fixes effectively slow down the cpu only, from my personal point of view.

Unless one of the newer bioses adds support to a quicker ram ( example ) or adds support for an USB-C port of a graphics card you ARE using or planning to buy ( it's a real case scenario )... or fixes a bug you ar experiencing ( you are not , by your own admission, having issues up to now )... just avoid .

Personal opinion, anyway.

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@c_mannphoto wrote:

1. The main monitor is a 4k BenQ. So maybe if I take that off, the update might work?

2. As far as updating Dell shows it as "Critical" so I just assumed it was important to do since mine was that old.

3. Yes the system is working correctly, Could it work better with the update?

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1. If the monitor is working in the BIOS and in Windows ... I can't see it making a difference. I've never seen a "working" monitor prevent a BIOS/Firmware update from flashing a motherboard properly.

2. To Dell, they are pretty-much all "Critical". 

3. You can't really get it working any better than "100% working". However, you can kill-it or brick your motherboard with a failed firmware update.

@Tesla1856 , point 1) it's a known issue with the bios update on a few models. You will find threads here where the problem was pinpointed to the monitor native 4k resolution, and the solution was simply to use a fhd

I hope to have time later this week to try again, with the BenQ attached. 

@Tesla1856, as I mentioned earlier, all my attempts to update the BIOS, I had a black screen with nothing on it.
All the other updates both Dell and Windows I had no issues and the monitor did not seem to be a problem.

I will update this thread when I try again.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Hello. we are dealing with a similar issue i think. The system has a dual monitor setup and seems to be randomly crashing. any update on this?