Aurora R11, 1.0.1 BIOS update

Question

Started with SupportAssist, it suggested the BIOS update, clicked it and advanced to We're ready to update your PC, clicked installed and waited 30 mins, progress indicator showed movement and ethernet and active lights blinked, computer was still operating normally so I ran DxDiag from right clicking start button and it told me BIOS was still at 1.0.0 and since the computer hadn't attempted a shutdown I went to Dell let them find my computer service tag and looked up the executable for BIOS installation, downloaded the executable to desktop and then closed the running SupportAssit window, clicked run on the 1.0.1 BIOS executable and it started the install, it popped up the grey and black install window with alienware logo and a orange progress bar which progressed through 8 or so iterations (flash/ erase/ program EC eflash/ verify/ load new me firmware/ flash saved, then did a hard power off (total shutdown), 3 or 4 seconds later the computer restarted, this all happened in 2 to 3 mins, rechecked DxDiag and it now showes 1.0.1, let SupportAssist  check for updates and it no longer sees the need for BIOS update, seems to work without problem. Good luck all!

DELL-Cares · Answer

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MeatRocket · Answer

@DELL-Cares

My R11 has a similar issue. SuuportAssist doesn't show the BIOS update, but Alienware Update does. Trying to apply the update via Alienware Update doesn't work, it successfully creates a restore point and then just has "Alienware Aurora R11 System BIOS" with a forever spinning circle. Hitting cacel after about 15 minutes resulted in a "Cancelling" indicator with a spinning circle. I force reboot and it still shows BIOS 1.0, which I would expect.

I could try to manually update the BIOS but I don't mind being a Guinea pig if Dell/Alienware wants to try to figure out the issue with their auto-updater.

Aurora User · Answer

Yep it was just easier to download the bios executable and run it, my r11 is only two weeks old and I wanted it setup and running, I’ve got 35 years of doing this stuff and always like to try things out like you suggest, good luck!

MeatRocket · Answer

I ended up doing the BIOS update manually and it worked as expected.

One thing of note - The update resets the BIOS to safe defaults, so I had to go back into the BIOS and reselect my XMP profile so that my RAM would run at 3200MHz instead of its base frequency of 2133MHz. I didn't have a CPU overclock profile loaded but I'm pretty sure it would've disabled it if I had.

nicli · Answer

Why is the updated version of Alienware Aurora R11 bios now completely unable to find the download location?

QD9X · Answer

There still should be related posts on these boards. Some people ran into major problems with the 1.02 BIOS after it was released about a month ago, especially if they did not download the standalone executable and update that way. It looks like Dell pulled all R11 BIOS updates after a week or so of 1.02 being released.

I wouldn't now be in a rush to update the R11 BIOS. Even once they put something else out there, I personally plan to wait at least a month to update to ensure it's safe.

(I'm currently on 1.02, but installed from the standalone executable last month before it was pulled.)

Aurora User · Answer

That’s my original post, manual update yourself by running the exe off dell site

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