X51 R1, BIOS update failure

See this thread.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-Bios-Failed/m-p/7548495/highlight/true#M48193

Personally, I would have done them all (in order oldest to newest) from DOS or initial UEFI-Environment.

https://www.dell.com/community/Vostro-Desktops/Vostro-460-XPS-8300-Upgrade-Adventures/m-p/6071757/highlight/true#M1311

Thanks for the reply.

I have the CMOS battery disconnected and I'll try again tomorrow.

If it doesn't work then I'll follow the 2nd link instead of just relying on the Rufus FreeDOS alone.

I disconnected all the peripherals--nothing plugged into the computer at all. Also disconnected the optical drive, HDD, and GPU (riser board and all). It looks like it's just the motherboard, power supply, fans, and LEDs left.

I moved the jumper, plugged in AC power, waited 10 seconds, hit the 'on' button, and same beeping.

I didn't do anything with the password jumper.

I removed 1x stick of ram, repeated, same beeping.

I removed both sticks of ram (only have 2x slots), repeated, same beeping. The beeping is equally spaced so I interpret that as a single, repeating beep... not a double or triple beep.

I tried everything again with the USB bootdrive, still just beeps.

I haven't tried adding a bunch of other files from FreeDOS manually to the USB yet.

Weird, isn't it?

Re: 

1. Moved the CMOS jumper from pins 2-3 to pins 1-2. Waited for 5-10 seconds with power disconnected. Moved the CMOS jumper back to pin 2-3, reconnected power, powered on, still beeps.
2. Moved the CMOS jumper from pins 2-3 to pins 1-2. Waited for 5-10 seconds. Connected AC power for 5-10 seconds. Disconnected AC power. Moved the CMOS jumper back to pins 2-3, reconnected power, powered on, still beeps.
3. Moved the CMOS jumper form pins 2-3 to pins 1-2. Waited, Connected AC power, powered on, still beeps, powered off, disconnected AC power, moved CMOS jumper back to pins 2-3, connected AC power & powered on, still beeps.
4. Disconnected AC power and CMOS battery for 15 minutes, reconnected and powered on, still beeps.

Looks like what you did above follows Dell recommendation how to clear CMOS setting.  

Clearing CMOS Settings

To properly clear, AC power must be applied (not necessarily turned on) to the system for about 10 seconds while the CMOs jumper is closed.

Locate the CMOS jumper (CLEAR_CMOS1) on the system board.

Remove the jumper plug from pins 2 and 3 and fix it on pins 1 and 2

Plug in AC power to the system and wait ten seconds for the CMOS to clear.

Remove the jumper plug from pins 1 and 2 and replace it on pins 2 and 3.

You have a No POST issue.  What is interesting is that you have beeps.  I am not sure whether bios is corrupted or something else is wrong.  Have you tried removing all the ram sticks and put only one stick back in DIMM1?  repeat this step for all 4 memory sticks.  Also remove all ram sticks, does the beep change?  During this test please disconnect all sata and usb devices connected to motherboard including hdd, ssd, keyboard, mouse, etc.

OH SNAP we got progress. Good or bad remains to be seen.

I plugged in 1x stick of RAM, and powered on. The CPU fan spun briefly but everything is off (except the LED on the power button), no beeping.

Same held true for the 2nd stick of RAM. I'm going to keep adding parts and see what happens.

Oddly when I was getting the beeping, all the case LEDs were on, now they aren't.

no beeping now when you install ram is good progress.  when there is no ram in it, it is supposed to beep.  from what you reported I suspect you have a faulty ram, either not installed in DIMM properly, or has issue.  I think the X51 R1-2 takes standard DDR3 sticks which are not expensive.  R3 takes DDR4.  you should consider borrow or buy working ram to test further.  you have not yet said which R is your X51.

Yea... I think it has been murdered. It doesn't look like anything is getting power anymore.

I get 19.5V coming out of the supply from the wall, 19.5V at whatever you call the bar inside the case, and 19.5V at the connector going into the power board.... but then it doesn't look like any voltage coming off that board anywhere.

the CPU fan spins a few rotations then nothing happens. I also tried with a monitor plugged into each of the video cards ports and the integrated video card port (one at a time), nothing comes up.

When I look up the service tag, it doesn't say R1 or R2 anywhere, but for RAM it does say DDR3 1600MHz so my assumption is that it's an R1.

I never thought it was broken or improperly installed RAM because everything was working until the attempted BIOS update.

Also I was looking at this list of beep codes:

1 Possible Motherboard (covers BIOS corruption or ROM error)
2 No RAM detected
3 Possible Motherboard Chipset
4 RAM failure (other)
5 Real Time Clock (RTC)
6 Video card/chip
7 CPU

With one repeating beep I've been focusing on the motherboard. I would have expected 2-4 beeps repeating if it was the RAM.

What has me most concerned now is that before I disconnected all the components, I was getting a beep but also the fans and case LEDs were powered on. Now, after reconnecting all the components, the beep is gone but the case LEDs are off. This makes me think something else is legit broken now.

That said, I'll see if I can find a cheapo stick of RAM to replace what's in there and give it a shot.

I lied. 

The beeping stopped & there was no power... but the RAM wasn't seated correctly.

When I actually seated the RAM in the slot, I had power again but also beeping.

Taking the sticks out one at a time or swapping between slots makes no difference. My assumption is the beeping only stopped in the first place because the improperly seated RAM resulted in some fault that kept power from getting to the speaker.

So I guess it's good that I have power again, but I'm back where I started--a single repeating beep, not a double or quadruple beep that's supposedly indicative of RAM. Womp womp.

I have this exact issue (exactly as you have described in detail) after the failed bios update from a02 to a06. I am a tech. I order a replacement bios with a014 installed and soldered it on to the board properly. When the system boots the continuous beep is resolved however I still receieve no keyboard caps (sign of good post) or video signal.

My unit was 100% working prior to the bios update. Frickin' Dell! I suspect they modified the bios programming at some point as its an older alienware and failed to test it properly. All I can do now is try to reprogram the bios back to its original A02 version and that should do the trick! Other wise its going to the Wall of Shame where very few units reside!

I gave up after trying to reprogram it a few times. Ended up buying a new PC.... this experience left a sour taste in my mouth, though, so it wasn't a Dell.