X51 R3, update from Dell.com bricked it

What were the 3 updates you installed?

After a BIOS update, on restart, it may sit at a black screen for a few minutes. If there are no flashing lights fir an error message that is normal don't interrupt it.

It made it back into windows 1 time. I then tried to restart into the BIOS, and now it only kicks on the fans and I hear some HDD activity. 20-30 seconds later, it shuts off again. Not sure what the updates were. They were recommended, so I installed them without paying much attention. 

Was contacted by Dell support, and their response was “Your machine isn’t under warranty. You can pay us to look at it and attempt to fix it.”  Even though my issue was caused by their update software, it is somehow my financial responsibility. Bought a new MB online and will be installing it this week. If this fails to fix it, I will be parting it out. Either way, Dell has seen it’s last dollar from me. 

If you were able to get into Windows it might be software issue, in which case there would be nothing wrong with the motherboard.  Are you able to access the BIOS menu without issue (F2 on boot) if you unplug your hard drive? 

Just want to say that if you have a corrupt bios it's very easily fixable. I've just done it with my x51 R1

Firstly the board is codenamed intel msi-ms-7704 from this you can find the schematic. (Dell won't tell you this) 

Now you need a cheap tool called an CH341A programmer. 

-remove the motherboard from the chassis 

-remove the left wlan spacer 

-connect the grip over the bios pins. (The red wire goes on pin 1) 

-connect the other end to the CH341A spi1 holder. You then put the SPi1 holder pins into the top of the device. Orientating pin 1 on the 4th hole on left (if you had the usb pointing you) 

Now install the driver's For CH341A and install the programmer software and HxD software. Also search for A14.bin file for your system. (Very easy to find) 

Now open the ch341a software and connect the device via usb port. 

-click detect (if the writing on the left for bios chip info shows nothing then you need to reseat the grip, it can take a while) 

-once detect shows the bios chip info you are ready to read. 

-press read, data should populate, it shouldn't be all "FF" if all "ffs" try reseating and try again

-save the read file to desktop. Do several. Name them read1, read2 etc

-open HxD oland open read1 and read2 press "ctrl+k" the files need to match (key combo checks for you) if all matches then you have a good connection. Close HxD and rename read1.bin to backup.bin  this is the backup of your corrupt data. From it if needed you can get your service tag info, board serial, Mac Ethernet etc. 

Now back in ch341a software 

-click open 

-choose a14.bin 

-click program 

-once done click verify (data should match popup then all ok) 

-reinstall motherboard

-boot system 

-insert service tag (otherwise command centre won't work) 

-under boot choose uefi 

-f10 

-restart and boot in to Windows. 

It sounds long but it takes about 10minuites 

This works on any "bricked bios" there's no such thing as broken just needs a simple reflash. Don't waste money on a new board. 

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@M3TAL wrote:

Just want to say that if you have a corrupt bios it's very easily fixable. I've just done it with my x51 R1

Firstly the board is codenamed intel msi-ms-7704 from this you can find the schematic. (Dell won't tell you this) 

Now you need a cheap tool called an CH341A programmer. 

This works on any "bricked bios" there's no such thing as broken just needs a simple reflash. Don't waste money on a new board. 

 

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That's impressive. Thanks for posting.

When I was younger, I used to do board-level repair. Mostly "hole thru" PCBs in those days, but toward the end ... did some SMT with hot-air wand. Still pretty good at reading schematics and soldering.