Dell G15 5515 Bricked after latest BIOS upgrade MAY/2023

I did the "Keep pressing Ctrl + Esc for a few seconds" solution and it worked !

But then the laptop asked me to update the firmware so I did it BUT again I have the issue came back then I did again the solution but this time it didn't work and now I can't use my laptop...again...

I also tried all the solutions you guys shared but noone of them work neither...

Exactly the same result for me. The CTRL+ESC worked brilliantly ONCE and gave me a chance to make sure all my really important documents were backed up.  However when I shutdown and restarted the laptop it immediately started re-installing 1.11 firmware and it bricked itself again.  I did adjust the Windows and Dell Support app settings to not do automatic installs, but I must have missed something.

Now the CRTL+ESC trick isn't working at all.  I also tried the CRTL+ESC+FN combination as was suggested by someone on the net but same result.  I see that Dell has removed the 1.11 firmware update from it's website so they are aware of the problem.  Of course that doesn't help me and I'm not happy that a $1500CDN laptop is now a paperweight after only 2 years, due no fault of my own.

Moral of the story:  you get ONE chance to un-brick your G5 5515 with the CTRL-ESC solution.  Make it count.  

@rebou , to block Windows updates from automatically updating your BIOS, go to BIOS settings and Disable the feature UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates.

@antpharm , you can recover your system BIOS many times as you wanted.  Maybe it didn't work because the BIOS recovery image on your HDD/SSD was corrupted.  Download this BIOS_IMG.rcv and save it on a FAT32 formatted USB drive.  Plug the USB drive to your system and performing the Ctrl + Esc recovery process again, hopefully it will recover your "bricked" machine.

@Chino de Oro , thank you for replying.  I would love to try the BIOS_IMG.rcv file you linked, but the issue is that I am unable to get into the BIOS recovery.  Me, @Eagold, and at least one guy on Reddit were able to get the CTRL+ESC procedure to work once (at which time we fixed the issue) but then our computers reinstalled 1.11 and we haven't been able to access the BIOS recovery again. 

I *literally* spent 3 hours yesterday trying all sorts of different timings of releasing CTRL+ESC after pressing the Power button, of holding down CTRL+ESC for various lengths of time, of pressing/releasing CTRL+ESC in different orders (and sometimes adding in the FN key), of timing the the power cord and pressing Power, etc.

I took the laptop case off and have tried disconnected the battery before trying the CTRL+ESC sequence, and I have disconnected the battery and then drained the "flea" power before trying the CTRL+ESC sequence.  Someone suggested removing the Coin Cell battery on the motherboard to reset the BIOS but I don't think the G5 has a Coin Cell battery.  I am running out of ideas and things to try.

But again, thank you for your response.  If you (or anyone reading this) have any other ways to access the BIOS recovery please let me know.

I've seen that you and few others having trouble to get into BIOS recovery mode.  But, don't give up.  One of the right timing will trigger the recovery mode.  Mainly, held both CTRL + ESC keys down when introduce power to the system and let them go as soon as the keyboard backlight (or Caps Lock LED) lights up.

You may also try to boot the machine up with the OS drive removed.  That would force BIOS firmware to react.  When you see any displaying of error message, system is ready for recovery.

I hadn't thought of trying CTRL+ESC without the OS drive installed. 

I removed the drive and did the CTRL+ESC dance a few times but didn't have any luck.  However after I reconnected the drive, the CTRL+ESC trick went into the BIOS recovery on the first try!  I really can't figure out why that made a difference but (for me) it did.

Thank you @Chino de Oro for your  help!  

I'm glad that you didn't give up and managed to unbricked your machine.  Hopefully, @Eagold and others with same issue can find the info useful and working for them as well.

Also, I suggest to Disable the feature UEFI Firmware Capsule Updates in BIOS settings.

Thanks this worked for me but I had to use a side port. For anyone else get a usb with an activity light - if you plug in and boot up it should flicker a few times then you know which port to use - may take a few seconds before anything happens. 

Fixed my son's laptop with the USB and 1.9, thank you to all who posted solutions...best DELL service I had was from other users....

That said, has DELL said anything about an update or fix for this GINORMOUS issue?

How about a BIG EFFING WARNING in support assistant! I have to come here after my xps is bricked to find out this is an ongoing issue. Dell just lost what would've been a recurring customer. Shame on you!

Thank you all for this post. You're AWESOME! Nathalia's post left out one important step that the others pointed out. After unplugging the machine.

Make sure to power down, ensure that all lights are off.

Then hold down CTRL & ESC.

Turn on the machine and when the lights come on; release CTRL & ESC.

Thanks again everyone, you saved me a weekend of tech support pain at the very least.

Thank you @ceramicVitB  for pointing that out!

I just edit my reply, hopefully more people will benefit from that too!