Dell Precision 5820 Workstation: Fails to boot follwing Adobe Acrobat Software update & reboot

Try replacing the size 2032 motherboard battery if it hasn't been done recently.  A bad battery affects BIOS and therefore PC operation.  When the battery was bad on my Precision 3620, I went thru a similar scenario.  Eventually it wouldn't boot and none of the backup options worked.

Then do a BIOS reset via the blue jumper method.

If not already, make sure your BIOS is switched back to what it was before all this happened.  RAID is default in the Precision's.  So, if you switch to UEFI though your boot drive was loaded in RAID mode, it won't boot.

Smartly, you didn't try reloading the OS.  Therefore, it should still be there and reloading it should be a last resort.  I ended up trying to reload with a bad battery and it didn't work.  But because I started the process, after changing the battery and resetting BIOS, I had to finish reloading.

Didn't Microsoft do away with Adobe Acrobat?

More simply , do an upgrade with a win11 boot image. In theory is always possible to just reinstall AND keep all the current programs and settings.

Alternatively, do use the usb boot image to actually try to fix ( it can be used to do the same things you can do with startup repair, but is done from a working image aka the usb install one )

@bradthetechnut​ 

Thank you very much for your reply - appreciated.. 

Will replace the motherboard battery, as it hasn't been changed anytime recently. 

Am slightly struggling with what you are saying in respect of the RAID/UEFI settings bits though. 

I upgraded the machine from a SATA primary drive, to WD Black NvME drive that sits in a genuine DELL PCI NvME slot on the main motherboard. Once I completed the copy and switch to the primary drives, it has worked faultlessly for the last 8/9 months or so, until this upgrade & reboot failure. 

I haven't changed, or even needed to change, any of the drive settings or anything within BIOS since that upgrade was complete, so I'm sure how, or what, to attempt to change to make it try to work? 

I'm good / knowledgeable end user, but I'm defo not a computing expert. If someone says; "follow these instructions" - pretty happy to do that, but when it comes to working out changing settings when I don't really totally understand what I'm changing, I tend to try to avoid it! 

I'm also just wondering to myself whether the old Win 11 O/S is still sitting on the original SATA drive, which is still in the computer. I honestly can't remember if I just left it as it was (in case the new NvME drive didn't do what I was expecting it to do), so I will pull it out and read it from another computer. I have the kit to connect an external HD to another computer, but don't have the kit to extract the MvME board and then read that from another computer.. I only have the one desktop and one laptop. 

@mazzinia_​ 

Thank you for your reply.. 

In respect of your first suggestion, are you suggesting 'doing an upgrade' from within the Automatic Repair part of Win 11 on the computer itself, i.e. to go from: 

Troubleshoot > Reset this PC > Keep my files (where it says Removes apps and settings, but keeps your personal files)

The only other option here is [Remove everything] - which appears to essentially be a format of the system partition and then fresh reinstall of the O/S? 

From the main Automatic Repair screen, I have the following options: 

Continue (Exit and continue to Win 11)
Use a device
Troubleshoot
Turn off your PC

Within 'Use a device' - it offers me:

Diskette Drive (not fitted)
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive (not fitted)
P0: WD_Black SN770 1TB
Onboard NIC

USB Storage device
UEFI: WD_Black SN770 1TB

This is where I reach the edge of my knowledge / expertise limits, as I don't understand the difference between the two P0 and UEFI options for the NvME - which is the system drive, 

No, I'm not suggesting the reset of the pc . If you download and make an installation usb thumbdrive , and then you boot it , you can use it for 2 separate things.
First you can boot from it to install or upgrade/reinstall a computer, and normally gives the option to keep the data and the apps (the version of windows must be the same as in the same installation locale/language image used to install the system , so if it was used a spanish, by example, image and then added english later, if an english install image is used, you would get only to erase everything to reinstall or I think keep the personal data but not the apps. But if you use a spanish image in the example, it gives the option to reinstall keeping all the data and the apps ) and also can be used to repair a messed up installation since it can be used to do repairs and troubleshoot exactly like from the emergency boot now on the pc ( but would be from a working version of it ).

My suggestion would be either to use the troubleshooter from booting from the installation media, or just reinstall keeping the apps and data .

First I would try the troubleshooter, maybe

@rjsdavis​  "In addition, the suggestion to change the UEFI settings also fail, as when I list the partitions I have no idea which of the partitions relates to where the UEFI settings are located, so I can't even attempt this suggestion! 6 partitions are listed when requested, and none of them give any sort of clue as to which one relations to UEFI."  No need to change any BIOS settings.  All partitions should be under the same BIOS settings,which default is RAID in Precision's.  I don't know that or if each individual partition will show you the BIOS setting.  By the way, to access BIOS, repeatedly press F2 key immediately upon powering on.  There you'll find if your Precision is set to RAID or AHCI.

If you have 2 boot drives installed with the same Microsoft OS, like Win10 or 11, that's a big Microsoft no-no.  Microsoft will then purposely corrupt one or both drives.  I went thru this experience a few years ago and resorted to hot swap HDD bays with switches on my Win10 Precision.

You can always uninstall the NVME and see if your 2.5" SATA SSD was left intact.  That's one idea.

At this point, practically the only option is to uninstall SATA boot drive and leave the NVME in to reload.  Partly seconding mazzinia's suggestion, use an 8GB or bigger flash drive and download the ISO file from the Microsoft site, preferably use the 3rd option.  Do this on a working PC.  Once clicking on the ISO in the downloads folder, follow the prompts.  Win11!will then download on the flashdrive.

I know you didn't want to reload, but there's not too many options in this case.  Trying to load and keep files and apps may not work.  It didn't work for me when I reloaded Win10.  You might have to do a completely fresh install.  When asked what partition to load Win11 on, delete previous partitions with Win11.  Click on "Next" and Win11 will make the necessary partitions and load.

I may be overlapping some of your knowledge.  After all, you loaded the NVME drive once already.

First, replace that battery.  This will help ensure reload success.

@bradthetechnut​ 

Thank you for your reply. Appreciated. 

Ok, so the first thing I did was to remove the NvME in the PCI-e adaptor and attempt to boot from the old SATA 3.5 HD that was still sitting in the bay. It wouldn't boot. I tried all of the Automatic Repair options that I tried with the NvME, but they all failed as well. It's as if the corruption has been applied to both the NvME and the SATA HD at the same time. Oh, and the old 3.5 HD was never a dual boot / 2nd boot drive. It was simply the original boot drive for the computer before I upgraded to NvME. I went through the entire copying sequence and then this finished with a little sequence of removing the HD temporarily to force it to boot from the new NvME, and it was NvME from that moment onwards. I simply popped the original HD back into the bay and left there as a spare/back-up. It was never actually used to boot or run the computer from. Most files/folders hadn't been touched since April 2025 when I upgraded. 

I removed the old HD and connected it to another computer as an external drive. The drive and partitions all looked intact and as I remembered them to be, so I thought I'd test the recovery process on the HD first, and if it works, do it again with the NvME - the NvME remains out of the PC at the moment. 

So... I downloaded the ISO as suggested, and used EngInt in third option. This is downloaded and sitting in my downloads folder and I didn't have the option of downloading it directly to anywhere else - i.e. the USB stick.

However, I've just spent the last couple of hours trying to do something useful with that by simply clicking the 'setup' program in the ISO folder. It spent the best part of a couple of hours checking and updating itself, and when it was finally ready to do something (install), I clicked next and it appeared to be about to start installing itself on the PC that I was actually using! So, I stopped it pretty quick. 

I had thought that it needed to 'setup' as a bootable / recovery entity and that I would choose to set it up on the eagerly awaiting USB stick... I'm guessing that that's not correct? 

Should I simply be copying the entire ISO folder on the USB stick manually, and then popping that into the Desktop and attempting to get the computer to boot from the USB? 

Apols for being particularly thick here.. 

(BIOS battery replaced). Oh, and the computer was set to UEFI in the BIOS. Once I removed the NvME/PCI-e card, I switched it back to 'legacy boot' as I figured that I'd need it to find a bootable USB at some point during this repair attempt.. 

...and anticipating that I should have just copied the ISO to the USB stick, it won't let me do that.. it's telling me that "install.wim is too large for the destination file system" 6.40GB (The USB is 64GB).  

@rjsdavis​  I edited my post above.  Last sentence in first pgh. was suppose to say:  There you'll find if your Precision is set to RAID or AHCI.

@rjsdavis​  BIOS should be set to UEFI and Secure Boot on.

Hopefully your important files/data are backed up outside of PC.

With only the NVME installed, try to do a fresh OS install.

On a working PC, you will be downloading Win11 to an 8GB or bigger blank flash drive formatted to FAT32. They often come formatted that way anyway. Download Windows 11 Disc Image (ISO File) Microsoft site Download the ISO. It will be in your Downloads folder. With flash drive inserted, click on the ISO and follow onscreen instructions Win11 will then be loaded on the flash drive. Takes a little while. When ready to load Win11 from flash drive, boot from flash drive on your PC to load Win11. Make sure BIOS is set to AHCI or RAID and Secure Boot on.

When a window pops up asking what partition to load Win11 on, delete all previous partitions except for System and MSR if reusing a boot drive. Then click on Next or Install. Win11 will then automatically create the appropriate partitions and load. If a window pops up asking for product key, click on link that says "I do not have a product key." Win11 will then continue to install using the product key that's embedded in BIOS. You'll still need to activate it online.

@bradthetechnut​ 

RAID

Yup, leave it on RAID.

I may have been still editing my above post when yours popped in.

@bradthetechnut​ 

Thanks once again for the reply... However: 

"On a working PC, you will be downloading Win11 to an 8GB or bigger blank flash drive formatted to FAT32. They often come formatted that way anyway. Download Windows 11 Disc Image (ISO File) Microsoft site Download the ISO. It will be in your Downloads folder. With flash drive inserted, click on the ISO and follow onscreen instructions Win11 will then be loaded on the flash drive. Takes a little while. When ready to load Win11 from flash drive, boot from flash drive on your PC to load Win11. Make sure BIOS is set to AHCI or RAID and Secure Boot on."

This is the problem that I described above. 

When downloading the ISO from the MS website, it simply downloads 7.2GB of files and pops them into the 'downloads' folder on the PC that I am using to get it. There isn't an option that I can see to download it directly to any other location. The button on the MS website simply said something like 'Get x64 version of ISO' (or something similar, and the download was away. 

Therefore, I'm still missing how I can get the ISO on the USB stick... 

As I've mentioned above, when I try to copy it from the downloads folder onto the USB stick, it won't let it. 

@rjsdavis​ 

...and just to add to this, I did also click the 'setup' file from the ISO whilst it was sitting in the downloads folder, and after lots of very slow update checking, it was finally ready to 'install'. 

Clicked 'next' and it started to install there and then. I had to stop it, as it seemed like that it was literally going to install itself onto the machine I was using (which would have been catastrophic!). It didn't give me any options to choose where it was about to install, it just started... so I had to stop it, in case it started over-writing/resetting my own laptop's O/S. 

I'm a bit lost at this point.  The ISO doesn't go to the flashdrive, just the downloads folder.  What the ISO is suppose to do is download Win11 to your flashdrive after asking for a download location.  I wonder if there's a .exe file that needs to be clicked on to start the download.

I might have to download Win11 to a flashdrive myself to see what might be going wrong.

And the flash drive you're trying to download Win11 to is completely blank?  On a working PC, did you make sure the flashdrive is formatted to FAT32 in Disk Management?