XPS 8500, Hangs at Dell Boot Screen

Google the KMODE error... might be RAM related so re-seat those. Also the motherboard battery might be weak. Change it.

Report back.

Probably old pc CMOs corruption causing first power on POST stalking 

replacing CMOs battery w a new battery is recommended first step

then clear CMOs by motherboard RTCRST jumper would typically reset it completely 

@ispalten​ 

Thanks for your help!  I reseated the RAM and changed the motherboard battery.  Still same problem on boot.

I had researched the KMODE error back when I was working that issue.  Probably a driver issue, but no error info on which driver.  Windows Event log didn't give any obvious pointers as to the problem.  All drivers looked okay in Device Manager and were up to date.  Eventually just decided to reset the system given that everything worked fine in Safe Mode and couldn't locate a specific driver or hardware issue.

Any other suggestions on things to try to address the boot issue?

@redxps630​ 

Thanks for your help!  Clearing the CMOS memory was a good suggestion.

I replaced the battery and that didn't make a difference, so then I tried your suggestion to clear the CMOS memory via that jumper.  When checking the BIOS settings during the first boot, I noticed one change from before.  Instead of "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager" for the HDD boot device, it now says "UEFI: ST2000DM001-1CH164" which is the hard drive in the system.

In addition, boot now fails with a "Secure Boot Violation - Invalid signature detected.  Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup".  Any suggestions as to what is set incorrectly and how to fix it?  When looking over the rest of the BIOS settings, I didn't notice any other differences, but I could have missed something.

Also, I should mention that the system has a 32GB SSD cache and is set up in a RAID configuration.  Over the years, when odd things happened I have suspected that SSD might be an issue, but I don't know if I can remove it from the system without reinstalling everything.

I'm not very familiar with the UEFI and secure boot settings, so any additional assistance would be appreciated.  Thanks!

@redxps630​ 

Here is a bit more information about the Boot Settings.  Except for the HDD boot device description I mentioned before, I believe other items are the same as before resetting the CMOS memory.

Secure Mode State: User

Secure Boot State:  Enabled

Secure Boot: Enabled

Secure Boot Mode: Standard

Legacy Load OPROM: Disabled

Boot Mode:  UEFI

1st Boot Device:  USB Storage Device

2nd Boot Device:  UEFI: ST2000DM001-1CH164

3rd Boot Device:  Internal ODD Devices

4th Boot Device:  USB Floppy Device

5th Boot Device:  Inboard NIC Device

Hard Disk Drives - 1st Boot Device:  UEFI: ST2000DM00-1CH164

Not sure if any of that is helpful, but those are the current settings.

It seems there are two different issues here:

1st issue was the hang at Dell logo on initial power on, which is stalking at POST.

2nd issue is to boot into Windows 10 setup w 32GB ssd and hdd in an old fashioned configuration called Intel smart response.  

I would test the resolution of 1st issue for now after battery replacement n cmos clear.  
if you disconnect sata to the ST2000 (boot drive). which is probably Seagate 2TB hdd, does pc post smoothly every time you bring it from a cold power off state.  When Dell logo screen process bar ends smoothly and Dell logo is gone, that is a successful POST. Try test this multiple times.  ignore the following error of no boot device found for now because you deliberately d/c hdd for this test.

If yes, 1st issue is solved. Reconnect sata to hdd.

Since no change was made to ssd and hdd, the only thing you have cleared was CMOs which reset bios settings too, and if 1st issue is resolved, now try resolve 2nd issue:

Typically after CMOs clear, bios settings changed to default which according to manual:

SATA Mode — AHCI; RAID (AHCI by

default)

Boot Mode Legacy or UEFI (Legacy by default)

I would make sure to change it to RAID and UEFI

PS
Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) is an SSD caching feature that pairs a traditional, high-capacity hard drive (HDD) with a smaller, faster solid-state drive (SSD).

@redxps630​ 

Thanks again for your help.

The SATA mode was set to RAID and the Boot Mode was set to UEFI.

When I use F12 and select the hard drive I am still getting the "Secure Boot Violation - Invalid signature detected.  The unsecure media cannot boot." message on startup.  Perhaps I should disable Secure Boot?  I seem to recall seeing something about secure boot signatures being updated recently.  Perhaps the hard drive (which was fully updated Windows 10) has newer signatures than whatever would be in this old hardware after the CMOS reset?  So maybe try disabling Secure Boot, and if that starts Windows maybe Windows would load new signatures into the CMOS (if that is even a thing??).

As for the first problem (not getting past the Dell logo), that isn't happening now.  But it typically was happening after the system had been off overnight, so we'll see things go with that tomorrow.

I am not super concerned about the ISRT SSD caching.  It is just that I've had some glitches over the past several years where I had to rebuild the boot record on this system after system crashes, and I suspected the ISRT might be involved, and I wasn't sure it was worth having.  But this system is old and will be retired later this year, so I don't feel like I have to fiddle with it unless it is currently causing a problem.  I suspect that if I can just get past the Secure Boot Violation things will be okay.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions!

Disable secure boot in this about to retire pc is good idea.

If lucky pc will boot like normal for its remaining lifetime 

good to hear Dell logo no longer hangs for now. Test again next day n the day after to confirm 

@CraigNJ​ ,

I am not super concerned about the ISRT SSD caching. 

It is just that I've had some glitches over the past several years where I had to rebuild the boot record on this system after system crashes, and I suspected the ISRT might be involved, and I wasn't sure it was worth having. 

... so I don't feel like I have to fiddle with it unless it is currently causing a problem. 

Sounds like ignoring previous problems led you here.

It's hard to leave know problems in place and still end-up with a 99.9% working computer (even if only needed for a short time).

@redxps630​ 

Turning off secure boot does allow the system to start up and boot to Windows.  Dell logo hang is gone for now, we'll see what happens in the coming days.

I'd be interested in being able to use secure boot again.  I'll have to do some research to see if the system will automatically update the secure boot signatures in the firmware (to match the ones in the up-to-date Windows 10), or if I need to manually issue some command(s) to make that happen.

Thanks again for your help!

@Tesla1856​ 

Thanks for your feedback.  I've never had any evidence that there is actually a problem with the ISRT SSD caching, it is just that this system seemed to get a glitch every few years while similar systems without that caching were more stable.  Always passed diagnostics, no evidence pointing to it failing in system logs.  Just wondered if the possibility of incomplete cache writing might be a weak point of that design.  This system was previously used for software development and testing, so occasional crashes did happen.  Just seemed a bit more likely to occasionally develop data issues on the hard drive after a crash (usually software related crashes, but once or twice power related when UPS batteries died before a shutdown was completed) than systems without the SSD cache.  Problems were always quickly fixed with an image restore and would then be fine until another system crash years later.  Was tempted to pull out both the hard drive and SSD cache and replace them with a large SSD a couple of years ago but ended up just replacing the whole machine for its main functions since it was so old.  It is just used now to run some older software and has been running fine for the past few years since it was no longer used for software development and testing.  Just started with issues over the past couple of weeks, perhaps related to a dying battery and/or collection of so many drivers installed over the years to support a variety of hardware used for development and testing.  It has also been through multiple versions of Windows and countless update.  Plan to completely retire it in a few months.

I would be curious to hear if other folks had good experiences with the ISRT caching over the years.  I may be unfairly suspecting it of being a bit fragile.

Based on OP report,  prior to clear CMOs, after the Dell logo hang is reset by pressing power button, hdd is able to boot normally with secure boot enabled.

Re:  I'd be interested in being able to use secure boot again.

I afraid that you might have to perform Windows installation again.  The error you are facing was due to CMOS reset and it removed the new 2023 secure boot certificates on VRAM and it does not match with the new certificates Microsoft had updated on your boot drive.

To verify, check your Windows Update history, under Other Updates to see if your system was updated with Secure Boot Allowed Signature Database (DB) Update sometimes early last month.

With that update, you should get a True when running the PowerShell command below.