XPS 8940, will not boot after BIOS update

The XPS 8940 supports BIOS Recovery 3, so that's what you want to use...

You are a rockstar! I was able to do BIOS recovery. First attempt was to recover the updated version. This led to the same issue so and I made another attempt but this time rolled back to the previous firmware version. Everything is fine now, so I guess lesson learned. Thanks for the help!

So I restarted my computer this morning for windows updates and to my horror the bios started updating for some reason. I let it continue and lo and behold when it restarted it won’t go past the white dell screen again. I attempted to do the bios recovery, but I cannot seem to get that to load either. How long should it take before the recovery tool appears? Anyone have any other ideas?

Was this a BIOS update pushed via Windows Update or one launched by SupportAssist?

Where is the monitor connected, to an add-in video card or to one of the onboard video ports? Try connecting the monitor to an onboard port and launch the recovery again.

But, first you should download the XPS 8940 BIOS recovery file onto a (non-bootable) 2-GB USB2 stick, formatted FAT32. Do not change the name of the file that you download.

With PC powered fully off, remove power cord from rear of PC. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec. Reconnect power cord to rear of PC. With power still completely off, plug the USB recovery stick into PC.

Then press/release the power button on PC and immediately press/hold CTRL+ESC and -hopefully- the recovery screen opens now...

Thanks for the reply. This update was pushed by Windows Update this morning. Windows prompted me to restart to finish installing updates. Stupid me figured they were just windows updates and restarted blindly…

‘My monitor is plugged into the DisplayPort on my RTX2060, but display doesn’t seem to be the issue. The Dell splash screen appears and it responds to my keyboard commands, it just never loads the BIOS recovery tool or BIOS setup.

I am going to try what you suggest, but have already tried almost identical procedures. I noticed that you specifically stated a 2GB usb for the recovery file. I am not using that right now, will it make a difference?

Also potentially of note, my psu prematurely failed in November and was replaced with another oem psu. Not sure if this is related or not, but I fear I may have a faulty motherboard.

@TheWho822  - You can only use a 2-GB USB stick for BIOS updates or BIOS recovery. Anything else won't be recognized correctly. In fact, there was a very recent thread where that user tried a bigger USB and it didn't work. When I said to use only a 2-GB stick, it worked at the very next attempt.

Some people claim the recovery won't work if the monitor is connected to an add-in video card, but I have no way to substantiate that.  If it won't work with your add-in video card and 2-GB USB, power off and switch the monitor connection to one of the onboard Intel UHD Graphics ports and try the recovery again.

I doubt this problem is related to installation of a new PSU.  If you still can't recover the PC and its under warranty, you should contact Dell tech support for a possible motherboard replacement.

Post back and let us know what happens...

My XPS MT 8940 had a "hijacked cursor" problem where Dell Premium Tech Support said (4 times) that the solution was a BIOS update. Trouble was that the XPS MT 8940 would not boot afterward so I kept having to call Premium Support. After 4 calls and 3 months of calling, they authorized a Motherboard and HD replacement (if needed). On the second in-home tech visit, Dell determined that the Motherboard replacement they sent was bad from stock because neither the Boot Menu nor the BIOS Set Up would load. Dell Policy, they say, is to ONLY send refurbished equipment for repairs. I'll post again when the problem is fixed -- hopefully within a week or two. In the meantime, my XPS 8940 runs okay on the old BIOS as long as I avoid Win10 updates.

@RoHe I found a 2 GB usb and used that. Still no go. I also moved my monitor to the onboard graphics (DisplayPort) to no avail. Should I remove any pci-e cards I may have added? Besides my GPU I have a sound card and an Ethernet card that I added, none have had issues since installing more than a year ago.

One thing I can do, is once the Dell logo appears, I can hit F2 and F12. In both cases it will tell me it’s preparing to enter setup or loading the one time boot menu. However it never completes the task and gets hung up there. Curiously, if I press ctrl+esc when the logo appears it just displays a blue status bar under the logo. I enclosed all three screenshots in case that helps.

Thanks for the info @GadgetDiva. Hopefully I won’t have to go through all that, but it’s looking more and more like my motherboard is toast.

Great to hear that issue is resolved after removing the external parts with the machine and we do appreciate your time and efforts on this.

It upsets me to hear this that you are disappointed with the quality. I understand you have concerns regarding this machine. Will surely work around and hope this machine works fine for now.

It was great experience working with you. In future if you need any help please reach us back so that we can assist you with the solution.

@TheWho822  - Glad you got it sorted!

Don't think you can blame this on a quality issue.  UEFI BIOS with all its new security requirements make it increasingly more complicated to do what was previously "routine" on older PC models.

3,2  =  PCI of Video card/chip failure. That suggests BIOS was having trouble with the add-in video card, possibly because it wasn't installed or your monitor was still connected to an onboard video port.

Those extra add-in cards might explain why the BIOS update pushed by Windows Update failed in the first place...

At least your PC survived its close encounter and is among the living again.

@TheWho822  - It just dawned on me your add-in cards contributed to this problem because XPS 8940 BIOS v2.2.0 (and higher) do odd things to the x4 slot in this model.

There are several long threads saying after installing v2.2.0 (or higher), the XPS 8940 won't boot if an SSD mounted on a NVME>PCI-e adapter card is plugged into the x4 slot, even though that same SSD+adapter worked with BIOS earlier than v2.2.0.

It sounds like after WU finished installing the BIOS update on your PC, it wouldn't boot while a card was in the x4 slot, just like it won't boot with an SSD+adapter in that slot.  So your problem was probably a combination of a forced update and version of BIOS that doesn't like anything in the x4 slot.

If you reinstall any/all of those cards now, and PC won't boot again, you're stuck, because you can't revert BIOS to any version prior to v2.2.0 which was the first one to have these issues. So you'll have to remove those PCI-e cards again.

Presumably it will take another BIOS update to fix this, but when will that happen..?

@RoHeFascinating... I figured that the cards were the culprit but didn't realize that the x4 slot was not working after bios v2.2.0. I had a prior version installed before Monday. I don't plan on reinstalling the cards. No big loss here really, the cards weren't vitally needed. It's a shame though that they sell this PC while advertising the expandability, meanwhile updates render things useless! At least everything is status quo now.