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E521 BIOS 1.1.11 flash - Failure!!! Failure!!! Failure!!!
Just to make the problem obvious in the title - the issue with E521 BIOS flash failures still exists with the latest BIOS DME521-010111.
I followed the instructions to the letter - only mouse, keyboard and monitor attached; no applications running - and it fails repeatedly.
I note that some have upgraded to this version successfully and it is clear that the problem is [still] intermittent, but it looks like another call to support on Monday morning for a second motherboard replacement ...
Message Edited by Philip42h on 09-16-2007 04:24 AM
I followed the instructions to the letter - only mouse, keyboard and monitor attached; no applications running - and it fails repeatedly.
I note that some have upgraded to this version successfully and it is clear that the problem is [still] intermittent, but it looks like another call to support on Monday morning for a second motherboard replacement ...
Message Edited by Philip42h on 09-16-2007 04:24 AM
gbensonsr1
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Posted September 18th, 2007 02:00
Thanks.- Well its back again ...It took two days to get technical support to accept the inevitable ... that the motherboard would need replacing. That's arguably the worst part of the process - the hours spent on the 'phone talking to someone who insists that they are there to help but tries very hard to avoid doing so ...I'm in the UK so it on a 'return to base warranty'. They promise to turn it around in five working days and that's exactly what it took.So it's back, with a replacement motherboard (actually an early revision and serial number than the one that was replaced - was A03, now A01 - but no matter), and BIOS 1.1.10 ... so guess what?... it hangs on POST on restart with a powered USB hub installed!!! :smileymad:Never mind, there's a BIOS update that resolves this particular problem ... I can always apply that!I'll 'phone that oxymoron Technical Support tomorrow and start the process again ... I'm not quite up to it today having spent the afternoon getting a root canal filled so my speech is a tad slurry at the moment!Edit: I forgot to add that given my recent experience I rather suspected that this might happen - which is why I wrote an explanation of the problems and noted the importance of the PC coming back with BIOS 1.1.11 (or later) installed, and taped it to the tower before it went away. The note was still there when it came back.
Message Edited by Philip42h on 09-26-2007 12:30 PM - Well, I can only tell it as I see it, so for what its worth ...The good news:I have successfully flashed the BIOS on the third incarnation of my E521 motherboard to run BIOS revision 1.1.11BIOS revision 1.1.11 has resolved all the 'hang on re-boot with USB devices attached' issues that I was sufferingI'm reasonably convinced that by 1.1.11, Dell have successfully resolved the USB issues with the BIOS.So, I'm happy, the machine is working and I'm not planning to change anything on it ever again!The doubts:All three of my E521 motherboards were flashed successfully once - in each occasion the BIOS flash failed on the second upgrade. That doesn't really make sense to me, and I haven't destroyed enough boards to consider it statistically significant but I've absolutely no intention of trying a second flash on the third board ... especially as my box is now out of warranty.I can't tell whether the root cause of the problem lies with the design of the E521 motherboard, a duff batch of eproms, or the design of the Windows based flash utility but I am certain that there is a fundamental weakness in some or all of these. And unless Dell provides some update on the problem, I guess we will never know for sure.So the answer to your question is 'no' ... its not safe to update to BIOS 1.1.11, but its a good place to get to if you want to take the risk. If you are out of warranty or don't have significant problems with the BIOS revision you have, I'd recommend staying put.... which probably didn't help you at all ... :smileywink:
- Do you have any "best practices" advice for achieving the best result when flashing? Do's and Don'ts? I haven't done it yet, but I assume that the program launches in Windows but that it does the actual flash out at the command prompt when it reboots. Correct?
rseiler wrote:
Do you have any "best practices" advice for achieving the best result when flashing? Do's and Don'ts? I haven't done it yet, but I assume that the program launches in Windows but that it does the actual flash out at the command prompt when it reboots. Correct?
The flash runs as a program under Windows - it flashes the BIOS with Windows running and, IIRC, reboots when its done. Its reasonably sensible in that it checks that the new BIOS is appropriate, shows progress as it goes, retries if it has problems, and, if it really goes wrong - Failure!!! Failure!!! Failure!!! - it allows you to try to run it all over again ... but, to be honest, once you've reached that state your mobo is probably doomed.It says to unplug all USB devices before you start - I'd unplug everything bar mouse, keyboard and monitor.You really don't want any applications or unnecessary processes running while the flash is in progress. I wanted to boot into Safe Mode and flash from there but the utility won't run in Safe Mode. I'd be tempted to perform a Clean Boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796 and run the flash from there. At least make sure that you have stopped all the applications that normally start with Windows.And a final Don't - if it ain't broke, don't fix it ... :smileywink:... others may have more / better advice
- Wow, I'm surprised that the work is actually done in Windows, but that probably explains a lot of the failures. I know for an Intel board I have, their flasher launches in Windows, but the first thing it does is exit Windows to do the flash, after which the machine reboots and you can load Windows again.
Great tip about the clean install (incredible that the flasher doesn't work with Safe Mode, or Dell could make that part of their procedure to probably save themselves some warranty work), which is even more effective than manually shutting things down.
I do want to flash, as there have been some accumulated fixes (particularly the one that prevents booting the system when a USB drive is attached), and this machine is coming up on a year now, close to end of warranty. - Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that the flash program also works from DOS (floppy, CD, etc). A sticky post indicates that some do, and I think this is one of them. Given that, why on earth is anyone attempting this from Windows? Has a machine ever been bricked with a Dell update from DOS?
- ... well, the installation instructions on the download page state:
The file DME521-010111.EXE is using the Hard Drive format and is designed to be directly executed from Windows environments.
and I have yet to find any alternative instructions for 'installation' via other means ...
Message Edited by Philip42h on 11-18-2007 03:25 PM
:smileyhappy:
Message Edited by Philip42h on 11-18-2007 03:38 PM
mombodog
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Posted September 17th, 2007 18:00