Don't know if this will help in this situation but give it a try

Click the Start button, and then click Run.

In the text box type regedit, then press the key.

NOTE:  The User Account Control window may appear. If so, click Continue.  

Double-click the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to expand its contents.

Double-click the folder SYSTEM to expand its contents.

Double-click the folder ControlSet001 to expand its contents.

Double-click the folder Services to expand its contents.

Right-click the DELLBIOS folder and select Delete.

Close all windows and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Run the BIOS installer to flash the BIOS.

Unfortunately not....the suggestion I posted was for a specific issue which I thought might work here.

Try flashing to an earlier version first say A06 and then try A12 and finally A13

A06

www.dell.com/.../inspiron-17r-n7110

A12

www.dell.com/.../inspiron-17r-n7110

A13

www.dell.com/.../inspiron-17r-n7110

Thank you. I had tried all three. Same result. I have even moved the temp folder created by the installer to the desktop and ran it directly from desktop.  I seem to have more options that way, but I am not brave enough to modify any of the settings.

Laptop was originally supplied with Windows 7 64bit yes? Have you upgraded to Windows 8?

Do you see any error messages whilst trying to flash BIOS?