Help with Alienware 15 R1 bios error

I was prepping my laptop to sell it and during a bios flash it froze interrupting the flash and bricking the bios.

I was able to restore a good bios with my hardware flasher to A01 and after that I am getting this error in the bios...


In windows I have updated to A02 A04 etc up to A10 but the error remains.

I have reset the cmos but the error is still there.

Does anyone else have an idea on how to fix this? It seems to take the laptop longer to post than before and can't sell it in this condition. Thanks in advance.

 

Did you reset the BIOS back to factory defaults after you flashed it again?

 

Yes I believe I did but the error still shows up. After I close the error and try to enter the "performance options with alienware graphics amplifyer" it will freeze. At one point the error didn't show up any more and the "performance options with alienware graphics amplifyer" settings were greyed out. I don't have a graphics amp, it is an observation with that menu.

 

try full cmos reset?

Unplug cmos battery + full battery + DC power, and RAM (For safe measure) and hold power button for 10 seconds

Put all back together. try again

 

I've tried that but no difference. I have discovered that the intel ME (management engine) firmware is corrupted also, although I have restored a good bios I now have to try to find and flash a good ME firmware. :-( It is probably the cause of the error in bios.

 

Thank you for your help. I believe the intel ME firmware corruption is the cause.

 

@Johndill

This could be a long departure from your problem, but maybe this can trigger an idea how to fix your problem:

1. I had very similar problem with 13 r3 after flashing a new bios 2 years ago. I had no pop-up as in your picture, but after the flash, I was not able to install IME and IRST driver in Windows 10 (saying incompatible system and seeing yellow marks in Device manager).

However, the Bios let me enter Windows 10.

Switching from RAID ON to AHCI in Bios solved this problem (using safe mode procedure) and I could install both with no problem.

I had exactly this symptom during the above troubleshooting, plus laptop would not completely turn off, the lights (KB) would stay on.

Luckily you have the flasher !!!

 

Yes, it is very similar to my issue actually as I cannot install the driver either as it will say something like "platform not supported" , however unfortunatly I do not have the intel managment engine in device manager at all as it is completely missing. I believe because the firmware is missing or corrupt, device manager is unable to find the device at all.

Ah thanks, so the slow post does have something to do with the ME not working correctly.
Yes, the CH341A flasher with the SOC clip is very usefull to have around.
I believe all Alienware laptops after this gen have a bios USB recovery, just not the haswell systems.

 

@Johndill

I forgot, yes post was also about 1 minute during the problem I had.

'platform not supported', correct.

 

@Johndill

During past 3 years I have seen this problem with Dell lapotops. The solutions I have seen were HW flashing new IME or MB swap.

I have also HW flashed 120W 1060 vBios (compared to original 78W). What a difference !!!

 

I would like to know how to HW flash an IME, that would be easier.

Haha, nice, those little AW13 R3 are a beast. :-D

 

I definitely read it in this forum. It was a separate chip from Bios (it was an Alienware).
I think @Vasudev knows much more.

 

@Johndill

Found it, this 'could' point you in right direction:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-13-r1-bios-bricked.828772/

 

Thanks, I remember reading that thread now as it helped me fix my AW13 R1 bios, a user created a complete bios + EC + ME to flash.
I posted at the end saying it fixed my AW13R1 bios but the GPU was missing, not sure if it's dead or there's no VBIOS.

I've got a HW flasher dump of the bios chip from another AW15R1 model I sold a while ago (new owner was happy to let me get a bios dump) but it did not fix the ME, perhaps the AW15R1 stores the ME somewhere else?

 

You are welcome, NP.

I tried to search, but found nothing re. location of IME chip.

When you HWINFO64, can you see this?

 

I got a personal unlocked bios at one point and yes I did have the intel ME info there then, but now there is no intel ME information there anymore, only ACPI Devices and SMBIOS DMI, intel ME/intel ICC is now missing.

That's what is making me think the firmware is bad as the OS can't find the IME at all, I flashed back the unlocked bios today for the extra bios menus and found the ME firmware version says N/A.

 

All fixed! The issue was caused by a corrupt Intel ME, if you need any bios fixes then "win-raid.com" is the place, a user there created a personal full bios flash with the IME for me for my system only which reflashed a new IME. The intel ME is now showing up again in device manager and in HWinfo. :-D

 

Yes he's talented and now a mod at win-raid. He unlocked BIOS menus for judal57 who had 15 r1.
Keep that copy of full SPI 12MB with you or upload it to cloud drive.
You can also make USB recovery stick for recovery Dell BIOS which was done by Lord Zog at AW Arena forums.