Bricked my M17x

hi All,

while updating the bios via dos bootable usb, the system shutdown and now wont powerup, no beeps nothing.

tried various methods, crisis usb, Fn +B et al, but no joy.

hence in this regards, any help would be appreciated.


ps. reason of update was that the battery was not charging, and the dell website suggested to update to the latest bios.

power was on, battery out at the time of update

dos usb was used because system runs on ubuntu 10. could /should have used wine,

system is out of warranty

has Nvidia mcp79 chipset, 280x sli cards


thanks

zafar

 

Hello, zhussain, welcome to NBR.

See if this thread can help:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/404987-how-recover-bad-bios-flash-phoenix-bios-only.html

 

cheers Katalin,

i went through this procedure a couple of times, nothing happens, niether the usb, nor the alienhead lights up, no fan activity

thanks again

zafar

as my system is a plain vanilla M17x, maybe it dosent come with a backup bios rom

cheers

 

I know you have the M17x, i had one too awesome system.

One important step that is being looked out pretty often is that the Crisis USB recovery drive needs to be created in a Windows XP environment.
Doing it in Windows 7 or other won't work, not even in compatibility mode.

Also, plug the USB key in the eSATA port or the USB ports on your left as you face the laptop's screen.

 

hi mate,

just went through this procedure, just now, made a fresh crisis usb on an xp system, plugged into esata port on the left and all the steps. kept pressing the fn+b for 5 mins, but the fans didnt kick in after the power is plugged in and power button pressed.

the question that comes to my mind is that, should the fans/alienhead kick in. when the power button is pressed, as mine dont after the crash.

have done the above steps before without the 280x cards too,

cheers

 

If nothing else you will have to call up dell and see if they can arrange to fix it.
Or maybe try other computer repair shops near you?- Might be cheaper

 

Good call on removing the cards to minimize possible issues. I would remove the hard drive(s) too.

You have to keep the Fn & B combo pressed when you plug the power cord and when you press the power button. Try the Win key + B combo too.

Is the blue ring of the power plug lit?

If it still not working with the above taken into consideration, check to see that the ribbon between the media bar and motherboard is properly seated and not damaged (might be the cause).

Try plugging your key in the USB ports on the left.

Good luck

He's out of warranty, mate.

 

thanks katalin,

will keep trying, and post an update

i took it to a repair shop, they want to take the bios chip out and replace it with a new burned chip. but for the new chip, they require a copy from a similar system, according to them the rom files from the dell site dont have the required preconfigurations and settings,

my thoughts are that this should be done when all else fails,

would programming the bios chip with bios.wph file work ?





cheers

 

I was going to tell you this as a last resort.

If you won't be able to recover using the normal recovery procedure, replace the chip.
There's an e.bay member selling already programmed BIOS chips for the M17x if you want to go this route.

BIOS CHIP:Alienware M17X, M17X-R1 | eBay

 

do you know the exact location, and part number of the chip

cheers

 

Unfortunately, no.