M17x R4 BRICKED BIOS RECOVERY (not vbios)

I make this thread for people who have bricked their bios on their r4(not the vbios), since the release of the A05 I have seen multiple people bricking their bios. The solution to this problem is really easy.

Go to Drivers en downloads | Dell [Nederland] and download the .exe file. Use winrar to extract this file, you will have a file named like this QBR00EC.fd, rename it to M17R4.hdr

Now format an USB stick to fat/fat 32, and ONLY put this file on it. We are almost done!!!

Unplug the battery from your laptop and be sure the power adapter is not plugged in, and put the USB in the eSate(NOT USB SLOT). Now hold the end button and plug in the adapter, your alienware should come back to live now!!!! It will beep some times and restart few times.

Note: Leave CMOS battery in, or it wont work

Thanks to SVL7/Brian, clearing things up for me, just go back into bios flashing

Edit: for people who bricked their r3 bios: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/601701-bios-recovery-case-you-brick-your-m17x-r3.html (I didnt make this guide, dont forget to say thanks to the maker)

 

Good stuff. +1Rep.

 

Just an FYI in my thread it shows you how to go about finding out the recovery filename, etc...You could have figured this out in a few minutes by referencing it

 

Haha, doesnt matter, I looked it up manually in bios , if I do something, I want to know how it works, so for me it was worth my time ;D

 

"rename it to M17R4.hdr."

With a dot at the end? Might want to remove that dot, it could be confusing. I saw this on TI, good job

 

Changed , btw if any1 has still trouble recovering bios, you can always message me.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/678156-m17x-r4-bios-update-failed.html

Have you read this thread? I believe the file was named as per your instruction and initially it seems to flash but doesnt change the bricked state. Soon it stops being able to initiate a the flash sequence after several attempts. No lights nothings. Absolutely dead unlike just being bricked. I dont know if that is because the CMOS gets drained or what.

Pls verify. I am not an expert in this, but if I hope the guide you have set forth does really make a difference otherwise more people are gonna do risky stuff on bios thinking it can be recovered.

I am referring to only R4.

R3 works perfectly with the method mentioned in the link.

 

I have done this and can verify that this method works. I have an R4, to test, I went ahead and manually bricked my bios, and then used the M17R4.hdr blind flash and I'm back. Worked perfectly.

 

That a terribly great news.Just one more query for the boys...Were you aware that 2 of the bricked cases highlighted in our forums were those having AMD GPU. Do you suggest this is a mere coincidence or possibly some connection may be there.

Thanks buddy

 

Thanks for sharing this information. +1 Rep

 

Thanks for the post man! If only you did this a few weeks sooner

 

Haha I read the thread, to bad I didnt see it passing through when it was started, coz I think I could have helped out

 

Good finding. Thanks for the info.

I'm doing it now (fingers crossed 8

 

Hi, I was following those 'no power after flash' guys and it appears that the problem arises on the R4 if you have a bios A08 or later and then blind flash to an earlier version. Although they all (I saw 3) had AMD's that might well have been coincidence

 

It doesn't work for me. Fan 100% Speed, Keyboard with lights up but no beep or rebooting. USB in Fat, M17R4.hdr in the root of it and no other files. It's plugged on the E-Sata.


What's wrong?

Thanks!

 

Sounds exactly like it should be working. Does the USB flash any activity early on? What bios V do you have and what version is the .hdr file?

 

I am the author of that other thread... I followed this procedure when I failed update to A05. I tried blind flashing to A05, and it didn't work, and ended up COMPLETELY DEAD. I am not the only one that suffered that fate, I think I have heard of 3-4 more cases (another of which was in that thread, besides mine) that ended up in the same state of fully dead brick. I believe one of them had a GTX 680m, but the majority did have radeon chips. I don't know why the recovery sometimes fails, but I know I'm not updating the BIOS anymore, unless its absolutely necessary. Its risky, even with the official alienware tool.

Sounds like exactly what I had. I was in that state for 40 minutes (way longer than this should EVER take), so I unplugged it and tried to reattempt. Thats when I got the complete and total no power brick.

 

I'm on A10 and can't tell since there is no light on my USB Key whatever the hdr is (A05 or A10 Unlocked, it does nothing)

 

Oh, this sounds bad! If you had later than A08 and the image was from earlier (A05?) then from what I read, from a guy that sounded like he knew what he was talking about, said that the piece of micro-code that triggers the initial power on and blind-flash method gets trashed

You're only hope here is a bad USB stick but as Technos says it has happened before and you are mentioning the bios versions that appeared to be the cause. You could well be in for one of those calls to dell (if you have warranty) 'I dunno, it just happened!'

 

I'm not bricked, but I read it's the only way to downgrade back to A05 and I can't seem to have it to work without downgrading, I can't unlock my bios :/

Wondering what you just said : Dell trashed the methods to unbrick? What do you mean I need a broken USB Stick ?

Any idea?

 

Sorry, I meant the USB stick you are using might have some problem? Dell didn't actually 'trash the method' deliberately, it just appears that in certain (unknown) circumstances you cannot roll back the BIOS after A08, and may completely trash the machine!

Have you looked for a later unlocked bios - I assume it is still working ATM then?

What's your need for an unlocked bios? Maybe there is something someone else knows that may help?

 

Hi,
While updating my M17xR4 from A05 to A11 it has failed.
Starts at Windows start up repair.
File I have is M17R4A05WIN.exe will this work?

Thanks

 

That's the file to update it from within windows and I've seen a few people here having their machine completely trashed when trying to roll back from failed post A08 BIOS updates.

Is the machine 'standard' from dell or have you installed anything else. like an SSD? If you had made any BIOS changes then the update may have 'defaulted', maybe the problem?

All I can think of is to go into the BIOS and make sure all the settings (especially the win 8 ones like fastboot and UEFI) are at default. If you have warranty then this is a good time to call them in if that does not work.

HTH

 

Hi
the machine is standard, but does have a SSD.
Where can I get the file to flash from DOS?
Also, how do I get to the BIOS from the windows start repair screen, seem the only thing I can get?

Runs Windows 7 64

 

If it came with an SSD then you're good. Well, when the alienhead comes up press F2 to enter the BIOS. Look for a default option. If you don't even see the alienhead then that's a little weird!

The fact that you get as far as a windows repair screen says it is not 'bricked', just messed up somehow. If you search out 'blind flash R4', this will describe the steps, quite a bit of work and it can make things worse.

Usually only recommend that step if the machine will not pass POST AND the warranty is out.

Good luck

 

Well,

tried the defaults option in bios, nothing, does tell me the Bios is ver A05, but I was wondering if I should be trying to flash it with an A11 file as this seemed completed when it shutdown and hasn't worked since?

Tried the blind flash with the A05 file renamed to M17R4.hdr, still powers up to the windows repair screen but nothing else.

When holding the end key for this process how long should it be held? mine beeped 138 times, shutdown and restarted 2 times.

Maybe bios is ok? I can access it from the alien head screen and enter defaults, which hasn't made any difference.
maybe I need a Windows reload?

 

Not a lot to try now. You have two options, try a windows reinstall booting from the DVD or flashing the latest bios file. Tricky choice. The flash seems to have more chance since it failed during an update and was still reporting the 'old' bios. Sounds like it is messed up BUT blind flash does come with serious risks - do you have warranty?

The beeping and 2 shutdowns is normal - and alarming!

 

Sounds like the BIOS is ok, your getting to windows so I can't see the issue with the BIOS. Only issue it could be is if you set it from RAID to AHCI under the 'SATA opertation' mode in the BIOS. Windows will fail to boot if it is set wrong. Also check your legacy support is on and its not using UEFI.

I assume your using windows 7 which came pre installed.

 

Hi . That's the thing - the win 8 options like UEFI were introduced from A08 onwards. I was thinking one of those settings got added during the failed bios update and is now stuck since A05 can't access them? Kinda surprised it even boots, some failed updates after A08 go seriously wrong if you try to roll back

 

Thanks all,
sorry to have more questions
The Windows 7 came pre installed but I have the Alienware Windows 7 disc and a Alienware resource disc.
Bios is still set to Raid, checked earlier, boot priority is set to HDD, has an option of esata, is this the SSD? or is that the external port? Should it be booting from the SSD or the HDD?

Haven't found an option for legacy or UEFI, in the bios screen, can anyone direct me to it to check?

 

I would try changing from RAID to AHCI if your running IRST or a RAID array. See if that will allow windows to boot.

 

Hi Tried changing from RAID to AHCI, no difference,
guess it's off to Dell.

 

I'm needing to do this as a last resort before buying a new motherboard, but I'm missing a step somewhere - when I download the latest BIOS exe from Dell's support site and extract it, I don't get any .fd files or any files named similar to the example. Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

 

The filename in the exe I looked at was a .bin file (the 'normal' name for a bios file). This is the one that needs renaming to xxx.fd on the USB stick; where 'xxx' is the name given for your machines blind flash instructions

 

Thanks - I was 95% sure that was the one I needed, but I wanted confirmation from someone with more experience.

 

Okay, I ran the BIOS recovery with the .bin renamed to M17XR4.hdr. The machine started beeping steadily 60-80 times, then had a sequence of much faster beeps, then went silent. The lights are still on and the fans are still running, but the USB drive has stopped reading, and the machine hasn't rebooted itself. I haven't turned it off because I'm afraid of interrupting - do I need to manually reboot it, or was this a failed procedure?

 

Doesn't sound like when I did it . I Got all the multiple beeps and, I think, 2 restarts.

Guess you have to see what happens if you power it down and try it?

 

I did, and it's now well and truly bricked. No power at any point, no lights, fan, anything.

 

Cra*! I was worried that had happened. I've seen it three times if I remember right. It happens when trying to roll back a bios to an earlier one after a certain release. I noticed the .bin file was larger which seemed strange

Doesn't sound like the same, what bios version was you using and why did you need to flash it?

Only solution now is an MB replacement or tracking down a bios replacement service - they do exist. The ROM is not expensive but it's got to be soldered and requires professional equipment

 

I was using the most recent grabbed off of Dell's download site - A12. I needed to flash it because the machine was dead - power but no passing POST, beep codes indicating motherboard trouble. The BIOS flash was the last ditch "well, it doesn't really matter if it gets MORE busted at this point" repair attempt. A new motherboard is en route, and it's going to be the last piece of Dell electronics I, or anybody else I know, buys for a long time. -.-