M17x R4 bios update failed!

My bios update failed to A05! I just get a series of beeps now on boot, beep.....beep....beep


please tell me there is a way of recovering. I am going out of the country in less than 2 days and my warranty runs out on Aug 1, 2012

 

Try this and see if it will work

BIOS Recovery in case you brick your M17xR3

 

yes should work on r4 too.

 

Does anybody have the bios image file for the m17x r4? I can't seem to extract it.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qqtl0r3jzu6y4ea/QBR00EC.fd
A05 Bios
winrar can unpack dell exe files.

 

Extracted and followed steps, but it doesn't seem to be working. Phoenix said the recovery name is m17r4.hdr

 

it aint a phoenix bios in R4...
It's a Insyde bios.. so you need InsydeFlash

 

The thread call for Phoenix tool to decrypt bios and figure out recovery name. Holy crap I followed the instructions and now my m17 is beeping a crap ton. Mommy I'm scared! Sounds like failure alarms you would find on a space ship

 

first of all, it's an R4 with failed bios?

 

LVNeptune: "It will beep about 20-30 times then shut off and reboot about 3 times."

 

That is what the title said..... And now the m17 had stopped beeping, but no reboot and fans are still kicking fullspeed.... What should I do?!!

 

Recovering From A Bad Insyde Bios Flash
might work.. other recovery maybe only works for R3 with phoenix bios.

 

Well, the laptop shut off and now it's completely dead. No way of turning it back on.

Any more bright ideas?

 

How does your warranty run out in August on a R4? Didn't they just start making them in May?

 

Transfer warranty from R3 that died

 

Yikes that sucks.
Did you flash in windows?

 

Yes. I am royally screwed it appears. Absolutely no power goes through the laptop now.

Why God why?

 

Well if you can`t even turn it on, there is nothing to do I guess

I never ever flash in windows btw. Too much risk involved. I always do it through DOS

 

So there is nothing else do to? No more tricks?

 

You could try the old power drain trick - remove the battery ac power and then press and hold the power button for about a minute. Then reconnect AC only and see if it will at least power up.

 

nada, nothing.

Anybody know where I can find the BIOS chip, pull it, flash it, and reinstall it in 1 day?

 

In which case you'll need to get onto Dell and get a tech sent out with a new motherboard. I wouldn't recommend telling them that you tried a BIOS update they may not be too happy if you do - just explain the symptoms your system is giving you now.

 

That will take too long. I'm gone by friday.

 

Customers are not allowed to update BIOS?

@technos: Bad timing there bro. But since the warranty runs out in August you still have time right?

 

Of course they are. BIOS update failures are covered, which is normal

M17x R3 BIOS is Insyde, not Phoenix

 

Negative, I return on August 19

 

Anyone that you can delegate to handle it? Purchase (or demand) an extended warranty?

P. S. - That sucks man, I'm sorry to hear it.

 

If they replaced you R3 with another device, then they need to give you an extension on your warranty. Repaired devices get an extension on the part repaired/replaced, incase it dies. You reported a problem (in your case on the R3) before your warranty ran out, the fix must at least work for a reasonable amount of time.

 

It is probably too late now but if you just called as soon as this happened the repair probably would have happened on Thursday. It is next day in-home before a certain cut-off time which is pretty late. I have called like middle of the afternoon and had my laptop repaired before noon the next day.

If you tried blind flash then the only thing to do is to call Dell. Just give your laptop to someone and let them handle the tech call and send it to you.

 

I dont' know why the blind flash failed. The guide posted should have worked, as fans DID spin up and I could see my USb light flicker as it read the file, but then, nothing..... it didn't work. I don't know if it was because naming convention or something else, but phoenix said M17R4.hdr was it, but I guess that is not the correct naming convention.

Would anybody have pointers regarding pursuing extending warranty on the notebook? I'm just not gonna have enough time to sort this out before I leave. If any Alienware reps are watching and have a desire to show mercy, chime in

 

I went through the EXACT same thing about 2 weeks back..... the blind flash failed on my r4 too. The depot had to replace the mono as well. I am thinking this procedure is a big no go for the r4's. You should just be able to call a rep up and get your warranty extended easily enough though.

 

I've noticed.... The R4 is not very friendly to BIOS tweaks as the R3 was. The R3 would auto reset if something didn't add up right on next reboot. I had to pull the battery and cmos battery when one of my intel extreme tuning utiltiy settings didn't work with the R4.

 

ouch that's definitely one thing ill be careful of if I end up with an R4.

 

Why dont you call tech support and tell them what happened? tell them your situation and that it broke NOW and you are under warranty NOW and should be covered even if you return late. I'm sure they will work with you, they have never let me down if I was in a bind.

Have them send a box to your house and a friend send it out for you and when you get back your computer should be back. There are ways to work this out, its not just 'o well, i guess thats that'.

 

Yeah, i went ahead and PMed one of the reps on here with regards to my case, I'll see what he says.

 

that's scary, then what is the proper way to update BIOS with r4, just dont do it at all!?

 

You can always call tech support and have them do it.

 

after this miserable experience, I am making a dedicated DOS flashing USB flashdrive to avoid windows problems in the future. DOS is a cleaner, more simpler environment with less things that can go wrong.

 

general rule of thumb : if nothing is broken... don't fix it. or in this case "update".

the idea of bios update always giving me goosebumps, regardless if i always did it from DOS and haven't bricked a single computer doing it.
a single beep when watching the computer updating the bios would give me a few squirts in my pants lol
ok maybe not that extreme, but at least my heart rates matched the rates i got when i'm doing cardio.

 

Bios updates from the beginning of time have always known to be a 'cross your fingers' experience. Its really luck of the draw but like black-bean said, if its not broke dont fix it. Every bios update ive ever done has went smooth but once in a while it will brick and who knows why.

 

Thats why I liked the blind flash method on the R3's. Several times I would tweak the wrong thing in the bios and the system wouldn't post and a blind flash easily fixed the issue. Now it doesn't look like its gonna work so there is no recovery method if you screw up. That has me really uneasy about messing around in the bios or even upgrading.

 

First ....calm down....I know I would be freaking the crap out too being in your situation. Bios update does not void the warranty. If that were the case they wont put it up there for download or they would put in bold red letters that it should not be done by customers. Dell is much friendlier in terms of bios updates etc versus rest of industry.

My gut feeling is the naming convention maybe wrong and phoenixtool may perhaps be wrong...I was infact about to do this blind flash yesterday..but I was hesitant based on the new file name indicated by the phoenixtool.

I think Dell will have an alternate way of fixing it without mobo replacement.

For now its bricked so lets try all the methods possible to recover it.

Lets look back at LV neptune guide. The fact that it booted up when you attempted to flash the first time indicates the initiation process as correct.

Reformat your pen drive to fat32

You can put as many versions of the bios you want. During flash the system will detect the correct one and flash it. So dont worry having or experimenting by naming and placing a few of the same file in the usb drive.

I would suggest that you remane

QBR00EC.fd -----> QBR00X64.fd

Next as you already know create another file and rename it as phoenixtool suggested

QBR00EC.fd ------> M17R4.hdr

Dont worry about having more than one file or bios image. Its of no consequence. Only the correct file will flash.

OR you can try them one at a time. Apart from the bios file the way you do the flash is very important. Read on.

PLACE THE USB DRIVE IN THE ESATA PORT

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE BATTERY REMOVED. AND ALL OTHER DEVICES DISCONNECTED FROM THE SYSTEM.

ENSURE THE POWER CORD IS UNPLUGGED.

WHILE KEEPING THE END KEY PRESSED, PLUG IN THE POWER CORD
BUT REMEMBER...KEEP YOU FINGER ON THE END KEY UNTIL IT FINISHES BEEPING...IT TAKES AWHILE AND BEEPS A LOT. DONT GET FLUSTERED THINKING ITS NOT WORKING AND REMOVE YOUR FINGER. THIS LADY TAKES AWHILE.

THE BEEPS COME ON ONLY AFTER THE BIOS IS READ AND LOADED. IF YOUR USB HAS AN INDICATOR YOU MAY NOTICE ACTIVE READING GOING ON. IT TAKES MORE TIME THAN THE USUAL BIOS UPDATE. BE PATIENT.

THE first time I did it on a R3 I got freaked out and had removed my finger too soon. It got bricked. I did it again.

Keep it there until it reboots.

When it restart you can remove your finger. When it attempts to restart, the lights will come on etc, but it may not boot up and appear bricked.

REMOVE THE USB PEN DRIVE. It cause an issue during boot up. I dont know why..but until it was on there it kept beeping. Only when I removed the USB pen drive the computer booted up normally.

I hope my feedback helps..Do it calmly...palpitations do not help. I know how you feel..Be cool.

UPDATE:

I hope you have not tinkered with the Graphics Card. There is one guy who posted stating he had problems in doing blind flash because he had tinkered with his GPU. However he got the blind flash to work after removing the GPU.

 

Regarding bootup problem with stick in usb port - it may try to boot from it and as there is no OS its not successfull.

 

Did you try to remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes? It's right under the bottom lid

 

Its not because of it. As when I did it I had a normal running OS. The comp only booted up beyond light flashing and beeping once I removed the USB stick.

ALTERNATE METHOD

Insyde Bios Recovery Procedure For Notebooks

Download the original bios file ******.FD and rename it to ******.BIN and place it on a USB thumb drive.

Disconnected the AC adapter from the notebook.

Remove the battery from the notebook.

Insert the USB thumb drive into one of the USB ports on the notebook.

Held down the 'Windows' Key and the 'B' key.

Connect the AC adapter.

Press the 'Power' button on the notebook.

When the LEDs come on, let go of power button and the two keys held down earlier.

After about 10 seconds the notebook starts to read the USB thumb drive.

While searching for the file the notebook may beep once a second.

The number of beeps varies, depending on how big the USB drive is and
the number of files on it.

If the file was not found, the notebook will reset itself and try again.

If the file was found then it shouldnt take more than 30 seconds to load the file.
No beeping sounds are heard during the loading time.

When the file has loaded, the notebook starts flashing the bios file. This is indicated by beeps every 2

seconds.

This takes about 30-60 seconds.

About 5 seconds after the beeping stops the notebook will automatically shut itself down.

Switch on the notebook again.

BIOS should have recovered and the notebook should work again!

Hope this works for everyone!

 

It was this rename bit that 'fixed' it for me. Good luck.

 

Another queer thing is how they deployed this bios update...It started with A01 -> A02 ---> A05

Even the packaging is unusual. I wonder whats up with that.

 

A04 was released with a few of the latest delivered laptops.

 

@technos: you may need to remove the GPU in order for this to work.

 

I will try everything listed. I can't get around the fact that no power to the laptop, recovery laptop or not.


EDIT

Tried everything guys, no power to the laptop no way no how, no matter what key combo is pressed. Somehow, the low level boot block must have been corrupted with a bad overwrite of sorts. Most unfortunate.