M17x R4 bios update failed!

The naming convention is also vastly different compared the bios file in R3. However I agree Dell seems to have pulled the file from being download. I was unable to download the file. Though it leads me to the point of downloading, then its states as file not found.

I was quite fortunate. But in the future I am not going to do bios update without making a call to Dell Tech. Worse I will make the engineer come here and do it....Lol.

NEVER DO IT WITHOUT AN UPS. I know most of you in the states dont have power cuts etc. But in India its always a russian roulette.

 

It would do it fine on battery, just do it with your batter installed and charged.

You can call tech support and they will do it remotely no questions asked. Might be a good idea with new untested bios versions.

 

So a little update on my situation. Since the call on Saturday, I waited for the box and it came today. But reading around a bit on here and that other forum it seems sending to depot is not a good idea. So I made another call to get a technician instead. The rep kept telling me it is a bad idea to send in a technician in case like this since they have to replace very delicate parts (cables, mainboards,CPU, and GPU) and home environment is not ideal. But I insist on that since I paid for the service and I need my laptop by the end of the week, so he gave in. He told me he would cancel my current depot order and would call me back tomorrow to set up a technician. So that's that, hopefully I can get everythi sorted out by the end of the week. Still, any advice is always welcome guys

 

Good luck.

Enviado desde mi GT-I9000 usando Tapatalk 2

 

Final update on my incident! So last Wednesday I expected to get a call from the rep to arrange an appointment with a tech but he never called. I tried to get another rep on the phone and this guy said my depot work was set up by someone else and he would not be comfortable changing that. So to save myself hassle and time since I will have to contact the original guy by email who set up the box delivery for me, I just packed my laptop up and let Fed Ex came and picked it up.

Needless to say ever since I checked my repair status on the depot site feverishly. Although the tracking shows that mine system got sent to the depot on Friday there wasn't any update on the site. I was worried and then later today I came home and bam! here it is my precious! I open it up in hope nothing is messed up.

Turn out either I am extremely lucky or it's just the internet being vocal again (or a mixture of both). My laptop came back in perfect condition with everything as it should be. There were no defect, no missing screw or broken hinge whatsoever. Since I formatted my stock hard drive back when I first purchased it, they couldn't get to windows with my stock drive. They thought there was a problem with it and said in the included letter that they dispatched a replacement hard drive to me in 3 days time. So not only my laptop arrived in pristine condition, they also give me a free extra hard drive?

And on the invoice, they checked the motherboard box indicating it was the part that got replaced. No question asked and I didn't have to spend a cent. I then proceeded to put back my self-purchased parts. Windows didn't come up at first and I was scared a little. But then I thought maybe the integrated graphics setting got fumbled up with the motherboard replacement so I press the power button once to set it to sleep mode. I pushed the alien head once more to wake it up and the screen gloriously lighten up. I Fn+F7'd and then updated drivers and stuff. Everything is working perfectly again. Also they did already update my BIOS to A05 so I won't have to worry about that anymore.

All in all I gotta say their warranty service is terrific even though I did have to jump through a few hoops. And their timing is amazing. Not counting the weekend, it only took 3 days for my laptop to get back to me. I am seriously considering getting extra warranty years now.

 

I'm glad that your problem is resolved.

 

That is a great result if a little difficult to start with.

I was wondering why they didn't just replace the HD or reinstall but it seems that they were determined to make sure you had no complaints. For all they knew you might have had important data on it so better to let you decide what to do.

Don't get too excited about having a spare though. If they follow my experiences with HD replacements you will get a returns label with the new one to send the old one back. I called them about this when I had a hd go completely dead. I didn't want to return a disc with my data on it and asked if I could destroy it before returning. I was told that if it had any signs of physical damage on it I would be billed . So I came up with a different plan

 

FYI... I have a modded Vbios and i got bricked flashing my bios, but of course the M17R4.hrd file fixed the bad bios flash. I'm in the process of verifying the Vbios being the culprit for my brick.

 

I am not understanding how you have an R4 that is going out of warranty? Have they even been out a year yet?

EDIT: Not you specifically, I meant OP. Just saw my name pop up...

EDIT2 : In fact I just realized Ivy bridge came out THIS year....How is your warranty expiring? I think you are confusing their 90 day tech support and your 1 year warranty.

EDIT3: I see it was a warranty transfer from a dead R3. They give you the option to purchase an extended warranty when you get another machine. This is pretty standard. You should be able to call in and extend it. They gave me that option for like $300~ on my supposed out of warranty R3 which I was told got a second year of warranty for free (which showed up in my profile for the service tag) which was subsequently removed and no dell tech is owning up to it so I am out of a year of "factory" warranty.

I realize you have since gotten this resolved. Bad flashes do this. You should still be able to press the keys that get you into recovery mode. When my R4 arrives I will try and make a guide for the R4 as well.

 

I heavily regret not taking video for what happened, because it was just freaky overall. Believe me when I say I tried EVERYTHING possible, all key combos and such. The flash went so bad, even low level functions must have been disabled.

 

how did that turn out for you?

 

FYI... When i had to Flash my Bricked Bios, i had to hold down the end key for about 1-2min before i ever recieved the beeps (4gb USB). Once beeps started it lasted 4-5min, each system seems to respond differently as in time intervals, so i am willing to hold down the END key for upto 10min before deciding to cancel the process since 10min is way to long and there is potential something is causing a loopback.

 

Sent it in to Dell depot for repair. There was no power going to the laptop, or at least it didn't know what to do with it.