m17x r2 BIOS update fail

Hi im New to the forum I recently purchased an m17x r2 off eBay. I had issues with the computer freezing trying to load games and video chat. I tried updating the BIOS to a10 and it froze at block 37 I have no screen but all my lights turn on. The eyes flash a couple times like it wants to start but no sounds it just black screen. Any help plz

 

Not having owned an R2 I can't say for sure but I think you need to search out 'blind flash for R2'. This is where a copy of the bios file is placed on a USB stick and then a sequence of battery removal, power cord, and a key press, will trigger the machine to load a bios file from the usb (must be a fat 32 format I believe).

This is what I have done on an R3 when it would not boot. HTH

 

Howdy newbie. Welcome to the forums. :hi2:

I swear I thought I just answered this...I must be getting crazier by the day. :wub:

Does it give off a series of beeps or do the CAP/SCROLL/NUM lights flash when you turn it on? That may indicate an error in the hardware that's preventing it from POSTing. If there are none of those indicators, try plugging in a external monitor to the DP or VGA slot and turn the system on. See if anything comes up on the external display.

 

Thanks for the welcome I have tried the eternal monitor and got but no beeps keyboard lights up like normal fans kick on for a few seconds but shut off no lights flashing occasionally I get a couple flashes of the eyes for the harddrive I think its for but it doesn't act like its posting ans screen never even flickers just stays black

 

The laptop 5870m CFX? Sure the first or second vga dead unfortunately this 100%

 

Post your specs, lets see what you've got. If you do have a dual GPU setup, then the primary GPU may have died.

 

M17x r2 single 685m q820 processor 6gigs of RAM would flashing the BIOS toast the video card?

 

Sorry tried external monitor got nothing from thataswell

 

Think micky d is right. You'll need to blind flash a bios from a usb stick.

 

"single 685m" ??? I do not think that there is such a card...

 

Im Sry its a 295m

 

No problem mate,but does not exist mobile GTX 295m
Your card verisimilar NV Geforce GTX 280M

 

Lol my bad I had it two days before this happened

 

Yeah, the 685m and 295m raised my suspicions a bit too as those aren't known cards for the Alienware systems. Like Joe said, your best hope is to do a blind flash and see what shakes loose.

 

Thank you guys can I make a crisis USB from an old BIOS? I called alienware customer support and he said I jumped from a04 to a10 can i do the recovery with a10 so its to the newest or do I do it from a04? Thank you

 

A09 or A010 the best,but if don't know totally run and when finish no restart the system,it is hardware problem unfortunately.

 

I made the crisis disk but still get nothing. Did a power drain for 45 seconds then held fnb and it didn't do anything lights flashed on USB but it sat for 45 minutes and nothing changed so I guess im sending it to Dell thanks for the help guys

 

Yup. If you didn't get any response for blind flashing, your motherboard/BIOS may have bricked. Changing out the motherboard may be the only option now. If you're sending it in for Depot Service, make sure to remove the hard drive(s) from your system beforehand. That way there is no risk of losing your data. The depot does not need the hard drives in it anyway to fix your machine.

 

Do they put a fresh install on them?

 

They will if you leave the hard drives in.

 

Is there a proper way to insert bios into usb and how to do blind flashing?

 

Try this.

 

Bro,that video wasn't very helpful.Any other ideas?

 

Here are the manual crisis recovery steps for our R2s.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/404987-how-recover-bad-bios-flash-phoenix-bios-only.html

 

How to make wincris autoinstall all the files need to the usb drive?
When i double click on the wincris, pop-up window saying :
i) Error : Failed to start service "WinCrisis"
ii) Warning: the driver loaded fail.

I'm trying to blind flash A10 bios in alienware m17xr2.

 

Did you attempt to do this on a Windows 7 system? You can only create the crisis recovery media under Windows XP. Follow these instructions explicitly. Let us know how it goes. I hope it works out for you.

 

My usb drive not even flash.
Plz i really need help.
It has been 1 week since my laptop won't start up!

 

You created it the right way with Windows XP? If you followed the directions to the letter, and it wouldn't blind flash, then it may be your motherboard is too far gone.

 

yup,i created it with windows XP.
But i done nothing before with the motherboard.

 

One thing I noticed in Fox's instructions, there was a step skipped. It should read:

7. Shut down your Alienware, insert your usb key into the esata port (left side).

8. Remove battery, ac adapter and perform power drain.

9. Press down keys FN and B together. Whilst holding down FN and B, plug the AC adapter into the notebook. Keep pressing the FN and B, then press and hold the power button for three seconds, then let go keeping the FN and B buttons still pressed.

10. The HDD lights on the alien head should illuminate and stay on, then usb drive will flash briefly then pause and then will flash continuously for 30 seconds, the lcd display will remain blank. AT THIS POINT DO NOT TURN OF THE COMPUTER.

11. After 5 mins approx the computer will automatically shut down and reboot hopefully recovering your computer back from a bad bios flash.

 

Just joined to say THANK YOU JOKER! Followed the steps and got my alienware back to life! THANK YOU THANK YOU!