2010 m17x Bios Update - REPAIR SCREEN AT BOOT, CANCELLED, THEN BLUESCREEN !

I would have tough that Dell could have made things better, but I realise they didn't really change a thing ...

I just installed the 2010 Bios Update for the M17x (A03 I think), and let it go ... when I came back, windows was in repair mode doing who knows what so I cancelled (since I have some very important files on this notebook and didn't want any more mess ...). So I cancelled, then finish, then reboot and now I have 2 windows choice at boot :

Windows 7
Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)

Both give me a BSOD !!!

Anyone got any idea ?

I was thinking the bios update didn't setup the raid properly ... how do you acces the raid controller panel on boot ?

Thanks !

 

From the look of your sig, you have the older m17 and not the m17x. You installed the wrong bios. The bios you just mentioned is for the new m17x not m17.

 

you flashed the wropng BIOS ....

YOU screwed up your machine by the sounds of it

 

Call the tech support, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to tell them everything, as it may be the end of your warranty.

 

Ok, now seriously, there might be a chance to help.
If you could manage to create a DOS boot disk and run the correct BIOS install program from there, you might get lucky and flash it back. You just need to find and tweak the program to make it run in the DOS mode.

 

Hi Guys,

thx for anwsering my post, my sign is outdated, i had an m17 with 4850, but since it was hell i got it replaced by the new m17x, with crossfirex 4870 ... Ts the right bios, I got it by entering the service tag on Dells support site ...

is wrong with that bios update ?

 

This changes the whole situation:
Do you have another HDD to put in and try installing windows on it? Maybe your current installation was ruined during/after the update (that's weird though).

Ideally I'd connect your hdd (the one with the valuable data) externally to another pc, backup the data, put it back to the M17x and do a fresh install.

 

no its ok now ... I was going by your sig

 

Another info : safe mode, bluescreen at disk.sys ...

 

you have RAID?

 

aye ... sounds like RAID issue / HD issue

 

Hey there. I also () my system up with this bios, A03. My hdd was in Raid 0, 160+160. In my case i got a white line blinking in the righ upper corner, nothing else happens.. After a while i reboot, and couldnt go into safe mode, not repair whith a OS disk not even reinstall it.. But i noticed that i was missing one 160 gig hdd.. Called the tech and he thought it was strange but when i said i had done a bios update he said sometimes the bios update may crash your hdd!!!!! Cant remember exactly what we did but something had messed my Raid 0 up big time. This might erase your files in your hdd but start the machine and press F10 the you will come to the Raid setup, if not this probably is a raid probleme. Cant remember how to do the setup but if nothing happens if you press F10 press F2 then your in the bios. Wat do your hdd say there??

 

Why don't you update your signature?

Alienware M17 < Is it a M17x R1 or R2?
Intel QX9300 Quad Core 2.53Ghz/1066/12Mb < A M17 with a QX9300? copper modded?
4GB DDR3 1067Mhz
Dual ATI Radeon HD4850 512 MB (CrossfireX) < The M17x-Rx doesn't have 4850's?
Raid 1 Seagate 250Gb 7200 RPM (x2)
2MP Cam, BT, TV Tuner, Finger Print Reader < The M17x-Rx doesn't come with a Finger Print Reader?
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

This would make it a lot easier to help

 

Turn on or off ahci in your bios.

 

Yes, raid 1

Wow, the support guys released the bios are complete retards ...

Satabwas not set has raid after update ... Since I was running raid 1 after update, raid splitted and windows tried to repair windows installation ... All kf this without asking me .... This is completely wrong !

Anyways, I have managed to set Sata has raid back, but now the drive is unbootable :

Status : 0xc000000e

Info : The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

THEY SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN IN BIG RED CAPS : DO NOT UPDATE IS YOU ARE RUNNING A RAID SETUP.

Will keep you inform, gonna try a simple windows repair via dvd disk.

 

Before the M17x I had the M17, with a special custom upgrade from Alienware, 2x 4850HD cards, I think only a fiew people where able to get the upgrade before they scrapped the m17 plateform, it had fingerprint, nothing else was modded ... I will update my sign soon =)

 

Startup repair failed, diskpart, bcdedit bla blah blah blah all failed :

THIS NEEDS STICKY :

IF YOU HAVE A RAID SETUP EITHER RAID 0 OR RAID 1 AND YOU WANT TO UPDATE BIOS (A03). AFTER BIOS IS UPDATED, DO NOT LET COMPUTER REBOOT BEFORE YOU HAVE RE-SET THE RAID OPTION IN THE BIOS !!! OTHERWISE WINDOWS WILL REPAIR A RAID DISK HAS NONE RAID = WRONG !


For your interest, I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 x64 live from USB Key and copying all important files to External Hard drive ... 100 gig ish ... then will go for a Windows Restore and if it doesn't work I will try an Alienrespawn ... wow this is a complet day of work scrapped ... really really nice ...

 

If you fix it tell us how you did it because when i fixed mine all data in the hdd wanished.. I dont have Raid 0 anymore just two separate hdd`s.. If theres another update of the bios i dont want this problem again Another thing, i got 1066 memory.. I was tinking of buying hyper x 1333 memory.. Do you gain some performance in something because when i overclock my 2.8 ghz cpu to 3.33 ghz i dont see any boost in games or 3dmark

 

1333mhz memory is useless on this system ... if you upgrade to Core i7, then you could benefit such ram, but with the QX9300 1066 is the max.

So after 2 days of lost time, I have to say that this BIOS totally ruined my windows installation, hard drives ... seems after reboot, since RAID wasn't activated, Windows Startup repair totally screwed the MBR, NTFS structure ... WOW I can't believe this was all done automatically ... If at least Microsoft would put the same dev time into Windows startup repair that they did in Genuine Advantage Check ...

I had to completely format drives and re-install everything ...

FINAL NOTE :

IF YOU APPLY BIOS UPDATE AND YOU HAVE A RAID SETUP, MAKE SURE YOU RE-SETUP YOUR RAID IN BIOS CONFIGURATION BEFORE BOOTING !!!