A16 BIOS installed

OK - took the plunge and installed the A16 bios. Installed fine. Got a message before it booted regarding the power adapter. Booted fine. Everything working. Got a message from Quickset saying the battery wouldn't charge due to the plug not being inserted properly - when I checked the icon it said it was running on mains and charging (!).

BUT and this is a BIIIIIIGGGG BUT

You still CANNOT install nVidia graphics drivers from the nVidia website. Come on Dell - pull your finger out and fix this!

EDIT - not advisable to install this - FPS in TF2 dropped from 60 to 18. Skyrim had incredible slow down. I have rolled back to A14.

 

Unless it fixes the problem with the fans speeding up when the temps hit 55C I will be sticking with A12 for the life of my laptop. Last time I updated the BIOS was A14 the laptop would not turn on it keep shutting off when trying to turn on when I had a USB hub plugged in. I was able to flash back to A12 and everything is working fine. Also with A12 I can install any Nvidia driver from the Nvidia website or from the Dell website.

 

I have A14 (11/11/11) and will be keeping it unless the newest version proved to be stable enough.

 

Flashed to A16. Seems stable.

 

Unfortunately the driver site seems to be down. Are there any enhancements that make it worth installing. Mine came with A14 installed and everything runs great.

 

^^My temps went up a bit. Needless to say I revert back to A14 and all is cool.

 

No. Keep the A14 for the moment. See my original post to see why.

 

I've installed and everything thing is stable with no issues.

I have however run the Windows Experience Index again and my hard disk score dropped from 7.7 to 7.6. I have installed a few more apps since the first test though so this could explain that.

 

For me A12 is flawless and is what came with the system. Except for the speed fan issues which I think is not the fault of the BIOS but the nVidia drivers as the Intel Integrated Graphics don't speed up the fan. I am always nervous updating anything that can brick the entire system so I am sticking with A12. The only upgrade I might do down the road is to install more RAM. I don't need the most current BIOS for that.

 

Funny how the listed bios's for update are A11 and A16. I wanted to try A16, but surely don't want to roll back to A11 if I don't like A16.

 

Here is A12 which came with my laptop.

 

There was a link for 'older versions' and the A14 was there just a couple days ago. Strange how things disappears all of a sudden.

 

A16 installed on mine, works good. Keyboard backlight seems to keep its settings now, as well. Dunno if that is BIOS or not, but it is interesting.

 

sticking with a12, have had no issues since installing it early last year so if it aint broke, why fix it?

 

I know how to turn the back lighting on and off, but haven't figured out any other settings. Please tell this bonehead where the settings are located.

 

Backlight on the keyboard is controlled with with the keyboard shortcuts or Dell's Quickset Application.

 

what other settings do you want to know?

 

Are there any settings for length of time they stay lit. I know how to turn them on and off as well as brightness. I just thought there might be more.

 

If you press the quickset button on the laptop (cog wheel touch button) then actually click on the picture of the keyboard in the panel that comes up then you can alter those settings iirc


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.124254,-0.146963

 

Thx for that info. I obviously haven't played with my L702x near enough.

 

A12 is nowhere on the Dell site anymore so I flashed it to A16. It booted up no problem with my USB Hub plugged in. I am glad to see that A14 is gone because that BIOS was buggy.

 

Been on 12 since I got my XPS and have no intention of upgrading at all. I'm not a gamer but I don't like being tied to installing Dell only drivers as it pertains to the graphics. I have zero issues with 12 and probably won't ever upgrade the BIOS.

 

Not sure why you think you can only install dell only drivers. I have the latest Nvidia Beta's on mine with zero problems.

 

I'm thinking of installing this bios but not sure if its safe to use or not. My l702x came with a14 installed. Should I update or stay on a14?

 

In my opinion if everything works fine, then stay with your current bios. But I am kind of person who always uses latest software, drivers, bios etc.

 

I'm the same, normally I would just install the latest and be done with it but with all the problems with the bios its made me conscious

 

Well, for me A16 works so far so good like all the previous versions I've flashed (A11, A12, A14) Check this post, there was confirmed by mkj that it fixes the fan spin up's and slow down's. But I did not had this problem since my stock bios (A10), so I can't say nothing about it.

 

A16 improved the fan speed problems. The fan still spins up when it hits 55C but it does not spin down right away and even when lite web surfing it is no longer speeding up and down all the time.

If you have A14 then flash to A16. A14 is complete rubbish. I could not turn on the laptop when off without it turning off when having a USB hub plugged in. With A16 it is fine.

 

Don't tell me not to push the red button lol. I couldn't help myself, so I installed A16 today and so far no issues.

 

I'm having a similar problem now after going from Bios 12 to 16. I was able to turn on or restart my XPS when having an external hard drive plugged into my USB port but after flashing the new BIO it won't restart or come on unless I unplug it. It just hangs there on a blank screen until I pull it out.

So sick of Dell and their crappy BIO updates. Seems they fix problems only to create new problems. I shouldn't have flashed but I just got my new Hard Drive installed after my old one crapped out on me in 6 months. Figured I'd flash BIOS to the newest version while updating everything.

 

Probably unlikely, but have you tried changing the USB selective suspend in the power options to disabled (or enabled if it already is)? It does technically have some say over how the USB operates when waking etc so you might as well see if changes anything.

 

I don't have a problem booting to Windows with the USB drives plugged in while using A14. I did installed A16 and revert back to A14, but I since upgraded again to A16 and all seemed well.
There might be a problem with the USB hardware. Call tech support and have them diagnose and/or get it repair.

 

I guess I jumped the gun.

It does reboot or turn on with a USB External Hard Drive hooked up too it. It just takes a bit longer. After the Windows Loading Screen it stays black for 7 some odd seconds or less. When it first did that I pulled out the USB Cable and it loaded straight up. It only does the black screen when USB Cable connected to External Hard Drive. It always loaded up straight away with any USB Cable attached. Don't know what it's doing this now.

 

^^This happened to me with the two defective rear USB 3.0 ports. I did everything but nothing helped other than replacing them (USB daughterboard) and everything is smooth sailing ever since.

 

Did they work other then that problem? Mine seem to work fine and have correct speed. It's just annoying.

 

Strange, it's not doing it now.

It's restarting fine with USB's plugged in. Odd.

 

I was on A12 updated to A16 but now my fan constantly seems to be running I was more happy with A12.

How do i restore A12

 

Just installed A16 last night, it all seemed fine with improved fan control and then I sent the laptop to hibernate came back a few minutes later and it was on the login screen. Did it again, went to get a drink and again came back to a laptop that was on. A16 apparently makes the laptop turn straight back on after hibernating - i had to go out and have been stuck waiting for delayed trains since so I couldnt check anything else (sat on a non moving at this very moment) and im now paranoid it will do it with shutdown and restart as well!

 

My fan seems to be running more then usual too. Maybe we're paranoid but who can blame us when it comes to Dell updating BIOS. They screwed up so bad with the last BIO update that I expect the worse from anything from them. Sucks paying 2 thousand dollars for an XPS and within 6 months I've had a Hard Drive die and a left click button screw up. Then all the weird things that happen when updating a driver or BIOS.

 

Yeah I dont have a A14. Is that supposed to be the best one. I am on A10, should I update to A11?

 

The fans run longer on A16 which is better than having it speed up and speed down again.

 

I'm not convinced any bios after a12 has been properly tested with the pre-gf116 (old l702x) boards so I'm just not gonna bother... A12 works fine


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.124100,-0.147069

 

Hi I have been having issues with my USB 3.0 ports randomly dropping out. The Dell tech came and swapped out the 3.0 daughter board as well as the MOBO. Generally the 3.0 ports work better although I have had a 1 or 2 times where they stopped responding. I have noticed this during shut down where it takes an extended time to turn off, then the system reboots and says " a driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state" . I think this may still be related to the USB 3.0 because every time I get this error the 3.0 ports are not working.

Question is have you guys seen any improved 3.0 port functionality or reliability with A16 BIOS ?

Thanks to all !

 

Same here. Swapped out a daughter card but I think the problem is still there. It worked better than before but still cuts out during long copy operations.

 

Thanks Caltino, so the BIOS update seemed to help ? BTW I noticed that if you enable USB wake support in the BIOS that helps a lot. It seems that the 3.0 ports some how go to sleep and don't wake up.

 

No, I did not do a bios update, still on factory A14. I just got the tech to swap out the card, which helped, but still not 100%. Hard to tell since I don't use those ports too much. I'll try your suggestion though.

 

Also under device manager right click on " Generic USB HUB" ( its in there twice ) Select - Properties,

Then Power management.

In power management De-Select " Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power "

I did this a few hours ago and haven't had a single problem so far. Do it for both Generic USB hubs

SEE ATTACHMENT

 

Mine seems to come on every 5-10 mins and run for about 30 seconds real hard. Just surfing the internet with Firefox too. I mean it's not that loud but it's annoying and it never did this before A16. I just wish I could find information on what A16 changed.

 

There is official changelog, but there is nothing said about fan speeds.

 

I had done this when first troubleshooting with Dell. At the time, there was definitely hardware faults so it hadn't helped. They are still unchecked so I don't know if they are making a difference.