Studio 1555 dead after trying to update bios from A8 to A9-----DO NOT INSTALL UPDATE

Studio 1555 dead after trying to update bios from A8 to A9

So today I found that Dell had an update for the current A8 BIOS on the Studio 1555 that I bought in May of 2009. Just a quick comment, I have had nothing but problems with this laptop. I got it with VISTA 64bit, which you all know sucks balls!!!! So once Win7 came out I bought a 500gb HD and Win7 Ult. 64bit, but as I said, it doesn't seem to be just one thing, its the blue tooth, or the network card, or explorer keeps crashing and restarting by itself constantly, especially yesterday. Plus I've been trying to use this laptop as a dual boot with Ubuntu and Win 7.

So I found the BIOS update today, DL it and closed everything and then started the update. Says its going trough sectors and there are 39 of them, when it got to #20 the thing just stops, everything then freezes after trying to open a new window, ctrl-alt-delete doesn't work, nothing works. So I take the battery out and then of course I go to turn it back on and its dead or bricked or what ever you want to call a $1300 piece of on my coffee table.

So after that I found that a few other people have had the same problem and some people haven't, but I have yet to find someone who has fixed it. So I brought up the ol' Dell Chat support and of course they tell me"oh my supervisor says that your hard drive and mother board are dead now".....!!!!!! I asked how that can be with something they post and let the end user install, now my computers dead, I'm supposed to wait a few days for a tech to call me a schedule an appt. to come to my home and replace the "motherboard and hard drive" according to the chat support.

First of all I am about to smash this thing with a freaking hammer, I have been with PCs forever and when I was looking to buy a laptop, my wife said, don't buy another PC, all you do is spend days and days at your desktop when something goes wrong with windows, she of course is a MAC person and has always used them, but I said "oh no hun, this new Win7 is going to be great and Dell have great laptops" Holy on a shingle I was totally wrong and I will never buy another PC, it will be Macs from now on once I get a chance to buy a new laptop or desktop. But anyway, since Dell has about the test customer service I have ever experienced, I decided to post my conversation with the person from dell....enjoy, and by the way..... DO NOT INSTALL DELL STUDIO BIOS UPDATE A8 TO A9, YOUR COMPUTER WILL DIE.....I'm only kind of lucky since the computer is less than a year old and I have 2 years of onsite service if I need it. So anyway, here is my conversatation, take it as you will, but I would be very wary with this whole thing and Dell laptops in general, Dell, your company used to be all over the news and mags. because you were made by a smart guy who liked computers and wanted to give people what they really wanted when they needed to buy a new computer. Well I can tell you that ever since Dell came about as a company, all of that flash and glitter about their company, computers and people has faded so badly, these things might as well be sold in a vending machine, you think that when you spend $1300 you will get something really good. What a crock of crap...forget you dell, this thing is being sold ASAP after it is fixed......oh yeah heres my conversation for all you other dell studio 1555 people who need help or ammo in case their crappy customer service doesn't help you.

please for the sake of all of us, if you can and are willing, please read the doc I attached to this post which is the chat log between me and the Dell support person....we are all going to need help with this at some point if a simple BIOS update that is made to run in windows kills are computers!

 

Can you take the cover off the back and get to the CMOS battery?

If so pull it out for a couple of minutes re-install the battery and try to boot it.


Sounds like you got a lemon.Happens to the best of them.

The first 1557 i got was big problems too.After a long phone call to Dell they decided to replace it with a new/different 1557.All has been well so far.

This is my third Dell laptop and my first problems with their hardware in nine years.

 

Hello, i have the same problem.
We replaced the motherboard and made another attempt to update. Laptop died again!

If the problem is not on motherboard, where is it?

The laptop was purchased 2 weeks ago and has already repaired 2 times.

How i can update my bios?

 

Even I updated my 1555 from A08 to A09, I got no problems whatsoever.

 

I have flashed A09 too without any problem.

 

First update from A07 to A08 is success, but from A08 to A09 is failed.
Two motherboard, two failure.
The problem is not software ... there is a problem in hardware (is not the motherboard).

 

OP, I don't think a failed BIOS flash will kill your hard drive like what the Dell tech said. It seems that the motherboard died when the BIOS didn't flash properly. When a BIOS flash is going on, it erases/updates the data in ROM chips on the motherboard. It never erases anything off of your hard drive (it just reads data off of it.) I wouldn't worry about your new hard drive dying... most likely, it's just the motherboard.

If your hard drive was somehow affected, you also have a warranty with Western Digital who you bought it from. WD will replace your new hard drive for free if there are indeed bad sectors on it.

A working motherboard will power on and display a message (No hard drive detected) if the hard drive is bad. Your description of the problem is that the system is refusing to power on which indicates the motherboard is dead.

The Dell Rep you chatted with must have just googled the word "sector" and thought the hard drive had bad sectors, but the "sector" you saw on the message was referring to the sector of BIOS ROM that's being updated, not the sectors of your hard drive.

Anyways, best of luck with the replaced motherboard.

 

So yes I can and did take the battery out to reset the CMOS, but of course that didn't work and the damn little thing that holds the battery came unglued from the motherboard, but I was able to put some super glue under a tiny part of that piece and got it to stay put on the motherboard.


So, I know a bunch of people have installed it with no problems and a bunch have the same problem as me, well right now it is Tues. the 12th and the guy who I guess is contracted out by Dell just called me to setup the appt. for onsite service. So thats not too bad having to wait a day and a half for him to call and he is coming to my house tomorrow to work on the laptop they give him a window to work in 3 hours!!!! 2pm-5pm he might be here for the whole time....anyway, when I was just talking to him, he said that Dell has given him a new motherboard and new hard drive to replace mine parts with, but after reading the responses to my post, where a few of you have said that you now have had 2 motherboards die, I'm really worried that the same thing is going to happen, so I'll be for sure showing these comments to the tech tomorrow. Damn, I didn't have a laptop ever until this past May, and now not having it for almost 4 days...damn those things are convenient, even when my desktop is 4 feet away, got to love remote desktop on the couch.
So anyway, I will post again once this guy works on my laptop, hopefully the whole thing will die and they will just give me a new one.....

the thing I still don't get it, why does Dell keep the update on their site for all of us to install by ourselves when they know it is killing laptops and hardware inside the computer? That is so dumb Dell, are you trying to make all of us Dell owners never go back to Dell again after we decide we need a new laptop in the next year or so!!!!????? I mean come...on...Dell!!!! You guys are just going to sit around and say, ok, we'll send a tech out to replace your motherboard and even though we know that it still may not work and it totally might kill your motherboard again, we'll still send someone out to replace the parts and watch your computer die together as we wait for ever for the BIOS to update and smoke a bull!!! Happy updating to all of you who haven't yet, and I wouldn't do it anyway unless you don't want your laptop to be working by the end of today.....I'll post what happens tomorrow when the tech dips out....until then......Dell you SUCK!!! I'd rather get my money back and buy something else...I really hope someone at Dell has the job of surfing the net to find postings on forums like this one, its companies like them that need to wake up and surf the net for these comments and problems people have with their computers...if Dell keeps going on like this I don't see why another good computer company couldn't come in and totally take all of their pissed off customers who would happily buy a laptop that will most likely not have any issues, hopefully!! Anyway....

 

iHate - I'm sorry to hear about the problems with your 1555 - and equally sorry to hear that you paid $1300 for what amounts to a $700-something computer. I bought mine over the counter - it was normally $799 and was discounted to $749. It has a T-series processor but it came with a 9-cell and an ATI 4570. As you can see from my sig - I have quite a few laptops and work (for free) on other people's systems as a hobby - I have two in the "shop" now (one HP and one Toshiba). Anyways - this (un-solicited) piece of advice is too late - but I have to say it: Unless you are having serious problems with your laptop (in which case you should return it before the 30 days has expired), you should rarely update the BIOS. Someone much smarter than me told me that in 2003 and I have heeded his advice. Good luck with your 1555...

PS - my employer, who buys Dells by the hundreds, has the same guidance: No BIOS updates - systems are turned in for warranty repair if there are any problems.

 

Why would you NEVER update the BIOS to a computer?

I understand the thinking behind "Dont fix what isnt broken" but if your computer is having problems that can only be fixed with a bios update (CPU support,fan issues,compatibility with certain hardware,temperature etc...) then I think its very sound advice to do it.
Not just motherboards either but video cards as well.

 

I guess another way of re-stating my recommendation is this: check out your new computer, thoroughly, when you first get it. If you encounter a serious or even just irritating problem - then my recommendation is that you send it back/return it to the store or manufacturer. I don't know how many threads I have seen here in the past three+ years where someone bricked a laptop with a BIOS update. Couple this with the fact that I am running Vista 64 - on a Dell 1555 - just like the OP - with zero problems. Couple this with the fact that I work with Dell laptops, and impatient users, every day. To me, based on admitedly limited information, I would guess that his problems were S/W based. I would have tried a scratch-build before I updated the BIOS if I had been in his situation. And, I hate to say this, but the OP's username leads me to believe that he might be just a tiny bit impatient when it comes to problems with his systems. Either way, I wish him the best and I continue to recommend against BIOS updates.

Edited to add for OneCool: Dell 1555 BIOS A09 is a recommended update - not urgent. The fix was/is to "enhance display quality". The OP's problems were Bluetooth, network card and Explorer crashes. Would you apply a display enhancement BIOS update to fix your Bluetooth and network problems?

 

Not to sound mean, but you kinda brought it upon yourself, cutting off all power in the middle of a BIOS update. There's a reason that the update utility forces you to have both battery and AC power plugged in.

 

To me, the OP is not too knowledgeable about computers at all.

After all, he thinks that he has upgraded to a 500GB WD 7200 RPM notebook drive.

Always do the firmware/BIOS updates - do you think the manufacturers want to admit to all the errors they fix with each version?

Also, OP, you're pretty naive to think that Mac's don't have problems.

Hope this is fixed satisfactorily for him, really.

 

So we all just learned what happens from this thread what happens when you screw up a BIOS flash.

You really should not update the BIOS, of anything, unless it specifically fixes an issue you're having. In reality, average people have no business using programs and utilities that have the ability to brick their devices. Firmware microcode is NOT the same as a hardware device driver, and you do NOT have to constantly update it "just because a new version is out".

 

Raduque - you stated this much more eloquently than I did - and I could not agree with you more! My Dell 1555 is still on BIOS A06 and it runs very well and I am happy with it. There is no legitimate reason for me to trust Dell and "upgrade" it to BIOS A09.

 

Yea, you know I've never understand why Joe Average, who doesn't even have a basic understand of how a computer (or other device) works insists on doing things that a lot of power users get wrong, and then have the nerve to complain about it and blame their screwup on everything else but themselves.

I mean, I bricked my Zune back in the '08->09 (or was it 07->08?) changeover, when they simultaneously crashed worldwide. I took it apart following some instructions I found on the zune forums, did something wrong, and now it;s stuck in a reboot loop because the hard drive won't initialize. My fault for being stupid and screwing with it. I'm not going to blame Microsoft, I'm not going to blame the poster of the instructions, because it's all on me.

 

ok all you HATERS out there who think I'm full of and don't know what I'm doing. You guys think your sooooo smart, christ this is a forum to write things like this that happen to LAPTOPS....Look I will for sure say that I do NOT know everything about computers, but I do know enough that I'm not going to do something that would kill my computer on purpose or just because. I mean come on, there was an UPDATE to the BIOS, which I figured was a good thing since you hardly see a lot of new BIOS come out for computers and just like one guy said, I too have been told by someone much smarter then me also to never install a new BIOS because things like this happen all the time. But I did install it to try and make this Laptop work better, which I believe most of us would do if there was something out there that we knew for sure would not brick the computer. I mean you guys who are ripping on me because of what I said or what I did, you guys think your perfect, you guys never ran into problems on computers you've had in the past and just wanted to throw it out the window. I mean no matter what you do or how smart you are or how smart you are with computers, I don't believe there is anyone on here that knows it all, like I said this a forum for information just like this!!!! So really, suck my balls to all you real HATERS out there in this thread, and to you guys who have said something sane and not idiotic, thank you, you guys are the ones that make me sign up so I can post in forums like this, so maybe someone like you would know whats up and what to do.....anyway you guys are cool, and F you guys that think you know it all.

Oh and to the know it all that thinks I would purposely remove the battery when the BIOS is running....you are a complete moron! This is what I'm talking about...people like you think you know it all, oh what a fool why would he take his battery out when the BIOS is updating....of course I would not take the battery out.....IF.....the damn thing were doing what it was supposed to, update the BIOS. I have updated a BIOS once before in windows and had no problems with it. But this time there was a problem, I sat there for most of the time the BIOS was doing its thing, but just like I'm sure a lot of us would do, after I noticed it was stuck or "frozen" with what ever it was doing, I moved the mouse around the screen and tried to grab the BIOS updating window to move a tiny bit over, which is an easy way to see if your computer is responding slowly or not responding at all....couple that with the fact that after the BIOS had ran for 1 hour, with almost 30mins of that hour the BIOS was actually doing its thing and the other 30mins. was spent not doing its thing, when I first noticed it was not moving on to the next sector, like I said, after about 30mins. into it, I tired to move the window like I described and then it was frozen, stuck, whatever you want to call it...so I gave it the benefit of the doubt, thinking it just needed time to do its thing. But after 1 hour had gone by since I started the update and about 30mins it spent in frozen mode, the laptop was about to start on fire I thought. The touchpad for the mouse on the keyboard was so hot I couldn't use it even if I could, it was too hot to the touch, so tell me smart guy who thinks I would pull the battery just because, what would you do, jerk off to a on your desktop while letting your laptop melt and then get on here and say all types of crap about how your computer is dead now and you didn't do anything....forget you buddy, your gay!!!

Anyway, so the Dell guy did come by yesterday and installed a new motherboard and a new hard drive. Replacing the parts did fix it, but damn, I wish the guy would take a little more time to put it all back together correctly so I don't have to sit there and snap things closed here and there, like the keyboard and other plastic pieces that need to be snapped into place when your putting it back together before you put the crews back in, but that was not a big deal and I was able to get it all right again.

But of course because Dell has the worst customer service, they would not replace the new hard drive that I had bought a few months ago to upgrade the 320gb to a 500gb, but they just brought a new 320gb drive since thats what it was sold with, so I know that since the BIOS wasn't doing anything with the harddrive, I'm hoping it is not messed up in anyway, it was just the tech said that he was going to replace it, because I told him about the sectors in the BIOS update window and like another user on here said, I think he for some reason thought I was speaking about the harddrive, but I don't care they sent me a new hard drive and I'm almost sure my 500gb is ok, just have to test it yet....oh and to tilleroftheearth who thinks I think I was putting the BIOS onto my hard-drive, why would you think that, I know that BIOS does not go on a hard-drive it goes onto the motherboard, so forget you, I mean what the hell are you talking about...
"After all, he thinks that he has upgraded to a 500GB WD 7200 RPM notebook drive." what the hell is that supposed to mean? I had a 320gb stock drive that came with the Laptop and I bought a 500gb and replaced the 320gb with it, whats wrong about that???? enlighten us fool.

Oh well, my computer is working ok now, just have to reinstall Win7 Ult. again and start installing drivers all night again. So anyway, forget you to all you haters in this thread and thank you to all of you nice people who actually had something positive or had a recommendation to say.

And to the guy who thinks I have little patience....How about you take your comments that you think you know everything about and shove it straight up your probably fat .

And to anyone who might find this thread useful despite the dumb people who left comments, I hope that maybe you've found something you can use, so that you don't brick your computer or anything else that might hurt your laptop

Oh and also to tilleroftheearth who thinks I'm naive to think Macs don't have problems...again you do not know everything. I was simply try to explain like I'm sure a lot of other people have experienced on here, that when I was researching to buy a laptop, my wife, who has always been a MAC user, said you know, I see your desktop have issues or problems when you are trying to tweak it or something like that, why do you want to buy another PC that may have the same issues. Well I was hoping that for the most part problems in windows, especially win7, that I wouldn't encounter problems, so I said NO, I would like to buy one last PC and if it has the same stupid windows issues, then when I buy the next computer, it will be a MAC, not because I don't think that anything will go wrong with it, because I have been to the MAC store twice this year for them to fix a problem on her laptop. Now let me say this, even though I have always chosen PCs because you could customize them almost anyway you want, there are no places for PC like the MAC stores have. I have never seen such good customer service, not like the cocky attitudes like you find at the big PC outlets when all you want it a wire to hook up a new fan....You make an appt., take your mac into the store, they hook it up right there to a computer, start doing their thing and will ither fix it right there in about 20-30mins., or they will tell you to come back later that day and the computer works just like new, and you don't have to go back and reinstall drivers or any BS like that.....so give me a break, I was only trying to say that in those ways MACs are supieror, but I also know that PCs can be very very good, which is why I have a very high end desktop I built my self and it runs awsome!!

So please you guys who get on these forums only to look for threads like this to find something you think you know everything about and want to make a post just to spout crap out of your cake hole, keep it for the bung hole fools. None of us know everything about computers, and if we did then there wouldn't be these forums on the net for us to post our problems, frustrations, and complaints about companies like Dell that are supposed to be better than the norm. Anyway, I'm not going to say anymore, I know what I can do and most of you can admit to yourselves as well about how much you can do and how much you can't without the risk of hurting your computer. I know I don't know everything, but thats why I come to these forums to try and find some comments that might help me....


and to the lowlife fella that thinks my name describes ME.....what are you some type of self-proclaimed know it all about people screen names and how it relates to the person....dude all I have to say is your dumb, anyone who has worked on computers or worked on anything for almost their whole life will tell you plenty of times how they hate computers, hate cars, hate their relatives, hate their hobbies they've been doing for ever....its a play on words , I swear I'm almost positive that people like you sit there and think their don't stink, their words come from science or God, and that they are entitled to anything, just because! So get a life, who cares about screen names, I came here to try and get some help, vent my frustration, and maybe help some other people who are thinking about updating a BIOS or anything on their computer....that is what a FORUM is for....remember!!???

oh and one more thing to all of you who have written things on this tread who think they are gods of computers.....GET A LIFE not everyone like you guys thinks their don't stink, it does, and i bet if you ask whom ever you live with, they'd tell you otherwise and will probably ask you to change your diet, stinky dumb asses.....god I hate people like you people....but thank you again to the people that put positive comments on here and are maybe happy that I decided to post about the problem I was having, even if I rant a little in the thread.....

 

iHate - It's easy to tell from your writing style, and the way you treat other people, that you are under-educated and lack wisdom. So, you're really not a good fit at all compared to the vast vast majority of NBR members I have dealt with over the past three+ years. Something in your life is very stressful (job at Burger King - repeating a year in Middle School?) since it has obviously caused you to have anger-management/emotional issues.

Edited to add: Hopefully you behave in a rational manner at work (or school); if you speak to other people at work or school the same way you write to other people here at NBR, then I'm pretty sure you are going to remain under-employed for a long, long time.

Edited again to add: A quick Google search with the following search string "Dell 1555 BIOS A09 problem" would have warned you about upgrading the BIOS on your 1555. Knowledge is power - and Google is knowledge.

 

For the record, over the last few weeks there seems to be a significant increase in Dell machines turning to bricks after Dell-recommended BIOS updates. As iHateComputers noted, Dell's standard fix seems to be a new motherboard and hard drive (isn't that a bit odd?).

Anyway, my husband's computer suffered the same fate this afternoon. Since we both remember a time before Windows 3.1, we don't generally call tech support (as we tend to confuse them with concepts not on their checklist), but this seemed an obvious result of an update recommended for his specific machine and download from their site, so he called. The Dell customer service rep was very pleasant and very quick to state they would replace the motherboard and hard drive (after speaking to his manager a couple of times). The Dell tech is scheduled to call us Monday for an appointment. Curious about what (to me) seemed like an odd problem and an odd solution, some more searching revealed a discrepancy between the reported version date and the version date that showed up in BIOS after updating. I also noticed the later versions (according to version numbers) available for download actually had earlier release dates. Since I didn't want to see my husband sulk until next Tuesday, I encouraged him to go in and look at what date the BIOS now reported. My theory was that the downloaded update was actually a rollback.

He went in and confirmed the version date to now be 11/25/2008, even though the Dell site shows it to be 12/15/2009. He looked around some more, however, and discovered something seemingly unrelated. Here is what he just posted on the Dell site community forum (as the same recent BIOS update crashes are being reported there):

Today I updated my original (ver 1.0.1) bios to the new "recommended" 1.0.7 bios which promptly crashed my machine. It would not boot back into Windows (Vista 64bit) and after contacting Dell support they told me they "didn't recommend updating the bios on desktop machines" even though the website listed the update clearly as being recommended. They also said it probably fried my motherboard and hard drive, and from all appearances that seemed to be the case. All I got upon rebooting after the "successful" update (according to the install routine) was a black screen and an "invalid" disk message. I played around for a while after talking to the support folks (who scheduled me for a motherboard and hard drive replacement). After a while I gave up.

But, being stubborn and not wanting to accept the loss of a hard drive FULL of programs, photos and music (even though I DO have backups of the photos and music- but not for the myriad of installed programs), I played with it a bit more. I COULD get into the Bios but at first nothing there seemed to help either until I chose the installed peripherals option and noted that the HDD configuration was set to ATA. The other option was RAID. I know my system runs some raid drivers so I took a shot and changed the config to RAID and miracle of all miracles, the machine booted up just fine afterward. So bottom line, if you're having similar problems (and according to Goggle, lots of folks have had almost identical problems after a BIOS update) check that portion of the BIOS and see if it helps before you pour the gasoline on the system. I have a new motherboard and HD on the way with a service tech so I think I'll just let him install it anyway as a payment for my troubles and their lack of understanding of what their BIOS does.
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My husband's system is a Dell Studio 540 Desktop purchased 11/2008. It was not purchased directly from Dell, but was a Best Buy custom configuration (twice the memory and dual RAID hard drives). Our conclusion is that the Dell 'recommended' BIOS update set the HD configuration to ATA, thus preventing access to the OS. So it seems likely that the 'recommended' updates on the Dell website are specific to the standard retail models sold directly by Dell.

I understand this forum and the discussions here concern laptops, however, considering the 'coincidental' similarity and (curious) timing of symptoms across Dell laptops and desktops, it might be worth it to look again at the updated BIOS configurations. If our theory is correct, this explains why some users have updated without a hitch and others end up with bricks. The without-a-hitch folks probably have off-the-shelf Dell direct machines.

This does not, however, explain the version dates discrepancies, nor does it explain the discrepancy between the rep's "don't update desktop BIOS" and the website's "here's the correct and recommended BIOS update for your desktop". There are definitely some things at odd here....

 

Personally if that were me I might of ended up on CNN because of a one man killing spree.

 

And I don't mean because the laptop went down, you have to expect episodes like that. Was the support agent even paying attention? "My computer is COMPLETELY DEAD" "Ok please tell me what the error message on the screen says right now". Incredible.

 

nevermind

_EDITED BY MODS_

 

I just had the same problem with the BIOS. Very frustrating and kind of scary.

Just a tip for anyone who has problems upgrading their BIOS. Do not try to fix it yourself. Call Dell before you do anything like eject the battery.

In my case, the screen went white halfway through the upgrade, eventually the screen turned off. I figured it was normal. An hour later, I got scared. Rather than removing the battery or trying to turn it off, I called Dell right away and they walked me through the process.

We managed to get the laptop working over the phone, reset the bios back to normal, etc. Very happy now!

 

Hi,
Glad you got it sorted. Just curious, but what exactly did they tell you to do?
I've updated the bios twice now on my Studio 1555. Both times hassle free.
Would be interested to know what Dells recovery plan is though.

 

Well, in any way, i wouldn't install it as it is causing some weird fan / hang problems

Constant fan activity + 2 hangs since upgrade, i'll probably downgrade later on this week ( need to make sure i have a backup for everything, new lappy, but still annoying to reinstall it all ).

Didn't decide yet if to downgrade or wait to see if a new ver is coming out

 

Looks like Dell removed the A09 update, as the only one you can download right now is A08. I had upgraded to A09 and haven't experienced any issues. I'm wondering if I should be concerned or not?

 

I think it was during the update process that one or two peoples laptops got "bricked". So if yours has updated successfully then I wouldn't worry.

 

First they directed me to try turning the computer off by holding the power button. It wouldn't turn off, so they said to unplug it and try holding the power button. Still didn't turn off.

Then they said to take the battery out and hold the power button for 10 seconds.

After 10 seconds, they said to put the battery back in and plug it into the wall and turn it on while tapping F2 repeatedly. This brings you into the BIOS setup screen obviously. It worked, and the BIOS screen showed the version as A9. Then they said to reset the BIOS to default settings, it was like F9 or something. Saved settings and rebooted. Computer has worked fine ever since.