Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

Thinking of selling my 7740 since I haven't used it much in the last 6 months. It has Xeon 2286, 4k, 32 gb ecc ram, rtx 4000, and 1tb 970 evo. It also has Intel ME locked out. What's a fair asking price? Thanks in advance.

 

New BIOS update (1.11.2)

Fixes & Enhancements
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Technical Advisory INTEL-TA-00391 (CVE-2020-8753, CVE-2020-8744, CVE-2020-8745, CVE-2020-8705, CVE-2020-8757, CVE-2020-8756, CVE-2020-8760, CVE-2020-8754, CVE-2020-8747, CVE-2020-8755, CVE-2020-8746, CVE-2020-8749, CVE-2020-8752, CVE-2020-12303, CVE-2020-12355, and CVE-2020-12356).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00381 (CVE-2020-8696 and CVE-2020-8698).
- Firmware updates to address the Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00358 (CVE-2020-0587, CVE-2020-0591, CVE-2020-0592, and CVE-2020-0593).
- Fixed the issue where the system stops responding when you restart the system after installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver.
- Fixed the issue where the keyboard gives incorrect output of the # key.

I have tried to perform the update, however, I am stuck at 0%. Thankfully, laptop was ok after disconnecting the power cable and the battery for 5 minutes.



I have then performed a full BIOS reset by going into the Setup (F2) and pressing ALT+F. I selected "Factory Settings" there and proceeded with the reset.

I then inserted a USB with both 1.11.2 and 1.10.2 BIOS

After this I rebooted and went straight into the BIOS upgrade option from the Quick Boot Menu (F12). I chose the 1.11.2 file and started the update. I got the same issue. It got stuck at the above screen.

Thing is, if I do the same upgrade using 1.10.2 (same BIOS is installed) then the upgrade still gets stuck. Same behavior is when I am trying to downgrade the BIOS to 1.8.2

I am able to get POST, boot the laptop, reset to defaults, etc, but the uograde/downgrade of the BIOS stays at 0% like in the above screenshot.

Has anybody experience this before?

 

(sorry. Moved this post to a reply.)

 

I had similar issues going from 1.10.2 to 1.11.2. Support had me reset BIOS to defaults and remove my added ssd's. The update seemed to finish fine but it wouldn't boot. Gave error code 3 amber, 6 white. Now it's bricked and they said it will probably be 7-9 days until I can get the mb replaced. Not happy.

 

Same issue here, ended up with 3 amber and 6 white flashes.. Did the usual, got new BIOS from the supportassist, hit download and reboot and that's that..

Getting new motherboard tomorrow.. Not happy!

 

Looks like a botched update. @Dell-Mano_G, could this be looked at?

 

The BIOS update went without problems on my machine. So it might need some specific preconditions to fail.

 

@DwayneTheWizard and @CRom11, did you guys install your own aftermarket memory or do anything else that took the machine out of the factory configuration? (I see @DwayneTheWizard that you installed additional SSDs... I wouldn't expect that to be an issue.) Just trying to tease out what may be causing this to fail for some people...
Anyway, Dell should definitely yank this update post haste.

 

I'm also unable to update to 1.11.2 on my 7740. Update hangs at 0% and requires complete power pull to restore operation.

I'm presently on BIOS 1.10.2.

Tried both Factory Defaults and BIOS Defaults.

Also, I am unable to downgrade to an earlier bios or reinstall 1.10.2. Same behavior hangs at 0%.

Updates attempted from both Windows and from BIOS. No difference in behavior.

RAM (64GB) and SSD are all aftermarket.

Kind of looks like either the incomplete 1.11.2 update or 1.10.2 update has blocked the ablitity to upgrade the bios. Has anyone on 1.10.2 been able to upgrade to 1.11.2? Or downgrade to an earlier BIOS?

 

We bought the 7740 with 2x8GB and 512GB SSD and added another 2x8 and 2TB SSD aftermarket.

I disconnected external HW and undocked my WD19DC. Only power was connected.