BIOS Rollback on 15R3/17R4 - has anyone done it?

I updated my 17R4 bios to 1.2.3 and now Dell has pulled the update.
http://www.dell.com/support/article...cve-2017-5754-impact-on-dell-products?lang=en

Anyway, nothing I do seems to work for rolling back.
I found someone in a 13R3 thread that talked about how they do it, but it doesn't work for me.
*OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

I've had at least one bluescreen (that I've seen happen) and some weird slowness that I'd like to roll back to troubleshoot, but there is no way to roll back from what I can see.

Dell just says "If you have already applied the BIOS update, please wait for further information and an updated BIOS release, no other action is recommended at this point. Please continue to check back for updates."

That's really not helpful or good enough. But they appear to have locked something with this BIOS that prevents rolling back.

Anyone else have any insight or have actually rolled back to 1.2.1 or earlier from 1.2.3? They pulled 1.2.3 and replaced it with 1.2.1 again, which I downloaded hoping they updated it to overwrite 1.2.3 but they didn't, I still get the same message about 1.2.3 being locked.

 

Fixed. It was much simpler. I didn't have to do any of the BIOS_IMG.rcv stuff. All I had to do was the following:

Power off completely.
Hold down Control-ESC and power on (do not hold down power button).
Your screen will be dark/black (unpowered). Wait about 15-20 seconds.
You should be presented with an "Aptio Setup Utility - American Megatrends, Inc." screen with an option called "Recovery"
Under "Recovery" you have 3 options.
Recover BIOS
Reset BIOS settings to Default
Rollback BIOS

In my case, I selected "Rollback BIOS". My BIOS is now at 1.1.9 (which I guess is what I was at before installing this bad 1.2.3 bios).

 

So newer models does have dual bios.

 

Interesting, I don't have the Rollback option, just the other two.

Well, pulling the update might explain the few BSOD's I had, but as I got a used laptop at about the same time the update was released, I couldn't tie it to the BIOS update (which I installed immediately after fresh Win 10 installation) and thought it was due to some drivers or RAM or whatever.

Hopefully a corrected BIOS update won't be too far off.

 

I'm on 1.2.3 and it's stable. Though I hope it will be upgradable without turning laptop into a brick

 

Had no problems on 1.2.3 as well. Been running flawlessly. They pulled the bios due to changes Intel wants made and due to some bugs that came as a result of the changes Intel wanted done so they have to fix that and then re-release a new bios when Intel gets the fixes out. There was no point in letting more people install the bios then need be so it was pulled in the mean time. Rolling back actually presents a higher risk of bricking, hence the protected, these changes were not meant to be reverted and I am quite surprised the rollback worked in OP's case.

 

1.2.3 bluescreened my machine. It hasn't done that before. It's a known issue that Intel even admits.
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/roo...-updated-guidance-for-customers-and-partners/
Everyone in the industry that has put out BIOS updates for this fix has been rolling back/removing their BIOS updates for this reason. We had to undo the updates we did on our VMware ESXi host servers too, per VMware, because it was causing virtual machines to crash.
I believe the reason Dell protected this from being overwritten is so someone couldn't rewrite your bios without you knowing to re-introduce the security issue. That's really the only reason I can see, since they've never stopped you from rolling back a bios prior to this. Even when a BIOS update was causing the DC power cable to burn on older machines, they didn't force you to update nor make it so you couldn't roll back. Rolling back a BIOS should have no extra risk of bricking than updating a BIOS, hence the reason they allow the rollback option.
I understand that generally it's not a good idea to roll back a BIOS, as they contain fixes that should improve the functionality of the system. This isn't the first time I've had a bad BIOS. Over my many years I've had to roll back multiple bios updates for many different reasons, and I'm happy I was able to rollback my Alienware. Not all BIOS updates are perfect, and while they may fix something they may break other things. I can remember two such updates just recently for my Thinkpad laptop for work. One update would wipe out your SLIC table so all of a sudden you lost your Windows license, and another BIOS update bricked your machine (literally bricked, I had to ship the thing back to them) if you had a Samsung SSD in the machine.

 

Is there a preferable bios to be on for the AW15 R3?

Like the A00 was for the AW15 R1, especially for temperature...

 

As far as I know 1.0.8 seems to be the best.. That's what my cousin is using..

 

Is that for the Kaby Lake version of the R3?

 

yes.. alienware 15 r3 i7700hq 1060.. my cousin's laptop.. I have the alienware 17 r3..

 

Cheers

 

please go with the latest. even if performance may look a little bit less good. In the case the AW15R1 and R2 older bioses caused DC-in cable issues where the laptop could pull too much power which caused the cable to melt. They DO fix issues in newer bioses which may not be to apparent at first sight.

 

Ahh I see, will do my man!

 

Who is the best bios for Kabylake 7820HK ?

 

Who is the better bios for Kaylake 7820HK ?
SKL1.2.0_KBL1.2.0
SKL1.1.9_KBL1.1.9
SKL1.1.8_KBL1.1.8

 

Depends what you looking for. You need to look into Fixes & Enhancements. The older bios you choose, the less flaws is fixed. See example... Read for every bios version from the newest and down to the oldest.

 

I search the better one for fan / temp management.

 

you can change your fan profiles from within HW info. just selet Custom Auto, and you can select wich sensor it uses as measurement tool, and then you can select the desired temperatures, and fan speed RPM. my laptop became alot quiter when gaming, and benchmarking does not even ramp up the fans anymore (did a LM repaste)

 

I have good temps with LM on GPU (70°c on max load) but CPU up to 93°c on PUBG...
In idle mode CPU up to 38°c/50° and fans are at 2300rpm in continue...

 

That's the reason why I'm saying to create a custom fan speed table within HWINFO. PUBG for me my Max is 72°C all my other games (even flight simulator x) are below 70°C. I also had the problem of the fans running continues, until I personally made my own fan speeds table, never does my dan spin up again if the temps are less than 45°C.

When gaming my Max fan speed currently is 3700 for the CPU. And 3500 for the GPU.

 

I cant roll back. Mine is 17r4 with 1080. The 1.2.3 bios is really messed up, it reverse my cpu fan, which make it blowing all the wind out of the left small heatsink, and the main back heatsink has no air coming out. I am now experiencing 10+ degrees difference from the previous bios.

 

Put the Older BIOS EXE whichever works best for you on fat32 USB drive. Press F12 upon seeing AW head/log and choose Dell flash update utility. Choose appropriate EXE using Tab key to highlight each option. Choose No when you get a dialog box or window. Selecting NO will downgrade the BIOS so everything is reset to default which means if you changed from RAID to AHCI, it will be RAID so watch out. Once update is done shut down for 5 mins and then bootup and go to bios setup and select your controller option or settings you have changed.
Don't worry OS will be not be wiped in any case. Make sure AC power is connected always.

 

Hi thank you very much for your reply. However, it doesnt work in my case, it just told me i cant not downgrade to a older verison. I guess it is bc 1.2.3 is protected. Sigh..

 

Then you need @c69k BIOS rollback method described in this thread. *OFFICIAL* Alienware 13 R3 Owner's Lounge

 

I don't know how they can just lock the 1.2.3 bios... take it off their site... and say people shouldn't install... WTF.

 

Its not on their site anymore last time I checked. I am sure they come with an update soon. I received mine with version 1.2.3 so I cant go back anyway. But also I dont notice any issues. My GPU never been close to 80c so I cant comment on the throttling. Running a 1070GTX.

 

Because Intel changed something and so Dell needs to make the change as well. Everyone is in a rush to patch this mess between meltdown and spectre. If you don't like it then I suggest waiting a few weeks before upgrading the bios next time.

 

They shouldn't lock the bios to potentially put people in this situation in the first place. This is NOT the user's fault in any conceivable way.

 

never upgraded. always with 1.0.8.

 

Good choice

 

Exactly!! And the reason you never should be the first man to flash new firmware.