Force downgrade Alienware Area-51m Bios (or any alienware) to locked lower versions

Here is a brief guide on how to downgrade your BIOS and bypass any version based "locks" that are in place from Dell.

1. Enable file extensions in File Explorer Options on your Windows (Start -> File Explorer Options -> View -> Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" and hit OK.
2. Download your required Alienware BIOS version from Dell website and rename it to BIOS_IMG.EXE. Now the fun part:
3. Place the BIOS_IMG.EXE file that you just renamed into the root of a drive, say C:\ drive for example.
4. Start -> Run -> CMD (right click and select Run as administrator)
5. Type C:/ and hit Enter. It will take you right to your C drive root where the BIOS_IMG.EXE file is located.
6. Type the following command: BIOS_IMG.EXE /writehdrfile and hit Enter. It will create a file named BIOS_IMG.HDR on your C drive. Rename that to BIOS_IMG.RCV as we'll use this as a recovery image. Both images are essentially the same.
7. Now, you have to create Dell Diagnostic USB stick. For that, use this article and SKIP steps 7-10 in it.
8. Copy BIOS_IMG.RCV from your C:/ drive onto the USB root. Make sure that the following 3 files exist on USB root when you are done: BIOS_IMG.RCV, DELLBIO.BIN and DELLRMK.BIN. DO NOT DELETE THE REMAINING FILES (IF ANY)!
   
9. Now turn off your computer and plug the USB stick into the left USB port beside the thunderbolt 3 port.
10. Press and hold CTRL + ESC and press the power button to boot into BIOS recovery mode. Keep holding the two keys after releasing the power button until you reach the recovery screen. Once there, use the recovery option to flash BIOS.
11. Download and store away the files that you think might be needed in the future into a local storage or your email account just in case Dell makes any changes to them in the future.
12. DONE!
13. Do at your own risk. If you screw something up, I will not take any responsibility! This procedure works right now but may or may not work in the future.

Original post was made here, but I am posting a separate thread for it as per request from a lot of people who are continuously looking for it in the main owner's lounge and can't find it.

 

Awesome, Thanks m8!

 

@S.K Amazing guide, Followed it not too long ago and it worked perfectly! I know the community will certainly appreciate your efforts. A few additions for those who may experience some of the whack I did:

1: If for some reason you enter a USB that's old or isn't being detected (for whatever reason) by DDDP.exe like this:

You can just drag and drop the 5 files that the link S.K provided in Step 7 to your USB (also transfer your BIOS_IMG.RCV file). Once you drag and drop these 6 files total to the USB, you will likely only see the 3 files S.K mentions in Step 8. That's perfect, it will work as intended.

2: If you are doing this reactively as a result of being forced firmware versions up, make sure once you complete the BIOS reset you:
a) Open your search or hotkey Win+Q/Win+S and type 'disk cleanup'
b) Open the Disk Cleanup app and select your root (C:\) drive and hit Ok
c) Underneath the 'files to delete' section click the 'Clean up system files' at the bottom left of the window. This will likely require you selecting your root drive again.
d) It will now show Windows Installation Files. Select those in the 'file to delete' section and delete them

The reason for this (it appears) is even after you have disabled capsule updates, if the firmware is downloaded it can be initiated again. The next time I booted my PC post 1.3.2 flash it pushed my firmware back up to 1.5.4. I re-did the flash to 1.3.2 a second time and then cleaned the files using the steps above and got rid of the leftover Windows Installations. Hope this can help any wonky situations like what I experienced.

 

Nice work there!

 

On my last unit I was trying to go from 1.6.2 to 1.3.2 and ended up corrupting the bios. Followed the instructions to a T and started the flash process and about 50% of the way through the unit turned off and never came back on again. Started blinking one red and two blue.

Has anyone downgraded from 1.6.2 with this process?

 

Downgrade to 1.5.0 and then go to 1.3.2 from there onwards.

 

From my testing 1.5.0 performed same as 1.3.2 so even downgrading to 1.5.0 is fine

 

I have downgraded to 1.3.2 twice in the past week (without issues), turned off the UEFI setting to update bios via windows update and STILL, my system shows bios version 1.5.4. Am I going nuts??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

I'm trying to downgrade from 1.2.4 to 1.1.9 (13r3) but I am just getting: ROM Image Signature is invalid / ROM Image update denied. Thought it was cuz locked bios ver. but it still happened if I converted 1.7.0 to .rcv. Maybe the size of the usb drive is messing with this? I am using a 32GB stick for all of this.

 

Is this guide still valid ? Nobody experimented issues with it ? Planning on giving it a try this week-end.

 

Sorry to ask but why are you guys downgrading the bios ? does it help with the CPU overheating issue ? ...what are the benefits ?

 

Because the new BIOSes throttle the CPU and GPU so if you want the max performance you'd need to downgrade the BIOS to the 1.3.2 version and the VBIOS to the 200W VBIOS and uninstall Dell Support Assist to prevent it from nagging for you to upgrade again and as soon as you perform the downgrade you need to go into BIOS and disable BIOS Capsule Updates otherwise the moment you are in Windows, Windows update will update your BIOS to the latest again.

 

The new firmware was intended to stop this https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/b2r1rn/my_area51m_started_smoking_i_took_it_apart_and/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1531#post-10949138

But the downside is reduced performance.

 

hmmm so I guess the people who downgrade the bios use the laptop on an ice block in antarctica haha

PS does anyone know if the warranty extends in whole of Europe ? or just the state you bought it in for example UK

 

Thanks for the info, is 1.5.0 sufficient?

 

I have exactly the same issue. Could anyone help ?

I resolved the issue eventually.
UEFI settings update needs to be disabled prior to the BIOS downgrade.
I think this guide should be updated accordingly

 

Not really, it isn't that bad tbh!

 

Yes 1.5.0 is perfect. From my testing 1.3.2 vs 1.5.0 they performed around the same.

1.5.0 is the last safe firmware

 

I have successfully downgraded from 1.7.3 to 1.5.0. First boot restarted like 6 times so was scary but all went well.

 

I'm trying to "downgrade" from 1.7.3 to 1.5.0, but can't get to the BIOS recovery mode.

This is what I'm doing:

1. Create the HDR file as per the tutorial.
2. Remane extension to RCV using windows explorer.
3. Create the bootable USB drive, steps 1 to 6
4. Copy the RCV file to the USB drive. The drive contains 3 files only (BIOS_IIMG.RCV DELLBIO.BIN AND DELLRMK.BIN)
5. Restart and go to BIOS setup and disable Secure Boot. Save and shut down.
6. USB drive on left USB port with the computer off. Press left Ctrl and Esc at the same time and don't release (i.e. continually holding them). Press power button. System starts and logs in to windows.

What I'm doing wrong?

 

Did you make sure you have "show names for known filetypes" or w/e the option is in windows so that it shows the actual extension?

 

Yes

*UPDATE:

Tried a newer USB drive and worked this time. I confirm that "downgrading" from 1.7.3 straight to 1.5.0 is possible. Just let the laptop reboot as much as required.

 

'C:/' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. appears when I typed C:/ at step 5 instead of taking me to my c drive. How can I make a .HDR file with this?
Or can anyone upload a HDR file of 1.5.0 bois?

 

What I did was create the USB drive first using the Dell software. Then I used the USB drive to do the command prompt steps. Once finished I deleted the files that weren't needed.

 

I also have this exact same issue.

what do you mean by “used the usb drive to do the the command prompts steps”? Does the somehow create the HDR file? Could you elaborate

 

You first create the boot USB drive using the Dell tool. Once it's done you copy your bios EXE file to the USB drive (with letter D or whatever) and you proceed to do the HDR file conversion on your D drive (or whatever letter your USB drive is).

 

So I attempted to do the HDR file conversion by following Step 5 of OP on the root folder of the my usb drive like you said. But i get the exact same issue as when i tried it on the c drive. I don't understand why it doesn't work on any of my PC's. Is there another way of getting the HDR file?

 

Are you using an elevated command prompt?

 

Yes, I ran Command Prompt as Administrator each time attempted

 

Ohhh, just type C: or D: etc, don't add the /

 

At step 8, should there be other files or are we ok if there are only 3 files?

 

Leave all the files as they are. Just make sure that the 3 files mentioned in the step also exist among them.

 

There are only 3 files even if I check the 'show hidden files' option. Should there be more?

 

If the three files mentioned are in the desired location then you can ignore the rest. However if you're in doubt then I'd suggest to repeat all the steps and go over the process again just to be sure.

 

Thanks !
I rolled back from 1.7.3 to 1.5.0 and everything's fine.
Sweaty palms though...

 

Works great from 1.8.1 to 1.5.0. You can also do this from the hard drive (without USB) by just extracting the bios_img.rcv file to the EFI partition drive and enabling "BIOS recovery from hard drisk" option in the BIOS. Also disable "UEFI Firmware updates" in the BIOS after you update or Windows will try to update it for you later.

This solves the secondary hard drive randomly disappearing issues people are having with the 1.8.0 and 1.8.1 BIOS.

 

Been a while since I did this. My 51m had to restart like 6x after downgrading from 1.8.x back to 1.5.0. After a while it just resolved itself...

 

Is there a step by step in doing this for the non-educated such as myself haha? This sounds like it could be easier than making sure I have all these other required files.

 

Followed instructions and can't get it to downgrade from 1.7.3 to 1.5.0.

It goes through all of the steps and acts as if it's updating it, but then it still shows 1.7.3.

Any ideas? UEFI Capsule updates are off. Secure boot is off. Not sure what else to toggle. I had an option to rollback the BIOS as well. Does that work?

 

Resolved! Successfully on 1.5.0! I guess I just simply had to do it again. I can't recall anything I did differently. I think I converted the drive from FAT32 to FAT. That's it. I also double checked TWICE to make sure the UEFI updates were off. Can't wait to play without issue.

 

Hello, man, could you help me?
I've downgrade bios from 1.8.1 to 1.7.3 and my area 51m works fine.
But when I've tried to downgrade from 1.7.3 to 1.3.2 some happens wrong.
Notebook start blinking 2 red and 1 blue. I live in Russia and Dell doesnt make maintance here.
There is something what I can do to repair or I must send my area 51m to USA?

 

Unfortunately 2 red and 1 blue is what happened to me as well. Your bios rom is corrupted and the motherboard will need to be replaced. You can't go to 1.3.2 from 1.7.3. You have to step down to 1.5.0 then 1.3.2 from 1.7.3.

 

No you don't!I downgraded from 1.7.3 to 1.3.2 many times and have helped 10s of people do it a well!

@manitu
One of the reasons that a BIOS downgrade or upgrade might fail is because the file had a BLOCKED status. When you download any file from the internet, Windows places a BLOCKED status on it which could lead to erroneous or incomplete installations. That's why I always advice people to unblock any file they download or better yet, do this tweak to stop Windows from flagging every downloaded file as BLOCKED: "Are you sure you want to run this file?" [Yes or No]

As for your issue, seems like either a corrupt BIOS flash or a CPU failure, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/6g3fji/2_red_blinks_1_blue_unable_to_turn_on/

 

We'll have to agree to disagree. My file was not blocked as I used my Desktop(linux) to create usb stick. I'm guessing it may have to do with motherboard revision. After the motherboard was replaced I used same stick to go to 1.3.2 and a different one to go to 1.5.0 first. Read the forums. Many have corrupted bios going from 1.7.3 to 1.3.2. His bios is corrupted. I had exact same issue.

 

and this bios chip cant be replaced?

 

It's not socketed. It would be extremely difficult to replace. Impossible for most. Definitely not within realm of normal repairs. Motherboard replacement is the only viable option.

 

http://laptop-schematics.com/view/8082/

Can this help :/ maybe they can tell where the bios is (the schematics not for area51m)

 

The chip itself would be easy enough to locate without a schematic. It would be the removal and replacement of the chip on the motherboard that would be the issue. The time and effort required by the tech would likely cost more than a new motherboard, assuming you could find one with those sort of skills.

 

whats so hard in removing the chip? is it soldered by legs or requires stencil for reballing? Most bios chip are connected to board with 4 legs...

I dont think Alienware makes per laptop encrypted bios, to swap the chip cost any technician around 10$ at most...

A better solution would be dumbing an original bios and flash it to the corrupted one.

If I know the flash chip model, I use "Teensy++" to program chips. He could also do the same.

 

It's more about the legwork involved. Is it ec or bios or both corrupted? Splitting the EC from the bios for programming. Desoldering the 8 pin for bios n 8 pin EC. Making sure bios matches EC if you only replace bios, etc. Teensy is a wonderful tool I've used for chip programming myself. Finding someone who has the skills and willing to do it....