A03 Bios bricked my M15x

Great thanks, I feel special for starting it... bah!

I don't feel good about this at all man and it has caused me to much stress.

Now I have to figure out how to get my data out of HD on the AW... I got a Inspiron1520 which to this day ruins beautifully. Wonder if I can put my SATA AW HD in to my Dell and access it then backup to an external drive

 

nevermind....

 

Any particular reaason why they removed it? Throw it in a link. Can you reference that prior to using the new bios they read about it here?

 

No surprise, this is a real issue that I brought up and now many others have experienced painfully.

 

Why would it be removed?

 

I can't believe this, well, I kinda do with Dell lol. I bricked mine and it's going back for a full refund.

Just picked up a 540M Anti-glare Envy 15 for $1,118 after serious discounts.

 

Sorry man I'm not making light of the situation. Just pointing out Dell's incompetence. I feel your and everyone elses pain

 

story and thread submitted to engadget tips

 

On a lighter note of things... I am sure my Avatar and Sig speaks tons on how we all feel towards Dell

 

well it worked now. i posted a warning and a reffrence url to this forum thread on the facebook alienware group.

 

Thanks to all for supporting this topic and submitting to proper sources.

It must be known to the masses. All the best to all of us in getting through this.

 

Guys - have we tried everything? HisSVT2 - I assume you tried to get access from both CD and USB flash drives? (I only tried CD so far).
Is there a backdoor key sequence that will get the motherboard to revert to the backed up A02 copy? If I remember correctly, the Flasher program referenced a backup...it MUST be there - how do we get to it? We need the advanced AW support folks who I am sure are not available at this hour...what are some Dell key sequences to revert Flash - I mean, WHAT HARM COULD WE POSSIBLY DO? ha ha
Let's try everything...

 

I've tryed usb flash.. same prob.

 

Not sure if you will have any luck with this since its for the M17x and the M15x may have subtle differences, but see:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404987

Also this issue now has a sticky - the sticky will be removed once Dell pulls the BIOS update (its still live, just checked) or responds to the issue.

 

I am still looking for anything i could or they could have missed. But it doesnt look good

 

yes - what about the post above?
we need to know what files to put on a USB drive that will boot itself and get to A02

This is the text from the August 09 M17x post:
Ok, this just happened to me so here it goes

1. A usb thumb Drive is need. It will work.

2. Bios From dells website.

3. Extract all the files from the Dell bioes autoexe, make sure to close down winphlash when it tries to run. Dell autoruns this after you extract the files.

4. look for a zip file called CRISDISK.RAR and extract all the files to your desktop or a folder.

Double click on the WINCRIS file that looks like a floppy diisk

It will autoinstall the ALL the files need to the USB Drive


5. Remove the battery and disconnect the Power supply.

6. Place the USB drive into the Esata port (other ports may work)

7 Press and hold FN+B key at the same time and plug in the power. Turn on power and continue to HOLD DOWN the FN+B key until the HDD lights on the alien head illuminate and stay on. At this time the USB drive lights should start to Flash.

8. In about 5-10 mins your computer should restart. Make sure to go back into BIOS and setup raid and any other settings as they were lost with the BIOS crash.

-Thanks o Z's other writing on Phoniex bios flash that i was able to figure this out.

 

last 2 times i tried to run the install... (before i saw this thread)
the program would lock up, and freeze my entire computer... so i never got it to even install like others did

 

Should you guys need the A02 bios, I backed mine up and it can be downloaded here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/4i4nah

 

Add me to the bricked list - I'm also tracking down the crisis recovery mode (lots of information of you search for it)

Trying ehl1 instructions now

 

its on dells site to under other when your looking at A03

 

A02 BIOS doesn't seem to include crisis files - Do I just need to rename the W6702M.A02 to something and place it on the USB stick ?

# Archive C:\Install Image\R248808.iso
2009-11-19 04:03 2038 2038 BIOS R~1.TXT
2006-03-22 17:21 5456 5456 CHECKSUM.EXE
2009-03-02 14:33 24014 24014 DFLASH.EXE
2009-11-16 06:03 801 801 EC REL~1.TXT
2009-10-13 18:44 131072 131072 EC_W670.096
2009-12-10 03:15 75 75 FA.BAT
2009-09-07 12:08 154213 154213 PHLASH16.EXE
2009-10-26 06:53 22 22 README.BAT
2009-12-09 03:15 2400 2400 README.TXT
2009-01-07 23:18 548 548 RPG.EXE
2009-01-13 22:51 253 253 UPDATE~1.TXT
2009-11-16 00:06 2405878 2405878 W6702M.A02
#
# Total Size Packed Files
# 2726770 2726770 12

 

i am also working to see if i can get it to boot a usb stick

 

To be clear, these weren't my instructions - they come from an older post in the M17x forum
Question is whether that keystroke will work on an M15x and if it does, what kind of files can we put on a USB drive to get it to reflash
That is the trick

 

Another observation: if you hold down F12 continuously as you power up, you will get to a modified bootup screen that has 1 choice only: diagnostics (which is part of the BIOS program...). If you select that, you again get the famous flashing cursor screen of death. So even a hardwired BIOS program can't make it through - something is causing the system to crash hard in the BIOS instructions before it can even get to the next step

 

Yeah sorry if i didnt mention that before that was one of the first things i had tryed

 

Any luck with the USB solution? Not working for me, but I don't have a bootable USB drive.
I kind of doubt this will work - the BIOS is crashing after early instruction sets I fear

 

working on it had to format the usb drive properly with dos commands to put proper boot files on it

 

sorry no dice it wont boot from any device at all. even tryed a usb floppy drive

 

Not sure about laptops but alot of desktops have a dual bios setup. Where you pull a pin or Switch on the motherboard and you can use the other bios to fix the system. Been reading the A+ cert Tech guide the last few weeks. What about a Cmos Battery and then try the Power on with plug and battery out?

 

lolz! dell singapore website still has the a03 bios for download! i thought they take it down ady?

 

No dual bios here and tryed the cmos battery and battery out trick.

 

According to http://web.telia.com/~u43311424/crisis-recovery-disk/
There are quite a few ways to get into crisis recovery mode

Else where I've seen a claim that if you hold the power button down until the light goes out the BIOS will enter crisis recovery mode the next time you boot
[The system does behave differently when you try this]

Plus the USB port used may matter

Tried all sorts of these permutations - no luck as of yet, the USB stick doesn't seem to even get accessed (no flashing light only solid light)

 

A03 is the crisis..... all we get is bios options to look at and play with but since the bios is the issue and you can not boot any device to flash to A02 it kinda leaves us with nothing when you cant boot any devices. All computers should have backup bios chips required.

 

changed my mind

 

I'm sure this wont help, but looking over the Important Notes section on the A03 download page, Dell states:

I realize upon powering up you hit a black screen but have you tried multiple power ups or letting it sit at the black screen for several minutes to see if anything happens?

 

yep tryed that and mine sat the whole time till support got on the line.

 

the flash cannot be wrong ... if it flashed the bios it worked


maybe they forgot to include the whole bios and did not compile it correctly and it didnt work ...


Very strange ..... have you booted up 3 times?

 

I manually flashed mine from Dos not with that windows utility. i only used that to backup.

 

booted up way more than 3 times , 30+ just with support on the phone. they had to have forgotten something because in bios it looks like a perfectly good flash. you just cant boot from anything.

 

Smart man Kudos

now the flash must of worked correctly because the BIOS flashed .... You see it cannot be selective .... if the computer boots into BIOS then the actual BIOS when compiled did not have the entire BIOS or either they changed the codes for boot ( i think they just forgot it ...)

 

that was exactly my thoughts , it just knocked out every way to undo the damage it caused. Im gonna sleep on this for now its too much to handle right now im recovering from 2 strokes from october still.

 

good idea ...... nothing more to my knowledge can be done ...if the bios fails to communicate with the hardware .... welll your screwed

 

American dell still lists A03 as a download

 

Man I tried to update the bios to A03 earlier but didn't work, kept getting error message. tired like 4-5 times didn't work. Man I feel so lucky i didn't brick my lappy.

 

I didnt see the thread because it was sticky and on the top! So i downloaded it and opened a new thread on the forum says it is released, 5150joker answered back in less then a minute screaming DONT INSTALL Wow, thanks man, that was a close one, you guys expect a motherboard exchange yep but i'm in Libya, so it was literally a close one

 

Can anyone tell me what is written here, in english please? I found that within the bios update files.

Code:

Known Issue / Bug (s):
1. Because an error happened during production, the EMC4002 thermal sensor cannot read its diode 6 and diode 9.
It causes FAN PWM to be always full speed because the thermal failure. 
This issue was only in M00 board, and version X00 fixed.
2. For CPU watt monitoring, it requires some rework on the M00 board. Or it will read incorrect value.
3. In order to read temperature from MXM card, it requires some rework on the M00 board. 
Or EC won't be able to read it.
4. When system wake up by EC from S3 battery critical occurred. System can't get into S4 if stop in log-in.

What kind of rework and what is that M00 board? Thermal reading failure on both gpu and cpu?

 

I just downloaded A03 from dell.no and got a completely different file than I did from dell.com.

From dell.com I get a 36mb R232274.exe bios file, from dell.no I get a 4.1mb R252901.exe file.
Has there been any error reports from people getting the file elsewhere? The norwegian site lists fixes overclocking for i7 920 and my turbo mode isn't working properly so I'd love to install this. Has everyone who's had issues installed the new windows one? I'm assuming the 4.1mb one is a normal bios flash. Although I haven't run any of them yet.


//more information, unpacked the 4.1mb one from dell.no.

Version.txt:

Code:

Title      : BIOS:Alienware M15x System BIOS BIOS
Version    : A03
OEM Name   : Alienware
OEM Ver    : A03
Computers  : Alienware Laptop - M15x
Oses       : BIOS ,
Languages  : English
Created    : Fri Jan 8 16:58:43 CST 2010

bios release notes:

Code:

:===========================================================
: File name : W6702M.A03
: File size : 2.29MB
: Version: A03
: CheckSum: 1252 92DE
: ME ROM : V1185 Production version
: GBE ROM : W670_V04.0A6
: VGA OPROM Version: none (use extended vga card)	
: Phlash16 tool :  Ver 1.7.0.18
: Release Date: 12/16/2009
: M/B Revision: W670 Rev. A100
: Note : Base on Phoenix V1.0.1038
:============================================================
1. Update Arrandale MRC code V1.0
2. Update Arrandale framework reference code V1.00
3. Fix system will halt at bios post when use Arrandale i3/i7 CPU .
4. Update Arrandale 20652 CPU ucode .
5. Update ME FW to V1185.
6. Change bios version to A03

file structure:

Code:

./A03
./A03/EC_W670.100
./A03/DOSFLSH.bat
./A03/AWM15X_A03.exe
./A03/DFLASH.EXE
./A03/doc
./A03/doc/History.txt
./A03/doc/UpdateFWNote.txt
./A03/Phlash16.exe
./A03/CHECKSUM.EXE
./A03/rpg.exe
./A03/EC Release Notes.txt
./A03/BIOS Release Notes.txt
./A03/W6702M.A03
./Version.txt

 

cant believe how much has gone on in just a few hours since last reading the board
unfortunetly the bios is still available to download from the uk support site
hope you guys get things sorted out quickly there.

 

Please follow the following procedures to do the firmware update:
1. Decompress the released ZIP file to a DOS folder.
2. Boot system into DOS.
3. Move to the firmware folder.
4. Execute "f.bat" to burn the firmware.
5. Power cycle the notebook.

why cant they make it easier like the a02 bios update?

 

This is my very first DELL/Alienware machine. And to my surprise, not a knarly 2 weeks in my hands ever careful NOT TO SCRATCH it, and this machine is BRICKED due to a DELL RECOMMENDED BIOS UPDATE

Add me to the disgruntled customer list wanting a full unit replacement, or a full refund!