A03 Bios bricked my M15x

Did you get it from dell.no or dell.com, you'll get a different file from .no than from .com.

 

That is truly, truly shocking. I feel for you guys.

I was going to do mine tonight but the wife had commandeered it to play Dragon Age! I'm not quite as upset about being deprived of my machine now.

 

Oh my. Look like QA was lacking on Dell's part. Or maybe the BIOS is meant for the refresh or something.
It's really crazy that they haven't pulled the BIOS yet when it has such serious issues.

I feel for all of you that fell victim to this faulty BIOS.

 

I got mine also bricked. I wonder how many people got theirs bricked with the M15x being their only system.

Now I cant wait for Monday to "talk" with tech support.

 

I also got pwnt by the A03 bios update.. funny i thought cool i dont have to waste a cd-rom.. its my birthday today HAPPY freaken birthday lol... hopefully dell can fix this without formatting my data, i am a day trader and have some research / information stored that wouldn’t be easy to replace on the HD. i would sooner go in and swap the HD so i can keep my data than have some dell tech format my pc to be "safe". Ahhhh well at least i take solace in the fact i am not alone.

 

Go to http://www.engadget.com/
and click on the "Tip us" link on the right with red color.

for http://gizmodo.com/
Its in the middle of the Gizmodo banner that says "Got a tip for us?"


Get the word out about this screw up. I am SHOCKED to see this. Is this Dell we're dealing with!? What the testing/QC department at dell doing?
And they just announced a new product in this line of laptop, how about fixing the existing one first!?

 

The problem is with the BIOS which is on the motherboard, so all your information should be safe. When you speak to dell you should make known that you have important work related information on your HDD. Let them know that if for some reason they need to format, that you will need another HDD. You can always pull your HDD and put it in a 2.5" HDD enclosure and hook it up via USB to pull the information/research off it. If you have another computer, you may want to do this now. Perhaps a local store (i.e) best buy as an enclosure. They are generally not too expensive

I believe that this has been done by another forum member with links to the thread. I suggest as many people as possible put this word out to dell and whom ever else so that it recieves as much attention as neccessary for dell to realize the magnitude of the problem and take action immediately

 

Thanks for the tip I wasn’t aware you could remove the drive w/o voiding the warranty good looking out.

 

Just got mine bricked aswell.... I am SO FURIOUS!!

Is there really nothing we can do?
Are we going to have to pay for this or will they?
Will i have to send it abroad and wait forever to get it back?
I cant even explain how Angry i am!

 

No problem. The warranty won't be void for changing the HDD or the RAM, but, should it cause a problem, dell most likely won't cover it if it is due to a malfunctioning 3rd party unit. Simply removing it to pull your information off it and putting it back in won't be a problem. If the HDD dies and it's from Dell, then it is Dells responsibility to replace it. Just make sure prior to sending the unit back to Dell, that you have removed any confidential, proprietary, and personal information from the HDD. I suggest reformatting with another computer since you can't access it via M15X. Just be sure that your information is backed up prior to reformatting. Yesterday I copied some old useless stuff from an external, then deleted it off the drive, only to find that due to an error it didn't copy. Good thing it wasn't important. I suggest removing the device and then plugging it back in to ensure your stuff copied

 

Dell is responsible for this, you will not have to pay for a fix.

-----------------------------

While I totally understand the frustration surrounding this issue (I would be livid as well), I am asking everyone to respect NBR's forum rules.

Thanks everyone.

 

Though we are definitely NOT at fault, we however will pay for several weeks, if not MONTHS to get this sent to Dell, fix, then sent back to us.

TIME is money and in just 1 month's time, i'm afraid, my CPU will be thrown back into the "commoners CPU" from it's current "top dog" level.

 

This kinda makes me worry about the upcoming BIOS (within a few days) for the M17X. Maybe I'll own a M17X bricked addition

 

Do u guys think we will be able to demand a refund because of this?

 

If we dont get a refund, we will throw BRICKS at DELL! See how that feels!

Im sure, a few bricks raining down on their car park and they will gladly refund us.. How PISSED I am.

OR: Can we request to trade in these bricked M15x for the new i7 M17x?

BTW. We should also contact PHEONIX, the ones who wrote the BIOS, we might get something from them

 

wow..... this is real bad i wonder how many computers have to be replaced for this bad bios, sorry guys

 

I didn't read through the 100+ posts here but does anyone know what the "ME" FW update is?

 

The offending BIOS A03 is still up and am sure that because its Sat/Sun, a lot of Alienated users would jump the gun for that RECOMMENDED BIOS. after all, Alienated users are computer savvy always checking for the latest...

 

well dell is going to lost tons of cash for this and also bad rep.

 

They didn't need this for the bad rep.

 

got you

 

I am horrified that A03 is still available for dl ,regardless of it being the weekend.I would say a good percentage of Alienware owners dont know this forum exists.So we will not see the full extent of the damage but Dell will come Monday.

 

I'd love to know what's happened with quality control over at Dell/Alienware... Drivers that don't work correctly, hardware not performing correctly and now this... a botched BIOS update!

And it's just not the Alienware machines... the new Latitudes and Precisions are just as screwy. My staff alone has replaced 20+ power bricks and 11 Latitude motherboards since mid-December when our company switched to these for our sales reps.

I don't know if it's Dell or their 'partnership' with Flextronics, but someone needs to get a clue over there and start testing this stuff BEFORE they release it.

- Denver

 

Just woke up here on West Coast of US.
Top "BREAKING" story at Engadget - very obvious.
That will get Dell's attention. What horrible press...and what a horrible situation all of us are in - can someone who has called tech support beyond the initial few start to comment on what Dell's approach will be here:
1) Send out a new MB via FedEx to their outsourced support people and have them attempt surgery at our offices/homes (scary)
2) Send out a new BIOS chip with same as 1) approach
3) Have us send back the entire laptop with Dell/AW folks performing repair (they'll have to swap hard drives)
4) Have DELL send out a new "case" with identical configuration and have us swap hard drive and send old case back - this is how large enterprise companies with thousands of laptops in their workforce would do it (how my company does it - we have "breakfix" kits)

 

I flashed mine last night before all this was known. I spoke with Dell this morning and they are sending me a new motherboard. I got the black screen as well, but after unplugging the little battery near the hard drive and then putting the laptop back together, my laptop won't turn on now. The alien head doesn't even light up when plugged in. I am officially a brick.

 

Removed due to original post is now changed

 

I meant motherboard. I changed my post right after I submitted it.

 

got it - and who is going to install it??

 

They are going to have a tech call me on Monday. The guy that changed my LED display didn't really know what he was doing since it took him four hours and broke the panel where the alien head power button is located, but I think he is the only tech in this area, so I am not optimistic. I hope they will send me a new laptop.

 

They should not be allowing their techs who may have completed 1 online Dell class in maintenance install motherboards. They have going to have to remove and reseat both the CPU (i7) and the Nvidia 240/260 chip. And basically take the whole machine apart, though the MB may actually be a bit more accessible than the LED display, but not by much

I can't express how upset and outraged i am. But i will refrain from stronger language to keep our G-rating...

 

Thanks to all those who submitted the info about the bad BIOS, it's now on Engadget

 

Well 16:17 UK time and A03 is still there for DL.How mad is that.

 

There's a reason (tech wise) you don't do new deployments on Fridays. Tech Manager = Fail.

 

for me it's similar in kind of sabotage if i don't know about bad wave with this..

 

Still available for download from US Dell website as well.
Just think of the value destruction each time it is downloaded and executed - we're talking probably $400 a pop with materials, labor, shipping...more if they begin to replace cases because their incompetent outsourced repair folks will ruin some machines

 

Another sad Dell customer with a bricked notebook...

Destructive update also still available and recommended on the german Dell driver website.

 

Man, this almost makes me wish I had an M15X so I could join the fun and stick it to dell so they could lose another few bucks

 

stupid me: ignored the first failure to download (a sign!) and persisted, and then tried the install -- bricked. 2 hours with tech reseating all the bits and pieces to confirm that it will not boot into windows, i.e. the motherboard needs replacing.
Good news, its not that hard for a tech to replace the motherboard, just the day or so while its sent out to the tech and then an hour or so, especially if you have on-site support -- of course that's when its one ot two parts, not a whole slew of dead laptops from a bad bios which could slow everything but hopefully not.
What a mess.

 

Hi Everyone,

There are quite a few posts here, but there only seems to be a few (5 at last count) that have mentiond they have "bricked" their M15x. I am wonderign if there are some mitigating circumstances that are causing this? If your comptuer is bricked, what are your specs, and had you performed any tweaks or optimizations to your computer that might make it "non-standard"? The firmware of the M15x seems to be a bit different than a standard BIOS. I wonder of the M15x uses EFI with a BIOS emulator to boot Windows? If this is the case, perhaps it is the BIOS emulation that is not functioning and preventing Windows from booting (just a random thought).

Plus, we are supposed to have 24-hour 7-days a week support, are we not? I had to call Dell after having my M15x for only a few days due to issues with Fusion, but I spoke to a person in the US (AW-Jose), not a person in India. I find it rather disturbing that people are having to wait until Monday to get support, as their only option is some guy in India named 'Bob.' This is not the Alienware I remember.

In the meantime, maybe if we put our heads together we can figure out some solution. If you have a bricked computer, does your F12 boot options menu work? If so, can you get into the diagnostics?

Rich

 

Well was hyped for A03 release for M17x in the hoping for a nice fix for DPC Latency .After this carry on i guess the M17x bios release will be a while before it is available .

 

Rich, those who ran the flashed the BIOS can't get into anything. Won't boot to a cd, USB, SD, F12, nothing.

On a side note, at least this little problem is bringing lots of new members

 

Support is 24/7 so call in right away. F12 boot option are dead they are there but do nothing. and diagnostics doesnt run either. When i called i didnt get anyone in india either. we need a count of bricked units in this thread.

 

Ok all those with bricked systems please add your name here. i'll start pretty sure im patient zero here.


HisSvt2-bricked M15x called support new MB in route.

 

Bricked

Asking the wrong question - the question is one I posed earlier: show me someone who *hasn't* bricked after using the A03 updater. We have no evidence of that person or laptop existing (yet) - there are at least 10 posters so far counting this board and the Dell boards...

I will call support today but I don't want to spend 2 hours reseating everything when it is clear what the issue is.

My laptop has ZERO mods, completely stock everything. This is not a Windows issue - it is fundamental BIOS as it can't even get to the step of trying to find a bootable source - windows, linux, anything...

 

bricked as well. new motherboard is on the way. few of my friends who got m15x also has the issue. so far I see no body successfully installed the update! bloody hell.

 

do you really think this is fun for the actual owners

 

OK i'm a little confused ,So after the system is flash are you guys seeing the bios screen (but cant get into it) then it goes to a flashing cursor or you just get a black screen?


Bliadd

 

The system flashes successfully and shuts down and all appears well.

When you next try and startup, you get what looks like normal POST activity, then the AW splash screen. At this point, full functionality is present - you can press F2 to get into the BIOS setup, and it shows A03 as the BIOS, and all the selections work. You can make changes that do indeed save. But then if you exit (or if you just let the splash screen go through), you get the "flashing cursor screen of death" - a black screen with a blinking underscore cursor and the fans running at low speed. Nothing else works.

You can change the boot order, you can hit F12 and try to get to diagnostics from the get-go (and choose that option) but it all ends at the flashing cursor of death. It looks like the flash worked but the BIOS has code errors that are preventing everything beyond the splash screen from working.

Hence, we have no access to do anything like reprogram BIOS to an earlier version. We are desperate for a backdoor "crisis"/"safe" mode but noone has found it yet.

I bet we have not just a "few" people with this, but 100% bricking with this program. Too many posts too early all over the globe...

 

While flashing the BIOS I remember the tool saying something like "backing up old BIOS V02". Any chance we recover the backed up version while in bricked state? At least we have access to the BIOS settings...

 

Just got off the phone with dell had me do a bunch of tests that to me seem odd since they all came back to the dreaded blinking cursor. After jumping though a few hoops and several reboots he ran out of tests to run and scheduled me to get a on-site motherboard replacement with in 2-3 business days to set up an appointment. I guess that’s good but still not a happy camper as I use the laptop for work and will have to be out a laptop for however long this takes to fix.