m15 R7, 2nd NVME slot 2TB SN850 issue since BIOS 1.12.0

Hi @HexTank welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum. 

BIOS updates should only be installed if they provide a feature that the user or an application wants. Installing BIOS update shall be undertaken in accordance with its very specific Installation instructions or risk bricking the system. Always download BIOS onto the drive, verify the checksum value of BIOS file, then Run as administrator to install followed by Restart (not Shut Down). The free MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility or similar can be used to verify the checksum value. Never try and install BIOS over the internet. No external connections, power by ac adapter (charger), battery more than 10% charge. 

The current BIOS version 1.40.0 and the Old Alienware m15 R7 System BIOS' Important information says "Once the BIOS is upgraded, user cannot downgrade the BIOS to version 1.0.1 or earlier due to downgrade restrictions". Dell allows the user to install the following Older BIOS versions: - 

According to the opening post, the Alienware m15 R7 System BIOS is version 1.13.2 and this should be installed again to ensure correct installation. Then user has the option to install Older BIOS versions, but cannot downgrade the BIOS to version 1.0.1 or earlier. When system function is stable, stop installing BIOS updates. 

Evidently this system has Two M.2 2230/2280 slots for up to PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe solid-state drives (for computers shipped with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060/3070 Ti/3080 Ti graphics card). Please use bright light to check that second slot has no dust/debris that inhibits good electrical connection. Remove with can of dry air, or vacuum, etc. no water or solvents. The primary drive with OS (C:) partition can be installed in the second slot to determine if this slot works.  

Please try to diagnose and fix windows operating system. See my post within Alienware m17 R3. Screen flickering and occasionally going black whilst awake - Dell Community.  

Hi @crimsom,

A few points so you can understand where I am at.

The BIOS update was part of a DELL update, it was a critical BIOS update to fix some vulnerabilities, as can be seen in the screen shot you provided.

I already tried doing a recovery which put Windows back to a fresh state.

The point about downgrading the BIOS is something that I want to do, but can't.  No matter what BIOS I install, it's always seen as 1.13.2, then when it boots back into Windows, a popup will appear saying a restart is needed to update to 1.13.2.  I just can't get off that version.

I've still yet to try swapping around drives in slots, will update when I get to try that.

Hi @HexTank thank you for sharing update. 

BIOS seems to be corrupt, please perform Hard Reset (Drain residual flea power). 

BIOS updates should only be installed if they provide a feature that the user or an application wants. Just because Dell says it is a critical BIOS update does not mean that user should install BIOS update. The risk of bricking the system does not mean that user should accept that risk. If system is working, do not try and fix it. When system function is stable, stop installing BIOS updates. 

Does BIOS version 1.40.0 install? After file download, make sure that laptop has no external connections, power laptop with ac adapter (charger) connected to Power-adapter port, battery must have more than 10% charge, then install BIOS version 1.40.0. 

Check invoice or click on Product Support to determine if Alienware m15 R7 was purchased with Dell warranty, click on Contact Technical Support and request they provide fix, such as replace motherboard. Please click on @DELL-Cares and send Private Message to request assistance. Please click on Get Help Now logo on RH side to have online chat. 

I've spent ages figuring this out and it turns out to be this. I've lost count how many fresh windows installs I've done.  I managed to get some decent time with a working drive, until Windows updates with this dell firmware, then it all goes to bad. This thins is why you can't really downgrade the BIOS as soon as you get back in to windows, this things puts up a BIOS update on the next boot.

I'm going to try a few more things to try get this not forced, but this isn't great and is down to Dell.

“Dell cares” pretty much said I’m on my own and should contact where I purchased the drive from. I can see spending all this cash with Dell was my only mistake here.

Hi @HexTank does the drive provided by Dell installed in slot SSD1, work in second internal drive slot SSD2? If yes, the second drive is not compatible as an internal drive, despite being compatible within external enclosure. 

I managed to get time to swap both drives around at the weekend, issue with the 2nd slot, as the PM9A1 supplied by Dell, the original boot drive, also suffers when plugged in to 2nd slot.  My SN850 works like a dream when plugged in to slot 1.

Bios is clearly broken, currently in discussions with tech support.

I spoke to soon, didn't.

The problem still exists, even though I'm on my 4th motherboard, 2nd Dell NVMe and 2nd battery. I feel a this point I'm just a hot potato.

Maybe all DELL's given they can brick hardware by a simple BIOS update and clearly have zero regression tests, do they QA at all or just see if things boot?

Hi,

I have been noticing a very similar problem with installation of a secondary drive. I replaced my motherboard with a brand new one and it was still crashing. It was until I came across this post than motivated me to downgrade my BIOS. This might have worked, downgraded from 1.21.1 to 1.11.0

What seems to have worked for me:

1. Switch from RAID 0 to AHCI in BIOS. By default it will have raid on even with 1 SSD.(I did a clean windows installation)

2. Downgrading the BIOS : first you'll want to disable UEFI Capsule updates. Do this in the BIOS. This will prevent bios from being upgraded automatically.

3. On dells drivers and download choose the bios version you'd like to install and then restart.

This seems to have apparently fixed the second slot SSD crash while gaming issue. However I don't think this is a solution, dell should definitely look into it. I might be asking for a new laptop as a replacement as using a 2 year old bios version doesn't seem ideal to me.

@HexTank​ does it still crash on the older bios version?

@Mizhaan​ still crashes for me with the older bios