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March 27th, 2025 15:55
G15 5515 Bricked after BIOS update
Hello!
So, long story short, I work in a computer parts warehouse. We have multiple computers that we use for testing various parts. One of them happens to be a Dell G15 5515 Ryzen Edition that I need for testing batteries. I reinstalled Windows 11 on the system due to it sitting for a while, and I just wanted to start fresh with it. Everything was working great until Windows Update decided to push a BIOS update (1.22 I believe? I could be wrong, and I have no idea what version it was on previously.) and it bricked the machine. It will no longer post or display anything, both on internal screen or external monitor. All I get is the keyboard backlight, the battery/status LED on the side, and one of the fans will turn on. The SSD was replaced previously so the recovery stuff is no longer on the drive. I attempted to boot it into BIOS recovery using the USB drive & CTRL + ESC method. When I do this, I get a blinking status light (3 amber, 4 white indicating invalid recovery image) and cannot proceed any further. The image was downloaded directly from the Dell Support website, and I attempted to use multiple different versions of the BIOS, each providing the same results. I have also tried multiple different USB drives, and different ports on the laptop itself. After some research, this issue seems to be common on these laptops. I'm astonished that even 2-3 years later this is still an issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I would really like to recover this PC without having to put a motherboard in it.
ejn63
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March 27th, 2025 16:03
Open the BIOS download file with a hex editor and make sure the recovery file name matches the name of the BIOS image -- if it doesn't, the recovery will trip and fail.
jsimon2001
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March 27th, 2025 16:45
@ejn63 What exactly should I be looking for in the hex editor? I installed HxD and have the file opened up, just not too sure what I should be looking for. The file name I have been using is BIOS_IMG.rcv, putting it in the root of a FAT32 USB stick. I did not change anything from how they were downloaded from Dell.
jsimon2001
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March 27th, 2025 17:39
Update: I believe it is now recognizing the BIOS file. I downloaded the 1.25 .exe rather than the .rcv file, changed the extension and I am no longer getting the Invalid Image error. When powering the laptop on via CTRL + ESC and plugging in, the laptop powers on and the status indicator stays solid white. I am still not getting any display whatsoever.