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October 15th, 2025 23:35
Optiplex XE4 - USB power goes off during reboot from Windows 11 "Advanced Startup"
Optiplex XE4: In Windows 11, I choose "Settings / System / Recovery / Advanced startup".
On reboot, the USB power is on but then turns off during the boot screen "Secured with Dell SafeBIOS - Dell - Please wait".
When the "Choose an option / Continue / Use a device / Troubleshoot / Turn off your PC" is shown, it is impossible to do anything with a keyboard or mouse because the USB power is off.
This makes the PC completely unrecoverable should a disk failure occur.
I'm at a loss with this.
Probably a firmware bug? (All the most recent available firmware is installed.)
No Events found!
Graham_z
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October 21st, 2025 19:39
@adambrook after four days spent in the Dell support Chat going around in circles (including being told several times to remove dust/debris from the USB sockets!!), reading today's computer press articles turned up that it is a catastrophic bug in Microsoft's 14 October update that messed up the Windows Recovery Environment. Microsoft have issued an out-of-band fix: KB5070773
adambrook
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October 16th, 2025 01:52
This is likely a firmware/BIOS USB power initialization bug.
Try these steps:
Update BIOS to the latest version (even if it’s already recent — reinstall it).
In BIOS → Advanced → USB Configuration, enable options like “USB Wake Support” or “Always On USB”.
Disable Fast Boot in BIOS. If issue persists, plug your keyboard/mouse into rear USB 2.0 ports (black ones), not 3.0 (blue).
Report to Dell Support — this behavior needs a firmware patch for Advanced Startup mode.
Graham_z
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October 16th, 2025 21:29
@adambrook Thank you so much for the suggestions. Unfortunately none were successful but I do really appreciat the help.
More observations: I notice that when booting into Windows 11, the USB power goes off at the same stage BUT comes back on again a short time afterwards!!
The problem occurs also when selecting a USB boot pen drive (which is a Macrium Reflect recovery drive) from the BIOS, so it is not just confined to using the Windows 11 "Advanced startup" option. As far as I can see, in the event of a failure of the boot SSD, I have no method of recovery at all.
(While obviously at the moment the computer is fully operational, the reason behind all this is that the most recent Windows 11 updates messed up some development software and I want to restore two of the drives from an image backup.)
I am now wondering whether to try some earlier versions of the BIOS firmware but am a bit nervous.
Also perhaps a BIOS settings reset - but that one I really don't want to risk as the settings are almost the same was when I received the computer and BIOS settings are not exactly an area of expertise for me.
As for contacting Dell support, as far as I can see, they are only contactable as part of a support contract. I do have one on the computer but going near it immediately starts making arrangements to send the computer back to them, which makes no sense when there is nothing physically wrong with it.
The only other option I can see is to shell out 44 UK pounds for their software assistance, which is a bit annoying for what I'm 99.9% sure is a firmware bug, but...
It's hard to imagine that nobody else has come across this, but search results didn't reveal anything.
Graham_z
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October 16th, 2025 22:35
Also tried turning off Secure Boot and turning off "Deep Sleep" - neither helped.