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January 29th, 2025 11:00
cannot update Dell Precision 3930 rack BIOS past 2.22.0 - are BIOS updates tied to warranty period?
Hi.. The product description page for Dell Precision 3930 rack says that currently the latest bios is 2.34.0, a security-critical bios update
but.... ever since the end of 2022 i cannot update my 2 Precision 3930 rack systems past bios 2.22.0 which was the latest available while the systems were under warranty. While they were under warranty i could install BIOS updates, which is how i got these updated to 2.22.0... (for one of them we even paid for ProSupport Plus support level at the time - and did not get use it.. probably it was a waste of money imho)
As soon as the warranty ended, i could no longer install newer BIOS versions - i tried cold booting booting them, i tried with/without keyboard/monitors attached... no luck.
Also, BIOS version 2.22.0 seems to have been revoked by Dell since then... nowadays the history of BIOS versions for Precision 3930 rack jumps from 2.20.0 straight to 2.24.0, without any mention of the 2.22.0 version that was delivered via the Dell Update utility at the time.
is there any hope of ever updating these Precision 3930 systems away from 2.22.0 to the latest BIOS or are they considered e-waste by Dell? (one of them is with a Xeon CPU, one with an i7 and a Quadro P4000 card, but otherwise are the same Precision 3930 chassis)
Adi R.
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January 29th, 2025 14:12
I have already tried #1 and #2 last year when we opened the case of both systems for checking for dust - that did not work... seems I have to check the engine firmware again when we next get access for scheduled maintenance.
The systems are used in production for live video processing and unfortunately all of those methods require quite an extensive scheduled downtime (not to mention risk of bricking).
if we need to pop open the system cover we only have only a few such heavy maintenance windows per year and today was the last day for this quarter.
kenact71875e
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January 30th, 2025 05:08
@Adi R. most of my Dell computers have been out of warranty for years, and they all still update. Are you using your service tag when you try to update?
Adi R.
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February 14th, 2025 10:32
@kenact71875e - of course, my primary means of attempting to update the systems is the Dell Command Update app and that takes care of detecting the service tag and downloading the appropriate updates, but even when i download the bios updates manually they fail to install at the POST check phase during reboot.
I get a split-second of the progress bar for starting the BIOS update, but instead of starting to fill the bar it disappears and the text message changes to one that says failed to update and reboots the system, still while running BIOS version 2.22.0
primator_nl
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September 11th, 2025 07:53
We use our Precision 3930 rack PC headless, and faced the same issue.
The solutions for us was to connect a mouse and keyboard, look slike there is some check in the BIOS update that searches for a keyboard and/or mouse and if it cannot find one, the updates fails.
It might not fix your issue, but it may help others.
(edited)