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37 Posts
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8515
December 11th, 2022 21:00
XPS 8930, possible blown motherboard
This is a new 1 on me. This unit has never given me a minute's worth of trouble in the 3 or 4 years I've had it. Yesterday the standard Windows 11 Pro desktop was up as usual; I left for about an hour and was greeted by a Dell logo on a black screen when I got back. I figured it was just a Windows update that had not quite completed or something but when I rebooted I got the same thing. Since then I've gone through a litany of troubleshooting steps as follows:
1. Verified the power supply was good (no beeps or visual error codes and tried it out on another computer also) All the fans spin-up when the power button is pushed and also when the test button on the rear of the actual PSU is pushed. The LED stays green and doesn't flash.
2. The power button LED on the front of the computer stays solid white and does not change color nor beep nor flash any error codes.
3. Verified that the memory was good (no beeps or visual error codes and tried it out on another computer).
4. Changed out the video card for a known good one. Also tried using the integrated HDMI port as well. (Not even the Dell logo appears when I do this, for some reason)
5. Changed out the SSD for a couple of known good ones. A different known good one is currently installed.
6. The only cables which are attached are the video (HDMI), USB keyboard & mouse ones. No SATA hard drives are attached, either.
7. Reset the BIOS via the mobo jumper and also by removing the coin-cell battery and power cord for 10 minutes. Did this 3 different times for good measure
8. No POST whatsoever and I can't even access the BIOS setup, either by F2 or F12. It flashes briefly in the lower right-hand corner of the screen and that's it. I've tried moving the USB keyboard & mouse cables to different ports (USB 2 & 3) but to no avail. I've done this more times than I can count.
So in summary, this happened quickly, in about an hour's time; prior to this the computer had exhibited no ill symptoms whatsoever in all the time I've owned it. I've had it connected to a functional APC UPS the entire time I've owned it, so it has not been subjected to power spikes, etc. The BIOS had not been flashed anytime recently but the last time it was, no problems were encountered. No error codes, either visual (LEDs) or audible (beeps) have manifested themselves. No new hardware or software has been installed lately. The computer pretty much just has Windows 11 Pro and Office Home & Business 2021 (click-to-run, not Office 365). The CPU is an i7 with 32GB of RAM. To me everything seems to point to a failed motherboard but apparently there aren't any diagnostics (at least that I have access to) to absolutely confirm this. It's more-or-less the "process of elimination" at this point but before I drop a wad of cash on a replacement mobo (probably without a return privilege) I thought I'd see if anybody out there in Dell Land had any other ideas or perhaps have had a similar experience; this is a 1st for me. I'm attaching some pictures, for whatever little it might be worth. Thanks in advance...Dell Logo On Monitor
Dell XPS 8930 i7 Motherboard
Dell LED On Back Of Power Supply Unit
Luke717
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116 Posts
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December 20th, 2022 13:00
@RoHe I had hoped to repport that the steps to recover the BIOS and get back to a usable computer worked but sadly not yet.
The steps with the .rcv file on a USB drive inserted into a port, turning on the PC and hitting CTRL-ESC worked - I got the BIOS recovery menu and successfully recovered the BIOS, according to the final screen in the process (photo).
And so the system restarted, four or five times, starting with a screen saying Windows updates in progress - I guess a literal continuation of what was happeneing with Windows Update right before the BIOS corruption a few days ago.
After another restart, the Dell logo appeared with text beneath saying a system update was being installed (photo). No idea what this is. The BIOS?
There was one restart where the Dell logo appeared and underneath was the spinner animation suggesting Windows might load.
During all this, the USB drive was still inserted and I could see the flashing light indicating drive activity. I guessed the system was accessing data on the drive although the only file there is the .rcv one.
But I eventually stopped the machine (turned it off) as it seemed to be stuck in this position: Dell logo on screen and nothing else going on other than the USB drive being constantly accessed.
I have a fundamentral question - should I remove the USB drive after the BIOS flash update succeeds, before the machine actually restarts? Or does it not matter. And , fyi. all the peripherals usually connected to this PC were unplugged except for the wired keyboard and the HDMI-connected monitor.
I need to do this again which is fine as I learn as I go
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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December 23rd, 2022 11:00
@Travis_Lloyd - It's more like Microsoft decided we're too lazy and/or stupid to keep our PCs updated, so we need a nanny to do it for us.
@sam55todd - I don't think password protecting BIOS will stop Nanny Microsoft from installing a BIOS update as long as UEFI Capsule Updates is enabled. And I don't think a BIOS password will stop SupportAssist/Dell Update from doing it either.
I keep Capsule Updates disabled (no BIOS password set) and I've uninstalled SupportAssist/Dell Update too.
redxps630
9 Legend
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14.8K Posts
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December 11th, 2022 21:00
User reported recent Windows update automatically push out Dell bios 1.1.27 update that is not found on Dell website. It is possible when you walked away Windows thought a good moment to do a firmware update but the AI failed during a supposedly smooth update.
try bios recovery
Re:Reset the BIOS via the mobo jumper and also by removing the coin-cell battery and power cord for 10 minutes.
You can also try replace cmos battery with a new one, but if a bios flash had failed there was not much you could do with a bricked motherboard.
Travis_Lloyd
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37 Posts
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December 11th, 2022 22:00
Thanks. I'll give it a try but I'm not very hopeful at this point, given what all I've tried so far. I did forget to mention in my post that I have already replaced the coin battery with a new one as part of my troubleshooting efforts (which obviously didn't help). The BIOS was "flashed-up" to whatever the latest version was on the Dell website but that was done whenever it was first released and nowhere near to when the problem occurred . As mentioned, I have reset the BIOS several times already, both via the jumper on the mobo and by removing the battery and power cable, in this case for 15 minutes each time. I was not aware that Microsoft could put out a BIOS update via Windows Update that had not been "officially" released on the Dell support website.
Travis_Lloyd
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37 Posts
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December 11th, 2022 23:00
I forgot to mention that I installed a new battery and cleared the CMOS in both ways that you suggested already, as part of my troubleshooting. Interesting development after holding down the Ctrl + Esc keys (something that I have previously not heard of before - what does it do - or trigger, exactly?). After doing so (and for the first time) the power button flashes amber in two groups, 3 times and then 6 times. According to the Service Manual this combo indicates "Recovery image not found" (although it's in the reverse order that is listed in the manual) which could well be the case. And I've now tried it with 2 of my known-good "test SSDs". However, that still doesn't explain why I'm locked out of the BIOS or why it won't boot, since both SSDs are formatted and bootable on another similar Dell desktop with Windows 11 Pro. On the other hand, a single 3-flash group indicates "System board or chipset failure" and a single 6-flash group indicates "Video card or chip failure". I don't know what, if any, the order of the flashing groups has to do with what the actual problem is, vis-a-vis the diagnostic codes, but the 3-flash group always preceeds the 6-flash group every time. So the bottom line is that I'm getting a little more info now than I was before but it's still not really telling what the problem could be per se. If I don't use the Ctrl + Esc key combo then it goes back to a solid white LED on the power button. Logically I still don't understand what could've caused such a catastrophic failure when it was simply sitting there idle, connected to a functional UPS and there was no bad weather or power outages or anything. Still seems a bit bizarre under the circumstances that it could just die like that...
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 12th, 2022 12:00
@Travis_Lloyd FYI -
The link I posted above for the XPS 8930 BIOS 1.1.26 recovery file isn't working correctly on my XPS 8930. It crashes Firefox or just downloads gibberish. If you have the same problem, download BIOS 1.1.26 .exe from here.
Copy the .exe file onto the empty USB stick and then rename it to BIOS_IMG.rcv
Now try the Ctrl-Esc recovery...
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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December 12th, 2022 12:00
1. Props for doing this.
2. Try to determine if it's this error or the other one. If this one, you should attempt to follow the Dell BIOS Recovery 2/3 procedures.
You can also try leaving it un-powered, no CMOS battery installed, flea-power dissipated for a few hours. See if Dell BIOS Guard will kick-in on next power-up.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 12th, 2022 12:00
Put the BIOS recovery image .rcv file for BIOS 1.1.26 on an empty FAT32-formatted USB stick. Do not change the file name from BIOS_IMG.rcv to anything else.
Plug that USB into PC with power fully off. Power on and use Ctrl-Esc and -hopefully- you can launch the BIOS recovery now. Leave PC alone until it's back at your desktop.
FWIW, BIOS 1.1.27 is available for XPS 8930 on Dell's support page as of today, 12-12-22. I would not use the recovery file for this newest version, since we don't know -yet- if 1.1.27 has a problem.
And once you recover the PC, open BIOS setup and do the following:
Confirm BIOS Recovery from Hard Drive is enabled
Disable UEFI Capsule Updates - to prevent Windows Update from installing BIOS updates, which should be installed only via the F12 Flash Update option and a USB stick, to be safe.
Enable BIOS Auto-Recovery
Enable Always Perform Integrity Check
Keep in mind that these settings get reset to their defaults after every BIOS update so you have to check them again, after each BIOS update...
HanoverB
2 Intern
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798 Posts
2
December 12th, 2022 16:00
Re: XPS 8930 Dell screen stuck at logo, Dell screen black screen at startup with delayed boot sequence.
The problem with any bios recovery with the XPS 8930 is if the secure boot option somehow defaults to enable secure boot AND the monitor connected is to the GPU, you will continue to get the dell logo screen hangup.
The workaround is to first to be able to get into the BIOS and second, to disable Secure Boot.
Before following the BIOS recovery option steps to reset the BIOS do the following:
More info here: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-black-screen-fix-motherboard-swap-BIOS-updates/td-p/7251078
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 12th, 2022 18:00
FWIW, I just successfully updated my XPS 8930 to BIOS 1.1.27 using the F12 Flash Update option with the .exe file on a USB stick. (I don't allow Windows Update to install BIOS updates.)
Travis_Lloyd
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37 Posts
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December 14th, 2022 03:00
I just lost a post that took me a good 15 minutes to write, that I will try to re-post later on but I have some good news and bad news. The 1.1.26 recovery image that you kindly provided worked great but the subsequent update to 1.1.27 didn't. It ran but then it kicked me back to the Dell logo on a black screen. There's a lot more "backstory" here but somehow the Forum "thought" that I uploaded some pictures (I tried but wasn't successful) so I'm locked out at the moment. I'll try to deal with that later on. In a very capsule form, I was up & running until (apparently) the 1.1.27 update happened via a Windows update (I didn't do it "manually") and then it was back to Square 1 again. I'm back up but I have the network cable unplugged. To be continued...
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 14th, 2022 10:00
@Travis_Lloyd - Immediately open BIOS setup and make all the changes I posted above to BIOS, especially to Disable UEFI Capsule Updates.
That should prevent Windows Update from trying to install BIOS 1.1.27 again. And while you're at it, may be a good idea to click the option to delay (all) new updates via Windows Update for 7 (or more) days.
Then it should be safe(r) to reconnect the network cable...
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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December 14th, 2022 10:00
1. Cool. Good work. So, hardware might be good (just having firmware problems). At least you already know that recovery procedure.
2. Then, stay on v1.1.26 .
Try a re-flash/back-flash to v1.1.26 with ethernet cable disconnected. And then (as @RoHe posted) ... at first opportunity, Disable UEFI Capsule Updates in BIOS.
giulatona
1 Message
0
December 16th, 2022 02:00
Hi, I had the same problem and tried everything as @Travis_Lloyd said. I was able to also make it work by downgrading the bios firmware to 1.1.26.
To provide some further information, I noticed that 1.1.27 worked fine when I removed the M.2 NVM ssd. I was able to run a live OS from USB. Therefore, I think the latest firmware might have a problem with that device.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 16th, 2022 11:00
BIOS 1.1.27 installed without any problems via the F12 option on my XPS 8930. PC has ~12 sec BIOS Time, according to Task Manager, which is same as it was with 1.1.26.
My XPS 8930 has i7-9700 CPU, Dell OEM (Micron 2200s) NVME 512-GB SSD, 16 GB RAM and Dell OEM GTX 1660 Ti video card.
I have BIOS and Win 10 22H2 configured for RAID, with Secure Boot and TPM enabled, and UEFI Capsule Updates disabled.
I'm suspicious that reconfiguring BIOS and Windows to use AHCI is somehow involved in the problem with 1.1.27 since it gets installed, the power button is solid white, but PC freezes at the Dell splash screen.
Have any of you reconfigured BIOS and Windows to use AHCI, typically necessary when a "retail' SSD (eg, Samsung) is installed to replace the OEM SSD?