XPS 8950 BIOS 1.31.0 Update GPU Conflict

I don't have this computer, but may I ask ...

Is that NVidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU a Dell-OEM video-card that came factory-installed in the XPS-8950, or is it a retail after-market card?

@Tesla1856​ machine was configured with the GPU from the factory. 

Hello piloianm,

I had the same blinking power button as you did after manually updating from BIOS version 1.12.0 to BIOS version 1.31.0 as you did.  The solution for me was to change a BIOS setting.

The setting is found on the SECURE BOOT screen (Security/Secure Boot/Enable Microsoft UEFI CA from DISABLED to ENABLED).  There are three choices on this screen (Disabled, Allow Pre-Boot Modules Only, and Enabled).  This was the only change I made to the BIOS.  Once I saved the setting, my system automatically rebooted, and once Windows came back up, the flashing power button was gone.

If you can't get to the BIOS screen after the BIOS update, you will probably need to connect your monitor to the integrated video port on the back of your CPU.  After the BIOS update, I was unable to see the BIOS screen until I connected my monitor to that port on my system.  I normally connect my monitor to the NVIDIA GeForce 3080 via a Display Port on that card.  While the blinking power button was happening, my monitor would stay black until the Windows Login screen appeared. Pressing F2 after the Dell logo appeared did not allow me to see the BIOS screen on my monitor.  It would stay black and not boot to Windows.  I assume that the BIOS screen was activated, but I was unable to see it when my monitor was connected to the NVIDIA card.  Using [Control/Alt/Delete] would reboot the system, and if I didn't try to access the BIOS, the system would reboot back to the Windows login screen.

It's important for you to know that I am not an expert on this BIOS update.  I do not know if this is the "proper" solution, but it worked for me.  As BIOS updates and manual changes to the BIOS can create an unbootable system, it's important for you to know that if you decide to make this change, you do so at your own risk, and I am not responsible for any problems that may occur.

I've attached three screenshots of my BIOS screens which you can use as directions to get to the Secure Boot screen to change the setting as described above.

I hope this reply is helpful to you.

@steveslim​ thanks for the info. I've tinkered with various combinations of BIOS settings, but unsure if this was one of them, but I know I've had Secure Boot both Enabled and Disabled. Just a couple questions:

1. I assume after the settings change you still had your NVidia card installed when you rebooted, but please confirm.

2. Are you getting any System Event Log 1801 errors regarding updated Secure Boot Certificates not being applied?

Since this started I've got the exact same symptoms you did. F2 gets me a black screen if I'm using the NVidia card. If I skip F2 and let it boot it gets to Windows eventually. Unfortunately I have to physically remove the card for F2 to work. If I just remove monitors from DP and hook one to the onboard video card, or even remove the internal power cables from the NVidia GPU, I still get the black screen at F2. I'll give this a try soon and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

@piloianm​ ,

F2 gets me a black screen if I'm using the NVidia card. If I skip F2 and let it boot it gets to Windows eventually. 

I wonder if at this point, you have the monitor connected via HDMI instead, if you could see the BIOS screens?

If yall are accustomed to removing the Nvidia card (and falling back to and using on-board Intel video) ... if the computer is working, why not just update the BIOS with it like this?

Are you just afraid it's not gonna work (with the new BIOS-Firmware properly applied) when you re-install the Nvidia card?

@Tesla1856​ I haven't tried using HDMI, but my guess is no because even if I have a monitor plugged into the onboard video card and basically nothing connected to the NVidia card (card installed, but no internal or monitor cables connected), I can't see the BIOS screen. The only configuration I can see it in is NVidia physically removed and monitor plugged into the onboard card. I can mess with BIOS no problem with the NVidia card removed. I'm on 1.31.0 right now and as far as I can tell I've got the proper drivers installed per Dell. 

I just mentioned because it sounded a bit like this issue. It was fixed for a while, but apparently back again.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/563818/bios-uefi-screen-is-not-displayed-no-signal-when-d/

Back then using HDMI instead was the work-around.

@piloianm​ 

Just a couple questions:

1.I assume after the settings change you still had your NVidia card installed when you rebooted, but please confirm.

Yes, I had the NVidia card installed during all the steps I mentioned in my earlier reply in this thread.  F2 to get to the BIOS screens DOES still bring me to the BIOS screens when I have my NVidia card installed in my system, and the internal power cables are still connected, but without the displayport cable connected to the NVidia card or my monitor.  Instead, that displayport cable is connected to the onboard (internal) DP port on my system.  This is different than what happens on your system.  I don't know why.

2. Are you getting any System Event Log 1801 errors regarding updated Secure Boot Certificates not being applied?

Yes, I WAS getting System Event Log 1801 errors.  I've attached two screenshots of my errors.  The first (still in the log) is dated Feb 25 2026,

and the latest is dated today (04-14-2026), but stopped at about 10:00 am.

I believe these errors are generated each time I boot my computer.  I have cold booted several times today since 10:00 am, so I believe that those entries have now stopped.

My best recollection is that I may have installed BIOS 1.31.0 back in February 2026, so this might account for why the entries began Feb 25 in the system event log.

I do not know why F2 to display the BIOS does not work for you.  The posts in this thread by @Tesla1856 indicate that there is a firmware update for NVidia cards.  I don't think I installed that update.

Using this link:  https://massedcompute.com/faq-answers/?question=How%20do%20I%20verify%20the%20current%20firmware%20version%20of%20my%20NVIDIA%20GPUs, I looked for a way to get the firmware info for my NVidia card.  That link told me that at a command prompt, I can type this command:

nvidia-smi -q

Doing this, I got a whole laundry list of settings.  Looking through them on my NVidia card, I found this entry:

 VBIOS Version                                      : 94.02.71.80.c3

Perhaps you can compare your NVidia card to the result above to see if you are running the same VBIOS?  If yours is the same as mine, then running the Firmware version in @Tesla1856 's link might not be needed?  And if it's older, perhaps running it would be useful.  But again, I know you know that you do this at your own risk, and I can't help if the update causes issues.

For completeness, I also mention my NVidia driver version here:  

I don't know if you have seen this earlier thread in this XPS Desktop forum about BIOS 1.31.0:  https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8950-bios-1310-confirm-secure-boot-settings/699d777279f3cc26a5e327a4.

Among other things, this thread references another website:  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/microsoft-sounds-the-alarm-about-secure-boot-certificates-expiring-later-this-year/

which includes a couple of Powershell commands (run from an Administrator command prompt):

([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023')

([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI dbdefault).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023')

Here are the results of these Powershell commands on my system:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.6199]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>powershell
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Install the latest PowerShell for new features and improvements! https://aka.ms/PSWindows

PS C:\Windows\System32> ([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023')
True
PS C:\Windows\System32> ([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI dbdefault).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023')
True
PS C:\Windows\System32>

Consider running these Powershell commands on your system to see if your BIOS variables have been updated.  If you do this, do you get TRUE for both commands?  I believe this means that the new certificates have been fully installed.

I know this still doesn't solve the issue of not being able to get into your BIOS screens with your NVidia card installed.  As said earlier, this does work for me.  I'm sorry that we haven't yet figured out why there is a difference between my system and yours.

For whatever it's worth, I do sometimes run my system with two monitors.  One is connected to the NVidia card (via Displayport), and the other is connected to the onboard integrated port on my system (also via Displayport).  I have updated the BIOS setting under Advanced/Power Options/Multiple Displays/Enabled.  I may have this setting named slightly wrong as I'm going from memory.  I'll correct in another post if I got this wrong (sorry).  I did disable this setting earlier today, but was still able to access F2 BIOS screens with the NVidia card installed (and not connected to any monitor) with this setting disabled.

I can tell you one more thing:  I have a scheduled task that was automatically created (at least I did not create it), likely as a result of a Windows update (I don't know which one).  Consider checking your system to see if you have one on your system as well.

The scheduled task can be found here:

Task Scheduler

Task Scheduler (Local)/Task Scheduler Library/Microsoft/Windows/PI

My system has a scheduled task called "Secure Boot Update".  Here's another screenshot:

As you can see, this task runs at system boot and every 12 hours thereafter.  It is still running on my system.  The Description shown says that it updates the Secure Boot variables.  Consider checking this location on your system to see if you do have this scheduled task.  If not, I recommend just waiting (and checking periodically) to see if it gets created on your system due to a Windows update.  It may take days or weeks if not yet present on your system.  While I'm not sure when this scheduled task was created on my system, I know I didn't manually create it, so perhaps some Windows update not yet installed on your system will do so?  But I don't see why not having this task present would prevent your system displaying the BIOS screen after pressing the F2 key when you have the NVidia card also installed, but not connected.

I don't know if any of this is helpful (possibly not).

I'm sorry that I cannot give you any hint about why your system does not show your BIOS screens when you press F2 and your NVidia card is installed in your system.  I do not have to remove my NVidia card from my system to use F2 to get to the BIOS screens.

Feel free to post again here if you want me to answer any more questions or check some other setting(s) on my system.

I hope you do solve the issue.  I imagine it is extremely frustrating to have to remove your NVidia card just to access the BIOS screens.  Perhaps @Tesla1856 is right about updating the settings under Security/Enable Microsoft UEFI CA to ENABLED with the NVidia card removed from the system, and then powering down, then reinstalling the NVidia card and restarting and trying to access BIOS again with the card installed?

@piloianm  ,

The BIOS setting for Multiple displays is found under:

Advanced/Power Options/Intel Multi-Display    [Enabled]

screenshot here:

@steveslim​ sorry for the delay - softball games

Anyway, it seems part of the problem has to do with KEK which I think maybe you noted above somewhere.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI KEK).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023'

returns FALSE on my machine.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023'
returns True

Which I think means the 2023 keys are staged but they cannot be applied.

Haven't given up yet, just trying to fit things in.

@piloianm​ ,

I believe that your system will sort itself out regarding the new certificates for Secure Boot eventually through Windows updates.

To me, the more inconvenient issue is whether you'll ever be able to see your system's BIOS screens without removing your NVidia card.  On my system, that happened when I connected a monitor to my onboard Display port.  At that point, it didn't really matter if I had my NVidia card connected to another monitor (dual-monitor), or if the NVidia card was disconnected.  If you do run dual-monitors, I suggest you turn on Advanced/Power Options/Intel Multi-Display to [ENABLED].

Also, since you said that your system WILL boot to Windows (just not display the BIOS screen) with the NVidia card inside, you should be able to check the VBIOS version as I said earlier:

I believe that the VBIOS on your NVidia card should be updated automatically as part of the driver updates for the card.  I looked for a way to get the firmware info for my NVidia card.  That link told me that at a command prompt, I can type this command:

nvidia-smi -q

Doing this, I got a whole laundry list of settings.  Looking through them on my NVidia card, I found this entry:

VBIOS Version                                      : 94.02.71.80.c3

I think the VBIOS gets updated as a result of NVIDIA driver updates usually.  My NVIDIA driver version is 581.95, so if you're running that version (or higher), your VBIOS should already be updated (I guess).

I think your 3-amber, 2-white flashing will go away if you do enter the BIOS and turn Security/Secure Boot/Enable Microsoft UEFI CA to [ENABLED].  This may also fix the BIOS not appearing since until I did this, the first BIOS screen showed NONE for the graphics card (even though the NVidia card was still inside my system and power connected.  Here's my BIOS screen with Enable Microsoft UEFI CA set to [Disable] (I set my BIOS to [Disable] just now to capture this screen.  The 3-amber, 2-white flashing power button returned when I did this):

I suspect your BIOS would show this (if you could see it with your NVidia card installed).  And once I updated Security/Secure Boot/Enable Microsoft UEFI CA to [Enabled], the NVidia card did appear on the first BIOS screen (instead of NONE).  Consider doing this to see if you can then see your BIOS screens with your NVidia card installed.

If nothing here helps to get your BIOS screens to appear with the NVidia card installed (and Secure Boot enabled), you may need to consider turning off Secure Boot.  Not a good alternative I know, but it might save you the trouble of removing/inserting the NVidia card each time you need to access BIOS screens.  Or maybe you don't need to do that often?

I hope you'll reply again and describe what you decide to do.