Hi, I hope this is an OK question here. I had Optiplex 990 running beautifully I think on bios A10, then unfortunately decided to flash the ‘critical’ update listed on Dell driver page, going from A10 to A24. Since then it does not recover from sleep and then also unreliably recovered from hibernate, and word started crashing. So to make it usable again I tried reverting to an earlier bios, trying all those between A10 and A23 to no avail. I tried first via windows and then tried using Freedos, then tried using the five files needed (according to Dell’s page about this) from Dell’s Diagnostic download to make a 2GB bootable USB, but booting into that got the message that Himem and Ramdrive were missing, so I tried adding those to no avail. Every time I try to flash the bios from any source, it doesn’t ‘take’ (I think called ‘silent exit’) and boots straight into the problematic A24 then windows.
Thank you for any help with this.
Edit by Fernando: Thread moved into the “BIOS Problems” Category and title customized
Bios regression is not always the best option if the update process was normal…
Have you performed a “COLD” CMOS reset, full drain…after the bios update?
Before pointing to a “Global” ww released bios and only you having bad luck… why not trying to debug it, by doing a new clean OS installation (not specified…) on a spare disk, just to check if the issues repeat’s itself.
ACPI related issues can go from a corrupted OS, badly written/support drivers, attached peripherical to the system and their own drivers etc…
The current status of the Intel CSME FW engine can also be an issue here, if displayed as NA/corruption.
Good luck.
Thank you MeatWar
I’m just a home user.
I unplugged everything, removed the coin battery and located a two-pin jumper labelled CRSTRST without a cap (it is the SFF so maybe that’s why not a 3-pin with a cap?). So I held the head of a screwdriver across the two pins for a few minutes. Then I put in a new battery.
Turning it on, there was a lot of fan activity but still black screen after ten minutes, so I had a few kittens. I used ctrl alt del which made it shut down, and then it booted back into a stable sign-in screen to windows. But once logged in, the screen flashed on and off a couple of times and then completely black. Ctrl Alt Del brings back a stable screen of options, I choose one and the screen instantaneously flashes on a few times but the screen is mainly black. Now the message “The current input timing is not supported by the monitor display. Please change your input timing to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz or any other mointor listing timing as per the monitor specifications. (Dell U2412M).
As I can’t get into Windows with a screen I don’t know how to do it.
Obviously I am way out of my depth here, and wonder if there could be any advice about what to do, or where to seek advice I might be able to follow.
Thank you.
The reset has forced the display driver to re-configuration and right now is using low resolution output that the Dell U2412M can’t support, wait for Windows to find the correct driver and it will configure itself by local driver or WUpdate driver.
You can try also Windows Safe mode boot… that you still didn’t mention what version used… and
what display output using or if it’s an iGPU or a dGPU…
Thank you for your help. I booted into safe mode and changed to low res, then in windows changed to hi res and it went down again. So then I reconnected the internet and when I got to windows in low res the first thing I did was to syn with internet time because it had reverted to 2018. Then when I changed to high res it stablized, and all my desktop icons have been tidied into a tight grid.
Regarding version, sorry it’s Win7.
At this point, just to let it settle for a bit, or try hibernating?
Well sir… you do remember what i wrote/my point of view… by now you simply have done a CMOS reset, that doesnt mean you issue is solved, try it or let the sys do it by default Windows energy options or you’ll have to perform additional actions as i suggested.
Nothing more to add to this subject, not to disrespect anyone here, to a “simple user” with no technical knowledge the easiest advice to give by anyone, is always: New Windows installation
Good luck.
Thank you MeatWar.
I have been able to check CSME by downloading an intel tool, and it says the system is vulnerable, presumably in terms on internet security “The detected version of the Intel Management Engine firmware is consider vulnerable for INTEL-SA-00086” but I think that’s just a security concern of an old machine?
It was key advice you kindly provided that I should stop looking at rolling back the BIOS, and work on compatibility.
On that basis I had a breakthrough. After the bios update, SATA had changed from ACHI to RAID. In Bios, I changed it back to ACHI, but it was repeatedly reverting to RAID. I’ve just discovered in Win7 that it’s necessary to change it in the registry to ACHI before changing it in the Bios. I’ve just done that and hibernate has worked!
So a big thank you for a nudge in the right direction.
When the system was unstable I disabled ‘sleep’, but I cannot remember what I did or work out how to re-enable it. Sleep is missing from the power plan options and greyed out in the start menu power button. I tried adjustments in the registry to no avail, and if there are any hints or links to solutions for this, they would be appreciated too.
With kind regards, Anna
Yes, the only thing you can do to the system is manually update the Intel CSME FW 8.x latest version: B1. (Converged Security) Management Engine - (CS)ME
Bios should have old mcodes but windows will load the lates ones included, other than that a mod is required and that’s a RISK operation for you.
These 2 are the base of the INTEL-SA-00086 on 2012 old platforms, not updated anymore… but this was mainly for systems using ME Firmware versions 11.0/11.5/11.6/11.7/11.10/11.20, SPS Firmware version 4.0, and TXE version 3.0.
Now regarding the Storage mode… RAID mode is really not necessarily when no RAID Volumes present in the system, single disks SSD or HDD, AHCI is the mode to select, your Windows 7 setup was done previously using RAID mode, that’s why you had to revert it.
Know you know that this is one of the options to setup in a system bios when setting up a new OS installation on your machine or any other future one.
MeatWar, Thank you for advice and I’m not going to risk addressing the CSME.
I have got the Sleep showing as an option again (not greyed) but when I put the system into Sleep, it crashes every time.
ChatGPT tells me there appears to be a conflict between the Bios update (A24) and the GPU that was previously installed. I updated the GPU earier today, which is for a FirePro 2460, but it didn’t help with Sleep. Since I can’t rollback the Bios (have tried several ways), is it humanly possibile to restore working Sleep that doesn’t crash by any other way?
We do NOT rollback bios versions due to sleep/hibernate issues or GPU exchange.
Windows gathers all kind of garbage and gets corrupted, always had and always will do.
Already told you… and as you can see yourself, device drivers’ versions and their own internal bugs lead to these issues, im going to tell you again and for the last time, do a clean OS new install with the final hw devices chosen, install Intel chipset drivers and latest GPU model drivers.
[Tool] Universal Intel Chipset Device Updater - Important Drivers / Other Drivers - Win-Raid Forum
FirePro™ 2460 Drivers and Downloads | Latest Version
A Sandy Bridge system is very stable when correctly “cared about it”… tryouts or incompatible device drivers can lead any OS to instability.
CHATGPT and other Bxxxxxx around, IS LEARNING WITH HUMAN KNOWLEDGE… DOESNT KNOW SHITH ITSELF.
BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
Nothing more to add to this subject and i finish here, good luck.
Thank you for the help and good wishes Meat War.
In the event viewer right before the Kernel-Power 41 crash events, no prior problem is logged, suggesting the problem is at a lower level than windows since windows didn’t log it?
The most recent drivers for the components on Win7 are now installed.
I have 15 years of data on the system, as it was stable all that time until I updated the bios. Fresh install with full recovery is not something i’ve done before.