Hi, my Dell XPS 15 9570 started having booting issues some months ago, sometimes powering on in “Manifacture mode” with fans blasting at full speed, sometimes asking me to re-enter the Service Tag in BIOS setup, sometimes saying there’s no boot device attached, sometimes giving only random white/amber LED codes, etc. When the laptop manages to boot into Windows, it works flawlessly for days until I turn it off or put it in sleep. So I think the problem is in the BIOS and not in the OS. The same problems occur both on battery + AC, AC and unplugged battery, only battery and no AC.
I have already tried the BIOS Recovery procedure from Dell (put BIOS_IMG.rcv on USB key and press Ctrl + Esc when powering on) and it did complete successfully, the problems went away for a couple of days but then started coming back.
The last thing that I tried was to remove the CMOS battery for half an hour and then plug it back in. The laptop is now completely dead and nothing happens when I try to power it on, no fans, no backlight, no heat.
I have given the laptop to a repair guy and he told me that it is likely a BIOS issue, and that he could flash a new one if he manages to find the right file. It has been over a month now and still he couldn’t fix it. So I asked him to give me the dump of my BIOS (version 1.23.0, link). Can someone of you get the clean version of the BIOS from the Dell website, patch it with DMI info from my BIOS (Service Tag, Windows license, MAC, etc) and give me the “repaired” BIOS so I can give it to him so he can flash it?
I am sorry guys, I do not get the joke… It’s not an invented story, it’s the reality
Anyway, I suspected that he gave me a completely wrong file (opening it with UEFITool shows in the DVAR section “Precision 5530”) but me being a noob with this stuff I thought I was wrong. I asked him to find the correct file and send it to me, but I am starting to suspect he is playing with me… What options would I have here, realistically? Dell offered to ship a new MB for €200, I can replace it myself with no problem but if possible I would like to save some money and try to flash a repaired BIOS on my MB.
Also, I managed to download a “blank” BIOS update .exe file from Dell’s website and extracted it with PFS Extractor but it extracted many components and not a single file. Besides, I guess that it would be impossible to recreate from scratch the section containing Service Tag, Windows key, MAC address, etc? I’m not even sure which data needs to be put in… Or is it possible with some hex editing wizardry?
There is indeed the possibility that your ‘repair guy’ gave you ‘something’, maybe he already overwrote your own firmware / never dumped it.
In this case take your machine back, get yourself a programmer and dump your firmware (and hope it’s still your own.
Dell does not deliver complete bios images, correct.
Take a bios region from an update close to the original version (machine specific information is in DVAR blocks in padding, copy it) and the other firmware regions from your dump.
Clean ME region according to:
The history could indicate a firmware error (corrupted ME?), but this might as well be a hardware problem.
I contacted the repair guy again, he told me that he had sent the wrong file and he sent me another one which he said was ripped the first time he started working on my laptop; you can find it here. I find it strange that it’s only a 8MB file, I expected a 32 MB file. I called him about this and he said that the chip is damaged and the programmer could only read this. I told him that the programmer should recognize the chip brand/model and based off that read 32 MB nevertheless, even if the BIOS is corrupted and it’s all filled with junk bits or 0xFF, but reading another size… I don’t know.
He told me that he has replacement chips to resolder, but before that he wants to program them with the correct BIOS file and he still couldn’t find one. I also find this strange, on the same website that he got the other BIOS he sent (alisaler.com) there’s a BIOS for the XPS 9570, albeit for a different board model/revision… Would that make a difference or would it be good? Also, a quick search on badcaps forum would find other BIOS files for the XPS 9570 (with no mention of the motherboard model, so… I think they’re all good enough??)
If you guys tell me that he sent me another crap and he’s messing with me, on Wednesday I’ll go collect the laptop and buy the replacement board from Dell. Unfortunately he has already tried to flash stuff on the BIOS chip so there would be no point for me to buy a programmer and dump it myself. Or is there another way to try? I mean if the chip is fried for what is worth I can live with a “Frankenstein” BIOS made up from a blank + my Service Tag and Windows license key… and other machine-specific data if there’s the need.
