Dell laptop won't turn on, help!

MrCrispy

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May 14, 2007
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It's an Inspiron 7547. I was trying to update the bios from A05 to A08. Made a bootable USB with freedos as recommended and booted from it, started the bios update (downloaded from Dell).

It seemed to have finished but at the end gave this !she - "P/W: Not enough memory". Didn't go away and finally I had to power off.

Now when I turn it on I can hear the laptop power on, fan, lights etc, but the screen stays blank, no Dell logo, F keys do nothing. I tried opening the case, unplug battery etc, nothing helped.

Is this dead? What can I do?
 
Tried that, I don't think my model has bios recovery, doesn't work.

Then your next best choice is to buy a preflashed BIOS chip and have someone with a steady hand solder it on. I have done this countless times.
 
The Dell BIOS upgrades usually install from Windows.

Well, you run it in Windows, and then the machine reboots and flashes with it's own built-in
process before booting into Windows again.

Did the Dell support page recommend doing it the way you did?

Ask Dell what they can do for you. The out of warranty RMA service may not be that bad.
This would be an easy fix for them.

Maybe explain to them that you did it as they recommended and it bricked the laptop.
Hopefully they will have mercy on you.

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I would take a chance and contact Dell, your laptop is more than likely well outside the warranty period (consumer class Inspiron models only have 1 year labor/parts which is why I never buy them, I only deal with the business class hardware Latitudes and Precisions which have 3 years included in the base prices) but since it "died" during a BIOS update they might (and I'm stressing that word pretty strongly) take sympathy on you and offer some assistance but don't get your hopes up about it.

Can't hurt to reach out and ask.

Latitude and Precision BIOS updates work from within Windows, odd about that requiring it to make a USB stick but I've seen it before. The Windows BIOS flasher pops up a dialogue telling you what it's about to do (flash from xx BIOS to yy BIOS or whatever) and when you select OK it'll then reboot to the BIOS flashing mode, do the deed, then reboot once more back to normal but with the updated BIOS in place. I honestly trust that practice more than using USB stick type flashing tools nowadays, just something based on my own experience when dealing with customers having problems with that method.
 
I talked to Dell, they want me to buy a new warranty before they'll look at the problem. Not very helpful at all, I explained the issue (which is not my fault at all) and the CSRs have no clue, I don't blame them they just read a script. New warranty is $249, there's no way I am getting that.

I will take it to a local pc repair shop but don't expect much. Its my fault for even trying a bios update. I did it via usb because I was running Linix at the time, this was actually the reason I thought of bios updates as I had some issues. So I managed to take a perfectly fine Windows 10 laptop and brick it :(
 
Looks like there is a vendor on Ebay selling refurb motherboards for $118.
There's even one in Germany selling the BIOS chip for $20 if you can solder and want to take a chance on that.

I suppose you could try the BIOS chip and then do the mobo later if the BIOS chip replacement fails.
Make sure to ask the vendor what BIOS is flashed on the chip before you buy it (it could be wrong or even blank).

ETA: Make sure you do any future Dell BIOS updates as they recommend.
Use their process to do it.


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Sorry for the necro but did OP ever fix his laptop?

Exact same thing happened to me. Exactly, same model, same freedos, same error, same symptoms

I since put the laptop away but I hadn't tried the method linked right above so I will. Thanks
 
Hey guys I support a huge fleet of Dell desktops and laptops, just curious why you are not just using the support assist tool or the command update app to upgrade inside the OS? With that being said I did run into a similar issue with a dell AMD AIO were if you did not have the bios set to enable upgrade it would brick in a similar manner. Since you are not getting any sign of post your only option (if not in warranty) is to open up the laptop disconnect the battery and disconnect the cmos battery and wait for a good amount of time and see if you can get the laptop to re post. I would maybe suggest hooking up power brick without battery to do a quick test with out hdd attached. If you look at linked inn post above you may be able to toggle a bios write from the steps in the article.
 
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