14 Posts
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408
BIOS Ver. 1.22 problem
Inspiron 5490 AIO
I have an Inspiron 5490 All in One and last night I updated the BIOS from ver 1.20 to 1.22 as it was shown as a critical update. After doing so the computer booted but Windows Explorer will not longer run. I have a blank screen unless I call up the task manager from where I can manually run some programs. If I try to start explorer.exe, it appears in the task manager list for a few seconds and then disappears. I have tried to downgrade and roll back the BIOS as there is a setting in the BIOS that is supposed to enable me to do this but it refuses to downgrade and it tells me that operation is blocked.
Dell have effectively bricked my PC with a bad BIOS update but they will not help because my machine is out of warranty even though they caused the problem and they are preventing me from downgrading to a BIOS version that worked perfectly by applying some stupid rule because it was a security advisory from Intel. By applying that rule, Dell has done just as much damage to my PC as any hacker could by exploiting whatever security hole there was!
Buntobox
14 Posts
0
August 8th, 2023 07:00
Hi Ron
Thanks for all these suggestions. I'm afraid none of them showed up any issues. I tried SFC, DISM, BIOS Recovery...nothing worked so I decided in the end it was going to be quicker and easier to rebuild the whole system from the ground up rather than try to diagnose and cure the problem. All of my data is on external drives so I just flattened the system drive and started again. It is now running version 22H2 which it was incapable of upgrading to from the 21H1 version that was preciously installed. So everything is now hunky dory, thanks.
Alan
Chino de Oro
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5.2K Posts
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August 6th, 2023 07:00
I heard you. I do not want to debate, defend what Dell does. I think you still can fix your system at this point. If you haven't practice of backing up your files, do it now.
For hardware, firmware, reset BIOS settings to default by performing a CMOS reset. Then making adjustment to detail settings to match your system hardware.
For software, reset your operating system or performing a fresh install of OS without using Dell apps.
It could be drastic but it can be done and your system will perform good as new.
Take this must do opportunity to upgrade any part that require upgrade to make your system performance as fast as it could.
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.8K Posts
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August 6th, 2023 18:00
What color is the PC's power button, and steady or blinking? It should be solid white.
If you can run some programs via Task Manager, that means the PC booted so BIOS may not be the problem. You may have either a hardware problem with the boot drive and/or a Windows software problem.
Open Task Manager and click File>Run new task. Type in: CMD and check the box to run as administrator. Click OK.
When the CMD window opens, at the prompt, type in:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press Enter.
Be sure to include a space in front of each / and note any error messages when that's done.
Assuming no "unfixed" DISM errors, at the CMD prompt, type in: sfc /scannow and press Enter. Be sure to include a space in front of the / and note any errors when that's done.
Assuming no "unfixed" DISM or sfc errors, close the CMD window and reboot PC...
Does that help?
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.8K Posts
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August 6th, 2023 19:00
@Buntobox - If running the DISM and sfc commands don't help, you could try doing a BIOS Recovery since you were unable to downgrade. You need the BIOS Recovery Image File (BIOS_IMG.rcv) for the previous version of BIOS, 1.21.0, which you can download here.
Download and save the .rcv file on an empty 2 GB USB stick (don't change the name) that's formatted FAT32. You can do this on any PC. Plug the USB into the AIO with power fully off. Then power on and follow the instructions at the link to do a BIOS Recovery that are shown under How do I initiate BIOS Recovery on a Dell desktop or all-in-one computer?
No guarantees a BIOS Recovery will solve the problem, even if it runs successfully, because it still may be a boot drive hardware error and/or a Windows software error that coincidentally appeared when you updated BIOS to 1.22.0.
Buntobox
14 Posts
0
August 7th, 2023 01:00
Hi and thanks for the suggestion. The power light on the front of the PC is steady white. I tried the DISM procedure you outlined and it did appear to make some repairs and afterwards reported that it was successful but it did not cure the problem of explorer.exe not running.
Buntobox
14 Posts
0
August 7th, 2023 02:00
Hi
I've tried this and the CTRL + ESC combination doesn't bring up the BIOS recovery window so I cannot proceed. The PC simply starts normally with the exception of explorer.exe.
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.8K Posts
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August 7th, 2023 11:00
Since the power button is steady white, that means PC successfully passed the POST so the BIOS update is probably not your problem.
Did you run sfc /scannow ?
More things to try:
And read this, this, this...
If all else fails, you'll probably have to do a repair install, saving personal files, but you will have to reinstall all Windows updates and all your apps. Back up this disc to external media before running the repair install first, to be safe...
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.8K Posts
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August 8th, 2023 10:00
Glad you got it resolved!.
At least a corrupted BIOS update wasn't the cause...