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Precision Tower 3420 not booting in AHCI after BIOS update
After updating UEFI BIOS to release 2.10.2 my Precision Tower 3420 does not boot in AHCI mode anymore, only RAID-On SATA operation mode seems working. It is a serious problem as this computer is running the Ubuntu operating system provided by Dell.
Its internal storage is a 256 GB PM961 NVMe drive manufactured by Samsung. No other storage device on it, except the optical drive and SD card reader.
Is it a known bug?
Edit: I want to add that reverting BIOS to release 2.8.1 makes AHCI SATA operation mode work again. No need to say it is only a temporary workaround, this problem needs to be fixed.
DELL-Alasdair R
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754 Posts
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July 5th, 2018 03:00
Hi _abednego,
The 2.10.2I update was only released yesterday and there haven't (as yet) been any reports of the issue you mention. I'll escalate it to the engineering team.
Before I do so, what actually happens after the update? Is the AHCI option greyed out, not there at all, or does it just not boot? Can you post a photo of the affected BIOS page(s) if appearing to be different?
Thanks
DELL-Alasdair R
4 Operator
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754 Posts
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July 24th, 2018 04:00
Hi Guys,
Just to let you all know that the issue is being addressed by the BIOS team and a new release will resolve the issue (for both the 3420 and 3620)
Unfortunately I'm unable to provide an ETA for when the new versions will be released.
Thanks.
_abednego
78 Posts
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July 5th, 2018 07:00
Hello, DELL-Alasdair R.
First of all, thank you very much for working on this issue. I really appreciate it.
The update itself was fine. I did the update from the firmware updater provided by the UEFI BIOS boot menu (F12). Both the UEFI BIOS and Management Engine were successfully updated. No problems so far with the update process itself, as I would expect when flashing the BIOS from a FAT32 formatted USB drive. It is, perhaps, the most reliable way to update the firmware.
The BIOS setup is working as expected; no option has changed or greyed out. I can confirm it, as I carefully annotate on a text file both the default values of all options (in the case of Dell, starting from the "factory settings," not "default settings") and the new ones in the few cases I choose changing something.
The computer just didn't boot after the update. On a cold boot the rounded Dell logo remains forever (you can restart the computer in the usual ways, e.g. by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, so it is not hanged). Booting from the boot menu just shows a dark grey screen on the left display (my workstation is attached to two U2414h displays) and nothing on the right one. In legacy mode it displays a message showing that no operating system has been found, as I would expect from a NVMe drive whose operating system has been installed in UEFI-mode only.
The NVMe drive itself is accesible from the BIOS setup. My first though was removing the default UEFI entry to boot Ubuntu and create a new one from the *.efi file in fs0:BOOT/Ubuntu. So I can confirm the drive can be accessed from the BIOS setup, it is just not bootable.
There is no way to run the hardware diagnostics when AHCI SATA mode is set. On RAID-On SATA mode Ubuntu boots (but obviously does not complete the boot process) and the hardware diagnostics can be run without problems. I guess Windows-based workstations are configured on RAID-On mode by default, so it is easy understand why this problem has not been discovered on testing.
_abednego
78 Posts
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July 5th, 2018 08:00
This one is the file that outlines the differences between "factory settings" for the configuration I choosed and the settings I prefer. I carefully reviewed it after updating the firmware, nothing has changed (edit: except, of course, the addition of an option to enable the new SMM Security Mitigation feature):
Edit: first time I booted the computer, after updating the BIOS and ME, I set the "SMM Security Mitigation" to "Enabled." Disabling it didn't help either.
DELL-Alasdair R
4 Operator
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July 5th, 2018 08:00
Thanks for all the details. Can I just confirm with you that it's Ubuntu 16.04 OEM that's installed on the drive? (It probably doesn't make a difference to the issue but I know that it's something that will be asked)
_abednego
78 Posts
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July 5th, 2018 08:00
No need to say thanks! As you are helping me, providing required details is the minimum I can do.
Indeed, this machine is running the Ubuntu flavour provided by Dell with the workstation. It remains in LTS too, and it has only been patched from the official channels (plus adding a few packages, like VirtualBox, TeXlive and Firefox).
I will do a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS iff Dell provides an installation media for this workstation in the future (in case I am authorized to download and use it). I am very happy with Dell's customizations. So, yes, it is running Ubuntu 16.04 OEM.
digital0ak
2 Posts
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July 6th, 2018 14:00
I just applied the update to my system before knowing about this issue. I was able to successfully boot by disabling Secure Boot.
_abednego
78 Posts
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July 6th, 2018 15:00
Hi digital0ak.
That is odd. I was sure disabling Secure Boot was one of the steps I followed yesterday to diagnose this problem and it didn't work. In any case I have flashed BIOS 2.10.2 on my workstation again and, starting from the "factory settings" configuration, disabled Secure Boot.
I can confirm disabling Secure Boot does not work for me (as I though yesterday). There is no way to boot this computer from BIOS 2.10.2, except when setting SATA operation mode to RAID-On (in which case Ubuntu does not successfully boot). Alternatively you can just disable SATA and get access to diagnostics and flashing BIOS from a FAT32 filesystem stored on a USB drive again, obviously without seeing the old fs0 and fs1 filesystems stored in the NVMe drive.
witkoskijp
3 Posts
0
July 9th, 2018 11:00
I have had similar issue as well but with Windows 10 as the OS. After upgrading to BIOS 2.10.2, system would not boot with Secure Boot Enabled. Disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy ROMs allowed the system to boot in UEFI mode. This happened on both a Precision 3620 and 3420. Might be something to try.
_abednego
78 Posts
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July 9th, 2018 13:00
Disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy ROMs does not help on my case. But it seems it worked to both you and digital0ak, so it is worth a try for anyone that has problems after updating UEFI BIOS to release 2.10.2.
Thanks a lot to both of you for the feedback and for confirming that it is not just me who thinks there is something wrong with the new BIOS release.
bgrommel
2 Posts
0
July 10th, 2018 17:00
I am also having this issue with the new BIOS. Installed from a Windows 10 OS. The computer just didn't boot after the update. On a cold boot the rounded Dell logo remains forever.
MCV123
1 Message
1
July 11th, 2018 00:00
We have experienced the same phenomena on almost 150 Precision 3620s after applying BIOS 2.10.2.
We found both the BIOS Flash Utility and Dell Diagnostic tools to hang indefinitely after applying 2.10.2 too. We have been able to recover these devices manually using the following steps:
We currently have an open ticket with Dell Support, and have escalated to our account manager.
_abednego
78 Posts
1
July 11th, 2018 02:00
Just an advice for those of you who had problems after updating BIOS to version 2.10.2. In my humble opinion, the easiest way to return to BIOS version 2.8.1 is:
Note: the FAT32-formatted USB stick does not need to be bootable.
Splug
1 Message
0
July 11th, 2018 13:00
Ran into this issue on non-Dell provided 18.04 after Ubuntu Software Update Center offered a Firmware Update for the Dell Precision Tower 3420 - I can confirm rolling back firmware from 2.10 to 2.08 after disabling AHCI mode for SATA worked in restoring this system. I was not able to launch the Dell BIOS Flash utility with AHCI enabled.
tkelliher
1 Message
0
July 15th, 2018 15:00
I can confirm that I've had the same problem with the 2.10.2 BIOS on a 3620 running Windows 10 Pro.
Disabling Secure Boot and enabling the Legacy Option ROMs allowed me to boot, from which I reverted to the 2.8.1 BIOS. I can use Secure Boot with the 2.8.1 BIOS.