How to Recover the BIOS on a Dell Computer or Tablet

The following table takes you through how to identify the version of BIOS Recovery your Dell Tablet or computer that is shipped with:

If your computer is in a working condition, follow these steps to identify if your Dell computer supports BIOS recovery:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Press the F2 key on the keyboard several times until the computer enters the BIOS setup.
3. If you find the option BIOS Recovery from Hard Drive in the BIOS setup, your Dell computer supports BIOS recovery 2.
4. If BIOS Recovery from hard drive is enabled and there is a BIOS Auto-Recovery field settable in the BIOS setup, your Dell computer supports BIOS recovery 3.

If your computer is NOT in a working condition, check if it matches one of the computers in the table in the drawer above, or if it was manufactured after December 2015 and has the Intel Skylake chipset. If so, your computer should support the BIOS recovery 2 feature and BIOS recovery may be attempted.

If your computer is NOT in a working condition, check if it matches one of the computers in the table in the drawer above, or if it was manufactured after August 2016 or has the Intel Kaby Lake chipset. If so, your computer should support the BIOS recovery 3 feature and BIOS recovery may be attempted.

Auto-Recovery is only possible in computers that support BIOS Recovery 3. Systems do not ship with Auto-Recovery enabled. Follow the instructions below if you want to enable this feature.

1. Restart the computer.
2. Press the F2 key on the keyboard several times until the computer enters the BIOS setup.
3. Look for the group Maintenance and the page BIOS Recovery in the BIOS setup.
4. Identify the BIOS Recovery from hard drive field which should be enabled. (If it is not enabled, set it to enabled.)
5. Change the BIOS Auto-Recovery field from the default which is disabled to enabled.
6. Identify the Always perform Integrity check field and change from the default which is disabled to enabled.

With this option configured, the BIOS recovery automatically recovers the BIOS without your intervention if something happens during the computer starting up.

1. For those computers that support BIOS recovery, the BIOS Recovery file is already on the computers Hard Drive (hard drive) in the ESP/EFI Partition.
2. If the BIOS Recovery file is NOT found on the hard drive, it could be that:
   1. Your hard drive has been replaced since it left the factory.
   2. You have changed your BIOS from UEFI to Legacy boot.
   3. You have reimaged your computer since receiving it from the factory.
   4. You have reinstalled the computer with a new operating system and formatted the hard drive.
3. If your computer is in a working state, you can add the BIOS Recovery file back to the hard drive, by reflashing the BIOS. (Even if you are putting the same revision back on, that it is flashed to.) Remember that for this to work the BIOS has to be set to UEFI and the operating system must be at least Windows 7 64 bit or a more recent revision.
4. If your computer is NOT in a working state, for example, a no Post or no Boot situation and the BIOS Recovery file is not on your hard drive - It is not possible to attempt to flash the BIOS to add the BIOS Recovery file to the hard drive. Fortunately, even in this condition, it is possible to use a recovery file on an external USB drive. If you have a Dell BIOS on your computer you can follow the instructions below, however, if your BIOS is supplied by another manufacturer then you must contact Dell Technical Support to get a copy of its recovery file. (You can identify a Dell BIOS as the touchpad or mouse pointer still works and the information is in a tree format on the left side of the screen. A BIOS supplied by another manufacturer tends to use a menu bar along the top of the screen that you navigate using the keyboard.)
   1. To get the Recovery file for a Dell BIOS, use the Service Tag of your Dell computer and download the BIOS.exe file from the Dell Drivers & Downloads website. You can use another computer to download this file, but ensure you use the service tag of the affected computer.
   2. Save the BIOS.exe file to your desktop.
   3. Rename the file to BIOS_IMG.rcv changing the filename and file extension.
      1. If you cannot see the file extension, then go to the Windows Start icon and type in Folder Options.
      2. Click View and clear the HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES and click OK.
      3. Right-click the file saved on the desktop, the extension for the file .exe can now be seen and changed.

To create an external USB drive to perform BIOS recovery, you need the following:

• A working computer
• An empty USB drive
• Download the latest BIOS for your computer or tablet from the Dell Drivers & Downloads website.

Creating the USB drive:

1. Plug the USB drive into the computer.
2. Press the Windows key + E to open File Explorer (also known as Windows Explorer).
3. Right-click the USB drive and click Format.
4. Change the File computer to FAT32.
5. Check the box next to Quick Format.
6. Click Start to being formatting the USB drive.
7. Copy the BIOS file to the USB drive. Open Command prompt in administrator mode.
   • In Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 8 - Press the Windows key + X on the keyboard to open a power user menu and select Command Prompt (Admin)
   • In Windows 7 or Windows Vista - Click the Start button and type command prompt in the search box. Right-click cmd in the search results and select Run as administrator.
8. In the command prompt window, type cd x: and press the Enter key, where x is the drive letter of the USB drive. You can find the drive letter of the USB drive in File Explorer (also known as Windows Explorer).
9. Type dir and press the Enter key on the keyboard. You should see the name of the downloaded BIOS file.
10. Type ren xxxxx.exe BIOS_IMG.rcv and press the Enter key. Replace the xxxxx with the name of the downloaded BIOS file.
    NOTE: Include the space between xxxxx.exe and BIOS_IMG.rcv.

Some Dell computers and tablets have an option to keep the BIOS settings before starting the recovery process. If this option is seen after starting off the BIOS recovery 2 feature, and you want to keep the current BIOS settings - Select the option that disables the NVRAM reset.

The default search location for the BIOS recovery image is on an external USB drive (if present). If a USB drive is not present, the recovery image on the primary hard disk drive is used.

Once a Hard Drive is replaced, to reinstate BIOS Recovery capability on computers that shipped with this capability, the following must occur.

1. The BIOS must be set to UEFI, NOT Legacy Boot.
2. The Operating System must be reinstalled and must be Windows 7 64 bit or a more recent revision of the Windows Operating System.

    

3. The BIOS must be flashed again to the latest revision available, even if it already has the latest revision. (This creates the Recovery File within the EFI partition.)

BIOS recovery 2 and 3 is not supported from an encrypted hard disk drive or if the hard disk drive is password that is enabled in the BIOS. BIOS recovery setup attempts to search for the recovery image on the hard disk drive but eventually fails.
If you can enter the BIOS setup, you can try to disable the hard disk drive password and try recovering the BIOS.

To reinstate BIOS Recovery capability on computers that shipped with this capability, carry out the following steps:

1. The BIOS must be set to UEFI, NOT Legacy Boot.
2. The Operating System must be reinstalled and must be Windows 7 64 bit or a more recent revision of the Windows Operating System.
3. The BIOS must be flashed again to the latest revision available, even if it already has the latest revision. (This creates the Recovery File within the EFI partition.)

BIOS recovery uses indications by beeps or LEDs if there are any errors during the recovery process. If you hear any beeps or see LEDs blinking in a pattern during the BIOS recovery process, try the following steps:

1. Shut down the Dell computer or tablet
2. Initiate the BIOS recovery process again.
3. If you are still hearing the beeps or see the LEDs blinking in a pattern, try creating a USB recovery key instead.
4. If you are still unable to complete the recovery process, contact Dell Technical Support.