Dell BIOS update is causing Dell PCs to Blue Screen on Boot

A large number of Dell customers are complaining that a recent Dell BIOS update is causing them boot issues.

Affected devices include the Dell Latitude laptops (5320 and 5520), Dell Inspiron 5680 and Alienware Aurora R8 desktops.

Users report that their devices appear to start up, but never get to the desktop, and instead display a Blue Screen and then shut down.

BIOS version 1.14.3 for Latitude laptops, 2.8.0 for Inspiron, and 1.0.18 for Aurora R8 appear to be responsible.

“After upgrading my 5320’s BIOS to the new 1.14.3 version today, the laptop will not boot. When pressing the power button, the light on the button will show for around 10 seconds and then turn off again,” said one customer.

“Occasionally the whole keyboard lights up but the laptop will shutdown shortly after, but sometimes the laptop will turn on and display a ‘Time-of-day not set – please run SETUP program’ error, and upon pressing ‘Continue,’ the laptop will then shutdown again. A few times it has booted but then shown a blue screen for a while before shutting down,” complained another.

The best fix at the minute is to use the SupportAssist OS Recovery to downgrade to an earlier version of the BIOS. After downgrading users are still recommended to disconnect the battery, push the power button for 15 seconds, and plug back in the battery and charger before powering up again.

More troubleshooting tips can be found in Dell’s BIOS guide here.

via BleepingComputer