Dell vostro 3500 problems after bios update

[notpc]

We have a problem with our Dell Vostro 3500 laptop, running Windows 10, bought about 2010. A message appeared on screen with a recommended BIOS update. My husband started the update, left the laptop to get on with it, forgot about it until very late last night and went to switch it off. The screen was black, the power on/off button was lit on the top right of the machine and on the bottom right front edge. The sequence of lights to the left of the on/off button (for volume up/down/mute and play/pause, fast forward) were lighting up in turn for a second from left to right then right to left about every ten seconds. Nothing came up on screen, and the machine would not shut down, using on/off button. Not being able to think of an alternative he detached the power supply and left it to drain the battery. Today reconnecting the power it is doing the same as last night, black screen, lights running in sequence. Also noticed that when the lights are flashing, the CD/DVD Drive lights up for a second at the same time. The machine will still not switch off.
Hopefully someone could advise if this situation is recoverable as he is revising for an exam next Wednesday! Two not very tech savvy people would welcome any help/advice. Thank you.

 

[Nigel Spike]

According to Dell Support, the most recent BIOS update was in July 2014. You really shouldn't have gotten a message about that now, four years later, from Dell.
How did you get the BIOS update, was there a link for it in the "message"? You may be victims of a scam.
Do you have backups of important data? Do you have a restore disk?

Nigel

 

[notpc]

According to Dell Support, the most recent BIOS update was in July 2014. You really shouldn't have gotten a message about that now, four years later, from Dell.
How did you get the BIOS update, was there a link for it in the "message"? You may be victims of a scam.
Do you have backups of important data? Do you have a restore disk?

Nigel

Nigel thanks very much for the reply.
According to my husband a box popped up supposedly from Dell Assist, saying updates were available which seemed to be split into two parts: urgent and non-urgent (or less urgent – doesn’t remember wording exactly). There was nothing showing under urgent, and under less urgent: an upgrade from A10 to A12. The “A12” was a link which he clicked on, and it began displaying something similar to when you do a defrag, coloured blocks shuffling around. After some moving round of the coloured blocks, (from his memory) it said something about deleting and rewriting and he left it to do that. Later on the screen was black, the power button was lit up but nothing else visible.
Fortunately he does have a backup of important stuff. There is a Windows repair disk, but when you put a disk in the drive there seems to be no response, but difficult to tell as the screen is black! It does seem to be trying to read the disk. The only action visible is the sequence of running lights to the left of the Power button, as described in original posting.
By the way this morning the machine will no longer run just on battery power, it needs the mains plugged in, and the only way to close it down is to remove the power cable.
Anything you can suggest is appreciated, even if it is that there is no hope of recovering the situation. Many thanks.

 

[Nigel Spike]

With nothing visible on the screen, I would contact Dell Support. Sorry.

Nigel

 

[notpc]

With nothing visible on the screen, I would contact Dell Support. Sorry.

Nigel

OK Nigel, thanks.

 

[Nigel Spike]

Good luck!

Nigel

 

[Raznor]

I am victim of the same mistake. The laptop ran extremely slowly on Windows 10 (it was probably a bad decision to upgrade), so I started looking for improvements with Dell's own SupportAssist utility. It recommended this A12 BIOS upgrade so I started doing it, but about halfway through a Win 10 pop-up appeared. Couldn't even read, the laptop just restarted and has been "dead" ever since.

One method I tried is flashing the BIOS with a USB drive (<= 2 GB capacity, FAT32 formatted). The procedure is detailed here: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/Vostro-3500-BIOS-Update-Failed-Recovery-Procedure-Needed/m-p/4437554/highlight/true#M806820

Seems it only works if your BIOS is corrupted in a certain lucky way. Mine wouldn't even try reading the USB drive and I tried every USB port. You should try it as well at least, some people got it to work flawlessly.

 

[mickeynl]

I had exactly the same problem with my Dell Vostro 3500. After the bios update my laptop was dead. I tried every possible solution I could find, however nothing works. The bios update simply killed the bios. In my case the only solution was to replace the motherboard. On Aliexpress.com I found a brand new motherboard for just 29 euro. With Dell support I checked if the partnumber of the replacement motherboard was the same as the old one. Then I ordered the motherboard and 10 days later it arrived. With the help of a youtube tutorial I replaced the motherboard. Now the laptop is working perfect again.

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-laptop-motherboard-for-DELL-Vostro-3500-PN6M9-CN-0PN6M9-i-series-CPU-HM57/32794872176.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.31244c4dpEc0Kg