My laptop shutdown while updating bios and now will not start. What can i do?

[tominator80]

Help with bios problem

 

[laviniuc]

it's a serious issue. take it to warranty or specialized service. they will need to unplug the bios chip, update it again and hopefully it will work after that.

 

[hybird9012]

You messed up your bios and bricked your computer. If you can't figure it out yourself, I suggest you contact the company or a professoinal to reinstall the bios firmware.

 

[tominator80]

Should this be fixable?

 

[laviniuc]

yes. the bios can be written over again by a professional. it would help if you backed it up before trying to overwrite.

try a simple fix too... unplug your battery and power cord and hold the power button pressed for about 60 seconds. plug your battery again. and try to start it this should clear the cmos in most laptops.

 

[tominator80]

Should i just take it to a local computer repair shop and the should be able to sort it out there?

 

[laviniuc]

Should i just take it to a local computer repair shop and the should be able to sort it out there?

at the very least they will be able to point you to someone skilled in bios fixes. if it's in warranty and you tried to update using the bios from the manufacturer site try also the place where you bought it from, they might allow a rma... if you're lucky...

 

[tominator80]

I have had it less than a year, but it was bought as a present online and i am currently away at university. What is an rma? Its a dell laptop and it was the bios update that dell centre said was needed.

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

Some systems have the ability to recover the BIOS from a USB drive. Place the BIOS update file on the USB drive not in a folder directly on the drive root. Put it into a USB port and turn on the computer wait a few munities it may or may not start a BIOS recovery. if it recovers the BIOS you should be good to go. if it does not you will need to send the computer to the manufacture to have the BOIS rewritten.

 

[tominator80]

Are the manufacturer the only people able to do that?

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

If your BIOS does not recover by the method that I discussed it likely can only be done by the manufacture.

 

[tominator80]

Would you suggest taking it to a local computer specialist to try this so that it was less likly to go wrong?

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

I recommend that you do what I recommended earlier. There is nothing that you can do (aside from disassembling the computer which will not fix the problem) that will damage the computer any further.

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

you could take it to a local computer repair shop but they will most likely do want I told you to do, and if it does not work will likely tell you to send it to the manufacture.

 

[tominator80]

How would you go about carrying this out?

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

carrying what out?

 

[laviniuc]

I have had it less than a year, but it was bought as a present online and i am currently away at university. What is an rma? Its a dell laptop and it was the bios update that dell centre said was needed.

(rma = return to manufacturer) you should take it to the store where you bought it. they will decide which is best. there are 2 ways, either repair shop or warranty(rma) but since it's under warranty dell will likely prefer to change the motherboard with a new one. especially since the dell app thought it best to update it is not your fault it broke (in my opinion).

 

[tominator80]

I have now spoken to dell and an engineer is coming to replace the motherboard tomorrow. Thank you for all of your help!