Question PC shut off while updating BIOS

[Eazy123]

A couple of days ago I came home to my Dell XPS 8940 not coming out of sleep mode. The power light was on but it wouldn't wake no matter what.

Eventually I just held the power button, and it shut off. But when I went to turn it back on, there was no response. The graphics card's light was still on so I figured the power supply was working, but just to be safe, I would swap it to test. My father and I got the same PCs at the same time almost 4 years ago, but he never used his, so he let me try his supply, to no avail.

He suggested my motherboard could be faulty and that I take his PC home and swap my drives into his, which I did. When I booted, it went to update BIOS firmware, and at 15% it shut off, then turned on, then shut off. Now if I power it, it clicks off after about 1 second.

I'm super frustrated, even moreso now that I may have ruined my dad's computer somehow. Is there any hope?

 

[35below0]

Write PC specs. No one can guess.

It's best to take the PC(s) to the shop.

 

[Eazy123]

The motherboard number is KV3RP. It has an Intel i7 processor with 512gb Kingston SSD and a 1TB HDD. I have 64gb of Corsair RAM but that's the only thing I've upgraded and it's worked for the past year. And there's a GeForce RTX graphics card in there, I believe it's a 3070Ti.

 

[35below0]

When did you upgrade RAM? Did any problems show up after the upgrade? Did you replace old RAM with new or did you add more sticks?

When I booted, it went to update BIOS firmware, and at 15% it shut off, then turned on, then shut off. Now if I power it, it clicks off after about 1 second.

How did the PC update firmware by itself? Restarted from Windows?
Usually BIOS flashing comes with warnings and the user has to confirm it.

 

[Eazy123]

When did you upgrade RAM? Did any problems show up after the upgrade? Did you replace old RAM with new or did you add more sticks?


How did the PC update firmware by itself? Restarted from Windows?
Usually BIOS flashing comes with warnings and the user has to confirm it.

I upgrade the ram about a year ago, never had issue after upgrading. I replaced old ram to upgrade from 16 to 64gb.

I had swapped the drives from my PC over to my dad's one by one just to make sure none of them are causing problems. When I moved the SSD from mine over to his (the last drive I moved), it booted up and took me to a blue screen that said "see advanced repair options" and "restart my PC". I chose the latter and it restarted and went straight to a BIOS firmware update. Didn't prompt me or anything, just told me to hang on for a bit. After a couple minutes of that, it powered off, powered back on again and looked like it was starting the update over. A minute later it powered off and stayed off for a couple minutes. So I pressed power and that's when it came on for a second then shut off. It does this every time I press power now.

 

[35below0]

I upgrade the ram about a year ago, never had issue after upgrading. I replaced old ram to upgrade from 16 to 64gb.

I had swapped the drives from my PC over to my dad's one by one just to make sure none of them are causing problems. When I moved the SSD from mine over to his (the last drive I moved), it booted up and took me to a blue screen that said "see advanced repair options" and "restart my PC". I chose the latter and it restarted and went straight to a BIOS firmware update. Didn't prompt me or anything, just told me to hang on for a bit. After a couple minutes of that, it powered off, powered back on again and looked like it was starting the update over. A minute later it powered off and stayed off for a couple minutes. So I pressed power and that's when it came on for a second then shut off. It does this every time I press power now.

I would take it for repairs.

I presume if you replace the SSD, and put your dad's back in, the PC still refuses to power up?
It may be possible to restore the motherboard.

 

[Eazy123]

I would take it for repairs.

I presume if you replace the SSD, and put your dad's back in, the PC still refuses to power up?
It may be possible to restore the motherboard.

You are correct. I've unplugged all fans, GPU, drives, swapped them all between mine and my dad's PC, and still the same thing.

A friend works at micro center so I'm going to see if they can look at it.

EDIT: Sure enough, they said the motherboard is dead. Kind of odd two motherboards on the exact same build died in the same couple days. I'm kinda hesitant to give Dell any more of my money.