Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

[spleenharvester]

Bought another E5500, was advertised as dead. Turned out it powers fine off both AC and battery but it has a strange problem.

Basically, at first, it would give "The amount of system memory has changed" message. Except where there's meant to be "strike F1 to continue" - there isn't. No option to do anything, it's just stuck there with a blinking cursor.

Tried different RAM, then a BIOS reset. Now it loads up to "Invalid System Configuration - please run SETUP program". Again, no options, just a blinking cursor.

I'd have thought a BIOS flash would be the needed fix, but I have no means of doing so, unless there's some way of doing it before POST (the same way some Aspire Ones with Insyde BIOSes do)

Cheers

[ant3202]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

try turning UEFI off and set to legacy boot ????

check for internal battery too...

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Fixed, as I suspected, the DVD drive was stalling the boot process

Cheers!

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Okay the situation deepens. Turns out it won't boot from ANY HDD or ANY DVD. It just hangs at the same place.

Internal battery reads in at 3.1v so seems to be okay. Will try what you suggested

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Nope still no dice. Dell diagnostic and logs show nothing either.

Anyone know how to do BIOS recovery on these? Another site suggests a method involving extracting the BIOS file to .bin, .rom and .hdr files, and then inserting the AC while holding the end key. It gets part way through it, the battery LED flashes red as expected, and then just goes onto a normal boot.

Do I have to format the drive a certain way for it to detect the files?

EDIT: If the "module bay" option is disabled, it doesn't hang with the DVD drive installed - the DVD drive still gets power but obviously the BIOS does not detect it. So I assume we aren't looking at a voltage issue here.

[3d0]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Do I have to format the drive a certain way for it to detect the files?.

I used rufus a couple of times to make a bootable usb drive, then flash the BIOS. That was of course for desktop machines, never tried it for laptops.

http://www.howtogeek.com/136987/how-to-create-a-bootable-dos-usb-drive/

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Will try in a sec, it doesn't seem to be hanging with a USB drive plugged in so I may indeed be able to do it that way.

If that doesn't work, I think I'll start testing the resistance of the bad board compared to my good one on the SATA ports.

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Flashed BIOS to A19 from DOS (typed E5500A19.exe /force it and hit enter) and amazingly everything works a treat now! I'm typing from it at this moment!

Also came with a WXGA+ screen which I can sell and basically pay the laptop off

Cheers Badcaps, great help as always!

[dellxps15]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

glad to hear u have fixed it!!!!

[3d0]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Awesome, nice to hear it works!

Btw. did you use rufus to format the usb drive, had any trouble?

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Didn't use Rufus in the end but 'cause I already had Win98 system files installed on a flash drive to use it with.

Success really I only bought it for the hinges and upper plastics because the ones on mine were snapped, got a lot more than I bargained for.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

The blinking cursor is often the result of boot loader crud on the HDD. When the HDD isn't wiped correctly, at least the first sector, that issue can occur.

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell E5500 stuck at config screen

Indeed, it often seems to happen when it's trying to access a storage device and gets stuck for whatever reason.