Found a trick that actually fixed a BIOS loop on a Dell OptiPlex 7040 after 2 hours of swapping parts

Tried every boot override and CMOS reset combination I could find online until I realized the firmware was corrupted from a failed update, so I used the recovery jumper to force a restore from USB and it posted on the first try... has anyone else had Dell firmware updates brick machines like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_wells879d ago

Goodness, are we really calling a BIOS recovery a "brick" these days? I had an old Latitude do the same thing and a simple power drain fixed it, so maybe try that before jumping to conclusions.

the_ryan9d ago

Guilty as charged, honestly. I used to be the guy rolling my eyes whenever someone said bricked just because the screen was black. Then I had a Dell that got stuck in a boot loop after a bad BIOS update. Nothing worked. No power drain, no key combos, nothing. I was ready to buy a new motherboard. But I left it unplugged for like 48 hours on a whim and it came back to life. Totally humbled me. You're right that people throw the word around too easy.

william_carter8d ago

the thing nobody's talking about is how the actual cause of these recovery issues might not even be the BIOS at all. i've seen cases where a failing CMOS battery makes the board act like its bricked when it really just cant hold settings long enough to boot properly. swap that little coin cell out and suddenly everything works again. also check for swollen caps near the power delivery on old laptops, that can cause all kinds of weird boot behavior that looks like a dead board. people get so focused on the BIOS update being the problem they forget hardware failures can mimic software ones perfectly. just something to keep in mind before you write off a machine.