@BaronMike - Sorry, but I don't think I can help more.
I checked your W25Q80 and it looks similar to other dumps, few bytes difference between a few files, but I think that may be due to version or model variant, nothing looks corrupted

@MMM - Please test BIOS I made for BrickedAlien at post #22, if that works for you then let me know and I will rebuild BIOS for you using your info
DO NOT put system back together if it's working, we have to put back in your BIOS details first. However, if you are familiar with using FPT, and that BIOS works for you, then we can fix other stuff we need via FPT instead of programming in another BIOS, if you want
But keep in mind, this BIOS is only meant as test for you, it has other users info in it.

Hi, @Lost_N_BIOS !

Tried to flash Bios in Post #22, but with no success, always two red one blue, but something changed, all lights are now off .... Flashed with Colibri and the Other tool too, compared seems ok, but no Post .....
If you can describe all steps to flash will be nice, since i don't know if i'm doing everything right .

Thanks Again !

Hey @Lost_N_BIOS


Reading through most all of this thread I'm experiencing basically the exact same issue.

I got this laptop just last week second hand and after checking it out and updating drivers I foolishly updated the bios, which seems like soooo many people have had issues with.

Anyway after reading through basically this whole thread I was wondering if you might help me out with mine.

Ive ordered the parts and they should arrive next week, I was going to try the test blank bios in post #87 I think it was.

Either way I thought I should reach out to you now just to see if you might have time to spare later this week to go over my dumped bios and possibly help find a solution.

Hope to hear back from you soon!

Jorro *-*

Just wanted to let everyone know who might stumble across this.

After following this thread and using the software and hardware suggested, I flashed in the 1.9.0 @Lost_N_BIOS provided in post #97 using 1.8 of CH341A.

After a little bit of back and forth I was consistently getting cmos flash error 3 red 1 blue.

Reduced ram to 1 stick vs 2 and I was able to boot into bios ( couldn't believe my eyes!!)

Bios had to be messed with a little, namely changing boot from legacy to UEFI.

I was able to get into windows from this point but a few errors will still present, ended up re installing windows from hdd and it's had full functionality from then on.

Wanted to say a big thanks to everyone in this thread for their trial and error which helped me solve this issue.

So much for Dell recommending me to buy a second hand mother board to fix the problem.

Hello,

Is Lost Bios still active here? I have an Alienware 13 R3 needing help - stuck at 2 red and 1 blue.

Earlier yesterday I had used the DELL USB method to roll back the BIOS from 1.10.0 to 1.9.0 as the CPU constantly was throttling, hitting 100C without an undervolt.

The BIOS rollback went without a hitch, and there was at least one restart done by me during the day and the computer could start without any problems.

It is my son's computer and he was playing games for a good part of the day - low graphics games like Roblox and Minecraft. End of the day he pulled up a more intensive game Raft, that in the past would overheat the computer (until I had to underclock the GPU slightly to make it stable again) - and it crashed a few minutes into it.

Thinking it was the normal crashes we had before, I tried to turn it on, and the fans try to spin up a few times for a half second, then the keyboard lights up and we get the power button giving the two red, pause, one blue LED which I understand to be a CPU problem.

Question 1: What to do now? I have tried holding the power button for a minute, unplugging the battery and the CMOS, taking out half the RAM, all the same effect. Tried to use the same recovery BIOS USB but the same effect.

Question 2: Could the BIOS roll back have anything to do with it? The computer did restart well after the roll back, but it seems awefully coincidental. Weird to have it crash inside of Windows though no?

Shall I order the same 2 ebay items?

If the pc started fine after a bios update then it's most probably not the update itself. If you modded the bios then it might be some settings stored in NVRAM (like cpu undervolt) that could keep it from booting.

To find out buy a programmer.
- Check spi datasheet for correct voltage (1.8V adapter?)
- Check forum for hints for correct program/ setup regarding to specific chips
- Dump the bios
- Read it at least 2 times read with 100% identical result- to be sure you have a vaild dump

- Download and unpack a stock bios
_ - if stock bios update contains only bios region: replace bios region of your dump with stock bios region, flash it
_ - if stock bios update contains a complete firmware image: flash the complete image
- Clear CMOS
- Try to boot (Machine specific information is mssing at this point, just look if it comes up)

If the machine doesn't boot with a stock bios region it's not the bios.

Thanks. I have googled for spi data sheet for the alienware to find any information on application programmers, but have not found it yet. I will continue looking but if anyone has information on which programmers to buy please let me know.

I did increase the undervolt by -10 mv compared to what undervolt was on it before, but it did run the whole day. I did the undervolt within throttlestop though, and seeing as I can't even get to any recovery or boot screen let alone windows, could that still be an issue? I was always under the impression that undervolting within a program like windows was completely safe as it would revert to stock if the voltages were not saved (they weren't, as I put the hard drive in another system for now and the original settings for the undervolt are there).

Thanks for the reply.

I'm sorry, I don't care about this kind of modding and I don't know how/ where throttlestop saves it's settings and how it accomplishes to make them work for the mainboard. But it's possible for windows and windows programs to write to NVRAM like the bios itself. And it's one thing where throttlestop saves a profile for reuse and where it modifies the values for the chipset/ processor.....

Hi @Lost_N_BIOS, I would like to ask for your help regarding my Alienware m17x R4 is always shutoff exactly every 30 minutes. I have researched about ME Region Clean but i cannot understand. Please help me :( :( :(

Hi @Lost_N_BIOS

I have a Levono Ideapad V330-15IKB that while updating BIOS turned off
Now when turns on gives the image of lenovo, immediately shutdown and it remains in a loop.

Can you help me? I have the current Dump and the oficial bios update and me update.

Wondering if anyone has working links for the files shared in previous posts here?

Attaching my dump to this post from my dead Alienware 15 r3.
Hoping to revive...

What did you do?

I was told it stopped working after a bios flash.

I tried flashing (via flashrom) the .RCV file here:
https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER07728325M/1/BIOS_IMG.rcv

That hasn't helped.

I might try dumping the EC also.
Ideally I'd like to try flashing a matching bios and EC if anyone has a set of files on hand.

The mentioned file is 2 bios regions, not a complete firmware? Did you flash the complete file unchanged?

Dump of brick is firmware 1.11, static parts OK, but what seems to be EC firmware (802000 to 820000) is different from 1.11. Might be bad NVRAM, bad EC, or corrupted ME (note very probable).

You got a programmer to read/ flash EC firmware?

I tried flashing the complete file unchanged, yes.

All I have on hand for flashing ROMs right now is my raspberry pi setup with flashrom, which is how I flash bios eeproms (using a SOP8 clip).

I'm glad you can see that something is wrong with my dump.