Hello,

I hope I'm posting in the right section, I don't speak perfect English so I don't understand everything.

I have done some research and I can't find a solution to my problem, but I came to this forum where I thought that maybe someone could help me.

I have a problem with an Alienware Aurora ALX PC (R1), I wanted to update the BIOS and there was a power failure... Now the computer boots but does not display anything. It beeps when I remove the RAM or when I plug in a USB stick. But those are the only signs of life I can get.
I bought an SPI programmer and a Pomona clip. I could see that the BIOS was on an MXIC MX25L3206E chip but unable to get anything out of it. The CH341 program tells me that it does not recognize the chip, I have tried many versions without success. Trying with the chip of my graphics card I have no problem, so it is indeed with the BIOS chip that there is a problem.
I don't know much about it, I just did some research everywhere, maybe I'm doing it wrong...

Is it possible to do something or is the motherboard dead in your opinion?

Thanks in advance.

Thank you for your quick response.
So I need to unsolder the chip. That's what I was afraid of. After all I have nothing left to lose.

Ok, so that was the right solution. The chip can be recognized now. (Now I just have to see if I'll be able to re-solder it, but that's another problem!)
Thanks for the help already! I still need a little help if you don't mind. I'm not sure what to put back into the chip. I can extract a bin file from the BIOS upgrade software and write it to the chip. Is there anything else to modify? This may be a silly question but I prefer to be sure before re-soldering.

Thanks in advance.

I made a backup and I noticed that there were 2 times less lines in my backup than in the bios I downloaded by searching with emacs (Is it because my power failure occurred when I was at 50% of the update?).

The motherboard is an x58, which works with the very first i7 processors, I'm pretty sure there is only one BIOS chip. Otherwise I really don't see where the other one is.
Normally the bios I had was this one: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/...?driverid=9dcy7

Thanks a lot for your help.

Edit: I just searched I can only find this replacement BIOS chip on the shopping sites for this motherboard. I guess that means there is only it?

Thanks for your help but I think I definitely killed the motherboard trying to resolder. I did a first soldering not so bad but the chip was slightly diagonal and the pin 5 was not in contact and while trying to desolder again I tore the copper under the pin 6. I then tried to put a copper twig in contact with the motherboard after scraping the plastic but nothing works. I just have to buy a new motherboard.

Just out of curiosity to know how to do it, you found how the bin file in the .exe?

Anyway, thanks again for your help!

Oh ok, thank you, I would have learned something at least from this experience.
I found a professional who can reattach the chip properly for about 30 euros. I think I'll give it a try and if it doesn't work again, I'll give up (I hope I did put the BIOS back on the chip properly haha!)

Just to let you know, I had the chip professionally re-soldered today and it works!
Thank you so much for your help and for what I have learned. :)

Finally, I have one last little problem. If it can't be fixed, it's not a big deal. My Windows license and the serial number of the PC should be contained in the chip because now Windows tells me that it is no longer activated and my PC is no longer recognized by the Dell site.
Is there any way to recover the information from the backup I made and add it to the chip without un-soldering it from a software like the one on the Dell site?

Thanks again and sorry for taking your time.

Edit: Maybe for windows it has nothing to do in fact. I have the problem every other boot. I may try to reinstall it properly.