I have been having issues with updating Bios and drivers with my 7510 since January.
It has Xeon E3 1535 cpu; 64GB 2100Mhz DDR4 ECC; Quadro m2000m and Samsung 960 PRO NVME M.2 SSD
It started after a BIOS update from Windows Update failed. I had added 4x 2400MHz ECC DDR4 to the machine and the new BIOS supported only 2100MHz So it rolled back by itself. After that I bought two 2100MHz ECC DDR4 sticks and installed those, as I knew that RAM works in pairs and always takes the speed of the lowest stick. So I tried to update the BIOS manually after that. I wasn't able to. and many things broke after that also. The computer does not shut down anymore. I have to restart it and press power when I see the POST screen. It sometimes loses USB and / or mousepad buttons (the pad and tapping on pad works fine)
I got this from Dell Outlet as Dell Refurbished in january 2017.
I have tried several things:
a) Downloaded drivers via service tag / product detection from support.dell.com. The Bios installation file always tells me that:
"The AC adapter and battery must be plugged in before the system BIOS can be flashed.
Press OK when they are both plugged in or CANCEL to quit."
Ofcourse I have them plugged in, I have tried it docked, on 3 different ORIGINAL and two non-original adapters with different power output up to 240W. I had 72Wh battery on it before but ever since I have purchased a 91Wh original battery from Dell dealership to make sure everything is ok.
b) I have the Dell Precision Optimizer application. It shows some outdated updates for BIOS and some drivers. So I press Check for Updates and it finds a newer, critical BIOS update. I check everything and press Apply updates. It takes a long time, no information whatsoverer, just a spinning cirle. I get a prompt for system password to update the BIOS that appears BEHIND the Precision Optimizer Window so I have to be quick to notice that appearing at all on my taskbar with a little white default Windows application icon and click it to bring it to front. After I enter my BIOS admin password it takes a while more and then it is back to the beginning of point b) and it shows the out of date updates again. One can do unlimited circles of that.
c) I have tracked down the hardware by the hardware ID-s from Device manager and downloaded drivers from manufacturers. That works but its like Windows 95 all over again. I have also successfully updated BIOS by booting the laptop from a USB stick with a DOS image and applying BIOS update from there. However much I update it manually, it never seems to get back to updating automatically via the Precision optimizer or files from support.dell.com.
I have checked that I run everything as admin and tried also without running as admin just to be sure.
I have checked that I use the installation files for correct Windows ( 10 x64 ) and tried also files for 8.1x64 and 7x64 just to make sure.
I am out of ideas. I have never been the guy that reinstalls Windows and calls it a day. I have always been able to fix ANY computer without having to have done that. So I haven't tried that. But I don't want to try that either. Because when I finish it and it is still not working or the same game starts again one day I am back in base one. I have to get to the bottom of this, why is it happening. I have to find the reason. Does anyone have the same symptoms with their Precisions?
