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from the "bricks"-is-absolutely-accurate-this-time dept.
The Register (aka El Reg) reports:
Many [who installed the latest Dell BIOS update] now cannot boot up their machines. One typical explanation posted was: "Add me to the list Dell Inspiron 20 model 3052, updated on the weekend, woke up to a solid amber/orange light and a dead computer. Contacted Dell on facebook and this is what I was told "The updates Dell releases don't affect the system. But it would enhance the performance of the system" ummmm no....if they broke they need to fix it."
[...] Some users complained screens cycled through red, green, blue and white while others saw nothing but an amber or red power light and a dead screen.
The main model affected by the allegedly dodgy update is the Inspiron 20 3052, although a few users reported similar problems with Inspiron 3252s.
[...] Dell's initial reaction was to tell customers they needed to buy new motherboards.
[...] Although complaints in the forum date back to May 12, Dell took four days to offer up a possible solution... which users subsequently said didn't work. Dell has yet to send [El Reg] a statement.
Have we saved anyone from a big headache?
The relevant Dell forum thread can be found here.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:40PM
Having the processor upgrade it's own boot code works if there is a backup memory to boot from. And only pre-tested code is allowed to be programmed usually through signing the code.
What has failed here is that the code obviously weren't tested. And customers should be vary of "upgrading" anything that works. Let others be unwilling beta testers without compensation.