M1330 A10 BIOS - Serious Problems

[sinstoic]

The A10 revision of BIOS firmware for Dell XPS M1330 results in overheating the system to an extent that the GPU and in some cases the system board is damaged.

The symptoms of overheating initially result in memory parity errors and windows recovering from various video errors. As the overheating continues, windows crashes with BSOD/black screen. The serious errors include green/pink display artifacts followed by colored/black and white vertical lines followed by a completely white/black screen. If you are sensitive, you might even catch an extremely short burning smell somewhere in the above process. Finally the system cannot even boot.

If you are not able to boot at all, allow the system to cool for a day and then start with the Function + Power keys combination. When the system beeps, press the N key. After a while the LCD test begins and colors flash on your screen followed by a corrupted display or nothing and the system beeps again. This time press the Y Key. After a while turn off the system either by pressing the Power button or cutting of the power. Now when you turn on the
system, it should be able to boot properly. If it still displays the black and white vertical lines, do not worry they will disappear when the login screen appears. Repeat the process a few more times and you might just get lucky.

Once your notebook is booted properly, immediately flash it to the A12 revision of BIOS firmware. With this you will get some time to backup your data and do other important work.

Even though it might now work with the A12 revision of the BIOS, it is temporary and you never know when the sytem will slip to its prior state. Once the damage is done due to the thermal stress, the only solution is to replace the system board with the GPU.

Here is a direct link to the A12 Revision of BIOS firmware for Dell XPS M1330 Notebooks:

Description: Dell System BIOS
Release: 07/09//2008, XPS M1330, A12
Size: 1.01 MB
Download: M1330A12.EXE
Source: Dell

[alexzeon]

...I got THAT and I had to have a motherboard change...

[callanish]

I would have found the A10 bios problem valid if I didn't go through what you are going through, but with the A07 jumping to the A09 bios and then back to the A07 because I believed the A09 had fried my motherboard. I blamed it on the bios then, but my temperatures, after a motherboard replacement from A01 revision to A04, aren't any different then than what they are now with the same 167.45 drivers. I think any bios version can cause you to come across the overheating problem and with the new A11 bios acknowledging thermal changes, it shows that Dell is covertly trying to acknowledge the issue without actually acknowledging the issue. The A10 might have taken a step backwards in some ways with regards to cooling ( I didn't see any difference in operation), but Dell's frantic tweaking of the bios tells me they are having trouble getting a handle on the thermal issues and they're scratching their heads wondering why they are having to replace so many motherboards so frequently. My answer.... bad design.

[L.Rawlins]

Reading all this, you do begin to realise why, when we've read so many advanced leaks regarding 'Minspirons', Latitudes and Studios we haven't heard a thing about a Centrino 2 powered XPS M1330.

Perhaps the delayed 14.1" Studio is the next M1330? If this smaller XPS chassis is causing as many problems as it seems then I'm now starting to believe that that's a line of thought with merit.

[Lao]

I keep wondering how Dell released this laptop. I'm thinking they didn't even tested it thoroughly before releasing it, maybe they even think "we are Dell, we don't need testing!".

[alexzeon]

I keep wondering how Dell released this laptop. I'm thinking they didn't even tested it thoroughly before releasing it, maybe they even think "we are Dell, we don't need testing!".

Personally I don't think you can justify M1330 if you don't have one. Except the thing that my SSD is only the SATA one but not SATA II, I am basically happy with the M1330.

[PhoenixFx]

I never noticed it since my last update (to A11) was from A6. I upgraded because the description said something about enhancing thermal control. I thought it was a new enhancement, not a fix to something they screwedup in the previous version.

Anyways I also noticed that my GPU is running slightly hotter than before, despite the fan running most of the time, even when idling.

Here are my idle temps (room temperature at 22C). Only firefox and few IMs are running with Vista power profile set to Power saver. Isnt 63 for idling a bit too much with room temp at 22C (if room is at 30C that would be like 70C or more)?

[alexzeon]

My previous idle CPU temp was 55 and now is 45!!

[Lao]

After what? Updating BIOS?!

P.S. I DO have a M1330 also, so I know what I'm talking about.

[monakh]

Wow--I think I should try this.

It's unusual for two BIOS updates pretty much back to back. There must have been serious issues with A10 so the OP may have a point there. Thanks for the pointer. I will update it today.