Unable to update BIOS firmware for Dell laptop

Support
1

I’m unable to get my laptop Dell G3 3779 BIOS updated using either of approaches: 1) fwupd/fwupdmgr; 2) USB stick with firmware file used on boot phase.

When using UEFI capsule update I can not update to the latest firmware (which is 1.25.0 LVFS: G3 3X79) with consecutive fwupdmgr refresh --force && fwupdmgr update .
While I have the needed file structure:

$ tree /esp
/esp
└── EFI

the update didn’t apply in fact:

[roman@roman-pc ~]$ fwupdmgr refresh --force
Updating lvfs
Downloading…             [   -                                   ]
Successfully downloaded new metadata: 1 local device supported
[roman@roman-pc ~]$ fwupdmgr update 
Devices with no available firmware updates: 
 • Internal SPI Controller
 • SC311 SATA 256GB
 • ST2000LM007-1R8174
 • System Firmware
 • TPM
Devices with the latest available firmware version:
 • UEFI dbx

When using USB stick with <firmware>.exe on it, though it’s successfully recognized on boot and allows to initiate bios update - it’s going to a black screen for a second and then just emits “Firmware update failed. Rebooting …”
So I still got the old firmware version:

$ sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date
07/18/2018

[roman@roman-pc ~]$ inxi -b
System:
  Host: roman-pc Kernel: 6.9.5-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.0.5 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: G3 3779 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 04R93M v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 1.2.1 date: 07/18/2018
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 49.4 Wh (98.8%) condition: 50.0/53.3 Wh (93.8%)
CPU:
  Info: 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 799
    min/max: 800/4100
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile] driver: nvidia
    v: 550.90.07
  Device-3: Realtek Integrated Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting,nvidia gpu: i915,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution:
    1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 550.90.07
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design/PCIe/SSE2
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.05 TiB used: 466.56 GiB (22.2%)
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.48 GiB used: 4.91 GiB (31.7%)
  Processes: 359 Uptime: 1d 3h 17m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.35
2

Have you tried from a WindowsPE disk such as
Hirens boot disk?

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

It also looks like your system needs an update. 6.9 kernel is at 6.9.10 stable and 6.9 is EOL as of 6.9.12

3

Have you tried updating using a DOS bootable USB drive?
Updating the BIOS from DOS with UEFI boot mode enabled (Non-Windows users, Load Legacy Option Disabled) - dell.com/support

4

I don’t think refresh is fetching updates - I could be wrong of course - I would use

fwupdmgr get-updates
fwupdmgr update
5

I did use that also, but it didn’t help.
I actually submitted the respective issue to fwupd project (Unable to update BIOS firmware for Dell laptop · Issue #190 · fwupd/firmware-dell · GitHub), don’t know if it anyhow would be fixed.

6

I tried FAT32 USB drive so far, and it seemed to start the update process (F12 → select the file → initiate/start update → black screen), but always failed.

7

Is there a way to do this with Windows? Then, you could use Hiren’s Boot CD to start Windows PE and update from there.

However, if the device is supported by fwupd, it should also work that way.

1 Like
8

yes, that’s why I wonder why it stucks on fwupd means.

9

I have the exact same issue on Thinkpad P1 G6: neither USB stick .iso nor fwupd are able to update my bios. Lenovo even replaced my motherboard by warranty, but it didn’t help.