Invalid Dell service tag?

[nzoomed]

Ive got a dell latitude 5500 laptop and want to update its BIOS.
Whats odd is it doesnt even come up as a valid service tag when i enter it into the Dell page.
Service tag is 6YFSX33

Another thing I noticed is that the latest bios revision available on Dell is 1.38 but my current revision is 1.6

Any ideas?
Im having this freeze on bootup where the GRUB bootloader is reading "loading initial ramdisk"
A BIOS update is supposed to address this issue apparently, but its a bit of a mystery why my bios revision doesnt match.

The service tag in the BIOS matches the one on the sticker, so its unlikely the motherboard has been swapped out or anything.

[king1]

38 comes after 6 sequentially so I would say 1.38 is later... similar to software versioning, well it is software versioning really...

Do you think the service tag issue is maybe geographical, with some product/drivers eg printers and copiers, the model numbers don't show up on the NZ site but do on AU / US sites, possible because a store has direct imported them maybe.

[king1]

FYI when I do the check on my laptop here which happens to be a dell latitude 5500 it does come up with some info about it

The bios page is here if you need it
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-nz/...500-laptop

do you have the Express Service Code: 265644892XX - the search box works for that as well for me...

[Agent_24]

Yeah, I agree, it's confusing because 1.6 is a larger number than 1.38 in absolute terms, but for software versioning, thirty-eight is bigger than six. Version numbers aren't necessarily quantitative decimals (?). Here I imagine they're comparing something like the 38th revision vs the 6th.

If it were 1.60 vs 1.38 then that'd be a different story.

Of course, usually BIOS version numbers are written like 1.06 and 1.38 to make it less confusing. If in doubt, check the datecodes!

[nzoomed]

Im bad sorry, it was 1.65 or something like that but couldnt remember so just said 1.6.
However need to take another look again.
I was too wondering if it was a model for a different country, i had checked the NZ dell site and the international one, but you would think that their system should redirect you when you search for it.
I think ive encountered this some time back.

[Agent_24]

Are you sure the tag is 6YFSX33? I can't find that, but I can find 6YF5X33, and it's for the correct model

What is the BIOS date of your current BIOS?

[king1]

Are you sure the tag is  6YFSX33? I can't find that, but I can find 6YF5X33, and it's for the correct model

oh nice catch... 

I for one can't go onsite without my glasses now...

[nzoomed]

Are you sure the tag is  6YFSX33? I can't find that, but I can find 6YF5X33, and it's for the correct model

What is the BIOS date of your current BIOS?

You had me doubting my eyesight for a bit!

Definitely 6YFSX33, perhaps someone at Dell needs to go to specsavers.

You are right about the revision numbering however, the existing version is 1.6.5 and the new one is 1.38.0
The thing was hanging for an hour last night when i tried the upgrade so i just rebooted and it survived with no apparent upgrade occurring.

   
   

[Agent_24]

How strange. Even v1.6.5 doesn't show up in the old BIOS download list, but it does show up in the changelog.
https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER12830333M/1/La....0-eng.txt

Maybe there is some compatibility bug with the updater utility, have you tried flashing a less recent BIOS first?

I've had some issues in the past with boards that can't flash from a very old revision to the latest one correctly, and you have to do some incremental updates to get there.

[nzoomed]

Yeah that's a good point. It might be worth upgrading to an earlier revision first.
Hopefully its enough to address the freezing issue on startup, I see there is also an entry in the grub config that might address the issues im having.

[Agent_24]

Well, I certainly had issues with Linux being unusable on an HP laptop until I updated the BIOS to the latest version - it would freeze and kernel panic and all sorts. Honestly had me wondering if there was a hardware fault.

But, once the BIOS was flashed to latest (I had to install Windows to do that, thanks HP) I've had no issues whatsoever.

[nzoomed]

Thats the thing with linux, i see these sorts of problems appear from time to time when i use various linux boot disks on some systems.
Right now im hoping i can use this debian system to recover data from a failing NvME drive. Ironically it is appearing on my windows system, but then drops off shortly after connecting, but so far in linux, the system doesnt even recognise any disk is connected.

[Agent_24]

A lot of bugs can be worked around by enabling certain kernel parameters, if you know what the issue is.
I've had issues with IOMMU settings and USB stuff sometimes, or having to force a specific video mode, and others.

I've played around with a lot of hardware configurations and there's some that Windows was never happy with either. Yes that was with older versions like 95/98, XP etc. I know it's not as bad now, but you can still get weird problems sometimes.

Sometimes it simply just came down to the BIOS being garbage, especially on cheap motherboards (PC Chips, Chaintech etc). I'd say the early BIOS on that HP fit into that category. There was nothing wrong with the hardware, even though it acted exactly like a hardware issue.

[king1]

Thats the thing with linux, i see these sorts of problems appear from time to time when i use various linux boot disks on some systems.
Right now im hoping i can use this debian system to recover data from a failing NvME drive. Ironically it is appearing on my windows system, but then drops off shortly after connecting, but so far in linux, the system doesnt even recognise any disk is connected.

that's odd, Linux is usually better at keeping drives online...

this is my goto for absolutely stuffed drives
https://www.hddsuperclone.com/

I use the livecd and usually clone to another connected drive,  it can save progress for restarting and uses three or four different methods for scraping data off bad sectors...  on a really bad drive i did a while back  which windows wouldn't even fire up it took 48 hours plus but managed to get the majority of the data off.

One i did Thursday trying to recover the thunderbird data that couldn't be copied (300 odd bad sectors),  it took about 8 hours to get the clone which then allowed me to copy off the thunderbird data completely...

[nzoomed]

A lot of bugs can be worked around by enabling certain kernel parameters, if you know what the issue is.
I've had issues with IOMMU settings and USB stuff sometimes, or having to force a specific video mode, and others.

I've played around with a lot of hardware configurations and there's some that Windows was never happy with either. Yes that was with older versions like 95/98, XP etc. I know it's not as bad now, but you can still get weird problems sometimes.

Sometimes it simply just came down to the BIOS being garbage, especially on cheap motherboards (PC Chips, Chaintech etc). I'd say the early BIOS on that HP fit into that category. There was nothing wrong with the hardware, even though it acted exactly like a hardware issue.

Yeah, in my case its apparently due to a faulty intel microcode update and adding dis_ucode_ldr to grub.conf was supposed to get around this issue, but didnt seem to do anything, but i may have got the syntax incorrect, as it was a bit unclear how i was supposed to add it, but the way i understood it to be was to add straight after the line that reads "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT"

Anyway, some good news, I was able to update the BIOS and its all working.
I had to do the update through windows, it was freezing with any revision i tried with the built in bios flash utility.

Thats the thing with linux, i see these sorts of problems appear from time to time when i use various linux boot disks on some systems.
Right now im hoping i can use this debian system to recover data from a failing NvME drive. Ironically it is appearing on my windows system, but then drops off shortly after connecting, but so far in linux, the system doesnt even recognise any disk is connected.

that's odd, Linux is usually better at keeping drives online...

this is my goto for absolutely stuffed drives
https://www.hddsuperclone.com/

I use the livecd and usually clone to another connected drive,  it can save progress for restarting and uses three or four different methods for scraping data off bad sectors...  on a really bad drive i did a while back  which windows wouldn't even fire up it took 48 hours plus but managed to get the majority of the data off.

One i did Thursday trying to recover the thunderbird data that couldn't be copied (300 odd bad sectors),  it took about 8 hours to get the clone which then allowed me to copy off the thunderbird data completely...

Yeah, i usually find linux does it better.
I think with this drive it might be one of those instances where you need to desolder a particular component off the board and presto, it all works again, seen a few videos on this in the past.
In this case this drive contains all the 2FA data stored in session with chrome for a google account, i cant log back into the account on another device because the user never updated his contact information and the 2FA code gets sent to his old phone number.
I have seen a similar utility called open super clone, which im guessing is a fully open source alternative.

[Agent_24]

Yeah, in my case its apparently due to a faulty intel microcode update and adding dis_ucode_ldr to grub.conf was supposed to get around this issue, but didnt seem to do anything, but i may have got the syntax incorrect, as it was a bit unclear how i was supposed to add it, but the way i understood it to be was to add straight after the line that reads "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT"

I don't know what distro you use but for me I'd edit the /etc/default/grub file

The current line for mine (in Xubuntu) is 

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

To add your one I would change it to

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash dis_ucode_ldr"

Then, you have to run the "update-grub" command to actually process that change.

[king1]

A lot of bugs can be worked around by enabling certain kernel parameters, if you know what the issue is.
I've had issues with IOMMU settings and USB stuff sometimes, or having to force a specific video mode, and others.

I've played around with a lot of hardware configurations and there's some that Windows was never happy with either. Yes that was with older versions like 95/98, XP etc. I know it's not as bad now, but you can still get weird problems sometimes.

Sometimes it simply just came down to the BIOS being garbage, especially on cheap motherboards (PC Chips, Chaintech etc). I'd say the early BIOS on that HP fit into that category. There was nothing wrong with the hardware, even though it acted exactly like a hardware issue.

Yeah, in my case its apparently due to a faulty intel microcode update and adding dis_ucode_ldr to grub.conf was supposed to get around this issue, but didnt seem to do anything, but i may have got the syntax incorrect, as it was a bit unclear how i was supposed to add it, but the way i understood it to be was to add straight after the line that reads "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT"

Anyway, some good news, I was able to update the BIOS and its all working.
I had to do the update through windows, it was freezing with any revision i tried with the built in bios flash utility.

that's odd, Linux is usually better at keeping drives online...

this is my goto for absolutely stuffed drives
https://www.hddsuperclone.com/

I use the livecd and usually clone to another connected drive,  it can save progress for restarting and uses three or four different methods for scraping data off bad sectors...  on a really bad drive i did a while back  which windows wouldn't even fire up it took 48 hours plus but managed to get the majority of the data off.

One i did Thursday trying to recover the thunderbird data that couldn't be copied (300 odd bad sectors),  it took about 8 hours to get the clone which then allowed me to copy off the thunderbird data completely...

Yeah, i usually find linux does it better.
I think with this drive it might be one of those instances where you need to desolder a particular component off the board and presto, it all works again, seen a few videos on this in the past.
In this case this drive contains all the 2FA data stored in session with chrome for a google account, i cant log back into the account on another device because the user never updated his contact information and the 2FA code gets sent to his old phone number.
I have seen a similar utility called open super clone, which im guessing is a fully open source alternative.

good to know I can get an updated version now...

[Agent_24]

this is my goto for absolutely stuffed drives
https://www.hddsuperclone.com/

I use the livecd and usually clone to another connected drive,  it can save progress for restarting and uses three or four different methods for scraping data off bad sectors...  on a really bad drive i did a while back  which windows wouldn't even fire up it took 48 hours plus but managed to get the majority of the data off.

One i did Thursday trying to recover the thunderbird data that couldn't be copied (300 odd bad sectors),  it took about 8 hours to get the clone which then allowed me to copy off the thunderbird data completely...

Yeah, i usually find linux does it better.
I think with this drive it might be one of those instances where you need to desolder a particular component off the board and presto, it all works again, seen a few videos on this in the past.
In this case this drive contains all the 2FA data stored in session with chrome for a google account, i cant log back into the account on another device because the user never updated his contact information and the 2FA code gets sent to his old phone number.
I have seen a similar utility called open super clone, which im guessing is a fully open source alternative.

Those look like good utilities! I had not heard of them before, thanks.
Normally I have used gnu ddrescue for this kind of task.

I guess the removed component is probably a shorted ceramic capacitor, usually there is enough on the board in parallel if one fails you can remove it without affecting stability. Easier than a head-swap but finding which one is bad can be a fun time...

[nzoomed]

Yeah, in my case its apparently due to a faulty intel microcode update and adding dis_ucode_ldr to grub.conf was supposed to get around this issue, but didnt seem to do anything, but i may have got the syntax incorrect, as it was a bit unclear how i was supposed to add it, but the way i understood it to be was to add straight after the line that reads "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT"

I don't know what distro you use but for me I'd edit the /etc/default/grub file

The current line for mine (in Xubuntu) is 

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

To add your one I would change it to

Code:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash dis_ucode_ldr"

Then, you have to run the "update-grub" command to actually process that change.

OK, there would have been a few steps i missed then, but at least the BIOS update has sorted it now, so Ive now removed that entry. Im running Debian 12 on this which has been a while since i last used Debian and its come a long way in that time with many more refinements since I last touched it and switched to kubuntu.
Everything seems to work OK straight out of the box which is good.

this is my goto for absolutely stuffed drives
https://www.hddsuperclone.com/

I use the livecd and usually clone to another connected drive,  it can save progress for restarting and uses three or four different methods for scraping data off bad sectors...  on a really bad drive i did a while back  which windows wouldn't even fire up it took 48 hours plus but managed to get the majority of the data off.

One i did Thursday trying to recover the thunderbird data that couldn't be copied (300 odd bad sectors),  it took about 8 hours to get the clone which then allowed me to copy off the thunderbird data completely...

Yeah, i usually find linux does it better.
I think with this drive it might be one of those instances where you need to desolder a particular component off the board and presto, it all works again, seen a few videos on this in the past.
In this case this drive contains all the 2FA data stored in session with chrome for a google account, i cant log back into the account on another device because the user never updated his contact information and the 2FA code gets sent to his old phone number.
I have seen a similar utility called open super clone, which im guessing is a fully open source alternative.

Those look like good utilities! I had not heard of them before, thanks.
Normally I have used gnu ddrescue for this kind of task.

I guess the removed component is probably a shorted ceramic capacitor, usually there is enough on the board in parallel if one fails you can remove it without affecting stability. Easier than a head-swap but finding which one is bad can be a fun time...

I will let you know how i get on with this utility, i was only introduced it by a friend this week.
I booted it up and the drive doesnt show at all, but will have a look next week when ive got more time spare.
Your right that its likely a shorted ceramic capacitor, will take some time to find, as there is a number of these. Sometimes they have fusable resistors that are there as a form of protection from voltage spikes.

[Agent_24]

Im running Debian 12 on this which has been a while since i last used Debian and its come a long way in that time with many more refinements since I last touched it and switched to kubuntu.
Everything seems to work OK straight out of the box which is good.

I've been thinking of trying it again myself, I last tried Debian quite some time ago and it was a very different experience to Ubuntu, then (before Unity or Gnome 3)

But I'm not at all impressed with Canonical's decision to force Snap on everyone with their recent versions, regardless of whether it's a good system or not, a big reason for me moving to Linux was to get away from that sort of thing, because I was sick of Microsoft forcing changes on me I didn't want either.

I will let you know how i get on with this utility, i was only introduced it by a friend this week.
I booted it up and the drive doesnt show at all, but will have a look next week when ive got more time spare.
Your right that its likely a shorted ceramic capacitor, will take some time to find, as there is a number of these. Sometimes they have fusable resistors that are there as a form of protection from voltage spikes.

Seems strange if it shows in Windows though. I wonder what the Linux logfiles say, if there's anything about it.
Haven't personally had to deal with a bad SSD (yet) except for a cheap one I bought that died. It was under warranty and I got a refund, then bought a bigger, better brand one. So I never tried to diagnose it electrically or otherwise.