Need to backup Windows 10, fully reset BIOS and then restore - Help please

Feek

Feek

Feek

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Hi folks.

I have no idea about Windows backups and things like that these days because it's not something I've needed to deal with for years so I'll try and explain what I want to do and hopefully someone can help.

I've got a PC running Windows 10 (it's a Dell 3050 so can't run Windows 11) which I use for ham radio stuff. I've got a fair bit of software installed on there which has had a lot of tweaking over the last three years or so. To reinstall everything would be a real pain.

It works perfectly well when it boots but it often doesn't boot. I run it headless and access it via RDP so I never see the error. I know it's something to do with the BIOS but I have no idea what. When it fails, I seem to recall lots of scary looking red text and lots of loud beeping. I pull the power, restart it and it's generally fine. Sometimes it takes a couple more attempts to boot.

So what I want to do is somehow make a full backup of this PC, completely blitz the BIOS so it's back to utter default and then if needed, restore the backup. I know there are loads of different modes for the BIOS which I don't really understand and I suspect that if it's all defaulted, it won't even boot from the SSD.

It's got a 128Gb SSD. I have a spare 240Gb SSD and an external caddy.

I suppose the process I need to do is.

1) Full backup
2) Blitz the BIOS/CMOS
3) If it boots, great, if not, somehow I need to restore the backup.

What's the best way to go about this please? I don't know how to backup a running Windows system in a way that will allow me to restore everything back exactly as it was. It's not a simple case of rebuilding the OS and reinstalling the applications, there's far too much on there to do that.

All help appreciated.

Thanks.
 
I normally run this headless so I don't see the actual errors, I plugged it into a monitor a few days ago.

It's a really weird one, the red text was a bit of a red herring on my part, what I actually get is **** HEADLESS OPERATION ACTIVE **** in cyan, even when it's got a monitor plugged in. This is fine, just a little odd that it does it when it's connected to a monitor.

Then I get "(A7) Me FW Downgrade - Request MeSpiLock Failed" followed a few seconds later by "ME FW Update Failed, please try again!"

And then it boots.

Sometimes it doesn't boot. Sometimes it does this:

V6yk6A6l.jpeg


I restart and it's all OK.

I'm pretty sure the SSD is actually OK.

I've also spent quite a bit of time googling the errors I'm getting and it all seems to point to the BIOS but I've done the jumper off reset thing and it still does it.

It is running the most recent BIOS, if I try and re-apply the BIOS update, it completes and gives an error "ME Firmware Update Failed: Image Loading" and then it says "Firmware Update successful. Rebooting your system".

I tried flashing back to earlier versions of the BIOS, I get the same message and then when I reboot and check, it actually has downgraded it.

I've ended up on the most recent BIOS, I've uninstalled Dell SupportAssist and told the BIOS not to stop on errors.

The CMOS battery isn't something I considered, that's a good shout. I've actually got an i5-7500T on the way to replace the CPU that's in it now, I may well swap the CMOS battery at the same time.

I did a backup to image using this method.
 
I've spent some more time on this today. Firstly I used Macrium Reflect to clone the internal SSD to an external SSD and prove that worked. I've also ordered an nvme SSD to replace the internal one, just in case there is a failure on the way. And I replaced the cmos battery.

Going back to the beginning, when I first got this PC, it had Windows Home on it. I struggled to get it to activate using Windows 10 Pro but finally managed it by using an installer which only had Pro.

Up until this point, I didn't get the weird errors or boot. I'm fairly sure they started when I updated the bios but this was a few years ago and I'm not 100% sure. Initially I was using it as a Plex server with a JBOD attached so it didn't bother me. A while after getting it, I changed to a Synology NAS and repurposed the PC for amateur radio software.

I'd like to get rid of these errors. Like you @Murphy, I've got suspicions it's the Intel Manage Engine and even though it all appeared to be up to date and correct, I figured there should be a way to prove this.

So what I've just done now is to install a brand spanking new version of Windows 10 home onto this PC using my spare ssd. I installed Dell SupportAssist and one of the things it then installed was the Intel Management Engine.

PSIfpCZ.jpeg


I rebooted and then ran a bios update again.

No joy.

I got the same two messages: "ME Firmware Update Failed: Image Loading" and then "Firmware Update successful. Rebooting your system". When it reboots, I still get the same two firmware messages as before.

It makes no difference if secure boot is enabled or disabled.

I'm proper stumped.
 
OK, further investigations.

It's not just Dell. This is reported for multiple PC manufacturers and models.

There is no actual fix, just people posting things that they think fixed it by invoking all sorts of voodoo. Reboot, change this setting, wait for it to boot to the desktop, reboot, change it back, turn around three times, reboot, run the firmware again, take three steps backwards, reboot, go into the bios, change this back, reboot and finally sacrifice two virgin meerkats at dawn.

The crazy thing is that every bios update actually appears to work, despite the failing messages. Each time you do an update, it shows the current version and the new one and I can see that not only has the new firmware applied but the new Manage Engine (VPro) has updated as well.

I did find something on the Dell Firmware page that says "- If your BIOS version is earlier than 1.7.4, you must update the BIOS to version 1.7.4 before upgrading to the latest version."

I rolled back to a version prior to 1.7.4, including the ME version. Then installed 1.7.4 and then the latest version but nothing's changed.

I think this is the point of now giving up and just letting it do whatever it wants and living with those messages that flash up.
 
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