Help! Dell Inspiron 'Dead' After BIOS Update  

Put a new HDD in a Dell Inspiron 660. Installed the OS from a disk - W7 Home Premium. Installed the Ethernet driver. Did the seemingly 1000s of Windows updates. Then put back all the pictures, favorites destop wallpaper, etc. Then went to this page Support for Inspiron 660 | Drivers & downloads | Dell US
. I installed the Intel Chipset Driver. Then I did the same for the Vostro 270 System BIOS.

Once it finished I was prompted to reboot. I really didn't think there was any problem when it failed to boot immediately - I'd just updated the BIOS and there was probably some BIOS related housekeeping Windows needed to do....

When I checked back 40 minutes I saw the same grayish screen as before. So I turned it off. And then back on. Same grayish screen - no words ever appeared - no sounds. I tried tapping F8 as I powered on. Nothing. I put the W7 disk back in the optical drive and started it, thinking I'd do a system restore. Nothing happened. Oh wait, the BIOS probably no longer has the DVD as the first boot device. So I power on again, tapping F12 to get the Boot Menu. Nothing. Just the same gray screen.

I have no idea what to do next. If I have to, I'd grit my teeth and reinstall all over again. But how?

HELP!!!

Snick,
Thanks for the reply, but ever since I did the reboot (after the BIOS update), the computer displays no activity beyond the screen becoming gray when I press the power button. I've tried tapping all of the function keys, F1-F12 and none of them do a thing to that gray screen. And, AIAS trying to boot from the disk accomplishes nothing either.

Could downloading and installing that Vostro BIOS have done something to the motherboard?

townsbg said:

BIOS = Basic input output system. If an update to that goes wrong the computer might not be able to do anything with anything including the hard drive, cd drive, keyboard, etc. If it is truly screwed up then you have a paperweight which is why I don't like updating the BIOS. At this point I would be contacting Dell.

Already contacted them. After giving me the blather about the computer being long out of warranty and the pitch about being able to help for a one-time fee of $139, they told me BIOS update couldn't have done anything to make the PC unresponsive, and that they assume that the mobo had gone bad. Their stupid Support Assistant was the tool (appropriate word) that wanted me to download and install the BIOS update.

townsbg said:

Don't believe them when they say that. What was it doing before the update?

As I said, I put a new HDD in the PC, reinstalled Windows 7 Home, downloaded the wired network driver, installed the bazillion updates to Windows, re-personalized the PC with the photos, music and other flotsam and jetsam. Then, Dell's Support Assist recommended a check for missing drivers. I downloaded some specific tool from Dell and ran it. It identified several drivers that were either missing or needed to be updated. I went to the Dell Drivers and download page - identified in post #1 and downloaded and ibstalled the Chipset driver.

At that time the computer was functioning perfectly with it's new HDD - much faster than before the old drive died.

The second item on the Support Assist list was the Dell Inspiron 660 / Vostro 270 System BIOS. I downloaded it to the desktop, ended all other applications and installed it. That's it.

I'm going to put the old drive back in the machine and turn it on. Before I removed it, it did at least bring up the Dell logo and tell me there was a problem booting the PC. I'm guessing the old drive will function no differently than the new one - just a gray screen. I can also take the new drive and put it in another Windows 7 Home Premium tower. I'm (again guessing) fairly confident that it will boot up.

Does anyone think I have any recourse with Dell? It's well out of warranty but I followed their Support Assist instructions. I certainly never would have updated the BIOS on my own.

Shouldn't they have to assume responsibility for this? I went to THEIR site, entered the serial number of the machine and was told to download/update these drivers. And now I'm left with a paperweight?