I have a DELL 660s which no longer boots after a failed windows 10 install. Unfortunately, it's just a few months out of warranty. [:(]
When I power the computer on the fan starts and I see a brief period of hard drive activity but the screen doesn't activate - just a blank, black screen. I don't even see the DELL logo and I'm unable to access BIOS.
I believe the BIOS firmware was corrupted by the failed Windows 10 install. I've tried removing the CMOS battery overnight but this didn't help. At this point I believe I need to flash stable firmware onto the BIOS chip, which is all the more difficult since the computer won't boot and I can't access BIOS.
Based on my research manufacturers of BIOS chips often include emergency recovery procedures to fix corrupted BIOS firmware. For example the manufactuer AMI includes an embedded "boot block" which can sometimes be used to boot from floppy / flash usb and install new firmware even when the existing BIOS firmware is corrupted. See: https://techjourney.net/recover-or-undo-corrupt-ami-bios-flash-update/
I'd like to try something like this but I don't know where to start. I guess the first thing I need to know is who is the manufacturer of the BIOS chip in my DELL 660s computer? Can anyone help me answer this question?
I found one vague reference on google that mentions AMI is the manufacturer but I'm not sure if the source is accurate.
Thanks for the help.
EDIT: I feel like what I need to do is run the following command to extract the BIOS ROM file which needs to be flashed to my PC:
"Inspiron 660s Vostro 270s A11 BIOS.exe" /writeromfile
However this is not working. Apparently DELL discontinued support for the /writeromfile flag in newer versions of their BIOS executable files.
So I'm feeling like I'm completely out of luck! I don't know where to turn, it seems like the only option left is replacing the entire motherboard which is just depressing.