Wow, never heard of that one before. Sounds like something got corrupted during the update. I bet if you take the HDD out of the machine, install it in another and format it, it will be fine.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
My computer died
- Thread starter maflynn
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I just pulled my game saves off it and shoved it into a closet. Too weak to do much other than be a substitute smart TV. Just another reason to turn off MS updates. Looking around many issues regarding SupportAssist and false hard drive failure errors, but none of those folks had their PC's shut down, as they could still boot. For mine, skipping the check or letting it complete and tapping OK just immediately shuts the PC down like a hard power off. I'm guessing either the EFI BIOS/partition got corrupted or a driver issue. or the MBR got wiped. Not sure.
Error from Windows I finally remembered "We were unable to install the update" on what appeared to be a recovery boot screen, with F1 to restart and another option to shut the PC down.
Just for kicks I tried powering it on again, and it still gets into a SupportAssist boot loop claiming a critical hard disk failure, which is obviously incorrect as I can still boot linux.
Error from Windows I finally remembered "We were unable to install the update" on what appeared to be a recovery boot screen, with F1 to restart and another option to shut the PC down.
Just for kicks I tried powering it on again, and it still gets into a SupportAssist boot loop claiming a critical hard disk failure, which is obviously incorrect as I can still boot linux.
Well, sounds like when my SSHD failed to tell you the truth. Went into bootloop and nothing I did helped. Popped in a new drive and everything was fine.
Well, I got my new notebook. It's awesome. Active pen has a better feel on screen than my fisher-Price tipped apple pencil on the ipad, and it's really fast with the 11th gen i7. Overall I am enjoying my new purchase ALOT.
That's just it though. The drive, data is all there and accessible. I just can't boot into Windows anymore. It works perfectly fine booting into Linux and accessing the files on the Windows partition from it. Whatever Dell SupportAssist is getting this so-called 'HDD critical Failure' error it's clearly mistaken. I've run SMART tests--all pass. FSCK'd the thing, all pass. No bad sectors, short read failures, etc.
It's most likely a corrupted EFI partition, and possibly making that partition unbootable, which would confuse SupportAssist into assuming the drive is unbootable aka failed. The SupportAssist is booting from that partition--it's not an app, it comes up before it would normally boot into it. Bypassing the check or letting it complete will just result in a hard shutdown. To boot Linux you have to enter the BIOS (I've turned on legacy boot so I can F10 into it), and make sure the Linux partition is set to boot before Windows. Then the PC works perfectly fine.
Can you remove the drive from the machine? If so, you can get it formatted, download the OS off dell's website, and re install. Corrupt windows partition is gone then and it should work for you again.
I’ve seen that happen on some board makers bios when you fudge an over clock of the cpu or ram and you force it to reboot a few times. It can also happen if the cmos battery is low.
There's nothing worth saving that I haven't already backed up. It's just a backup PC that works find via Linux. I bought it to be a temporary smart TV years ago. I don't need it today, but me being the anti-disposable kind of guy I won't just toss it out. It's useful for RAM, parts, a spare HDD, etc. It doesn't have to boot windows, I was just miffed that some utility Dell put into it made me not trust it anymore. I won't even support or buy from Dell (they've burned me in the past as well--look up Dell Latitude CPx series 1-3-5 battery error--interesting topic, seems Dell designed their batteries with a little e-fuse that blows when you have exceeded 300 charge cycles so you can't use a perfectly good battery anymore, which results in the status LED on the pack blinking 1 time, pause, 3 times, pause and 5 times and repeat). I vote with my wallet-company screws me over, they ain't getting a dime out of me in the future.
Dell Battery Problem - 1:3:5 error
my Dell Latitude D600's battery just died and i think the problem is referred to as a 1 3 5 error. i cant charge it now and it seems to be no good.
Oh, I could go through the rigamorole of ordering the recovery disks (since they had the recovery portion on the HDD which I wiped to install Linux to) all for a system with 3GB RAM, a 500GB HDD, and a crappy Intel CPU with equally crappy Intel HD graphics. Not worth my time. I bet their little Support Assist thing was an e-fuse telling me it's time to toss a perfectly good HDD for another one. Talk about a racket. Maybe some folks buy a new PC or parts every year but to me it's an unsustainable practice I refuse to get into.
I’m my case, new system board. The corruption happened while I was in windows, doing windows stuff…after the system was stable for months.
Right on. I have had great success with dell and their computers. To each their own I guess. I have 5 dell machines in my house right now. One is my previous 2 in 1 that died from my husky jumping on it on the sofa. Not dell's fault. I just purchased my 5406 2 in 1 to replace it and it's an awesome machine. Fast, aluminum build, nice screen and great keyboard.There's nothing worth saving that I haven't already backed up. It's just a backup PC that works find via Linux. I bought it to be a temporary smart TV years ago. I don't need it today, but me being the anti-disposable kind of guy I won't just toss it out. It's useful for RAM, parts, a spare HDD, etc. It doesn't have to boot windows, I was just miffed that some utility Dell put into it made me not trust it anymore. I won't even support or buy from Dell (they've burned me in the past as well--look up Dell Latitude CPx series 1-3-5 battery error--interesting topic, seems Dell designed their batteries with a little e-fuse that blows when you have exceeded 300 charge cycles so you can't use a perfectly good battery anymore, which results in the status LED on the pack blinking 1 time, pause, 3 times, pause and 5 times and repeat). I vote with my wallet-company screws me over, they ain't getting a dime out of me in the future.
Dell Battery Problem - 1:3:5 error
my Dell Latitude D600's battery just died and i think the problem is referred to as a 1 3 5 error. i cant charge it now and it seems to be no good.www.boards.ie
Oh, I could go through the rigamorole of ordering the recovery disks (since they had the recovery portion on the HDD which I wiped to install Linux to) all for a system with 3GB RAM, a 500GB HDD, and a crappy Intel CPU with equally crappy Intel HD graphics. Not worth my time. I bet their little Support Assist thing was an e-fuse telling me it's time to toss a perfectly good HDD for another one. Talk about a racket. Maybe some folks buy a new PC or parts every year but to me it's an unsustainable practice I refuse to get into.
I used to love Dell during the CPx and Latitude D-series era. But their later laptops and desktops have taken a serious downturn in quality. My Inspiron Notebook that I bought in 2018 kept having battery issues ("your battery is unsupported" message on boot--it was the built in battery!). Another Inspiron of the same model (thought the first was a dud) got really hot and turned off, never turned on again. My stepdad's Dell after a year refused to use its own built-in battery again (Windows showed an icon in the action center of an empty battery with '!' inside, whatever that means).
They've kinda turned into the new Compaq. I remember those, too. Always called them 'Crappaq's'
They've kinda turned into the new Compaq. I remember those, too. Always called them 'Crappaq's'
the XPS 9300 series seems very stable and for me one of the best items I ever purchased.
seems to me the latitude and sperion(?) editions are made for those who dont use a laptop that much
to keep up with HP, Acer products.
Latitude laptops were their 'business' line. The Dell Latitude CPi was a PII 233MHz with a very nice modern design. Had swappable CD/Battery/Floppy. Ok it's old now!
The Latitude D610 was a nice laptop too, even though it also refused to allow use of the battery (charging LED flashed that infamous '1-3-5' code). I had some great fun with Linux on that thing. I don't know what happened to it, but I would bet it got lost in the move to my new home in 2016. I didn't have any issues with it other than the battery it refused to charge.
The Inspiron were their more consumer grade. Cheap, at least today.
XPS-series were their gaming line at one period. Too rich for my blood, much like the rather under-specced HP Spectre that, despite having far less RAM and HDD than the much nicer Envy sitting next to it, carries a Mac-like price of $1999! I never, EVER understood how that price could be justified when that Envy had 2 more GB RAM and a 1TB HDD vs. the Spectre's 500GB, and the Envy cost $899 in comparison. Even had a touch screen.
The Latitude D610 was a nice laptop too, even though it also refused to allow use of the battery (charging LED flashed that infamous '1-3-5' code). I had some great fun with Linux on that thing. I don't know what happened to it, but I would bet it got lost in the move to my new home in 2016. I didn't have any issues with it other than the battery it refused to charge.
The Inspiron were their more consumer grade. Cheap, at least today.
XPS-series were their gaming line at one period. Too rich for my blood, much like the rather under-specced HP Spectre that, despite having far less RAM and HDD than the much nicer Envy sitting next to it, carries a Mac-like price of $1999! I never, EVER understood how that price could be justified when that Envy had 2 more GB RAM and a 1TB HDD vs. the Spectre's 500GB, and the Envy cost $899 in comparison. Even had a touch screen.