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Latitude 3470 - BSOD on ALL bootable media

Alright, so this one is really throwing me for a loop. A client brings me their new 3470 because it will no longer boot. I attempt to boot and it looks like there was a problem during the forced Windows 10 upgrade. As a result, it boot loops. So I attempt to boot to our Window PE (8.0) based imaging platform. I get the Frowny face of Doom (bluescreen). I try all of the USB ports to the same result. Every time I get a different error number. Occasionally I will ACPI_BIOS_ERROR.
I decide to remove the drive and image. I capture a good image. I have tried a few different ways (reimaging in between attempts) and nothing works. I have decided that I will reload the machine... Sounds easy...
Well, Starting with the XX50 series Laptops, Dell decided that end users no longer need DVD drives at all and do not even give the option for including these at an extra charge... because they know better than us lowly end users.  So I have a USB DVD drive hooked to the machine. Problem is: I have the same exact problem with ANY Windows install media. I have tried DELL OEM Windows 7/8.0/8.1/and 10 media. I have tried a Dell Branded and created Windows USB drive (Sent from Dell for reloads of 8 I think). I have tried non Dell install media to JUST try to get into the PE environment. All have the same problems. I have even gone so far and pulling the drivers from the original image and injecting them all into my boot.wim to try to get in but it continues to behave the same errors. I have tried in all ports USB 2 and 3.

Any thoughts. I am out of ideas...
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LockDown32
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Hit F12 as the computer is booting. I believe that is the boot menu. When you do that you should see a list of bootable devices. Do you see your external DVD under UEFI devices? Select that for boot....
To be honest if boot fails from Network, Local Hard Drive & USB, then I do not thing that booting from a DVD will fix that issue, seeing as from how I read it, PXE boots before even loading a new image onto the PC. Unless I am reading it wrong.
It sounds to me like there is an issue with potentially the main board itself, due to it complaining about APCI BIOS etc.
One could attempt a BIOS update, but I would only do this if Dell support suggests one to do so, to avoid having them say "You broke it with a wrong BIOS update"

My view would be new Dell = Warranty. Call Dell support, they always been good handling issues for me.
They will probably go through a few steps, and and up replacing mainboard or PC.
One other option coming to mind, in case I read the explanation wrong, is to check BIOS to change SATA operation to either default or ACPI. It might be set wrong causing BSOD booting OS from media.
It is only a single keystroke but if that is too much then so be it. Switching SATA/AHCI is an option but would only affect booting to the hard drive. UEFI/Non-UEFI would be something you could change too. Or let Dell handle it.
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@Lockdown32
UEFI does show up and I have tried both legacy and UEFI options. Also downgraded the BIOS to Legacy only and it still happens. This Bios does not support switching between AHCI and ATA. The menu that normally contains this only has AHCI and disabled. I only use the f12 menu because by default it is booting to the Broken OS image on the HDD.

@Maclean
PXE is not in use and does not kick off. I have tried manually selecting the boot device. I was thinking about Contacting Dell but was wondering if someone else had, had this issue.

Thank you for the posts!!
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The problem you describe sounds to be hardware failure.
One last thing you can try is to reset the BIOS to default settings and then try booting from installation USB stick or external DVD.
Btw, if you try to boot a Linux installation media how does it behave? Like Ubuntu for example?
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@noxcho
I had not tried an Ubuntu disk so I put it in and seemed fine. I did not boot to a live environment but rather to a memtest86+ as per my issue with the other responses below.

@MASQ
I will try these steps outlined directly from Dell below. The Intel USB3 driver seems simpler and I will not be able to work on this long for now. I will try that when I get back.

@nobus
That is a great find! I have run the utility but it freezes on "Mounting image" for my boot.wim. I can see what it is trying to do so I ran the DISM commands manually and injected the drivers into my environment. While it has gotten father than before, it displays different FFoD messages than I have received (never the same) and once actually made it into the PE environment. However, when it made it in, it displayed about 20 messages that reference from memory could not be read and then rebooted itself.

I have started a memtest for good measure and will attempt the Dell steps when I get back to the machine. Thank you all so much!
The memory errors are from the USB 2.0 hardware emulator not being fully loaded by the PE (see the Dell page) you need to inject the USB driver in two separate places. I'm guessing at the moment the driver is allowing the PE to start booting but as it hands over from the installer driver to the OS driver it can't find the latter. The Intel tool is fixing the WIM but not the PE.
Still convinced the hardware is good it is just missing some of the code it needs so there are a load of unhandled addresses.
If Linux booted ok then the hardware is ok. So problem is software. Have you tried booting it from pxe image?
>>  I have run the utility but it freezes on "Mounting image  <<  i've tried it a couple of times without problems

the memtest gave no erros i assume?
If Linux booted ok then the hardware is ok. So problem is software.

Not necessarily always correct. Linux Live bypasses the Hard Drive, as it runs in memory often.
There could still be an issue with the Hard Drive, or the Cabling to it.

I understood that a USB installer was created from a authentic Dell Media DVD, and that you have attempted to boot of this media, in order to reload the OS.
Which for this model PC works (It is the exact same model PC that I just build using a USB key that I created from a Dell Windows 8.0 DVD, This USB key has no issues deploying to the 3470.

As you are using a Win8.1 DVD from Dell, I can only assume that this one will have the same, if not newer drivers for USB 3.0 slipstreamed into it. Therefor I do suspect there could still be something else going on. But alas, there are many things one can cover and try. I just do not know if it is worth the time vs having Dell replace it under warranty.

Regardless. Plan C might be to put Windows 7 onto another PC, add the USB 3.0 & NIC installer to the image on a local directory, Sysprep it, take an image with Acronis or similar software, Use Acronis to restore the image in "Universal" mode (as in no Hardware Abstraction Layer added)
When on machine, boot of it, run the USB3.0 installer, go to dell, deploy remaining drivers, and voila,
Its a big workaround, but it (should) work if Plan B (Slipstream USB 3 into your PE) fails.
Not necessarily always correct. Linux Live bypasses the Hard Drive, as it runs in memory often.
There could still be an issue with the Hard Drive, or the Cabling to it.
Same as WinPE. It loads into RAM exactly like Linux.
Sorry for the delay in post, I am a field technician and only work on the bench when there is a serious problem (such as this).

Memtest, no errors.

I tried the steps in the Dell article supplied by nobus. This article seems incomplete as they state to copy the files over but then never mention anything about making the USB device bootable. Nonetheless, I tried filling the gaps.

1) I copied the files over from an official Dell OEM Window installation USB stick to a blank flash drive. There was only 1 wim file as compared to the article that states I have to do it to BOTH wims. Tried only the one and ran through the steps, loaded the drivers, and then applied. That flash drive does not boot. Tried running through the same steps on my imaging utility flash drive (I can launch the setup from here, I have done it before) but it still would not boot. I attempted to download a new USB image from their link and it requires that I run Dell System detect... on the system that is down...

I am very close to demanding an imaged hard drive from Dell being that this system needs to get back to the user but that means that I WILL run into this again with no resolution.

@Maclean: I have thought about Plan C but seems like a lot of hassle as opposed to having it replaced under warranty.

Thank you all for your input!!
on the left side - you have an USB 2 port - did you try that with cd or usb stick ?
if these also do not work - you probably have hardware problems
then try to boot from a Linux cd, like knoppix :
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html
@nobus
The USB ports do not seem to have any trouble with Linux Distros, I was able to successfully boot to an Ubuntu CD.

Unfortunately due to time constraints, I have contacted Dell and they are replacing the hard drive with an imaged hard drive. This is essentially the Plan C mentioned above except I am getting Dell to do most of the work because it is their poor design in the first place. I will be capturing this image before I install it in the system. Thank you all for your input!
tx for the feedback