Solved Bios upgrade screwed me up just as I always feared

To anyone finding this thread, the best of both worlds (a local account and a Microsoft account) was achieved by using @Bree suggestion in post #18. Thank you for turning me on to that, Bree. No more pins. No more nags to make a pin.

glasskuter said:

Thank you for turning me on to that, Bree.

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I cannot take the credit for that tip, apart from pointing you to @Kari's excellent tutorial where I first learned of it. It's he who deserves most of your thanks.

Good for you :)

glasskuter said:

You will probably remember my long thread some time back about my concern about TPM/Pin/bios update. Well I'm in a fix and don't know how to get out of it. At the time I removed my pin, went back to using a password, and all was well...I thought.

In response to all the kernel power event 137 errors I was getting when I put the PC to sleep, the Dell technician came today and replaced my motherboard again. When he put it all back together, the PC booted fine, was running bios 1.5.1, required a password through several boots, and the kernel power error did not happen through several sleeps..

Within 30 minutes of him leaving, the PC went into a bios update ON ITS OWN and updated to bios 1.6 (which is what I had on the old motherboard.)

Upon restart after the bios updated, the PC forced me make a pin. I had NO OPTION to enter my password.. So to get into it I made a pin. Now here's what my SignIn Options page looks like. Each and every option is grayed out. I tried Brink's bat file to remove the pin but it didn't work. I have absolutely no control of any of these settings now, when I did before. How do I get control of these setting again? Don't anyone tell me that a bios update can't change the way you get into your computer and the control you have over it.
The kernel power errors are still gone and I now have the proper power options in powercfg -a so at least that problem was solved.

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Can you like restore tpm or something then set bios to default... Good luck

Some Dell systems ship with a "diagnostic / Repair partition" which can occasionally suffer from Brain failure and cause various security/Setup tasks - Not sure if what you have would suffer from this particular malady

I had an issue with my XPS 17 that caused it to boot into this partition everytime I did a boot, and I had to complete a diagnostic test sequence with no override available.

Access to the hidden partition involved tapping on the F2 key immediately after boot before any Dell or other branding displayed.

Once ito the control panel you should have access to any defaults that Dell have set and the ability to override them

I am the only one who has access to my laptop, so I have removed all log-in security measures and have even decrypted my SSD.
A few months ago I had a problem and every time I tried something I had to enter the code to decrypt my drive. After finally fixing my problem, I thought it was just annoying and useless if I am the only one who has access to my laptop.

So is it better to avoid BIOS updates?
I was always afraid of BIOS updates with my old laptop, but with my new one I installed them all. Still, sometimes I wonder if I can avoid them?

mm71 said:

so is it better to avoid BIOS updates?

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No I always do all of my bios updates.Thing are changing so fast, bios updates are coming faster than they used. I just did away will all the tpm controlled garbage that I felt could get me into trouble down the line. I have no pins or biometric logins, password only. I have no bitlocked drives.

Yes, lots of BIOS updates. I got rid of everything too, as I said, even the password, although if I go to a place where there is somebody else I will use it.

mm71 said:

even the password

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I feel passwords are OK and actually recommend using one in case a hacker ever gets into the system. I guess I am just too old school to get on board with some of the other stuff as I like to control my PC. I see you have a new Dell. I have a semi-new one as well.

Here are a few suggestions you may or may not want to use.
1. Disable driver updates from Windows update. Since you run Home, you can use option 2 here.

2. If you don't use it already, I highly recommend using Dell Command Update for checking for and applying drivers and bios updates. You can choose which ones you want. I use it and Intel's Driver and Support assistant to keep my Intel drivers up to date. I check for updates with both every month or so.

You might find this article I wrote helpful. INFO-Dell Bloatware-The Effect It Has On Your System

I don't think end users should be basing their security measures on those of other's "opinions" but of their own use.

I don't know about "old school", but I do know I've been tinkering with Windows (Windows 95) and building PCs since 1998 (don't know if that qualifies me as old school). The one thing I never did in all those years was take security for granted. Yes, when I first got into PCs, everyone I knew (me included) was using pirated software (Windows included). However, as I became more knowledgeable about PC security, I began to realize pirated software was a major security risk I could no longer tolerate. After that, all my pirated software was replaced with legitimate software and today I'm firmly anti-piracy; not so much because I believe software should not be stolen (it shouldn't!!!) but because of the inherent security risks involved. And as I've taught my kids (now adults) free software (aka pirated) may come with more than you bargained for!!!

Point? 1998 is not 2022, and in today's world cybercrime is far more prevalent and sophisticated than it ever was in those "old school days". That while we all want to "control" our PC (I certainly do), that does not mean the security measures built into today's PCs lessons that control. I find it ironic people decry loss of control of their OS when the very features they decry about are optional, as in they do NOT have to be used. Yeah, some may be enabled by default (a good thing in my opinion), but as an end user, you in fact still do have to option to use a feature or not.

Security should least be based on how "you" (end user) use your PC and the environment it's in. If you live in a frat house with a bunch of roommates who may share your PC, your security concerns should be extremely high. If you live alone and rarely use the internet, perhaps your security measures needn't be so high. I suspect most are somewhere in between. In my household it's just me and the wife, but we do have family and friend visits. With my systems I use both biometric and Pin (biometric also requires a pin in case biometric fails) to log into Windows. I personally feel the security features (Windows Hello / Pin) built into Windows does far more good than inconvenience (???) or perceived loss of control does. Perhaps this old school soul has learned to trust the OS I choose to use. That's me.

But yes, like everything thing else, there’s always shades of grey.

glasskuter said:

2. If you don't use it already, I highly recommend using Dell Command Update for checking for and applying drivers and bios updates. You can choose which ones you want. I use it and Intel's Driver and Support assistant to keep my Intel drivers up to date. I check for updates with both every month or so.

You might find this article I wrote helpful. INFO-Dell Bloatware-The Effect It Has On Your System

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My laptop uses SupportAssist, which is a bit buggy at the moment and they are developing a new version. Sometimes it crashes when testing hardware (from within Windows, it is OK at startup), and quite often it cannot find drivers and says "try again later". Anxiously waiting for the new release... I have to uninstall and reinstall this all the time. They admitted it is buggy.

mm71 said:

My laptop uses SupportAssist, which is a bit buggy at the moment and they are developing a new version. Sometimes it crashes when testing hardware (from within Windows, it is OK at startup), and quite often it cannot find drivers and says "try again later". Anxiously waiting for the new release... I have to uninstall and reinstall this all the time. They admitted it is buggy.

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My Dell XPS 9510 (see "My Computer" below) was new Feb 23, 2022 and my habit every day when I start is to check Windows Update and then to check Dell Command | Update. I've never had a problem with Dell Command | Update. I also use "Support Assist" but only occasionally and I've had no problems. Dell Command Update has had two version updates since I've been using it.

I don't know what causes the problem with SupportAssist on certain laptops. There are quite a few people who have reported problems and Dell said they are aware of the problem and that are working on a new version. There is a Dell service that sometimes does not start, and that is the problem on some laptops I think. I don't remember the error number because right now it is working. It should start automatically, but sometimes it doesn't, and if I try to start it manually, I get an error message.

I'll be watching for any problems with SupportAssist. I notice you are using Home and I'm using Pro. That might have something to do with it.

I'm not an Insider running Beta OS versions. I don't use any tweaks, hacks, or apps that modify the OS.

What I don't like in the Home edition is that you can only pause updates, but not really decide yourself if you want to install a particular update or not, although you can later uninstall an update, but if something goes horribly wrong it will be problematic if you don't have a backup or a recent system restore point.

@mm71 Yes, you can, by using the regedit method found here. Enable or Disable Include Drivers with Windows Updates in Windows 11 Tutorial