Hi Filbert,

Thanks for your reply. I went and got a t5 screwdriver earlier and tried removing the back and disconnecting the battery, holding power, plugging it in, plugging it out, battery connected, battery not connected - again I tried every combination and no luck. Can't get the laptop to respond in any way, no warning lights etc.

It's not under warrantee as it's just over 2 years old. I'll call Dell tech support and see if they can do anything.

I made the switch to Dell from Mac, and if I took out my oldest 2006 MacBook pro I can guarantee it would still boot. Not happy. 

If it's still under warranty, contact Dell Support. If not, try this:

1. Unplug the AC adapter
2. Remove the base cover. (instructions here)
3. Disconnect the battery
4. Press and hold the power button for 15 seconds to discharge residual power.
5. Reconnect the battery
6. Connect the AC adapter
7. Try to boot
8. If it doesn't boot, try booting with only the battery connected and not the AC adapter, and then try it with only the AC adapter and the battery disconnected.
9. Report the results here.

Whenever touching components or working inside a computer, wear a grounded wrist strap, also called anti-static wrist strap, ESD wrist strap, or ground bracelet. I know many people do such work without this, but it's a cheap and sensible precaution.

I appreciate the response.

The problem is that the laptop literally does nothing when I try to turn it on. It's not like it starts to a point, or gives me blinking lights or similar. The power button does nothing, whether it's plugged in or not. Pressing the buttons in the bios recovery article you've linked does nothing either. 

I'm not sure if it is the bios. I absolutely had it connected to the charger during the updates and would have unplugged later that night when the laptop was off. I wouldn't have turned it off directly after the bios update either, it would have restarted afterwards and I would have turned it off later on. I included the information above as it's the last action I remember doing on the laptop. 

Look over this:

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000132453/how-to-recover-the-bios-on-a-dell-computer-or-tablet

Not to pour salt in wound, but if I was applying a BIOS Firmware update, there are precautions. At the very least I would have had AC-Power Adapter connected before starting, and let it apply/finish and boot-back-up into Windows working before leaving.

Yeah, on these UltraBooks that the battery doesn't pop-out of ... they really should give us an external (micro-controller) reset button. That usually side-steps having to physically disconnecting the internal Lithium battery. I think MacBooks have that or a keyboard key-combo you can hold-down.

Right. MacBook Pros (most models) are fairly reliable (if you take care of them). Also, very nice to be able to walk-into an Apple store with a broken one and they will help get you back working again in no-time. 

So I've spoken to the Dell "out of warrantee" team and my options are to get a technition, which will cost €325 + parts or send it to Dell which will cost €55 + parts. So this will probably end up costing a significant amount of money to get fixed.

I'm very much leaning towards initiating a consumer claim through the courts here (it would be generally expected that a €2700 laptop should last for more than two years) for a refund so I can leave my Dell experience behind me at this stage. 

Same thing happened to me, if you have found any solution please let me know

Same happend to me, XPS 15 9500

Same thing happened to my dell xps 15 9500. Please share your experience if you find a solution. Thanks

Issue has been reported to Dell.

Hi everybody,

As I'm getting more and more comments from people with the same issue I wanted to provide an update. I couldn't fix this issue myself, so I'll explain below what happened. 

I sent a letter to Dell HQ in Ireland and shortly after I was contacted by Dell's "Advanced Resolution Services". They offered me a small discount of the initial inspection cost, I think it was around €50. As I didn't have much choice, I accepted the offer. It cost me another €250 on top of this to repair (inclusive of €50 for shipping and diagnostics).

The guy who was helping me from the "Advanced Resolution Services" was good, so I can't fault him personally, but the whole support journey has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Sure they got another €250 out of me but they took an opportunity to make me a dell customer for life and made it that I will never ever buy another Dell system.

The issue it turned out was the motherboard had failed and needed to be replaced. They also showed me an image of my heatsink which was absolutely wrecked (I assume from a botched removal job by the repair guy because it was fine when it went in) and the support guy, who again was helpful, started trying to tell me that because I live in Ireland, "a cold country", perhaps I caused this by taking an extremely hot laptop into the extreme cold. Just ridiculous. They didn't charge me for the heatsink, very generous of Dell... 

I'm including the above story because it's one of many examples of me feeling completely antagonised by this process. 

So overall, they dug their heels in, made me pay for a repair for a two year old high end laptop in pristine condition. I'd say it was turned on maybe 100 times total and never left my desk. I mean it when I say this thing was pristine, so the fault was entirely due to a faulty part in the construction of the system. 

I know these things happen, components fail, but my experience here will be the last time I engage with Dell. If it breaks again, which it very well could, it's going in the bin and I'm buying something else from someone else.