Dell Latitude E6420 laptop bricked after installing Solus Plasma

[deleted] How he's gonna install Windows if the laptop is unbootable? It gets stuck on the loading bar with Dell logo, unable to access BIOS or boot menu, or to boot from any media.

If @Rolts can create a Windows installation USB using the Windows Media Creation Tool on a Windows computer, the USB should boot automatically (a Windows-created installation USB forces precedence in the boot sequence on many/most Windows OEM computers, whether or not Windows is currently installed), without intervention using the Boot Menu (as is required for USB installers created by Rufus, Etcher or other methods). I've used this method a number of times to bring bricked computers back to life. I don't guarantee it, but it probably is the best option to unbrick the computer at this point. At least it is the best option that I know.

If that doesn't work, the only other thing that might work is to take the HHD out of the computer, delete all the partitions using another computer, re-initialize the HHD, and then start over.

However, I defer to your knowledge, which is probably superior to mine. If you have a better method, then explain it and @Rolts can try your suggestion. Right now he's bricked, and until he can get past that problem, the computer is useless.

Take out hd/ssd and try boot to bios without hd/ssd.
If it works a bum drive.
https://discuss.getsol.us/d/7214-dell-latitude-e6420-stucked-on-the-dell-logo-after-installing-solus

Brucehankins Wouldn't pulling and replacing the CMOS battery also reset the bios and maybe get him to a bootable state? Or at least able to get into BIOS possibly?

It will reset the BIOS, and that might help get past the "F2/F12" issue if the BIOS is the block rather than a screwed up HHD. Might not hurt to replace the CMOS battery with a new one while he is at it, given the age of the computer, and the amount of work on an E6420, to get to the CMOS battery.

Axios Okay lol, that's why the issue sounded so familiar as it happened on the Latitude I had years ago.

tomscharbach If it's the same issue I've encountered, the bios halts before it gets to the phase of looking for bootable media. Thus, it won't boot from any USB stick or other media regardless of boot order. I had no luck with removing RAM sticks, HDD, or CMOS battery either and ended up just swapping the motherboard to run into the same issue again on another one.

[deleted] If that’s the case I don’t think installing an os would mess up bios but rather a efi bios bug
If you were successful in flashing bios again
it may happen again if dell didn’t fix it because it’s Linux
my thoughts we’re unplug hd because it did
happen on an install maybe it failed and is
hanging bios but since you said something
prob is bios
i hate typing on iphone

Axios Can't remember how the flash utility was, it may have been buried in BIOS screen or one had to run a .exe on FreeDOS or similar. Would love to see if this actually has a solution.

[deleted] If it's the same issue I've encountered, the bios halts before it gets to the phase of looking for bootable media.

I hope the issue is a screwed up HHD or BIOS, which CMOS replacement or Windows-created USB installation media might repair, rather than a MOBO problem. My guess -- and it is only a guess -- is that HHD issues are the probable cause, because (reading between the lines of the OP) the Solus Live session worked, installation raised no red flags, but the laptop would not boot after installation. Although with a computer that age, anything can go wrong at any time, it just seems unlikely that the MOBO would fail at right after installation. We've all seen strange things happen, though.

Question: You posted a picture of an E9420 boot screen. Do you have an E9420? If so, can the HDD be replaced with a modern SATA III SSD like this PNY vanilla SSD? If so, that might be the simplest thing to do, assuming that the HHD is FUBAR. I looked at the E9420 Service Manual and can't tell for sure whether SATA III is too new a standard for the computer.

tomscharbach I hope so too. That screen can indeed become at least sluggish with things like faulty HDDs or memory modules.

Answer: No, that's a pic from the internet to show what screen I (and I believe the OP) was talking about.

Speaking of the laptop I had, I tried everything imaginable (removing the CMOS battery, removing HDD, swapping memory modules etc) and it would still get stuck on the loading bar. After getting a replacement I didn't manage to brick it immediately, but after I needed a live USB for something and rebooted from the live environment I would be stuck on the screen again.

When I was passing the lappy (with a second replacement mobo) on, I made sure not to reboot from a live system and shut down instead. The brick didn't happen. Might be just a very bad coincidence or the BIOS getting corrupt, I don't really know. It's not a Solus thing, I used some other distro back then.

Rolts I just left the pc off for 16 hours without cmos, battery and ac, and it still gets stuck. Also formatted the drive. I guess i'll try the windows 10 method now, and yeah the laptop worked with like 5 other distros before.

I'm starting to think that @[deleted] is right, that the fact that the computer stopped booting between Solus installation and Solus first boot is coincidental, and the boot process is failing before the computer attempts to access drives. In that case, you've got a hardware issue, probably MOBO-related. Good luck with the Windows installation, but I'm not optimistic.