flashing bios

[achn2b]

i'm preparing to add a WD 120GB as a second hard drive to my system, but it's old enough that i'm not sure if it will support the full 120GB drive. i know that using the Data Lifeguard tools, i can work around this, but doesn't this use a bios overlay, which others here have said isn't recommended.

alternatively, i checked the dell website, and they have a bios flash, version A11. my bios is version A02, and i saw that with version A10, they will allow recognition of drives larger than 64GB.

according to their instructions, all i have to do is copy the .exe file to a floppy, and then boot with the floppy in the disc drive, and run the program. but i also understand that if a bios flashing goes wrong, i could kill my computer. any advice on what to do, what problems i may expect, and how to avoid them?

windows98 OS

[bailey]

ok yes that is the way it works.
the floppy must be a bootable floppy
dos

and if possible use a ups on it because one power blink can render it useless.
good luck

[Cricket]

Back up all your important data before you flash the BIOS.

Flashing the BIOS isn't that hard to do and the only way you could really mess up is if the power goes out while the flashing process is going on. If the area you live in has spotting power (brownouts, spikes, outages) you may want to get a UPS. But if your area hardly ever has power problems, I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure you don't accidentally pull the power cord during the flash process.

Cricket

[achn2b]

so i'm not the greatest computer user, especially with DOS, so i may need a bit of a step by step here. i have downloaded the file, dell's instructions say to copy it to the floppy(it's an executable file, not a zipped file that i would unzip, and then follow instructions to make the boot floppies, all i need is to copy this file to the floppy), insert the floppy in the drive, and then reboot. i just got off the phone from dell tech support, and he said when i get the A prompt, all i need to do is type in the file name and hit enter. is this correct?

follow any instructions, if there are any, from there, but i'm assuming the executable will do everything that needs to be done all on its own. after i get the message that the flash has succeeded, eject the disc, and reboot. barring anything unfortunate, is that all there is to it?

[bailey]

yes that is all there is to it

[mikezel]

fyi, I just did the exact same thing (updated A02 BIOS to A11 on my Dell) about 5 minutes ago, and everything worked out fine. Just make sure you dont lose power while its going on (it only took about 30 seconds), and that you take out the disk after it says its complete, or else you'll have to go through it again. Also you'll have to reset some of the settings in the bios (such as if you had it set to "quick boot").

Mike

[achn2b]

did you use the executable file(XPST_A11.EXE) copied to a floppy, or download the zip files and make your own floppies? could you perhaps give me a step by step run through? can you access the bios right away to make the changes, or did you have to reboot and hope everything worked, and then make the changes? and do i need to copy this executable file to a bootable disc, or will it boot up on its own? i can make a boot disc from windows98 setup, right?

[mikezel]

okay achn2b, this is what i did: (note that my pc is a Dell 4100, although this should work the same)
- i used the zip file to make the disk, which can be any floppy, but keep in mind that everything on it will be erased
- run the dos file and follow the instructions (its very simple and quick - just pressing and
- it takes a few seconds to copy the files to the disk, then when it says its done, simply restart your pc with the disk still in the drive
- the system will detect the disk, and ask if you are sure that you want to load the file, you'll click
- it will install the new bios, takes about 30 seconds DONT RESTART OR CUT THE POWER while this is happening
- make sure you remove the disk once it says that the process is finished, so that it doesn't go through the process all over again
- now you can enter the bios to change the settings if you want, on my dell i do this through the delete key

i hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions

Mike

[achn2b]

but once the process was finished, you had to reboot, right? cause i can enter the bios with the delete key, but only when the system is booting up.

ok, i don't know much about using DOS, but i made a startup disc in add/remove programs. trouble is, this disc is too big to fit the bios file on it also, and i don't know which files i need to boot, and what's extra. what i did was just delete all the files that had to do with cd-rom support since i won't need a cd-rom drive for this, until i had enough room to copy the xpst_A11.exe file to it.

now, if dell's directions are correct, alll i need to do is put this disc in my floppy drive, start the computer, i'll get an A: prompt, and then i just run the file, i assume by just typing in the file name.

[bailey]

you can also remove the text file too
and some of the other programs.

but the best way to make a boot disk for this is to open windows explore and place the floppy in the drive and in explore right click on the a drive and select format
also select to copy system files.
this will make you a bootable floppy that will have all the room you need for the flash files

[achn2b]

well, i went back to the dell site and downloaded the compressed file, opened it, and followed the prompts for making the boot disc with the bios flash file. the actual bios flash file included is the executable file i downloaded earlier, so i guess with either disc now, all i have to do is have it in the floppy drive when i boot, and everything takes care of itself from there.

i think i just might be ready to do this. nervous, but hopefully everything will go ok.

[achn2b]

whew! well that went pretty sweet. i was a bit nervous when i rebooted it, and the "new hardware" box came up. it just located the parallell printer port that's been there forever. i'm assuming a new driver or something?

anyway, all seems to be working as normal so far(knock on wood), although it seems to take a bit longer to boot up. had to change a few CMOS settings back to what they had been, but not too many.

so now it looks as if my system is ready for it's new hard drive. but i think i'll wait a few weeks before installing it, just in case any problems show up, i'll know what they came from.

now that i've flashed the bios, should i make a new backup of windows and the registry? or does the bios have nothing to do with that?

[bailey]

yes it would be a good idea to do that.

great feeling to be sucesufull on that upgrade ,
I remember the first time I had to do it too,

some of the newer motherboards will do it right from windoes just a mouse click away.

[mikezel]

glad to hear it went well

[achn2b]

actually, i'm figuring if i wait a bit before doing the backup, if i need to restore anything from before the flash, it'll be there. or, i can just back up to another cd.

just wanna say thanks for all the advice. i'm glad it went well too.