Win 7-64 Bios Upgrade

Message boards : Number crunching : Win 7-64 Bios Upgrade

Author	Message
Chris S Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 22662 Credit: 4,501,696 RAC: 5,778	Message 1334912 - Posted: 5 Feb 2013, 13:05:46 UTC
	I'm hoping that this info might save someone from avoiding the last two wasted hours that I have just had!! I've got a Dell E520, and I have just bought a Quad Q6600 to update the old Pentium D processor. But, it was going to need the BIOS updating from V2.2.0 to V2.4.0 to recognise it. That then became the problem. I'm running Win 7-64 bit and that does not have a 64bit facility for flashing the BIOS in Windows, only a 32 bit one in XP. (Damn Microsoft!) The Dell .exe file It won't work in Safe mode or in a DOS prompt, only way is a bootable DOS disk. But I have no floppy drive, only a DVD. Upshot is you cant make a bootable DOS CD/DVD, at least not that I have found. The answer in the end was to boot up from my Avast Rescue Disk, purchased some time ago just as an emergency backup. It has a dos prompt mode where you can run such a program as a flash BIOS update. Sorted in 5 minutes! Thank you Avast :-)) Avast rescue disk Happy bunny again :-)
	ID: 1334912 ·

HAL9000 Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 11 Sep 99 Posts: 3274 Credit: 76,542,761 RAC: 75,541	Message 1334923 - Posted: 5 Feb 2013, 14:15:33 UTC
	So changing the OS selection on the Dell support site to Vista 64 bit didn't give you the 64-bit bios update tool? Their support site has shoot me in the foot a few times be refreshing, defaulting back to XP, & then giving me the wrong files. ____________ SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours Join the BP6/VP6 User Group today!
	ID: 1334923 ·

Link Send message Joined: 18 Sep 03 Posts: 671 Credit: 1,182,336 RAC: 592	Message 1334927 - Posted: 5 Feb 2013, 14:29:03 UTC - in response to Message 1334912. Last modified: 5 Feb 2013, 14:29:19 UTC
	I'm running Win 7-64 bit and that does not have a 64bit facility for flashing the BIOS in Windows, only a 32 bit one in XP. (Damn Microsoft!) What exactly has Microsoft to do with Dell's BIOS updates? ____________ .
	ID: 1334927 ·

Tazz Send message Joined: 5 Oct 99 Posts: 101 Credit: 25,084,050 RAC: 51,379	Message 1334965 - Posted: 5 Feb 2013, 21:17:20 UTC - in response to Message 1334912.
	<snip> Upshot is you cant make a bootable DOS CD/DVD, at least not that I have found. <snip> I know it's not what you wanted, but here's how to make a bootable USB drive. From the GRC Spinrite FAQ: Hewlett Packard (HP) makes an easy-to-use utility called “HP USB Disk Format Tool”, which includes a "Create a DOS Startup Disk" option. It's freely available from:http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197 along with the Windows 98/DOS boot files: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=196 ____________ </Tazz>
	ID: 1334965 ·

skildude Send message Joined: 4 Oct 00 Posts: 8941 Credit: 36,446,510 RAC: 56,553	Message 1334978 - Posted: 5 Feb 2013, 21:57:52 UTC
	if DELL is anything like HP they made the board and its BIOS specifically for that computer and CPU. I ran into the same problem trying to upgrade an HP that had an amd Athlon 3800+. the mobo claimed to be able to handle a dual core and 4X the RAM Not so. HP made two mobo's with the same ID. Both with distintly different BIOSes. needless to say I had to replace the whole PC. ____________ Proud member of TSWB. End terrorism by building a school
	ID: 1334978 ·

Message boards : Number crunching : Win 7-64 Bios Upgrade