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Updating SSD firmware - need help!

post #1 of 8
4/30/11 at 6:32am
Thread Starter 
I'd like to start off with saying a preemptive sorry if I didn't find any older posts covering my question. I assure you I've been trying but came up emptyhanded.

Short background, I upgraded my M17x with a QX9300 (from Q9000) and to 8gig (from 4). I ran the win7 performance test and my SSD is dragging me down to a 5,9 with everything else on 7,2-7,3.

I found out about the firmware upgrade allowing Trim which would put my SSD above 7,0.

I've downloaded the firmware and created a win7 bootable USB but when trying to use the .exe it just says something like "cannot be run in a 32-bit or 64-bit environment" (don't have my comp here so not 100% sure on the words...)

Do I really need to get a bootable USB with 16-bit (DOS 6.22?!?!) and if I do, how do I do it?
(without using Linux which I read somewhere that somebody recommended doing because I don't have Linux)


All inputs and experiences highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance
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post #2 of 8
4/30/11 at 7:32am
Do you happen to have the link to the firmware and instruction as how to proceed? Which SSD model are we talking about here?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 8
4/30/11 at 1:16pm
Thread Starter 
My bad, I wasn't too precise in my first post but now that I have my Alienware m17x I'll fill in the details:

The SSD is a Samsung 128GB and the firmware with instructions can be found at www.dell.com:


http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R276513&SystemID=ALW_LP_M17X&servicetag=&os=WV64&osl=en&deviceid=19932&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=41&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=407959

(There's a pdf with instructions in the file.)

When I try executing the DOSRD1_0.EXE in win7 I get the following message (translated from Swedish):

"The version of this file is not compatible with the Windows-version you are running. Check in the computers systeminformation if you need a x86- or x64-version (32bit / 64bit) of the program. Get in touch with the programmer to obtain it"

That makes me believe I need a bootable USB that will get me into a 16bit-environment and the exe-file should be able to run, or am I totally off???

I found some post awhile back where I guy described using Linux and so on, does it really have to be that complicated?!?!?


Thanks in advance!
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post #4 of 8
4/30/11 at 1:32pm
Your problem is that you're trying to update the firmware while the drive is in use. You can't do that. Instead, you need to load it onto a bootable USB drive and set your BIOS to boot from USB. Then put in the USB drive with the new firmware and restart so the computer boots from the USB. The firmware update utility on the USB will guide you through installing the new firmware. Once you've got it updated, restart, take out the USB, and you should be set.
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post #5 of 8
5/2/11 at 5:40pm
Also make sure the Sata port is set to either AHCI or IDE mode.

You definitley have to boot off a USB drive with the firmware and utility on it to flash the SSD drive.
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post #6 of 8
6/6/11 at 8:41am
Thread Starter 
It's been awhile, I've been too busy at work to get it done but I decided to give it another shot today...

...Created a bootable USB using "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool" from Microsoft, when I boot the computer from that USB I get into the installation-phase for win7.

So I just thought I'd install Win7 on the USB but that wont work, the only installation option I get is my SSD that I wanna update the firmware on...

...Back to square one...

I know I can't be using the drive I wanna update the firmware on but I how do I get it done?!?!?

Initially I thought I would get like a command prompt when booting from the USB that I could run the firmware upgrade from but that was wrong. I have a seond laptop back home, my next thought was to rip out the SSD from this computer and hook it up to the old laptop and running the update with the SSD as "slave" but shoud that really be necessary????


...Feels like I'm running round in circles like a moron.

Anybody out there that can explain it for a very frustrated guy that obviously is lacking the correct computerknowledge for this...

Again, help MUCH appreciated.
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post #7 of 8
6/6/11 at 12:05pm
it has to be in a DOS evironment to get this to work.

You have to have the drive on port 0

This link should have the utility to format and install a Dos boot on a USB key

https://rs73l35.rapidshare.com/#!download|73tg|112382685|SP27608.zip|1860|R~E8CC1E5364A3976B8E49C191F6252FC9

then follow the steps in the Dell DOc to run the firmware update utility
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post #8 of 8
9/16/11 at 3:46pm
Thread Starter 
Well for all you out there: I did get the right USB-boot finally a few weeks ago and learned my SSD was too old so I couldn't even update it with trim.

Since I was set on a task, improve my harddrive performance, I ended up buying 2 new Intel 320 120Gb in raid0 instead - so now I have alot more power than I initially planned... =)
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