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A04 BIOS killed my lappy! Help!

post #1 of 38
10/10/04 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
My worst fears have come true. I downloaded the A04 BIOS today and ran it from XP. It told me it would reboot and then flash the BIOS; however, after rebooting, the "Flashing BIOS" screen came up, the fans started going like mad, and my lappy flat-out died. Now, when I press the power button, the LEDs come on for a couple seconds, and then shut off. It doesn't even begin to boot. Any ideas? I'm so distressed about this...
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post #2 of 38
10/10/04 at 7:36pm
First off, are you using an iXPS or an i9100? If you are using an XPS, this would be the second machine that went through a bad A04 flash so far on these forums. Since I've been posting here, which has been about 6 months, I have yet to see anyone post with any problems through the A01, A02, and A03. That concerns me that there may be issues with the A04 flasher.

My suggestion, call Dell immediately. Also, see if you can boot to a CD. It's doubtful if your machine won't even post, but if you could somehow boot to a CD and flash to A03, you might make it through.

Sounds like you will need a new system board from Dell though. Sorry.
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post #3 of 38
10/10/04 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hookflash
My worst fears have come true. I downloaded the A04 BIOS today and ran it from XP. It told me it would reboot and then flash the BIOS; however, after rebooting, the "Flashing BIOS" screen came up, the fans started going like mad, and my lappy flat-out died. Now, when I press the power button, the LEDs come on for a couple seconds, and then shut off. It doesn't even begin to boot. Any ideas? I'm so distressed about this...
http://notebookforums.com/showthread...857#post477857

Flashing in Windows is like playing Russian roulette. In the future, I would recommend only running the flashBIOS outside of Windows in DOS.
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post #4 of 38
10/10/04 at 9:57pm
Damn, I should consider myself lucky then. Sorry to hear about your problem, dude.
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post #5 of 38
10/10/04 at 9:59pm
This happened to me too, and I am pretty sure you will need a new motherboard. And having to wait 45 minutes to talk to a tech and then another half an hour trying to get the problem resolved and then them just tell you your motherboard is dead you'll need a new one really sucks. So my advice, just tell them to send you a new board, don't bother with all the other crap the tech tells you to try.

Can somebody tell me how to flash the bios in DOS? Thanks.
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post #6 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:10pm
i still have A03 bios but experienced a similar problem. once i switched my i9100 on it didn't boot and even did not let me in the bios, just like you describe it flashing led's and then it switches itself off. I tried to power up with inserted battery, without it a couple of times and occasionally the bios was shown and there i noticed that first boot device has changed to Floppy-drive. I switched back to hdd and everything was ok. so it might be that during upgrade also this setting got lost. I wish you luck man!
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post #7 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by psyduck228
This happened to me too, and I am pretty sure you will need a new motherboard. And having to wait 45 minutes to talk to a tech and then another half an hour trying to get the problem resolved and then them just tell you your motherboard is dead you'll need a new one really sucks. So my advice, just tell them to send you a new board, don't bother with all the other crap the tech tells you to try.

Can somebody tell me how to flash the bios in DOS? Thanks.
With the Inspiron 9100/XPS you have the option to boot into DOS either by floppy, bootable CD, or bootable USB Flash Drive like in the link below.
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post #8 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pino445
i still have A03 bios but experienced a similar problem. once i switched my i9100 on it didn't boot and even did not let me in the bios, just like you describe it flashing led's and then it switches itself off. I tried to power up with inserted battery, without it a couple of times and occasionally the bios was shown and there i noticed that first boot device has changed to Floppy-drive. I switched back to hdd and everything was ok. so it might be that during upgrade also this setting got lost. I wish you luck man!
Thanks for the advice, but when I turn the laptop on, the leds flash but nothing is on the screen, I don't see bios or anything.
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post #9 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:14pm
doesnt it flash in dos? you run the application in windows (which i presume loads the bios into a temporary memory, and sets a bios flash flag) then it reboots, and you get a message that it is flashing and not to turn it off. it doenst flash in windows...
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post #10 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by yellowperil
doesnt it flash in dos? you run the application in windows (which i presume loads the bios into a temporary memory, and sets a bios flash flag) then it reboots, and you get a message that it is flashing and not to turn it off. it doenst flash in windows...
Yup, you're correct that executing the flashBIOS in Windows makes it go into this one-time flash boot mode which can cause unexpected results like a failed flash. This is more likely to occur than if the flashBIOS was run booted in DOS.
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post #11 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:23pm
why is it less likely?
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post #12 of 38
10/10/04 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by yellowperil
why is it less likely?
Cause there is more likelyhood the Dell has no clue what they are doing...
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post #13 of 38
10/10/04 at 11:12pm
Does anyone have a backup of the A03 BIOS update? i haven't had any problems with A04 so far. One thing I've noticed though is that my battery strength doesn't seem to charge passed 95% now, even with the AC adapter plugged in. strraaaange
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post #14 of 38
10/11/04 at 1:16am
Go to the Dell download-page for the A04 bios then click on Previous Versions.
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post #15 of 38
10/11/04 at 1:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedyturtle
Does anyone have a backup of the A03 BIOS update? i haven't had any problems with A04 so far. One thing I've noticed though is that my battery strength doesn't seem to charge passed 95% now, even with the AC adapter plugged in. strraaaange
Allow your battery to discharge for a few minutes and then recharge to see if the level returns to 100%. Otherwise, allow your battery to discharge completely then recharge to recalibrate the battery meter.
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post #16 of 38
10/11/04 at 2:52am

Exact Boot Problem

I recently purchased an Inspiron XPS and also upgraded the bios. I experienced the exact simptoms... the computer restarted and the fan spinned up and then boom-lights go out. I push the power button and the lights turn on, then they turn off. However, I found that if I keep pushing the power button, the notebook eventually boots... I reflashed the A04 bios in dos thinking it would solve the problem. The problem still exists! I have to push the power button 10 or so times before the computer will boot. I figure the problem lies in the bios. Does anybody have any suggestions? This notebook worked perfectly when I received it. The bios MUST be the culprit. I have had it for three (3) days. This is very aggravating.
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post #17 of 38
10/11/04 at 6:52am
Wow, 3 XPS machines with A04 killing them so far. Again, I had not heard of anyone having flashbios issues through Windows until now with the iXPS or i9100. So, any 9100 owners have issues yet or is this isolated to the iXPS?
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post #18 of 38
10/11/04 at 10:11am

No problem....

Reporting in, no problems here with my i9100...
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post #19 of 38
10/11/04 at 10:12am
Yeah archangel I agree...it seems that I got lucky updating the bios...never had problems on all the machines I have used so far when updating the bios however...it seems to me however that this BIOS is becoming an outdated technology and most companies should start offering Biosless mobos...I am not sure how that would work exactly but apparently it is better that way...
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post #20 of 38
10/11/04 at 10:15am
What I meant was I wonder if there is a flaw in the executable. Seeing that as I said before, I have yet to see anyone toast their mobo in the last 6 months and now 3 in as many days with A04, I wonde if there is an issue with the XPS A04 flasher. I still see no issues with the i9100 A04 update.
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