M17xR2 : bios update problem????

Hey there,

I just downloaded the A05 bios for my r2. I launched the update program and the pc froze while "programming the 36th block". So I wait 15 minutes... nothing changes. I take out the battery to turn off the pc, turn it back on, no problems, A05 is installed. So then I decide to retry the update in case it didn't complete properly, and then same thing but at block 33.


laptop stills works normally and A05 is installed.


Anyone understand what's going on ??? is the bios successfully installed or what ?

thanks

 

Did you flash it from Windows? If yes - burn the program to a CD/DVD/USB, boot from it and flash from DOS.

 

^^ that and if something goes wrong : http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/404987-how-recover-bad-bios-flash.html

cheers Aikimox

 

That's one of the best "bad BIOS flash recovery" guides I've ever seen.
Wasup Bro?

 

@cpaqf1 any luck?
On a side note, having a bios update go bad is damnnn scary!!!

 

@ Aikimox, yes I did it from windows

so you guys are saying the update actually failed eventhough everything works perfectly ?

how exactly do I flash it using a cd though ? can anyone tell me ?

also, thanks for the replies.

 

The same software will allow you to make a 'crisis disk' and that disk can be a USB drive. Try that before doing the cd burn. I noticed the CD burn option exists in a02, but I cant find it in a05. I am sure you can just move the a05 bios file into the a02 program and it will make a bootable a05 disk for you, but I didnt bother.

 

ok guys so I made the usb drive and booted from it.

It says Flash crisis recovery disk
Remove and press any key.


I did that but then nothing happens.. am I doing it right ?

 

now you have to BOOT to it. You created it just fine, but now you need to use it on a boot, boot to it NOT the HDs.

 

yeah thats what I did, it's first in the boot priority.. thats what you mean right ?

 

Yes. BTW, do you have crossfire 5870s ?

 

single 4870

btw, after I remove the usb drive and press "any" key, it just boots to windows... lol

 

Be careful with messing the bios to much.

 

try the bootable cd option, just replace the a02 version withthe a05 version and it will work fine.

I noticed a05 has no option for a boot cd, but a02 does.

 

pff.. sorry guys, still having problems, I burned the new bios, it boots but then it says Bad command or file name [File: A:\autoexect.bat line 43]

any ideas ?

edit:

when I modify the iso from a02, do I only swap the .ROM file being the bios ? do I rename it ?

 

Why not try to revert to a02 again, its still offered on dells website (doing it through windows)

after that goes smooth, try the a05 again. (through windows)

 

ok went back to a02, worked fine,

a05 stuck again...... @ block 33

 

so rebooted pc, a05 is installed. this is so weird, what should I do next ? I honestly dont like messing around with the bios so maybe I should just stick to A02, the only reason why I really wanted A05 is for the Virtualization.

 

can you boot into the bios with the f2. When I had a issue I had to redo my raid. And and I boot up into windows.

 

yes absolutely, A02 and A05 both work perfectly

as I said, when I flash A05, it gets stuck @ block 33, but as soon as I reboot the pc. It's updated and Virtualization is available.

 

Ya I got stuck on block 41. I had a error which stated I had no OS on this system. Then I had to go into bios redo my raid 0 config. If you can get into the bios screen I wonder if your hard drive setting are changed.

Did you have anything else on the usb drive. I formated mine and installed the bios onto the usb drive. I use the usb port on the left hand side.

 

i wasnt able to get a05 on my usb so I did it from windows

btw, you got stuck on block 41 with a05 too ? did you leave your pc that way ?

 

Sounds like you almost had it.

You'll probably need to modify autoexec.bat to reflect the modified BIOS file name. Most of the one-step BIOS flashers try to automate the process by putting a straight command line in autoexec.bat that executes something like "BIOSFlash.exe Biosfilename.ROM", so if you can edit the ISO, just open autoexec.bat with Notepad and change the referenced file name to the new one.

Alternatively, you could always just replace the file that contains A02 with A05 on the disk and make sure that A05 has the exact same file name. The command line to automate the flashing should still work in this case.

If that fails too, you could always just make a regular old DOS boot CD with the flasher and BIOS on it and run the command yourself.

Edit:

Now that I think about it, "Bad command or filename" probably means that it can't find the flash utility itself, so when you edit autoexec.bat, make sure the command line that's in there matches up for both the flasher -and- the BIOS image file names. It might also be getting the drive letter wrong, so you may also need to change "A:\" to another letter (or remove it entirely).

 

ok, however I'm not 100% sure I did the rest right that time anyways. Can I basically replace the a02.rom (in the iso) by a05 by renaming it to a02 ? would that work ?

 

also,

the last line in the batch file in the iso for a02 is :

dflash 851-1525.BIN

I cant find that file anywhere in the A05 folder...

 

Yeah, that should work. It's absolutely imperative that you're sure that this is the A02 flash utility, though.

The command line "dflash 851-1525.BIN" is what I was talking about and precisely what you need to modify for this to work. If A05.bin is the file name for the A05 BIOS, just make the line read "dflash A05.bin" instead and you should be good. You could indeed just rename the A05 file to A02.bin as well. Just make sure that the command line works in some way, shape or form. The files that are referenced by it need to be in the ISO, whatever their name might be.

 

well actually, the file extension for both bios' is .ROM, not .BIN

ok so


Heres the autoexec.bat from the boot files from the a02 iso


MSCDEX.EXE /D:dell /M:15 /L:R
r:
cd\M17R2A02
dosflsh.bat



heres the DOSFLASH.BAT from the A02 iso folder

phlash16 W851A02.ROM /mode=3 /s /exit
@echo off
cls
rpg
cls
dflash 851-1525.BIN


if im not mistaken, the name of the A05 bios is W851A05.ROM and its 4.4mb

A02 : W851A02.ROM

so at this point, my understanding is that I should just rename A05 to A02 so I dont have to modify the boot files right ?

so last thing is that dflash .bin thing cos it's not the actually the bios (from my understanding) thing is, theres no .bin file with the a05 bios

 

Yep, judging by what you've shown me there, the actual flashing happens when you execute "phlash16 W851A02.ROM /mode=3 /s /exit".

For simplicity, yeah.. just rename W851A05.ROM to W851A02.ROM and replace the existing one in the ISO. The name doesn't matter, really.. so long as it actually contains the code for A05, it should work perfectly.

 

ok and what about that bin file ? do I remove it and erase the line in the batch file ?

are you sure it cant mess anything up ?

 

If the .BIN file isn't included in the package, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to take apart the updaters for A02 and A05, so it's sorta difficult to give definitive answers on this stuff.. but from what I've seen of A05, it doesn't look like dflash is actually included in the package. If it isn't there, there's really no reason to have the command line present.. as I've said, it looks like phlash16 does the actual BIOS programming, so as long as that line is present, the update should get done.

Updating your machine's BIOS is ALWAYS hazardous, so I'd strongly recommend reading the thread about recovering from a bad BIOS flash, just in case something does go wrong: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/404987-how-recover-bad-bios-flash.html

From what I could tell, in the A05 update folder, inside the CRISDISK subfolder, there's a file named BIOS.WPH which actually contains the A05 BIOS code, but it's identical to the W851A05.ROM file that's up one directory, so just make sure that the files that are supposed to be present actually are. I see no problems with simply replacing the original W851A02.ROM with the A05 image renamed.

 

thanks for your help man, + rep