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    How to change BIOS without OS E6400

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by 6400k, Oct 3, 2011.

  1. 6400k

    6400k Newbie

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    I have a 2 year old Dell E6400 with a formatted 80Gig hard drive and a junky corporate bios. I want to put an upgraded bios as easily as possible and then use and old XP o/s I have laying around. I assume the first step is being able to boot from the USB, but I don't know how to do this without existing OS. Any suggestions to help out a newbie? :)
     
    6400k, Oct 3, 2011
    #1
  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    What does the a 'junky corporate bios' mean?

    You should be able to boot from a USB even with no O/S installed... Why can't you simply install your old XP O/S disk directly?
     
    tilleroftheearth, Oct 3, 2011
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  3. 6400k

    6400k Newbie

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    By junky I just mean highly customized and wants an admin password.
    If I knew how to make a bootable USB ( I have a blank USB) that may be enough to get me going. If I put my XP disk in, it will not load...I think because of the BIOS
     
    6400k, Oct 3, 2011
    #3
  4. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, Oct 3, 2011
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  5. goofball

    goofball Notebook Deity

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    Is this a corporate laptop or an off-lease corporate laptop that you have bought?
     
    goofball, Oct 3, 2011
    #5
  6. 6400k

    6400k Newbie

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    correct, lease was term of contract and I purchased at the end but did not have them re-image
     
    6400k, Oct 3, 2011
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  7. 6400k

    6400k Newbie

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    Is there a way to make this work without have an OS? Currently the HDD is formatted blank. I tried to make a bootable USB before formatting the HDD but the USB is not working (it starts loading Windows files but then gets blue screen "problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent further damage"). The current BIOS does try to read from the CD then USB before going to the HDD and erroring.

    If I can get everything working, I want to buy win7 to put on it.
     
    6400k, Oct 3, 2011
    #7
  8. goofball

    goofball Notebook Deity

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    goofball, Oct 3, 2011
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  9. 6400k

    6400k Newbie

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    6400k, Oct 3, 2011
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  10. whitrzac

    whitrzac The orange end is cold...

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    you don't need any os, or even a HDD to change settings in the BIOS... :confused:
     
    whitrzac, Oct 3, 2011
    #10
  11. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    For Dell BIOS you need to run an executable to flash the BIOS.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Oct 3, 2011
    #11
  12. debguy

    debguy rip dmr

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    debguy, Oct 6, 2011
    #12