The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    How to upgrade BIOS for Inspiron 1501?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jhgreene, Jun 18, 2010.

  1. jhgreene

    jhgreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello -
    I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 with the AMD 64 Athlon X2 processor. I've been getting an error message during bootup stating that my battery is not being recognized and it will not charge. It had been working fine until the last 2 to 3 months. I know and can understand how the battery's charge-holding capacity depletes after 1-2 years, but this "battery not recognized" problem is puzzling.

    I know this is a known problem, and from looking around online, I see that the two most popular suggestions for a solution are to upgrade the BIOS or replace the battery. Some people have had trouble after updating the BIOS, but that's what I've been trying to do first because I don't want to pay $135 for a Dell battery if it is not going to make a difference. When I go to the to Dell site to try to do this, I click the appropriate "Download" button, and it tells me I'm going to download the device driver manager application. I did this, but I can't seem to figure out how to download the actual bios file to do the upgrade. I am following the instructions, but they always lead me to click the same Download button, which again just downloads the driver manager, never the file. What am I doing wrong? Please, any help is appreciated. Thank you.
     
    jhgreene, Jun 18, 2010
    #1
  2. Kris @ JKA

    Kris @ JKA Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    What browser are you using?
    I made the same mistake when downloading drivers last week. Every time I went to download it just kept downloading Dell Driver Manager!
    I deleted all Dell cookies and when I clicked download again I selected 'download via your browser'

    And it works as normal.
     
    Kris @ JKA, Jun 18, 2010
    #2
  3. jhgreene

    jhgreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm using the latest Firefox browser.
     
    jhgreene, Jun 18, 2010
    #3
  4. Kris @ JKA

    Kris @ JKA Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Tools > Options > Privacy
    Type Dell into the cookies search box then hold down delete.

    Then go back to Dell and try again. At least that's what I did...
     
    Kris @ JKA, Jun 18, 2010
    #4
  5. jhgreene

    jhgreene Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks for the suggestions. I opened IE (which I almost never use), and I guess the cache and cookies list were sufficiently clean that I was able to get to what I needed. I got the BIOS downloaded and flashed. Thanks again.

    Now I've got to post another issue, because even after a successful BIOS update, the battery is still not being recognized. :)
     
    jhgreene, Jun 18, 2010
    #5
  6. Kris @ JKA

    Kris @ JKA Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Bummer...
    Have you pressed the life button on the battery (assuming it's an original?)
     
    Kris @ JKA, Jun 18, 2010
    #6