Greetings one and all, here is an update
I followed the instructions on the Dell website:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000131486/update-the-dell-bios-in-a-linux-or-ubuntu-environment#UpdateBIOS
At first the instruction about copying the BIOS file to the USB storage
device confused me because I though I was supposed to copy the file into
the Unetbootin interface. (after figure 6).
I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
I ran it. It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
-Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
- Error: Problem getting flash information
C:\>
I went back to the Dell website, entered my service tag: BQBD9N1 and
downloaded the latest BIOS file “M5030A05.EXE” (again, and remember the
A05 is a latter version to the installed BIOS which describes its
version as A02).
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/servicetag/0-YXhUR091TFhQWVdkR0VXeUY0cTREQT090/drivers
I deleted the BIOS file on the USB stick, copied over the new one and
tried again.
Same error message.
Making the USB stick bootable and being able to add files to it was so
easy. It is as though the root of the memory stick was C:\?
I then tried Tomas’ suggestion: “start a shell (command window) as
administrator (important) and then run the exe from there. If that just
fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.”
It failed silently.
Could I really have the wrong file?
The only other BIOD file is the same version as the installed BIOS.
Any best guesses welcome, or am I at the end of the line?
Stephanos
On 10/04/2021 12:31, Tomas By wrote:
Hi,
Ok, one more thing you can try is to start a shell (command window) as
aministrator (important) and then run the exe from there. If that just
fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.
I checked your previous msg again, and it sounds like you have not yet
managed to boot Freedos? Just get the "USB Lite" image, it does not
matter much which version, and then write it to the stick in any of
multiple different ways. I use "Etcher" in Linux, "Unetbootin" sounds
like pretty much the same thing.
Write image, copy the .exe to it, and then boot.
/Tomas
On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:20:34 +0200, Stephanos wrote:
Dear Tomas
Thanks for the reminder.
Yes. After installation of 7 from DVD I did not make a user account,
nor set a password for the default admin account. The laptop is not
connected to the internet. I copied the bios file from my PC to the
laptop via the memory stick, which only had that file on it, no other
bootable image. I ran the file and it did not work. However, I tried
again as a result of your prompt and right clicked on the file and chose
run as admin. But no joy.
Thanks
Stephanos
_______________________________________________
Freedos-user mailing list
Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
