Can I customise my BIOS?
 

Hello everyone, I am trying to customise my BIOS, specifically the splash screen during POST. I am assuming it is in the BIOS. I have downloaded the latest version for my board, which I upgraded to a while back. I have unzipped the .exe file and inside I have found an MS batch file (I think it's for creating the floppy), a .pif (???) file which appears to be some kind of binary, and another .exe which I am unable to unzip.

Has anyone here any experience of this? Or am I just looking for trouble?

I know it's a Dell, I don't need to be told every time I switch on my PC.


I really hope someone here can help me with this.

Thanks

hahaha, I wouldn't want to be reminded of dell either. Dell has a utility for it. It's like splash.exe or something If I remember right. Browse there forums and site.
check out there ftp site .
ftp://ftp.dell.com/utility/
Browse down to SPL and on. Not sure whats right to you, but if anywhere has the answer its on Dill.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'm checking it out now.

Just make sure you get the right file for your BIOS rev. A01, A02. It should say in Dill's bootup screen. Also check out there txt files for there respective exe.

There isn't one for my BIOS revision (A10), so I tried the "splasha0.exe" one.

Before trying it I extracted everything and had a look at what was inside it, one file was a readme-like file which stated it was for Dimension PC's (mine is an Optiplex), so I thought F-it, and tried it anyway. It didn't work, it wouldn't even let me try, because it's not a Dimension. Stupid thing (or maybe good).

Anyway I will keep looking, if I don't find anything soon, I might even try contacting Dell, although I don't expect much assistance from them.

You can try the dill forums, If you haven't
http://www.dellcommunity.com/support...ard.id=pw_bios
that's the forum for the optiplex bios. It might even have your answer in there if you search.

Good luck!

Thanks, I did have a quick look there earlier, I will check it out again, and maybe post there too (if I can be bothered signing up).

Also I am looking at the A02 one now, if I think I can do what I want to do with that BIOS on this PC, I might revert to A02 if I can find it. Although a move like that would take much consideration.

Thanks for your help.

Well, maybe it's just that I have a XPS Gen 5 with 3.4GHz Pentium, but I only see "Dell" for about 3 seconds. Then it's in the hands of my boot manager or your OS. I have found custom splashes for Win 98 in the past, Donald Duck, Astro Boy and such. But those are OS splashes, not bios. But if it can be changed, it would be changed in the flash utility (EXE), and I'm 99.9% sure it can be done. Because nothing is impossible in the tech sector, if it was designed by humans, it can be customized by humans.