Updating BIOS from a .exe file
 

I have a need to update the BIOS on my Dell Latitude D600. The executable necessary to do this is a file I obtained from Dell and it is the .exe filetype. How do I go about updating my BIOS with this file, if at all? Thanks in advance.

Were there any instructions on Dell's website? It could be a self extracting zip file or the complete executable.

In general, to update a motherboard BIOS you need a DOS boot floppy. Copy the file to the disk and reboot the PC. Run the the utility to update the BIOS.

wait ok

is the file in a bin file?


format a blank format make sure there is no bad sectors or anything copy the exe into your hard drive with windows on and then it must be a extracting exe so that will extract all the files onto the floopy and then at boot you see something like Flashbios press alt+F2 or something and then it ask you for a bin file and it should update well atleast thats how my pc works

The file is not a zipped or compressed. It seems that I will need to copy it to a CD, enter setup at BIOS and then hunt around for any flash BIOS update options. The computer is linux (SW) only, not dual boot.

well i found out:

This file format consists of a BIOS executable file. The Universal (Windows/MS DOS) format can be used to install from Windows XP, Windows 2000, NT, Windows 9X, Windows ME or a MS DOS environment.

so you have to update it on windows soz


u should really check out: http://support.ap.dell.com/ap/en/fil...searchtype=age and read the page

Yes, thank you, I had already read that info on Dell's web site. Installing Windows just so I can do BIOS update is not a viable option.

Anybody have an opinion on possibly doing this from an emulated environment?

I would NOT do this from an emulated environment... It's too easy to make a mother board completely useless when doing a BIOS upgrade. Go to bootdisk.com grab a .IMA of a dos boot disk, write the image to a floppy, copy the .exe to the floppy, and reboot to that floppy.

The image should be on the way.
Let me know if there is a problem with the image.
Good Luck.

Thanks. The .exe is in the mail.

I burned the image to CD but it would not boot (BIOS is configured correctly to boot CD first). Is the image specific to floppy? Is a CD image needed and 'doable'? I am doing this on a notebook computer and don't have floppy drive capability. Thanks.

If the image is exactly 1.40 MBs, then I would say that it is set up as a floppy disk only image. If you don't have any blank floppies, you can burn a cd with el turito if you use floppy disk emulation (type 1 I think).

But one thing on my pc at start up just at the bios it says

Press ctl+F2 to enter flash utl dont you have that at the bottom of the screen or something??

Thanks for the information (all). I was able to do FD emulation and get a bootable CD containing my .exe. Wish me luck on the next step!

PS-I do not see a flash utility option anywhere in the BIOS startup or subsequent screens.

*wishes luck* :P

Yeh ohwell must be diffent bios's or something

Thanks to all. The BIOS flash update executed without a hitch and was successful. Here's the summary:

1. All steps were performed on my Linux (Slackware 10) only notebook,
2. The .exe file (flash BIOS updater) was downloaded from Dell.
3. 2damncommon created the boot floppy image from that file.
4. I burned the image to CD with floppy emulation as suggested by luwigie.
5. Booted from the CD and ran the executable.
6. Reboot--and I am up and running.

jeffmrg

So my wish did come true

anyway god job its like the first time i when i flashed mine and i throught i lost my bios complety :P

Glad to hear it.

2damncommon: Could you tell us how you created the boot floppy image from the .exe file? I'm in the same situation as Jeffmrg -- I need to update the bios on my laptop which is running Mandrake 10 (only...no windows) and I need to use a bootable CD. I can follow all of Jeffmrg's steps...except the one that you did.

Thanks!
Lynne

I cheated and used my Win 98 install to make a boot floppy with the system files.
BIOS updates usually come it a couple different forms.
Sometimes an .exe file that needs to be put on a bootable floppy and sometimes an .exe that creates a bootable floppy with the update.
When I first replied to this thread I thought it was the second option that was needed. Turned out it was the first.
Do you know if you just need a bootable floppy to put the BIOS update on or the BIOS floppy created on Windows?

For future reference, you could probably use FreeDOS to install the BIOS image: http://freedos.org/freedos/files/

They have a CD image that can be downloaded.

I think it's an .exe file that just needs to be put onto a bootable floppy. Though, honestly, I'm really not familiar with DOS or Windows so this is just my interpretation of the instructions that Gateway had listed with this BIOS update.

Here are the actual instructions from the Gateway site...can you tell if I'm interpreting it correctly? I don't really understand what exactly the first 6 steps are about...but it seems to me that it's just making a copy of the .exe file onto a floppy.
Directions from Gateway:
1. After you have downloaded and double-clicked the BIOS update file (7512293.exe), the files are self-extracted and copied into the C:\Cabs\7512293 folder on the hard drive.
2. On your screen or from the Start menu, double-click the My Computer icon.
3. In the My Computer window, double-click the C: icon.
4. In the C:\ window, double-click the Drivers folder. If you do not see any files or folders, click View the entire contents of the drive.
5. In the C:\Cabs window, double-click the 7512293 folder.
6. In the C:\Cabs\7512293 window, from the Edit menu, click Select All.
7. From the Edit menu, click Copy.
8. Quit all programs and close all windows.
9. Place a blank IBM-formatted floppy disk in the floppy disk drive.
Note: Do not format the floppy disk in Windows NT(r), Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Do not use a floppy disk formatted in those operating systems.
10. On your screen or from the Start menu, double-click the My Computer icon.
11. In the My Computer window, double-click the A: icon.
12. In the A:\ window, from the Edit menu, click Paste. The files are copied to the floppy disk.
Perform the Update
1. Restart the computer with the disk in the floppy disk drive.
2. At the A:\ prompt, type: GWPLASH BIOS.ROM. Press the ENTER key.
3. When the BIOS has been updated, the computer restarts. Remove the disk from the floppy disk drive.
4. When the computer restarts, you may receive a "CMOS CHECKSUM INVALID, DEFAULT VALUES WILL BE LOADED" error message. Press the F2 key to enter the BIOS Setup utility.
5. In the BIOS Setup Utility, press the F9 key and then make any desired CMOS settings changes. When finished, move to the EXIT menu screen, select Save Changes & Exit, and then press ENTER. Press ENTER to continue.

Those are some of the weirdest and most complicated instructions I have ever seen for a BIOS update.
I can try to extract them if you want to email the .exe to me.

Do have to have something else on the floppy than just the BIOS file. My self-extracting exe has the BIOS files and an autoexec.bat which just will launch the BIOS exe file, at least i think. It has only the exe command with some parameters.

I'm running too an linux (FC2) only PC, but I have a floppy drive.

Hey hey, I updated my BIOS another way: (very dangerous, but fun)

I have 4 partitions on my harddisk: hda1, hda2, hda3, hda4
hda1: Linux
hda2: Linux swap
hda3: mp3s
hda4: files

Login as root, then grab the first 5 MB of hda3:
dd if=/dev/hda3 of=hda3.img bs=1024 count=5120

Make a 5 MB image:
dd if=/dev/zero of=5mb.img bs=1024 count=5120

Put a FAT partition onto it:
mkdosfs 5mb.img

Mount it: (I assume you have a directory /mnt/loop0)
mount 5mb /mnt/loop0 -o loop

Copy the files over:
cp biosimg.bin amiflash.exe /mnt/loop0

Unmount:
umount /mnt/loop0

Then, write the image to /dev/hda3:
dd if=5mb.img of=/dev/hda3

Use fdisk to modify the MBR's partition table so that hda3 shows up as a FAT32 partition:
fdisk /dev/hda
(in fdisk)
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 3
Hex code (type L for hex codes): c

Command (m for help): q

Then reboot with a Windows 98 CD and flash the BIOS.

;)