[computerzone]

You Guys are Great!

Thanks a lot Micattack for your post. My Dell Mini 1010 also died after I tried to Update the Bios to version A11, My Computer Hanged for several minutes and Hard Drive started making clicking noise. I knew at that moment that now my BIOS is gone. Thanks for the zipped folder to create FDisk. I too tried to create bootable Flash Drive but nothing worked then today I bougth the USB FDD and created it in Windows 7 x 86. First I used the Fn + End but after it read the floppy my computer kept buzzing for several minutes but nothing happened. Second time i used Ctrl + End and this time I created Bootable FDD in WIndows XP. After my computer read the floppy It kept quite for around 3-4 mins, I thought it is not doing anything But Did Not Disconnect the Power and then Dell Mini1010 Beeped couple of times and rebooted. This time as an Alive Computer. I am really thankful to this Forum!!!

[dhelm99]

Thanks to all for this great advise on unbricking. I just bought a used MINI 1010, and followed the directions exactly. somms boot zip worked perfectly and saved me over $80 in repair.

Thanks again!

[dolgad]

Originally Posted by micattack

Hi, just to report back from just lurking here.

On Saturday I tried the A04 Bios Upgrade. My keyboard froze up. My external mouse still worked. I tried shutting down all aps, tried exiting windows, but coudn't. When I did a hard-reset, nothing happened. I had succesfully bricked my Dell Inpiron Mini 10.


I tried around with an USB flash-drive first. I tried everything (Making my own FDD-Image and putting it on the flash-drive with unix-tool "dd"). It didn't work. So give up trying with flash-drives.

On monday I bought a usb-floppy drive. They even gave me a disk for free (yay!). I made the floppy-disk, then used brainiac88's instructions with FN + END
And I am writing this posting on my Dell - Mini again.
Here are the instructions again, slightly modified.

1) Check if you can potentially unbrick your dell. Take out the battery. Pull the power plug. Press FN + End and hold it. Put the power plug back. The power LED should flash shortly. Press the Power button. The power LED should stay on.
2) Get a USB FDD and connect it to a PC with a 32-bit OS. 64-bit does not work due to the MAKEBOOT.exe. I used a Y-E Data 4x FDD and Win7 x86.
3) Download and Run as Administrator the file from SOMMS in post #4. Start the CRISDISK.BAT
4) Plug the USB FDD into your dead Mini10 and remove its battery.
5) Press Fn + END and plug in the DC power.
[Yes it is difficult to reach the END key. Try this: Plug the power adapter into a power strip and make sure the power strip's switch is OFF. Plug the DC jack into the Mini10. Press Fn + END. Use your toe to power on the power strip.]
6) Power LED will flash. Press Power Button without releasing Fn + END. FDD will read once, stop, then read continuously because it is booting from it. Release Fn + END.
7) Mini10 will beep intermittently and annoyingly for several minutes. DO NOT DISCONNECT POWER. It will reboot itself after one final long-ass BEEEEEP.
8) Your Mini is now unbricked

If it helps you, attached is floppy-disk-image. You can copy it directly to a disk with dd and the line "dd if=image.fdd of=\\.\a: bs=1440k"

hi, thank you for your help. my dell mini 1012 is bricked due to the A11 update. I tried downloading your image file but it doesn't work (the link itself)

Regards,
David

[big_gus]

Originally Posted by TechXperts

Somms, you are a genius. Thanks for the fix.

For others with the same problem and the same model (not the 10v), download Somms' zip file above and follow these slightly modified instructions from Somms' Mini 9 post:

NOTE: Requires USB Floppy drive for recovery:
To Use: Remove battery and power adapter. Confirm USB floppy drive is plugged in. While pressing and holding Fn & B keys, attach power adapter plug. The power lights may momentarily blink and your Mini may beep once. Continue to hold Fn & B and press the power button. Release the keys once floppy drive begins reading. Your Mini will beep continually until the flash is completed and reboots. Note: The display is not available during this process and it takes quite some time. As long as its still beeping, its still working. Hang in there, it will finish.

A slight variation on the above worked for me after I bricked my Mini 1012-3214 whilst attempting to upgrade to A12. I installed from Somms' zip file to a USB Stick (not even a floppy drive!) then deleted bios.wph, copied samosa12.rom onto the stick and renamed it as bios.wph. Plugged-in the USB stick, held down the END key and attached the power adaptor. Kept END key held down until the 1012 beeped and the USB stick flashed, then released END key. 1012 emitted various sequences of beeps for about 2 minutes then booted from HDD to Windows. Hey presto, BIOS restored.

[candurin]

Thanks Big Gus. This just worked fine. Bricked my 1012 and this saved it.

My laptop beeped for 3 minutes (long beep followed by 2 short beeps)

[waqassaeed]

I am getting this error when i try to create a USB Flash drive.


-----------------------------------------------------------
The Crisis Disk boot sector for drive f:
is being created
-----------------------------------------------------------

Bad switch or illigal drive name.
SYNTAX: makeboot [switch]
Switch:
/h, -h or /? for help.
a: or b: for drive (default a.
Press any key to continue . . .


can somebody help. I did changed the drive letter and run the batch file. After formatting it copies the files and create a boot sector and then give this error.

Any suggestions.

[rrfranczak3]

do you have the spaces in the correct places it cant read 'makeboot/options' it must be 'makeboot /options' (NOTE: the space after 'makeboot')...if ya typed it quick maybe you left out the space..it is important

[Wh1skey6]

I tried doing this to a USB drive. I went to computer management and changed the drive letter of my USB drive to "A:". I get this error:

------------------------------------------------------------------
The Crisis Disk boot sector for Drive A:
is being created
------------------------------------------------------------------

Installing boot sector on diskette drive A.
Diskette Read Failure

Press any key to continue . . .

Then:

I'm getting this error:

------------------------------------------------------------------
CRISIS diskette on drive A: successfully created
Please remove the disk from drive A:
------------------------------------------------------------------

Press any key to continue . . .

[crapy10]

My Crapy 10 works again! Unbricked !!!!! Yha Hoooo... )))))

[rrfranczak3]

@crapy10, glad ya fixed it I just wish people would leave their BIOS alone in the first place and half of these posts wouldnt even be necessary....

PS. Welcome to the forum....