My Dell Mini Forum

somms · **Re: Bios flash bricked?? You've got to be kidding. -** 04-26-2009, 05:41 PM

To date, all successful BIOS recoveries have been performed with USB floppy drive. No one has reported being able to recover from failed flash with USB flash drive...

anguish · **Re: Bios flash bricked?? You've got to be kidding. -** 04-26-2009, 08:22 PM

The method I tried I did try using a USB key.. I didn't get far in the process though. In theory I suppose it could work.. I have a USB floppy drive though and didn't bother to try beyond that after the initial attempt.

Heraclitus · **Re: Bios flash bricked?? You've got to be kidding. -** 04-26-2009, 10:19 PM

There is a lot of information in the "Hardware and upgrades" section:
a05-bios-is-here--dos-and-windows-versions--t5748s0.html

yakinikku · **Re: Bios flash bricked?? You've got to be kidding. -** 04-27-2009, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnl2009

So first off, thanks everyone for the responses, especially so quickly. Greatly appreciated.

I'm going to try to get my hands on a USB floppy drive. But let me ask this - does it have to be a floppy? Or are we talking any USB flash device? I have plenty of those on hand, and not so many floppies.

And second, I'd like to reply to this statement:
"Yes, the mistake the OP made was to shutdown the mini while it was flashing the bios. Patience. Flashing typcially takes a long time as it needs to 1. store a backup, 2. erase, 3. write, 4. verify. Writing is the longest procedure."

Yes, I agree that shutting it down during the flashing was a mistake. As a relatively educated computer user, I know full well that when something as critical as a BIOS flash is in progress, you leave it the hell alone. My issue with this is that the damn thing didn't TELL me it was flashing. Every other bios flash util I've used (and I've used my fair share) says "We're gonna flash your BIOS, OK? Tell me you want to continue." And sometimes they say "This could be problematic, are you SURE you want to continue?" Never, ever, have I used an app that opens itself up and just jumps right in.

It was a crap set of circumstances. The window was covered up (by firefox and my AV app as I was exiting it) when it locked up. It was running extremely hot, which lead me to believe it was an overheating issue, combined with an app that is (in my opinion) poorly designed. Add these together, and the OP ends up with a rather glossy paperweight. But hopefully to be recovered soon.

Thanks again everyone. I'll look forward to replies about the floppy drive, and if it has to be one or if a flash drive will be suitable.

Rgds,
JohnL

i can agree with you that since it appears frozen it can trick one into thinking that it has failed. that is a failure, but on whose part? dells? the mfg of the hardware? that i dont know.

melvik · 06-27-2009, 07:17 AM

Hi all,

Im glad its not just me but annoyed I had done the same thing, system froze for a long time and i ended up removing the battery and now nothing happens, not even the screen comes on..

I do have an external usb floppy drive but the link doesnt open any page. How do I go about recovering my bios please?? What do I need to put on a disk, where do I get the bios from if I only have the exe file? And finally how do i get it to boot from floppy with no screen?

Thanks in advance?

Quote:

Originally Posted by somms

bios-upgrade-utility-split-from-bios-upgrade-failure-topic--t1063.html#p7011

You may be able to recover your bricked Mini but only thru the use of external USB floppy drive...

steev182 · 08-14-2009, 10:27 AM

Do you only need to put the exe onto a floppy or do you need windows to be running to extract the exe onto a floppy?

holmes4 · 08-14-2009, 02:03 PM

You have to run the EXE under Windows to extract the floppy contents.

steev182 · 08-14-2009, 03:01 PM

Ok, time to build a vm under osx then. Dammit. Bought a USB floppy drive and 5 disks for £29 though so not too awful. Could have done with buying an sd card/more ram/USB thumbdrive or something else instead, but I just HAD to run the bios update in windows and mess things up, didn't I

fosk · 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by somms

To date, all successful BIOS recoveries have been performed with USB floppy drive. No one has reported being able to recover from failed flash with USB flash drive...

I managed to recover a mini 9 from an USB pendrive... no more legacy USB floppy needed, download here: Dell Mini 9 USB pendrive recovery from failed BIOS flash | fosk.it! 2.0

And btw IMHO this is also the easiest way to upgrade within OSX/Linux... and maybe the safer in Windows (:

holmes4 · 09-16-2009, 06:21 PM

Nice contribution! I'm not sure how someone would do a "dd" on Windows.