[DMBryant]

I've been using OSX on my 10v since I got it and everything works perfectly (apart from the internal mic). I read the Dell have just released BIOS version A03 and, as my Mini is using the standard A00 i thought I should probably upgrade.

My question is, how do you upgrade the BIOS using OSX?

The only guide I can find is for the Mini 9 and involves downloading an img file with the Mini9 BIOS already embedded within it.

Thanks.

UPDATE: Solved. See post #12 on page 2.

[underwhelmed]

You will need to make a bootable usb drive with the DOS file. Further discussion is here.

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell...date-os-x.html

[DMBryant]

Thanks for that but how do you create a bootable USB drive?

[underwhelmed]

Put a USB stick in you mini, download the BIOS file here

Drivers & Downloads

install it to your USB stick and reboot.

Enable USB in your bios, select the USB stick during startup.

USB stick should be FAT32.

[DMBryant]

Sorry, I dont quite understand.

If I download the DOS version of the BIOS update I would need a USB stick that boots into DOS to be able to run it. How do I make the USB stick bootable in the first place?

[underwhelmed]

You select it during start up, or disable your hard drive in BIOS and enable USB Legacy in the BIOS, if you have the USB installed, it will boot from it.

If you have access to another Windows based PC it might be easier to set up the USB stick.

[DMBryant]

The USB stick actually needs to be formatted with a bootable partition on it, just setting the BIOS to boot from USB isn't enough, if there is no bootable partition on the USB stick it wont boot.

How do you make the USB stick bootable in the first place from OSX?

After re-reading the Mini 9 instructions it seems that they have used FreeDOS to make the USB stick bootable. Maybe I will look into that to see how it works and figure something out.

Thanks for your help anyway.

[underwhelmed]

Here is the detail page from Dell for the version A03 BIOS for the 10v.
Drivers and Downloads

Go down to the installation instructions and click it, and follow the non-packaged instructions, substitute your USB drive in the Send To instruction in step 6.

Again, this is assuming you have access to a Windows based machine to do this.

Also, what version BIOS are you using now? Version 5 is being shipped on some new units, but 3 is the latest Dell has posted.

[mitchell]

Is this worth the effort? seems like this bios for 10v only updates the 3G connection. (I use wifi)...

[underwhelmed]

I really couldn't say, as I don't have a 10v. DMBryant was asking how to do it. As far as I know, no one has made an OS X friendly version of the drivers available yet, maybe that will change.

The 10v's people are receiving now seem to be at A05, this version is A03. If I had a model running A00, I would want to upgrade, as this BIOS would include all the other previous improvements also.

I don't know why the version Dell has up for download is 2 versions old.