[appleguru]

The current latest bios for the mini 9 is A05. The current latest bios for the Vostro A90 is A04. They are equal in terms of updates, etc.

Use this guide to upgrade your Dell Mini 9 Or Vostro A90 running Mac OS X to the latest Bios from Dell.

1) If you have a mini 9...

Click here to read the entire tutorial

[appleguru]

Originally Posted by midwinter

Thanks. Looks like I'm in the catch-22 where the battery won't charge unless the firmware is updated and I can't update the firmware until the battery is charged. Looks like I need to get a new one.

Hmm.. is this the stock battery? Or an aftermarket one? The stock battery should charge with all firmwares, even with the machine off...

[midwinter]

The unit is a refurb from some shop in PA. I'm assuming it sat on a shelf for months before they sent it to me. I've contacted them to see if they'll trade me out for a known-good battery.

Originally Posted by appleguru

Hmm.. is this the stock battery? Or an aftermarket one? The stock battery should charge with all firmwares, even with the machine off...

[bodobear]

hi, don´t know if i am too stupid but everytime i try to unmount my flashdrive it´s completely done... not sure i am unmounting it at the right place.. ?
could someone pls take a screenshot where to unmount it in the disk utility ?
i can only find the eject function..
thank you !

[midwinter]

Originally Posted by bodobear

hi, don´t know if i am too stupid but everytime i try to unmount my flashdrive it´s completely done... not sure i am unmounting it at the right place.. ?
could someone pls take a screenshot where to unmount it in the disk utility ?
i can only find the eject function..
thank you !

[mopi]

Thanks works like a charm.

BUT, WARNING !!!!!
If you bought a non official battery (6 cells), A05 bios will show a message like this :
"Battery not reconized. Go f*ck yourself.. Battery will be not charged"

So, I downgrad to A04 by replacing A05 bios with A04 bios, and use the command :
flash /Force A04.rom
(/Force is usefull because you cannot downgrad without this param)

No problems with this version

Hope that help

[Jim Hacker]

Just an observation - the QHA05DOS.exe file one downloads from the dell site has a newer date (April 19/09) than the flasher on the freedos disk image. Same number of bytes, however.

[pipdrums]

Hi everybody,

I have just registered and am a newbie with the Mini 9. I just bought it this past Saturday. It's in good condition except for the battery which will not charge - constant orange flashing LED, this was pointed out to me at the store. It came with no OS, a miniscule 8GB SSD, 1GB RAM (I upgraded that to 2GB) and it has no webcam. The BIOS is at A00 which I guess is the very first BIOS since now there is an A05 BIOS.

I put Ubuntu 9.04 on it which runs fine. I have a RunCore 32GB ready to install my retail Leopard OS 10.5 via my Mac Pro following the great 'how to' page and videos - many thanks to Mr. latzn.

I was wondering about the BIOS. Will the A00 BIOS work with OS 10.5.7 or does it need to be upgraded?

Also, is it OK to remove the battery and run the Mini on AC power? (I can do this with my 13" MacBook w/no problems).

Cheers.

[midwinter]

Originally Posted by pipdrums

Also, is it OK to remove the battery and run the Mini on AC power? (I can do this with my 13" MacBook w/no problems).

Cheers.

Yup.

Cheers

[appleguru]

Originally Posted by pipdrums

Hi everybody,

I have just registered and am a newbie with the Mini 9. I just bought it this past Saturday. It's in good condition except for the battery which will not charge - constant orange flashing LED, this was pointed out to me at the store. It came with no OS, a miniscule 8GB SSD, 1GB RAM (I upgraded that to 2GB) and it has no webcam. The BIOS is at A00 which I guess is the very first BIOS since now there is an A05 BIOS.

I put Ubuntu 9.04 on it which runs fine. I have a RunCore 32GB ready to install my retail Leopard OS 10.5 via my Mac Pro following the great 'how to' page and videos - many thanks to Mr. latzn.

I was wondering about the BIOS. Will the A00 BIOS work with OS 10.5.7 or does it need to be upgraded?

Also, is it OK to remove the battery and run the Mini on AC power? (I can do this with my 13" MacBook w/no problems).

Cheers.

A00 will work, but you really should upgrade at some point

[hrtbrkkid2]

Hey Appleguru,

I did the bios update so now I am up to A05 I followed all the steps that you described above but I am still having issues with the battery I just purchased. I got the battery on ebay from a store in Hong Kong which is the typical location where most of these ebay aftermarket battery's are coming from. If I did the bios update is there anything else I can do or is the battery just bad.

I get the warning at the start of the boot that tells me that the battery is not recognized and it wont charge.

Thanks

D