[comfysofa]

Hi - need some help. Ive scanned through these posts (ive got a mini 1011) which i think is a 10v. Pretty sure ive tried everything although im hoping someone can help.

Im all ready to go but im not getting anything more than a blip from the floppy and nothing more than that - is it down to the manufacture of the floppy - ie i have an ibm floppy here and that blips and does nothing more and ive also got a samsung floppy drive and that doesnt do anything atall....im trying as suggested on the usb port just next to the power jack.

More infuriatingly its not my netbook, its my mates that i said i would sort out!!! - sorted it proper i did....

[rrfranczak3]

have you enabled 'Legacy USB' in the BIOS, if not it wont work..

PS. Welcome to the forum......

[comfysofa]

Thanks for that - the problem is, is i dont have any bios in the first place to get into....

Sorry about the welcome thing - kind of get one track minded when im trying to fix something.

---------- Post added at 10:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 AM ----------

Oh - the other thing....there are 2 "end" keys - one on the bottom right of the keyboard (in blue - i guess thats the fn key related one and one at the top right) - still no joy - ive just tried with a Dell floppy drive and nothing.

---------- Post added at 10:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 AM ----------

sorry about that - when i have a problem like this i tend to get one track minded....my apologies....

Ive just tried with a dell branded floppy drive and nothing - i notice that the walkthrough says Fn+end but there are 2 end keys, one at the top right and one at the bottom right....

[rrfranczak3]

I believe when the Dell logo flashes you need to hit 'f2' for the BIOS, you might have to try a few times to get it right, the options should appear at the lower right hand side of the screen, they start off kinda grayed out and I usually just keep hitting f2 quickly until f2 is highlighted, the other option there I think is f12 for boot options/order, same principle

[comfysofa]

ok - thanks for that but, ive got nothing, all i get is a power light, the hard drive spins up and then a muffled click from the speakers....thats it.

[crashff]

I've been trying this for 3 days and FINALLY got somewhere with this thread.

This is what -I- did to fix it.

use a 32bit OS, NOT 64 (that way lies madness.. i did it that way too..)

Find the dell file R225274.exe (WinPhlash Mini10v A04 flash) <- EXTRACT BIOS FILE FROM HERE - located in (C:\windows\Temp\WinPhlash\Bios.rom file)
Download the I1010_a04 Bios recovery.zip

Run the I1010 bios recovery disk program.
Rename the Bios.ROM file to Bios.wph and REPLACE the one on the floppy disk.

plug the ubs floppy drive into the USB port next to the power plug on the left side. wont work from either of the other 2 ports.

you might need 3 hands for this part...
Hold the FN key and the END key located in the top right of the keyboard.
Have someone else plug in the power - the power led should flash here..
KEEP HOLDING THE FN+END..
now have them press the power button. the led shut light up and stay lit..
KEEP HOLDING FN+END
The floppy drive should power up and start reading the disc. - you can let go of the FN+END keys now.

Sit back and let it go. you wont see anything until it spontaneously reboots and starts working.

This was MY experience, hope it works for you.

[Obsmus]

I also want to thank for this excellent guide. It took me some time to find a guide for the 10v but finally I found yours.
It all works as described. Thanks for having a USB Floppy drive from our older Laptops at work.
Regards
Karl

[rrfranczak3]

glad ya got it fixed....not sure how ya bricked it but if I was you I wouldnt touch the BIOS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!


PS. Welcome to the forum.....

[Chileno]

EDIT: Removing my original reply since I let my blood pressure get too high and was annoyed and shooting at the mouth. My apologies.

Originally Posted by crashff

Find the dell file R225274.exe (WinPhlash Mini10v A04 flash) <- EXTRACT BIOS FILE FROM HERE - located in (C:\windows\Temp\WinPhlash\Bios.rom file)
Download the I1010_a04 Bios recovery.zip

I have the R225274.exe file, but is it safe to run it on another computer? I don't want it to do anything with the BIOS on my working computer as I'm using it to try to fix my mini, and 2 bricked laptops would be too much to handle! LOL!

Does anyone have a .zip file that contains just the A04 BIOS.ROM or BIOS.WPH file?

Originally Posted by crashff

Sit back and let it go. you wont see anything until it spontaneously reboots and starts working.

This was MY experience, hope it works for you.

In your experience how long did the beeping last? Mine has been going through a "long beep, short beep, short beep, pause" cycle for about 20 minutes now (I'm trying it using the A05 BIOS file that was linked to at the beginning of this guide, although I'd rather be using the A04 version)

It's still beeping, so I don't want to interrupt it, but it seems like it's been going for longer than I would expect it to.

Thanks!

--Chris

[Chileno]

It worked! Once I finally had a successful flash, the beeping noises that I heard were much different and didn't have any kind of pattern to them the way it did when it would sit through it's "long beep, 2 short beeps, pause" cycle...FYI if anyone else gets a very repetitive pattern like this it's not actually working. I let mine sit like that for an hour waiting on it with no luck. I'm not sure what I did differently the 15millionth time that I tried, but it worked and I'm grateful!