[Rebeluser]

Hi All,

This is my first post. I hope it may be of some use to somebody.

I bricked my 1018 doing a BIOS update. Thanks to other posts on this site I got it back to life.

This is how I did it !!

I downloaded 'crisdisk', and the Dell BIOS A02 file.
I used a cheap 2Gb USB drive, because the recovery failed using a Kingston 4Gb drive.

I extracted the crisdisk file which gave me 10 files in the folder. I ran 'Wincris.exe' and pointed to my USB drive. This made a bootable USB recovery drive.

I then extracted the Dell BIOS update file, and found a file called 'pim10a02.rom', which I renamed to BIOS.WPH.

I copied this BIOS.WPH to the USB drive overwriting the existing BIOS.WPH on the drive.

Recovery Procedure

Remove Battery

Put the USB drive into the port on the left side of the 1018.

Press Fn & End (Top right on UK keyboard)(There is another End on the bottom right).

Keep holding both keys, and turn on Power Adaptor. The power light & the USB light will both come on, and the 1018 will begin to bleep loudly. The USB drive light flickers while booting, and the bleeping continues for several minutes.

Finally it will give 1 long bleep and turn off. My 1018 power light came on, but nothing happened.

I Left it for 10 - 15 minutes, and still nothing.

So, I shut off the power, put the Battery, and reconnected the AC power, and pressed the on/off switch, and it then booted up

[rrfranczak3]

glad you got it fixed, but not for nothing but the next time just leave the BIOS alone, everyone has to have the LATEST of EVERYTHING....ya know what?... most BIOS upgrades usually dont need to be done and if it works leave it alone.....there are hundreds of posts on this site about bricked machines due to BIOS upgrade attempts.....I hope you learned.............

PS. Welcome to the forum..

[avdady]

Originally Posted by Rebeluser

Hi All,

This is my first post. I hope it may be of some use to somebody.

I bricked my 1018 doing a BIOS update. Thanks to other posts on this site I got it back to life.

This is how I did it !!

I downloaded 'crisdisk', and the Dell BIOS A02 file.
I used a cheap 2Gb USB drive, because the recovery failed using a Kingston 4Gb drive.

I extracted the crisdisk file which gave me 10 files in the folder. I ran 'Wincris.exe' and pointed to my USB drive. This made a bootable USB recovery drive.

I then extracted the Dell BIOS update file, and found a file called 'pim10a02.rom', which I renamed to BIOS.WPH.

I copied this BIOS.WPH to the USB drive overwriting the existing BIOS.WPH on the drive.

Recovery Procedure

Remove Battery

Put the USB drive into the port on the left side of the 1018.

Press Fn & End (Top right on UK keyboard)(There is another End on the bottom right).

Keep holding both keys, and turn on Power Adaptor. The power light & the USB light will both come on, and the 1018 will begin to bleep loudly. The USB drive light flickers while booting, and the bleeping continues for several minutes.

Finally it will give 1 long bleep and turn off. My 1018 power light came on, but nothing happened.

I Left it for 10 - 15 minutes, and still nothing.

So, I shut off the power, put the Battery, and reconnected the AC power, and pressed the on/off switch, and it then booted up

I just wane say big thank You to you.....
i been searching 5 days even more to fix this problem try 100 things buy usb flash which i already had 8gb buy floppy driver . oooo to much head-ac each comments was saying need floppy driver . but here u finally i follow ur post and i done it successful .
i just put the laptop away that much i was tired of it.
but again wane say thank you big thank you u save me and my time ..

[rrfranczak3]

REPEAT...like I said above....next time just leave the BIOS alone, 9x out of 10x it DOESNT NEED to be done.......just my 0.02.....you are lucky you fixed it, many wind up with a very expensive paperweight or doorstop......

PS. Welcome to the forum....

BTW: Mine came with A10 BIOS over 3 yrs ago and it will stay that way until either it dies or I do....

[krisbutler]

Thanks for this- really saved my bacon today, after a working on a colleague's mini 1018... failed BIOS update, and the instructions above worked without fault.

Cheers matey!!

[djs_dad]

Thanks for sharing OP! Like rrfranczak3 stressed, I will be leaving my BIOS alone. I've updated BIOS on my desktop a few times, no problems encountered. I wonder why we have so many failures with this netbook.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by djs_dad

Thanks for sharing OP! Like rrfranczak3 stressed, I will be leaving my BIOS alone. I've updated BIOS on my desktop a few times, no problems encountered. I wonder why we have so many failures with this netbook.

at least some people listen to me

[djs_dad]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

at least some people listen to me

Only a fool would not heed the warning after 3 reported cases of BIOS flash failure.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by djs_dad

Only a fool would not heed the warning after 3 reported cases of BIOS flash failure.

3?do a search on the forum, I'll bet there are hundreds....

[djs_dad]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

3?do a search on the forum, I'll bet there are hundreds....

My newbie-ness shines through.

I was also referring to the 3 reported cases in this particular thread, but you're right, there are more on the forums.

In any case, I don't feel the need to update the BIOS so this one disaster I'm looking to avoid.

Cheers!