[jhoak]

For my very post here I just want to thank everyone involved in documenting the process of un-bricking an Inspiron mini.

I recently picked up white 1012 at a VERY good price. In the process of updating it with the most current BIOS (A12) it hung up. Yep... You guessed it... BRICKED!

It took a few tries using a few different (well documented) methods that are posted here but it has now come back to life.

So here's a BIG shout out and HUGE thanks to all here who have taken the time and put forth the effort to provide soultions for dead Dell minies.

I'm looking forward to spending a bit of time here and learning more about the capabilities and potential of this very cool little NetBook.

Thanks again...

So do I dare try the A12 update again? I'm currently at A04.

[rrfranczak3]

have you not learned anything???????

you got lucky once....wanna try for twice?

IF IT WORKS LEAVE IT ALONE just my 0.02



PS. Welcome to the forum.....

[Nepgear]

mind telling me what method you used?

I looked around and the floppy drive method was most likely the best way to unbrick the 1012... I hope this works. if not, i just wasted $20.

[ckreider]

i've been trying to unbrick my 1012 for a few days now.. it froze doing the A12 update. when I hold down the 'end' key and plug it in and it beeps once..
the usb drive says 'connecting to usb', but nothing else happens, it doesn't start sending the files. I am wondering if it's nessisary to use a usb stick and since I am using my camera's usb memory stick it's not possible even though I have it configured with the files to restore the bios.
Sometimes when i try, it will beep once then pause then beep two more short beeps and do that over and over again. Also, if I hold end key and plug in and hold power down it will sound like it turned off but the battery light will stay on for some time until i release the end key.
Does anyone have any tips I could try?
Thank you

[rrfranczak3]

have you enabled 'Legacy USB' in the BIOS?, it wont look at the USB if you didnt...also go here:

link:
Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes - BIOS Central


its a list of Beep Codes for the BIOS, see why u r getting them


PS. next time just leave the BIOS alone, if it worked before, why mess with it


PSS. Welcome to the forum....

[ckreider]

thanks for the welcome and the page of beep codes.
i bought a flash drive to try with.. smallest one they had was 8g.
using a program "SwissKnife V3" to make it appear small (around 300mb) and format it to FAT file system. but still getting errors when i try to run one of the programs to format it and load the DOS files.. (changed drive letter in CRISDISK.BAT and ran it but get errors. WINCRIS.EXE does not see the flash drive for some reason.
if i just hold 'end' key and plug in without battery it will power on.. but i have been trying holding Fn + End and the flash drive will light up but just keep blinking in a repetition and doesn't appear to be sending data.
I am no longer getting the 1-2 beep code.. it has something to do with how I format the flash drive.. i think if i format it FAT32 it will do the 1-2 beep code.

if i do obtain a usb-floppy drive, i have crdisk_A05 which comes with a bios.wph that is 1,028 KB, that should fit on a 1.44mb floppy with the MINIDOS & PHLASH16.EXE files that are needed. but the bios file that is most recent A12 (the one that i tried to update to that bricked it) is 2,053 KB and i don't see how that will fit on a floppy. so i will have to use the smaller A05 bios if i get a usb-floppy right?

I had gotten a new hard drive and was installing 1012 mini drivers just going down the list at the dell page one at a time and it had the bios update there, it looked harmless enough and i thought it would be a simple thing, i had no idea it would lead to this. i also had replaced the broken monitor and upgraded to 2g ram.. then hard drive broke (clicking noise) so i got a new 500gig drive.. had it all set up nice, was just doing final updates and bam here i am. i really want to get it working again since i just got done fixing all the other stuff it sucks i can't use it.

how is it possible to enabled 'Legacy USB' in the condition that it is in (not turning on when hitting power button).

[ckreider]

I wish i could make WINCRIS.EXE recognize my flashdrive.. when i try to change the drive letter in CRISDISK.BAT to the letter of the flashdrive and run CRISDISK.BAT, even though it will say it has successfully completed, it will give several errors when it tries to format the drive. and when i try with the flashdrive after doing that, i will get the 1-2 beep code.
I have tried changing the size of the flashdrive to under 1g, and format it FAT, but nothing seems to be working to make it recognized in WINCRIS.EXE. also tried to change the drive letter to A: since WINCRIS.EXE will look to A: for a disk to format, but i haven't been able to do that (tried with Computer Management but A: is not listed as an option). Which is why i'm thinking that the only way i might have success with it is if I get a usb-fdd and hopefully WINCRIS.EXE will recognize it. but I would really like to figure out a way to get the flashdrive to work if anyone has any suggestions i would appreciate it.

---------- Post added at 02:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 AM ----------

ok, i think that WINCRIS.EXE won't see the flashdrive because it is too large (8g).
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, V2.2.3 - will recognize the flashdrive but will give an error saying it is too large, even when I use SwissKnife V3 to format it as under 2g and FAT, still the HP USB Format Tool doesn't care and will throw back the error that it's too large. so i am pretty sure that is the problem I'm having with WINCRIS.EXE.

---------- Post added at 02:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 AM ----------

i've confirmed that is the situation, i now have a >1g memory stick that i have in a camera and WINCRIS.EXE will recognize it.. i am going to be attempting to do the bios flash with the camera usb.

---------- Post added at 02:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 AM ----------

tried a few times using HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and then WINCRIS but now i'm still getting 1-2 beep error codes.. i'm thinking maybe the camera when it starts up is messing up the boot sector? i tried holding 'end' then plugging in the power, then turning on the camera - so that it is recognized as connected to USB right away and has no time to mess with the boot sector, but that didn't work either.

---------- Post added at 02:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 AM ----------

i've removed the memory stick from the camera and i have it plugged into the SD slot on the ---!!!!!! holy it's making the crazy beeps that ppl talk about.. i think it's working!!!!

---------- Post added at 03:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:56 AM ----------

it's now beeping 5 times consecutively.

---------- Post added at 03:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:00 AM ----------

it's still doing the 5 beep sequence.. i don't think it's going to work, i haven't heard anyone report theirs doing a 5 beep sequence before. i'll leave it for a while longer to make sure.

---------- Post added at 03:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:11 AM ----------

i hit the power button.. it turned off right away.. removed the memory stick and hit power button again.. IT TURNED ON!! it's working again.. i can't believe it..

---------- Post added at 04:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:22 AM ----------

the trick is to use a memory stick that is under 2 gigs so WINCRIS can see it, then after it does it's work put the memory stick into the SD memory slot on the left side of the 1012 mini.. (the little slit port that is closest to the power and hard drive lights).. hold 'end' plug in, release 'end' after it beeps once.. then it will be quiet for a minute or two and suddenly make crazy random beep sounds.. then it will do a repetitive 5 beep sequence, at which point i let it continue for probably less than 10 minutes.. turn off power and then turn power on again with memory stick removed and it worked.

[dc2002]

I bricked my 1012 tonight going through all the latest updates...I put windows 7 on it, new battery and now 2gb RAM.

So using the windows flasher it got stuck and bricked....

I searched through these threads and did some more googling and finally succeeded.

I used this pack that was actually referenced on a youtube vid called Dell Laptop Pheonix BIOS Recovery From USB PENDRIVE (No use of USB FLOPPY DRIVE). It is a WINCRIS.EXE pack hosted at mediafire.

Ran the program on a 2GB usb jump drive and copied the most recent BIOS update from Dell to it and renamed it to BIOS.WPH

I tried a few different combinations of holding down End and Fn+End while plugging in the power cord. Honestly I cant remember which version finally worked...but it did eventually. The other difference with mine was that as soon as I plugged the cord in with End held down it would power up - even without pressing the power button.

It did beep once. I could tell that the USB drive was working finally with the blinking LED and then after a couple minutes it shut off, rebooted still to black screen and was in the 5 beep mode. I let it go for a minute or 2 and finally just hit the power button. It shut off, I removed the USB drive and hit the power button...Low and behold it booted up finally!!!

I think the key was in the prep of the jump drive but anyways I am glad it worked.

Thanks!

[holmes4]

Glad to hear it!

[desone01]

If you flash the bios, always do it from the hard drive and you won't have any problems.