[wr4ith0]

Ive got a clean install of windows 7, and updated drivers from dell's (and nvidia's) download page on a studio 14z. It still hangs, especially online, and has a mystery coprocessor listed under other devices. I've been trying to flash in dells recommended bios (1440A04_64.exe), but I get winphlash's, "The current system BIOS is the same (or newer) than the version you are trying to flash" error.

Racer25x has a decent trick for dell minis
mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-9-hardware-issues-problems/7226-how-downgrade-bios
(fourth post) but I am looking at three files labled PHLASH.INI one in WINPLHASH64 AND two in WINPHLASH
WINPHLASH/PHLASH.INI has settings
Advanced=0 and UpdateMode=3
WINPHLASH/PHLASH1.INI has settings
Advanced=1 and UpdateMode=2
WINPHLASH64/PHLASH.INI has settings
UpdateMode=3 and Advanced =0 (and they are encountered in that order)

in a fit of pique, I tried his advice and set the mentioned WINPHLASH64/PHLASH.INI file's settings to 1. Winphlash proceeded past the version check, found an existing backup file and asked me if I wanted to replace it. I replaced it, and it started flashing the bios. It got 2 blocks from the finish (23/25 i think) and froze for over half an hour. I gave up, shut it off and came back to it in the morning. Surprisingly not bricked, I started it in safe mode, reset the data in the extracted bios files to it's original format, restarted it normally and tried to winphlash it again. Same, current or newer version error.

I've tried forcing it (mickitblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/dell-bios-switches [on the executable if it makes a difference]), but it doesn't change anything, and dell only seems to offer the executable. Can anybody tell me how to get around this thing?

[holmes4]

In general, it's a bad idea to use a BIOS flasher made for one line of PCs with a different line. Different BIOS vendors, different chipsets, etc. make this a risky move.

I suggest you look for help in a forum that discusses the Studio 14z.

[wr4ith0]

all right. The description of the forum seemed to include other dell laptops, and the commenters seemed rather knowledgeable about bios manipulation so I had been hoping someone had some more general know how on the deeper end.

[wr4ith0]

Wait tho', I was using the native Bios Flasher. I was just checking if someone here might be able to explain the difference in initialization files and the flags I needed to set to get it to reflash with an earlier version.

[lswartz]

What suggests that your version of BIOS is causing the problem?

I have had problems with Windows on older hardware but that has generally been with the integrated Ethernet on the MB. Finding drivers that work is the other issue faced.

I would try Ubuntu on a USB flash drive just to see if you can duplicate the issue.

The suggestion to look in forums dedicated to your hardware is a good one.