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jst3751

38 Posts

23013

May 1st, 2007 20:00

745 BIOS update proceedure that works

To all those that have had problems with Optiplex 745 Ultra Small form factor, (I do not know if those holds true for the other forms,) he is what I have come up with to update the BIOS to 2.2.0 the work around the bug the Dell is not helping with:
 
1. Create a bootable USB stick. I used a Lexmark JumpPro 256 MB.
2. Start the computer and press F2 to go into BIOS setup.
3. Go to boot options and disable booting to the hard drive by highlighting the internal SATA hard drive and pressing the space bar.
4. Make sure "USB Device" is listed in the list.
5. Exit and save changes.
6. Allow it to boot to the USB stick.
7. Run the BIOS update, remembering that this is now DOS so it will be a DOS truncated name.
8. When the computer restarts, go right back into BIOS setup.
9. Hold down ALT key and press E and then press F. This is to clear NTVAM and MUST BE DONE.
10. Exit and save changes.
11. Turn off the computer.
12. Insert the CD Rom D-Module if that is what you are trying to use and/or a USB hard drive to apply an image from.
13. Start the comptuer and again go into BIOS set. BIOS is in default mode and you should check all options for your configuration. Make sure to change the boot options to what you need them to be.
14. Exit and save changes.
 
You can now boot to your CD rom or external hard drive or to a Floppy drive in the D-Module.
 
This is to solve the known BIOS problem which prevents the BIOS from recognizing anything in the D-Module bay or booting to a USB hard drive.

stonent

2 Intern

 • 

823 Posts

May 10th, 2007 12:00

Were you not able to do this from within windows?

jst3751

38 Posts

May 10th, 2007 12:00

When you are rolling out multiple systems in a company using imaging technology, you do not want to waste the time to have to go through the whole inital setup to get to windows first just to run the BIOS update, then apply the image and then have to go through the mini-setup again.

mesoxfan

3 Posts

May 18th, 2007 16:00

Great info - Thanks!
 
We have three of the four Optiplex 745 models (all but mini). All three needed the bios update patch. I'm not sure if the bug you are referring to was the same....after booting up and displaying Windows splash screen, the puter would display nothing but a blank black screen. Dell offered many resolutions:
 
1. symantec was the cause (version 10.1 and up)
2. bios update needed
3. Windows update (wrong video driver)
 
The problem seems to be intermittent. It appeared that the bios update solved the problem on some but not on others. None of these systems had the problem until after the initial push of MS high priority updates (leaving hardware and software out). Though i was getting a blank black screen after boot, i was able to, at times, get in via safe mode in which case I ran the bios update off a USB stick.
 
In the end, i will stick to my normal procedure - regardless what build comes on a new machine - wipe it and put our build on it using customers license. Using this image for the rest, i have not seen this problem return. Hope I'm not confusing you - thanks for the info regardless.

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