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BIOS Flash Recovery (NOT update) Disk
I got a new 200 GB hard drive for my Dimension 4100S but it would only see 128 GB, so I decided to update the Dimension BIOS to see if that would help. A little past half way through the flash according to the "thermometer bar", it said it couldn't write to the BIOS and that the BIOS had NOT been updated, and told me to "press any key". Those are the last words my computer spoke. Turning it on now gives an orange power light that never turns green, a green floppy light and a green hard drive light, and a blank screen. It never even displays the Dell logo.
Dell tech support insisted the motherboard had to be replaced, even after I expressed astonishment at this. This seemed outrageous, so I did some research, which seems to indicate that there is another way.
I found newsgroup posts to the effect that the Dimension 4100 motherboard is an OEM version of the Intel "D815E". Intel's web site has documents for a "D815EEA/D815EPEA" whose layout looks like the 4100 motherboard. The docs are similar to those on Dell's site for the 4100, except Intel lists three "modes" for the "BIOS Setup Configuration Jumper" and Dell's only lists two. The additional "Recovery" mode on Intel's site is set by removing the jumper entirely. The docs note that "A recovery diskette is required." Other newsgroup posts about the 4100 seem to support this, mentioning "removing the jumper to set recovery mode" and a "BIOS flash recovery disk (NOT a BIOS update disk)". The Dell docs for "Normal" mode suggest "an automatic recovery is attempted if the BIOS detects that any of its main blocks are corrupted", and the Intel docs don't. My experience indicates Intel is right: I see no evidence of an attempt to recover, and it seems clear the BIOS is corrupted.
Other posts I found describe the recovery mode as lacking support for display and keyboard, so interactive flash procedures like the ones Dell's instructions describe could not be done. It's not clear whether the recovery disk uses Autoexec.bat to run a program (either a non-interactive flash program, or the standard flash utility with some undocumented command option to make it non-interactive), or finds the program on the first sector of the floppy, or even just looks for a binary BIOS image on the first sector, or what. One post said you have to use an Intel version of the BIOS, and that it works fine on the Dell board.
I doubt the recovery feature was disabled in the Dell version; there would be no point, and it seems like it would be difficult to accomplish. It seems more likely Dell would rather replace motherboards under warrantee if their techs tell someone to flash it and the flash fails, just in case the failure was caused by a flaw in the board. In any other situation with a failed BIOS flash, Dell probably doesn't want to get into the complicated recovery process.
Of course, _I_ want the BIOS flash recovery disk, or at least information on what it contains and how it's organized, as well as on how the recovery mode works. I hate the idea of throwing a perfectly good board in a landfill, and it does seem reasonable to want information on how the board works. It's also Dell's program that hosed Dell's motherboard.
When I get in to work I'll experiment, but any suggestions, information or links are appreciated.
ejn63
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August 9th, 2004 00:00
You can try recovering the system with the Intel method and Intel BIOS - the caveat is that if you have 98/ME/2K that came with your Dell system, you will no longer be able to use it to reinstall if you do so.
I don't think Dell produces the BIOS code separately from the installer, but there may be no other way to recover the board.
By the way - this system will not see a 200G drive, even with the latest Dell or Intel BIOS - if you get it working again, you will need to buy a controller card to run the drive.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 01:00
The first thing I did when I got the computer was to reformat the hard drive and install a non-Dell version of Windows 2000. No problem there.
The BIOS update from Dell comes in "packaged" and "unpackaged" versions. The "unpackaged" appears to be just a single, executable file named 4100_A11.EXE. The "packaged" version is a self-extracting WinZip executable which contains four files: FDetect.exe, DE4100_1.EXE, MAKEDISK.BAT and a makedisk shortcut. The shortcut runs MAKEDISK.BAT, which in turn runs FDetect.exe and DE4100_1.EXE, which seems like it puts something on a floppy - I haven't been able to run it, I'm guessing because at home I have no "real" floppy drives, only LS-120. Win2K complains that there is no disk in the drive even though there is, then gives an "OS/2 Subsystem Bound Application Load Failure". Trying to run it in DOS it complains it must be run under Windows.
While it seems like the packaged version is intended to be run in order to automatically create the necessary files on a floppy, and the unpackaged is intended to be copied to a floppy, the instructions with both are identical, which seems wrong. They both involve sending the downloaded executable file to the floppy using "Send To" from the right-click menu.
Any way, I suspect the result of running MAKEDISK.BAT is probably just a copy of 4100_A11.EXE being made on the floppy, so as you said, the Dell BIOS code could not be separated from the flash utility executable. This (questionable) decision may explain the real reason why Dell did not document the recovery mode: you can't use it with their BIOS, which is integrated into the flash utility.
My best guess is recovery mode looks for a binary image starting in the first sector of the floppy, meaning the recovery will require the Intel version. I did notice a thread on this forum about restoring to a Dell version from an Intel version, though, and once I have a working BIOS of any kind lots of possibilities open up.
I suspected the update attempt was in vain later when I looked at Maxtor's web site about the 128 MB barrier. I have a Promise IDE RAID card I can use in that case.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 02:00
Brushfireb
8 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 02:00
I can email them to you if you want. I will send you a Private Message with my email.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 02:00
What interests me about the thread on Intel BIOSes is he was able to extract the Dell equivalent of the Intel BIOS files out of the Dell flash utility program by identifying the byte sequences which began each file, then extracting the number of bytes for the length of the corresponding Intel file. If we could do that, then use recovery mode, we could recover to a Dell BIOS.
Right now I'm hampered by lack of a real floppy drive. Even the Intel BIOS disk creation program chokes on an LS-120 - something like "unable to determine number of sectors per track". If I can just get the files Intel creates on the floppy, I think I can manage to extract the corresponding files from the Dell executable.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 02:00
Found an interesting message on this forum involving extracting the Intel BIOS update file structure from the Dell executable. Subject of thread was
"How to change from an INTEL bios back to a Dell bios? What exactly happens when you pull the service jumper?"
Brushfireb
8 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 02:00
You and I are working on similar issues.
The most I know about the recovery mode is that it does run an autoexec.bat file on the floppy. This can be seen in some of the posts in the dell community forums for hardware upgrade, when searching for "Dimension 4100 uplclocking". These people flash to intel's bios (which is permanent) using the recovery mode jumper.
Further inspection of the floppy that is made from this intel recovery mode boot disk reveals that intel uses (like MOST other companies!!) a flash program and binary file. This flash program has command line parameters that do not require user input, so the process just runs on its own.
I am still experimenting with this to see if I can get a good flash on my board. The real problem is without screen display it is tricky to troubleshoot problems with this bootdisk.
I think you and I May be forced to go to an intel bios if we can do anything at all (outside of purchase boards).
Brian
Brushfireb
8 Posts
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August 9th, 2004 03:00
Brian
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 00:00
I was able to extract the files from the executable using a WinBatch script on another PC. Each begins with a rough approximation of the motherboard model, just as the post I found described.
Problem is on this motherboard I find only two jumpers, each with 2 pins. One is labeled "PSWD" and comes with a jumper on it, and the other is labeled "RTCRST", which I guess means "real-time clock reset".
Where the heck IS the "system configuration jumper" on the Dimension 4100S?
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 01:00
Just realized I've been getting a digit wrong in the model number. This is a 4300S. Docs show the PSWD jumper, but in the "system codes and messages" documentation, refers to setting the "configuration jumper" to "maintenance mode", and the doc has a link to a drawing of the board with a label "configuration jumper (PSWD)". Nowhere does it say _how_ to set the jumper to "maintenance mode" - only removing the jumper to clear the CMOS passwords.
Anyone know what model board this is? Is it also an Intel board like the 4100?
Brushfireb
8 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 02:00
There is a 3 pin jumper located in the lower right quadrant of the board, near the middle of the board.
1-2 = Normal
2-3 = Maintenance
OFF = Recovery
Brian
Brushfireb
8 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 02:00
I have figured out that the intel bios for the 4100 board has flaws in its bootdisk. The autoexec.bat called for a .bbo file that is not included in the distribution. This is the boot block file necessary to flash with the rest. So, intel bios is pretty worthless without that file. Otherwise, you get a dell boot block and an intel bios, which equals worthless.
Im already moving towards buying a new, NON DELL board as replacement and migrating to a new case. This is just silly.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 02:00
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 04:00
I see that line in the autoexec.bat also. Odd, but maybe if that file is missing it just fails to execute that line. I think it says something about clearing CMOS settings, which should not be required for a flash, and if it were could be done manually. If it's really missing a required file, that seems like an unusually severe problem to have made it to Intel's web site for download.
Anyway, I suspect the recovery mode is not smart enough to even handle a file system, much less a batch file, so I don't think it even uses autoexec.bat. I rather suspect it looks for code starting at the first sector of the disk. Or, even if it does know enough to read the root directory and find a file name, it's probably hard coded to look for BIOS.REC. I'm certain BIOS recovery mode is not smart enough to run a batch file or even load DOS. Likely all it can do is find a file or files using a hard-coded algorithm, then read the bytes and write them to flash.
So, it may be worthwhile for you to get the files I've produced, which are essentially the Intel BIOS files replaced with the Dell BIOS. You may be able to flash recover a 4100 with them even though I couldn't with a 4300S.
BrainChild2
17 Posts
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August 10th, 2004 04:00
Pretty sure the BIOS I tried to flash is good for any Dimension, but it could be that it was the wrong one and that caused the failure.
The problem isn't that I can't cobble together a BIOS that would work. I've basically done that already. It's just a matter of extracting the correct sections of the Dell flash utility executable to overwrite the Intel files. Apparantly you then just rename the .BIO file to BIOS.REC, pull the configuration jumper, plug in the computer and turn on the power, then wait about 5 minutes.
The problem is that someone at Dell seems to have decided their version of this motherboard would not have the BIOS recovery feature that all non-OEM Intel boards have, according to Intel's web site. That's astonishly stupid. Now a physically perfect motherboard is scrap just because there's no way to execute the BIOS recovery that was originally designed into it. The only thing wrong with the board is there's no way to program the flash memory on the BIOS chip.
Dell has the distinction of being the first place I've ever purchased from which sells a board AND makes available a program for download which can destroy that board.
I sure hope whoever made that design decision is unemployed. They've turned someone who recommended paying the extra money for a Dell because it's a well-designed collection of parts with balanced performance, reliability and ergonomics into someone who will never again buy or recommend Dell. What a stupid waste.