GX1 BIOS upgrade needed

Question

I have a Optiplex GX1 450L+. It's a PIII 450 Mhz (obviously). It has AO6 BIOS and it's having problems recognizing the 40 GB HD I'm trying to install. I want to do a BIOS upgrade but am kind of worried about doing so as I don't want to ruin my Motherboard. Where can I get the BIOS file I need to flash? And most of all, how can I find out exactly the kind of BIOS I need? A friend gave me the computer so I don't have manuals or anything telling me what's inside. The only think I know about the BIOS is that's it's an AO6. I tried looking for the make and year of the BIOS, but when it boots up it doesn't display anything except 'BIOS revision AO6'. HELP!!   Also, the problem I encounter is the following: The original HD in my GX1 6.4 GB. I want to add a 40 GB as a slave.  I set cable select on both drives and then 'auto' in the BIOS. The BIOS recognizes it as an EIDE drive but the size is 33.8 GB. When I boot windows it tell me that the drive is 7.3 GB. I tried other drives as well (10 GB, 6.4 and 3.2) and the size is always wrong. The 3.2 drive shows the right size in the BIOS but then in Windows it shows as a 3.01 GB. I'm running Widows XP. I think it's a BIOS problem, but I could be wrong. I also put the 40 GB HD in a USB external HD that a friend lent me but it still shows as a 7.8 GB. Thank you all       Message Edited by luc4982 on 10-30-2004 04:27 AM

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

Set the drives to cable select, not master or slave;the master is then the drive on the connector furthermost from the motherboard.  The issue you have is twofold.  Firstly, disk manufacturers use 1Gbytes as 1000*1000*1000 bytes whereas the bios uses 1024*1024*1024 bytes.  This means a disk drive described as '40G' is actaully 40*1000*1000*1000/(1024*1024*1024) bytes which is about 37Gbytes - and as a '40G' disk can be less so too can the value reported..   The values reported by the bios are probably OK in your cases. Now, the values in Windows depend on the history of the disk, and the windows version; unless there's data on the disk you want to keep its best to wipe it and configure it correctly.  If you use XP, then you will need to fdisk then use XP to format the disk to get the right size available.  If earlier versions, you will need to fdisk and format the drive;  the available size will depend on you version of windows.  You may have to run a large disk anabler software program for e.g. Windows 98 or earlier due to fdisk and OS limitations.

luc4982 · Answer

I set the jumpers to cable select from the start and as soon as I got the HD I formatted it (I think I formatted it in DOS). I also just formatted it in Windows (right click>Format). I'm using XP so Windows shouldn't have problems in recognizing the large size HD. Is there some tool in Windows that I am forgetting to tweak?

Also, why does the size of the HD remain at 8 GB when I put into a USB adaptor? Shouldn't it be different when I use it via USB?

Would clearing the NVRAM do anything?

Message Edited by luc4982 on 10-30-2004 02:11 PM

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

Go o Start  | Programs | Control Panel and select Adminstrative Tools.  Then select Computer Management and finally Disk Management on the left hand pane.  Have a look at how the disk is set up - you may be using only the first 8Gbytes because of your DOS formatting of the drive.  Use the facility to sort out the disk partitions and format it.

luc4982 · Answer

Thanks, that worked. Seems it had 29 GB of unallocated space. So if instead of 40 GB it tells me the drive is 38 I shouldn't be worried right?   (Modified 2 hours later): Ok, so I created a 29 GB partition from the unallocated space but the when I deleted both partitions and created a new one (I want the whole HD to be one partition) it said the HD was only 33 GB. I looked in the BIOS and it tells me the HD is an EIDE hard drive and the size is 33 GB. I'm going nuts. Message Edited by luc4982 on 10-31-2004 08:29 AM

speedstep · Answer

Update to bios A07 and make sure that both drives are cable select and it should work fine.

WIN95B will only format 30 gigs.

WIN98 and WIN98SE have a patch for FDISK.

WINME doesnt have the problem.

2000 AND XP will not format a fat32 partition larger than 30 gigs during install. They want to force using NTFS.

luc4982 · Answer

I wanted to update to a higher BIOS (thus the name of the forum), but where do I get it, and most of all how do I find out exactly the kind of BIOS I need. If you read the original post you wil see that I don't know exactly what kind of motherboard I have. Thanks for all the help.

Edited later: So, I found the right BIOS and flashed without any problem, but it still shows my HD as only 33 GB. Maybe I should upgrade to higher BIOS but I don't think it would make a difference. HELP!

Message Edited by luc4982 on 11-02-2004 02:07 PM

speedstep · Answer

You need a Dos Diskette.

I prefer A07 and no higher so that I can upgrade the cpu without problems.

ON an XP Machine Right Click on a disk and check the box that says Make MSDOS diskette and then format the drive.

Then copy this file onto it and run after booting from the disk.

ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/GX1_A07.exe

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

Some disks come with a 32Mbyte limit jumper - have you got that inadvertently set?  Otherwise, exactly which 40G disk make and exact model do you have?

luc4982 · Answer

No, I checked the jumpers. I have a Samsung SP4002H. Here are a couple links with all the specs:   http://www.mbreview.com/sp40.php   http://www.tweaknews.com/reviews/samsungsp4002h/index2.php

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GX1 BIOS upgrade needed

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