Studio XPS 9000/435T - Can't disable onboard lan!?

Hi Ccaraballo3,

Obviously, had you tried everything, it would be fixed by now. :emotion-3:

Is there a problem with just leaving it enabled? Are you using an add-on NIC or something?

Also What OS are you running

Well let me give you some background info first. The motherboard on my XPS 9000/435T was swapped months ago under warranty. I have a core i7 940 with 12 gigs of ram and raid 0 hard drive setup. I'm using Windows 7 64bit. Ever since the swap, I've noticed that I am unable to disable the lan boot rom in the bos. When I change it to disabled and save, the bios keeps it at enabled. It was annoying but I just disregarded it. Now I have installed a pcie intel network card, and I tried going back into the bios and disabling the onboard nic and it doesn't want to disable. No matter what I do, the onboard lan / onboard lan boot option remains enabled. It is the weirdest thing.. I even tried poping out the cmos battery and restore the bios settings to default.. still the same problem.

There is no problem having two network adapters. The on-board adapter could then be disabled in Windows to prevent any conflict.

Hi there,

Firstly, please try to update the BIOS to A16 if it is not already at A16. To do this, please download and run the following file: ftp.dell.com/.../XPS435T-A16.exe

If this does not resolve the issue, please try replacing the CMOS battery as this could be the cause of the problem. To do this, please follow these instructions: support.dell.com/.../coinbatt.htm

Lastly, if this does not work, please try clearing the BIOS using the jumpers on the motherboard. To do this, please again follow these instructions: support.euro.dell.com/.../sys_setu.htm

If these do not work, please let me know!

John,

Thanks for the comprehensive answer!

1. My BIOS was at A15, and I updated to A16. Didn't fix the problem.

2. Replaced the battery. First boot didn't try to boot off the LAN, but subsequent boots did. Same problem, I went into BIOS and disabled "Onboard LAN Boot ROM". Rebooted and it still tried to boot off the LAN. Went into BIOS again and "Onboard LAN Boot ROM" has enabled itself.

3. Cleared BIOS using jumper. Same results as #2 above.

Any other thoughts?

"Onboard LAN Controller" & "Onboard 1394 Controller" are both Enabled in BIOS; is this the correct setting?

Greg

Thanks for getting back in touch Greg, very much appreciated.

I've sent you a friend request just to request your service tag, if you can accept my friend request and send me the tag in a private message, it would be a great help.

Onboard LAN Controller and Onboard 1394 Controller should both be enabled otherwise you wouldn't be able to use the Ethernet or Firewire ports in the system.

How are you saving the changes, if you don't mind me asking? Are you pressing Escape and selecting Save & Exit once the changes are made or are you pressing F10 to save the changes when you make them? If you've tried both then it may be the case that there's a problem with the motherboard that was replaced but if you've only tried one method of saving changes, perhaps trying the other method may cause the changes to stick.

I tried both of your suggestions for saving changes. Neither one worked. BIOS setting of "Onboard LAN Boot ROM" will NOT stay disabled. It continues to reset itself to "enabled" on each boot, and Computer insists on trying to boot off LAN before booting off my hard drive.

Service tag# sent to you earlier today.

I appreciate all the help you have offered thus far and hope you have further suggestions.

Hi again,

Thanks for sending me your service tag, it's very much appreciated.

I see from the system details that the system is out of warranty. You mentioned earlier that the motherboard was replaced - did you purchase this from Dell or from a third-party company? The reason I ask is that I would say that the changes aren't saving and the battery has been replaced then we're looking at a faulty motherboard.

If you purchased it from Dell, please send me the order number in another private message and we'll take it from there. If you didn't, I would advise you to contact the company that you purchased the motherboard from to see about a refund or exchange.

Thanks for your help John. I appreciate the effort!

but I SOLVED my problem...

I googled this problem and found the solution. As goofy as it sounds, it fixed my problem. Here it is:

- Go into BIOS, Load defaults, save, boot up computer

- On the next boot, go back into BIOS, change "Onboard LAN Boot ROM" to DISABLED, save changes and continue to boot.

- Now the "Onboard LAN Boot ROM" change to disabled stays put and doesn't reset itself to enabled.

- All subsequent boots DO NOT try to boot off the LAN

following is thh link where I found this solution:

serverfault.com/.../dell-pc-booting-to-intel-pe-boot-agent

Hi Greg,

I'm really glad to hear that! This is one of those problems that has a seemingly simple fix but it's taken a great deal of experimentation to find that out!

Thank you for posting the fix here, however, as I'm sure if it comes up again that it will be of use to other customers. It's certainly been useful for me as it's a great reminder not to take simple fixes like that for granted.

Have a great weekend and thanks again for using Dell.

yep that worked for me too.

Had to disable the Onboard LAN Boot ROM just as you outlined.

Worked on next reboot!

Thanks so much!