Updating BIOS to make it ACPI compliant

Vandeherik,

What BIOS version do you have currently installed?  If you don't know then enter the BIOS Setup when the system is booting by pressing the F2 key when the Dell logo appears.  Your currently installed BIOS version should be displayed on the BIOS page.

The reason I am asking is that the A06 BIOS release for your model contained a couple of fixes related to memory.  One dealt with memory size error reporting on systems with over 3 gigs installed and the other dealt with an update to the ACPI table.  The A08 version also contained a tweak related to memory reporting.  If your present BIOS version is less than the A08 version then I would suggest updating it to the latest which is A10 and can be found by  clicking here.  Just follow these instructions for using the file.....

Updating the BIOS is easy to do, but there is a slight risk in doing so.  That risk change range from a minor problem of having to clear the NVRAM to the worse case scenario of the BIOS update corrupting the installed BIOS on the motherboard.  This would then require a motherboard replacement.  To lessen this risk never do a BIOS update will weather conditions outside might indicate a possible power outage such as doing the update during a thunderstorm.  I would also suggest closing out all unneeded Windows applications prior to doing the update and disconnecting all unneeded USB devices except for the mouse and keyboard.  This will lessen the chance of the system hanging during the reboot phase of the BIOS update due to a Windows problem. 

To update your BIOS just download the file to a folder on your hard drive and run it from there.  Avoid saving the file to your desktop as Windows has a quirk which can make deleting the file afterwards difficult to do.  Once the file is run the process of updating your BIOS will take less than 30 seconds so your exposure to potential problems is minimal.