Upgrade A02 BIOS to XP2 on old 8100 w/ new larger hard drv and new video card and floppy issue.

Dave:  I agree completely with regard to the XP2 patch seen below the A09 BIOS update, but there is also a full XP2 BIOS update recommended for users of Windows XP.  You need to click Other Versions to see it and the recommendation there is to use XP2 for Windows XP but A09 for all other operating systems.

OK first you are a bit behind on the bios the latest and greatest bios for you system is A09 shown HERE.

There is a bios patch called XP2  PI2 and whether you need it or not is determined by this warning that is listed in the info:

!*!*! WARNING !*!*!
DO NOT USE THIS BIOS ON ANY DIMENSION 8100 THAT DOES NOT HAVE A CREATIVE
LABS "AUDIGY" or "AUDIGY2" SOUND CARD.
DO NOT USE THIS BIOS ON ANY SYSTEM EXCEPT THE DIMENSION 8100.

I would just recommend doing the A09 update.

HI Guys,

I thought that the XP2 was the one but I had been reading some old posts. I think Jack is right. I'll read more however. My new Diamond video card only shows up as Other Device and not as Display Adapter which is empty. Something is not detecting something here and I thought the BIOS could be the culprit.

Nitro Man

Yes-- New Card.  No-- did not uninstall old drivers. Did not know. Diamond instructions said nothing about uninstalling old divers and has never ask me that question.

Windows recognizes devices by the information contained in their drivers.  If your video card is being reported simply as a VGA compatible device, perhaps you aren't using the correct driver.  Do you have any trouble setting resolutions higher than 800 X 600?

I am at 1024X768 now and can go to 1280X1024. I have had a open ticket with Diamond for 10 days. We tried everything but cannot get any drivers to load.

Is this a new video card?  If so, did you remember to completely uninstall the drivers for the old card before attempting to install the new one?

Have you attempted to install the driver using the Update Driver function in the Device Manager?  Basically, you go to the Device Manager, find your device in the list, double click it to bring up properties, click the Drivers tab, click Update Driver, and direct it to the path that contains the driver for your card.  It's been a while, but I think you need to indicate Have Disk and then browse to the device and directory containing your driver file.

Whenever you change out the video card it is safest to first unload the existing driver; this is done before you physically remove the old card so the computer has no trouble finding the files.  You use Device Manager to remove your display adapter, and then shut the machine down instead of allowing the restart that Windows will want to perform.  While the machine is off, you install the new card.  When you start the machine Windows will discover new hardware, and since you already have a driver you want to use, you cancel any wizards that want to search for drivers for the new device.  You then put your drivers CD into the machine and allow it to autorun, or if it doesn't do that, use the Run function to browse to whatever file the disk uses for startup and allow that program to install your video drivers.

Given that conventional things haven't worked well, I see no harm in putting the old card back into the machine.  If you haven't removed the old drivers as yet, Windows will likely detect the card and re-install it using the driver files that should still be present.  When you remove the device with Device Manager, before you restart the computer, see if you can delete the actual driver files for the card.  If Dell installed them they should be in a directory labeled Drivers, or possibly Dell/Drivers.  Be certain you get the right files as all the other device drivers will be in that directory as well if it exists.  Just in case, you might want to simply move the files to another place on your hard drive so you can put them back if necessary.

After removing the device from the Device Manager and moving the driver files, only then allow the computer to restart and make sure that the computer pops up in VGA mode; a 640 X 480 resolution mode.  If that works, shut the machine down and put the new card in, followed by attempting driver installation.

Jackshack,

I found this at Diamond Knowledge:

Why would i uninstall my old video card drivers and run another driver clearer in safe mode?

You are on the right track but I have got to get the exact sequence down. This is a little confusing:"When you remove the device with Device Manager, before you restart the computer, see if you can delete the actual driver files for the card"

And this "only then allow the computer to restart and make sure that the computer pops up in VGA mode; a 640 X 480 resolution mode. " Do I reset the display bfore I shut down?

Thank You so much,

Nitro Man

Jackshack,

Thank you for helping me. You have taught me some things already that make sense of why the card is showing up at Other Devices. I have done exactly what you said above (except the delete old drivers) with no success. Diamond had me do a similar approach and it seem to work: Down loaded, installed, rebooted, but no drivers installed. Cannot find drivers. Here is where I'm at with diamond

"Regarding your issue, it sounds like there may be a problem with the card either partial detecting or not detecting with your system. You may want to try another computer if you have one available with an AGP slot to see if you get the same problem with the video card. If you are having a problem with the card, then you will have to setup an RMA with us to have your card repaired or replaced. In that case, you will need to have a copy of the receipt when you purchased the card in order for me to issue you an RMA. Please advise on the steps above so I can either help you troubleshoot the problem further or setup RMA instructions for you to send the card to us.

What do you think about putting the old card back in and deleting the drivers. Then start over.

Nitro Man  --- I drove Top Fuel Dragsters in the 60's and 70's

Jackman,

Three weeks ago, I installed the new video card, Been trying to install drivers ever since. The I was attacked by a TDSS root malware. It was a nasty Google redirect,  I found a great site for this and am passing it on to FYI if you don not already have it. Well written and easy to follow. Bookmark. Worked!!!

http://deletemalware.blogspot.com/2010/02/remove-google-redirect-virus.html

When you use Device Manager to remove a device, you disable its entries in the Windows registry.  At that point you usually get a message that the computer needs to be restarted to enable the new configuration.  If you allow a restart with the original card in the computer, Windows finds the drivers for the card and reinstalls them.  That is the reason it is usually necessary to shut the computer off after you have removed the listing for the display adapter.  By moving the driver files out of the usual place on the hard drive I figured that Windows would be unable to replace them.

Without the driver files, Windows searches its own for an acceptable driver, which normally turns out to be the standard VGA driver.  Once you have reached that stage, it is a simple matter to pull the old card, put the new card in, and Windows will use the VGA driver for the new card as well.  VGA is the common denominator for video cards; all presently made video adapters for PCs will use it.

If I'm wrong, and Windows continues to install the old card, you should either use the driver cleaner, or as I indicated in an earlier post, shut the computer down and install the new card before restarting.

EDIT:  Thanks for the site; I'll keep it in mind.

Here's my game plan:

1-- Try the new card in another machine.

2-- Reinstall old card. Delete drivers.

3-- Try to move drivers to some other place.

4-- Shut down

5-- Install new card.

6-- Try to install new drivers.

I will start tomorrow. I will check this post before I start. I wll post results probably after lunch Friday 10/29/10.

Thanks for all the help. Hope to see you tomorrow.

PS-- Do you think a BIOS upgrade is a good thing for this computer and my original question of  if I do upgrade  Is there a particular USB port that will work for the upgrade with my USB floppy?

With regard to the video card, I think you have a plan.  Now that you've asked about the floppy, however, I've a question or two.

Your internal floppy doesn't work per your original post, so you have acquired a USB floppy.  The only problem is, will your computer accept a USB floppy in place of the internal floppy drive?  When you go through the BIOS setup, do you have USB device as one of the choices?  Or, when you look at the setup menu, does your entry for A: drive include a USB floppy?

The problem as I see it is that your BIOS flash update program requires a bootable DOS diskette.  The only way one of these will boot is if the USB device is accepted by your computer as a bootable drive.  If you can't set the A: drive to USB, or if you have no way to boot from a USB device, you cannot use the BIOS flash updates from the Dell site.  The flash updates from Dell were designed to run in DOS, and the DOS emulation in Windows XP is not an acceptable substitute.

There is one way out of this, but it requires that you still have the Dell Resource CD, or another CD that will boot to DOS.  Write the "Unpackaged" version of the DOS flash file to a CD.  Boot the machine from the Dell Resource CD.  Look at the menus across the top and examine them until you find the item that releases you from the diagnostics to a DOS prompt.  You can tell that you have arrived when you see a black screen with the following in the upper left corner:  A:>

Once you have that prompt, place the CD containing the unpackaged flash file in the cd drive and type its name as follows (minus the quote marks):  "D81XPXP2.EXE".  The flash file should execute, take about a minute, then put a message on the screen telling you to remove the disk and restart the computer.