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XPS 8700: How to get the A00 BIOS updater?
I am working on rolling out a number of XPS 8700 systems. To do this, I restore an image made on an XPS 8500 system with Backup Exec Sys Recovery, with the "restore anywhere" option.
This approach works GREAT on a stock XPS 8700 system, that is on BIOS A00.
But if the system is updated to BIOS A01, then the restore fails, as the windows 7 self install process fails.
A tech here updated all the systems to BIOS A01, and now I cannot do the restore at all. (Since we did not see the problem coming, we are not in a position to make a new image off an 8700.... We only finished the image _after_ the systems were moved to A01, but had done the proof of concept when the systems were on A00.)
Ack!
On the BIOS download page:
It only has A01, and no links to prior versions.
How do I get A00?
Thank you!
RoHe
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July 12th, 2013 12:00
Can you - should you - attempt to revert to the earlier version?
It might be risky, assuming it even allows you to attempt to flash "backwards". Clicking the link to "Previous Versions" here opens a page for A01 which says there are no previous versions.
Can you do a clean install on one of the 8700's with A01 manually, image that one, and install the image on the rest of them..?
samjones9
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July 12th, 2013 15:00
No, I can't start with A01.... I need A00
RoHe
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July 12th, 2013 16:00
Maybe I'm being dense, but why can't you do a clean install (not using an image) on one of the systems with BIOS A01 of whatever you need and then deploy an image of that hard drive on the others with A01? Are you saying you can't make an image of the system once A01 is installed?
But you may be out of luck, even if Dell provides A00, because BIOS may not allow you to revert from A01 to A00. If you have an account manager at Dell, you may need to contact them for direct technical support.
samjones9
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July 12th, 2013 16:00
You aren't being dense. The whole point is that I need to use my image, which took days and days to build.
If I can't use the image, then it is kinda the end of the world for me.
RoHe
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July 12th, 2013 16:00
BTW: have you compared the BIOS settings between a system with A00 and one with A01? Maybe one of the options defaults to a different setting between the 2 versions and that's causing the issue?
I also see that A01 has updated microcode for the CPU, so that might have an effect too.
RoHe
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July 12th, 2013 20:00
Sorry 'bout that! :emotion-9:
Like I said, compare BIOS settings between systems with A00 and A01 to see if there are any differences which might be causing the problem. And keep tuned here, maybe one of the IT geeks who hang out on these forums might have more / better suggestions than I do...
samjones9
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July 14th, 2013 22:00
Well, I think I got some progress. Seems if I do not use the "restore anywhere" option, that the image runs.
Now I have to do some more tweaking , post restore, and see if all is well...