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tarihci

3 Posts

5721

March 5th, 2005 16:00

700m frequent hard disk spin, possible BIOS A01 issue

hi guys, I hope somebody replies to this post. first, a disclaimer: I am not a computer novice; I am taking care of three laptops at home, but it has been a while since I have done a flashBIOS.

I have an inspiron 700m (1.8Ghz,  752MB ram, 40GB Fujitsu MHT2040AH HDD, DVD/RW, BIOS A01) and formatted it recently. dell did not put the drivers CD in my box, so I downloaded them from the support page. after installing the drivers and all my programs, I realized that a strange sound is coming from the computer in every 20-30 seconds. it is very similar to the sound the cd/dvd drive makes when you insert a cd/dvd and the computer reads it the first time. i thought it was a software problem and i uninstalled all the programs related to the cd/dvd drive. it did not go away. i had no such problem before i formatted the computer. my wife has a 700m (1.6Ghz,  512MB ram, 40GB HTS548040M9AT00 HDD, DVD/CDRW, BIOS A00) as well, but we did not have any similar problems on hers.

moreover, after removing the dvd drive and hearing the sound again, I came to think that it is rather coming from the HD. it is a spinning sound. it sounds as if the hard disk is booting or coming back from a standby or something. after I read the thread "700M shuts harddrive off" from Power Management message board, I changed the power properties to "never turn off hard disks", but it did not work either. near the end of the thread, people wrote that this problem went away after they flashed their BIOS to A02. i dont want to flash my BIOS if it does not solve the problem. do any of you guys have the problems still after flashing BIOS to A02?
 
my other question is, since I dont have a floppy drive, is it possible to get the BIOS update on a USB flash keydrive? does any of you know how to do it and which of the files (700m_A02.exe, or 700m_A02_WIN_1-8.exe, or BR93133.exe) should i use? by the way, what is the deal with three different files? what is their difference? yes, i read the "description"s below, but they seem to be doing the same thing and no warnings are placed.

Mike LKM

32 Posts

March 8th, 2005 05:00

Hi,

Try the Bay Wolf unofficial DELL website.

It has instructions for creating a virtual floppy using a CDRW for flashing the BIOS.-> worked for me.

Yes, I know you are not a novice, but it is really not worth the risk and hassle (even even your laptop is on warranty) to flash it in Windows which may become unstable during the flashing.

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