Inspiron 5100 and LBA48 ( 137GB)

Question

I have searched these forums and all of Dell's so-called knowledgebase, as well as trying to review the change logs for BIOS updates, and I haven't found even a single reference to whether the Inspiron 5100 model does or does not support LBA48 in any BIOS revision. Since LBA48 was ratified around 2001 and this model apparently debuted around 2003, it SHOULD have supported LBA48 right out of the box.

However, I just recently acquired a used Inspiron 5100. I replaced the existing 20GB IDE drive with a 160GB Samsung Spinpoint drive, and the system only recognized 137GB of the drive's full capacity (with Windows XP Home SP3). In other words, the initial page of the CMOS setup routine identifies this 160GB Samsung "Primary Hard Drive" as only 137GB. The original BIOS revision when I acquired it was A29; I updated that to A32, which is the last revision I can find, and still it doesn't appear to support LBA48.

Can I please get confirmation from an authoritative source whether LBA48 is or is not supported in the A32 BIOS? If indeed it is, then there is another cause of this I need to identify and resolve. If not, then can Dell's BIOS firmware team PLEASE do the right thing and release an A33 BIOS with LBA48 support? Such deliberate planned obsolescence is NOT appreciated.

VulcanTourist · Answer

Exactly how is your response authoritative? It's NOT true that every other system released in 2003 didn't support LBA48, and it's certainly also true that for others that didn't support it at least a later BIOS update corrected it. You've conveniently overlooked the fact that it debuted TWO YEARS after the new standard was ratified. I find it inexcusable that Dell would produce a system that didn't incorporate a two-year-old standard and THEN refuse over the next six years to update the BIOS to finally support it.

If it's true that the Inspiron 5100 doesn't support LBA48, you seem to think I'm supposed to forgive Dell this old transgression, drink the Kool-Aid and shut up? Saying nothing is the same as validating the bad behavior. Do you honestly think it hasn't carried forward in some fashion? This is the FIRST Dell system I have ever owned, and will clearly be the last and only one. This is precisely the sort of behavior that has kept me building my own systems for over two decades. Here's an anecdote, as an example of how Dell SHOULD have responded:

I have an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard, which is a few years old. It's an AM2-socketed board, which sadly I bought not very long before AMD announced the new AM2+ socket standard and new CPUs to go with it. As it happens, with some limitations the AM2+ CPUs can function in AM2 socketed montherboards, AS LONG AS THE FIRMWARE IS UPDATED to support them. Guess how Asus responded? Asus could have used it as an opportunity to drive people to buy another motherboard by refusing to support the AM2+ CPUs with BIOS updates, but that isn't what Asus did: it has steadily released updates that support a wide range of them, right up to and including the Phenom quad-core X4 9950.

That is how Dell should have responded to the LBA48 issue. Dell still can respond that way. I doubt that you actually speak for Dell.

ejn63 · Answer

No 5100 BIOS supports LBA48, and the system has been end of life so long that there won't be one that will.

This is a 6+ year old design - contemporary systems from every other vendor have the same limitation.

ejn63 · Answer

You have an agenda and a very bad attitude - goodbye.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Inspiron 5100 and LBA48 (> 137GB)

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