[SOLVED] Bios update fail: Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (1012) netbook

Question

Hi everyone,

I updated the BIOS from its original firmware to A12 on this website

www.dell.com/.../DriversDetails

Unfortunately, it hang up at about Block 8/12. I waited for more than an hour and then turned it off. After that the laptop couldn't be turned on. I think I had bricked it

After searching on the web, I found some suggestions on mydellmini forum. I tried to use a USB drive to reflash the BIOS per this guide

www.mydellmini.com/.../28430-un-bricking-1012-a.html

However, no matter what key combination I tried (Fn + END or END or CTRL + END or Fn + B), the laptop did nothing. The light on the USB did come up but no flashing light, no beep-sound

Someone mentioned that they were successful only when using the USB Floppy Disk drive. I have bought the USB drive but the A12 firmware above is 4 MB and won't fit into a floppy disk

Anyone has the download link to the original system BIOS file that can fit into a Floppy Disk? I couldn't find it anywhere on the internet

Thank you very much in advance!

EDIT:

I finally got the netbook working again. These are the steps I did:

1. Got a 4 GB USB (instead of the 512 MB I used earlier), formatted it using FAT32 file system.

2. Used a PC/laptop running 32-bit Windows and plugged the USB stick in. Right click on WINCRIS.EXE file (download link below) and chose Run as Administrator. Run the program to create a recovery USB stick with the A12 version for DELL 1012. I have uploaded the folder I used on mediafire just in case someone would need it in the future.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/t7ei5facpdkxepa/BiosRecovery.7z

3. Remove the battery. Plugged it in the USB port on the right side of the netbook.

4. Held down the END key (near top right corner of the keyboard) then plugged in the power cable. The netbook turned on by itself. As soon as I heard the first beep, I let go the END key.

5. There was intermittent series of long beeps. After about 20mins, the laptop rebooted itself and asked me to remove the USB stick and press any key to continue.

6. That's it and everything is back to normal now :)

Thank you very much for your help everyone again!

chester2015 · Accepted Answer

I finally got the netbook working again. These are the steps I did

1. Got a 4 GB USB (instead of the 512 MB I used earlier), formatted it using FAT32 file system

2. Used a PC/laptop running 32-bit Windows and plugged the USB stick in. Right click on WINCRIS.EXE file (download link below) and chose Run as Administrator. Run the program to create a recovery USB stick with the A12 version for DELL 1012. I have uploaded the folder I used on mediafire just in case someone would need it in the future

www.mediafire.com/.../BiosRecovery.7z

3. Plugged it in the USB port on the right side of the netbook

4. Held down the END key (near top right corner of the keyboard) then plugged in the power cable. The netbook turned on by itself. As soon as I heard the first beep, I let go the END key

5. There was intermittent series of long beeps. After about 20mins, the laptop rebooted itself and asked me to remove the USB stick and press any key to continue

6. That's it and everything is back to normal now

Thank you very much for your help everyone again!

chester2015 · Answer

Thanks Terry! Unfortunately, my netbook is not under warranty anymore. I bought it like 5 years ago :/ Chester

DELL-Terry B · Answer

CHESTER2015,

The oldest bios update that I have for your system is A11 and unfortunately if will not fit on a floppy disk. I will be sending you a friend request, if the system is under warranty we can perhaps set up a service to replace the system board.

TB

DELL-Terry B · Answer

I was hoping that wouldn't be the case, and that the system was still under warranty. Was there a problem with the notebook before attempting to update the BIOS, where you trying to correct a problem by updating the BIOS?

It is probably a corrupt BIOS that is keeping the system from turning on, and if so it is likely that the system board will need to be replaced, but that isn't definite. This document gives instructions on troubleshooting notebooks that wont turn on. It is possible that this could help and allow you to get the system up and running at little or no cost.

TB

ejn63 · Answer

These are selling as complete, used systems on EBay for as little as $40-50 -- if you want to keep this type of system, it'll be the least expensive solution to the problem. Even the boards go for more than that on the refurbished-parts website, not to mention the labor involved in replacing the board (or having the BIOS flashed externally, which would cost in the $100-150 range).

chester2015 · Answer

Thanks @Terry! The netbook was working great. I just wanted to update the BIOS since I've never updated on that netbook. This was the first time I got an error when flashing new BIOS and I've done that close to hundred times on many PCs & laptops :(

@ejn63: Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not going to spend money fixing this netbook. I will probably just list it on eBay for parts

chester2015 · Answer

Okay this morning I gave it another shot:

1. Without the battery, I plugged a 512MB flash drive (created by WINCRIS.EXE) program to the USB port closet to the VGA port

2. Held down END key and plugged in the power cable. The netbook turned on (I didn't press the Power button) and beeped once

3. I let go the END key. The netbook then beeped intermittently 1-2 minutes apart with 1 long beep & two short beeps. It continued like that for almost 1 hour without reaching the state that others reported such as very long beeps then shut down

What does the beep codes mean? What should I do next to continue from here? TiA!

DELL-Terry B · Answer

So the system is working fine now, with BIOS A12?  That is great news, thank you for the update. TB

chester2015 · Answer

Yes! And I've just installed Lubuntu 15.04 which is much less resources-demanding than Win 7. It's running relatively fast right now

Locked Topics – Laptops General

[SOLVED] Bios update fail: Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (1012) netbook

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