Upgrade BIOS for Latitude CPx J650GT-advice needed

The CPxJ is semi-notorious for developing bad RAM Slots and can reach the point where the board must be replaced.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R44008&fileid=51814

I recommend this version and method. It uses the Floppy Method; some folks have reported some problems with the A16 version, but not with the A15. If you are using W98/98SE, merge the RUN_ME_REG file under Windows before going to DOS for the Flash. Ignore the prompts for any other OS. To Merge, right click the file by browsing to it, under Windows and the click the command Merge from the menu. You will notice a download for a Harddrive BIOS Flash method; DON'T! This has been the source of more bellyup laptops from bad flashes than any other method. I am approaching 3 dozen flashes and only used the harddrive method once. NEVER Again!
A Floppy BIOS Flash will not hurt your Laptop unless you have a board about to go blooey, and it may speed up the demise. The only Bad flash I had using the floppy method was on a PC with an ECS %#&^*! M'Board which had been twitchy almost from the beginning; the flash went in because the BIOS string and the Date changed, and it worked for about 20 minutes before it failed.
You will need two 256mb PC100 16chip Low Density modules for your RAM upgrade.

Message Edited by leduke30 on 03-26-2005 06:36 PM

leduke30,

Thanks for the reply. I will do as you advise and see how it works, I'll post the results. I appreciate you giving me this help and the benefit of your experience.

John

I still need some help---I downloaded the upgrade with no difficulty, copied it to my floppy, then restarted the computer. The .exe file for the upgrade, however, didn't respond appropriately when I double-clicked on it. It simply opened up as a screen and showed no prompts or anything. It just sat there as a blank screen, making me feel a little foolish. I guess I don't understand what I should be doing to install the upgrade properly. Does anyone have some suggestion about how to try this again?

Thanks,

John

Yes, open the downloaded file under windows and it will open a DOS Shell with directions to make a floppy diskette. That diskette should work fine and if you type/enter   dir  at the A:\Prompt when booted into DOS with it, it will show you all the files on the diskette. The CPSJ-A15.EXE is the Flash Executable file and also the command to do the flash .

Any time you download a "skew-eyed E"  file, that is not an executable file at that point. You open it under Windows to either install it to a file on your harddrive and execute from there, or to make a floppy like this time. If you download a file that has the blue and white TV Icon, that is an executable already.

 

Message Edited by leduke30 on 03-28-2005 12:28 AM

leduke30,

I hate to keep coming back with problems, but I just can't get this to work as you've suggested it should.

First, I have Windows XP, and I wonder if this is one of the reasons why the Flash executable file will not install the proper way. I may have this wrong, but Windows XP is not DOS-based, right, so it may not be able to allow the install to go forward if it can't interpret DOS-based files?

I'm able to make the floppy diskette with no difficulties. I remove the just-written floppy, immediately re-insert it into my laptop, then go to "restart". One problem at this point is my Symantec anti-virus program doesn't like the fact that there is a floppy in place during a re-start and I have to go to "end now" to bypass this caution and continue the re-start. I have tried turning off, temporarily, the anti-virus program to make this "caution message" not pop up, but can't succeed in just turning it off and on like that. Regardless, if I bypass this message or in fact remove the floppy and then re-insert it right as its booting up again, it boots up okay, that's not a problem. And, it has re-booted with the floppy in place.

But, nothing happens beyond that. I got the impression that the appropriate executable would automatically open during the restart process, I'd be prompted in the executable screen to move forward with the flash installation. This does not happen. I can go into the floppy and manually open the CPSJ-A15.exe, but then the screen opens and it is "dead". There is no prompt, there is no blinking cursor in the screen, nothing. The screen is a nice blue and has a border and title and all that, but there is no way to enter a command.

I wonder if the problem has to do with the fact that I have Windows XP somehow and I should be getting an entirely different download for this upgrade. Is my Symantec anti-virus somehow blocking the procedure?

Again, I apologize for not getting this right, but hope you have something more to suggest.


John

I can suggest you remove your Harddrive and flash with it out. That should prevent Symantec's interference, and since the Flash takes place in DOS before W-XP even loads, the harddrive is not necessary. I have flashed many boards with just a floppy, battery, External Monitor and AC connected. MS confuses many people by not calling DOS "DOS" under W-XP, but it is still there. To quote old Bill Shakespeare(not Gates)with my addition,"a rose by any other name would smell as sweet(and a skunk would still smell BAD)

leduke30,

I have contacted Dell technical support and they advised me that the A15 BIOS can not work with Windows XP. I don't know if it is as simple as that, but this is what they tell me and I more or less have to accept it. They further advise that I reinstall my original operating system and flash the A15 in. This would be equivalent to your advise of "removing the hard drive" for the flash, I guess. I've no idea how I would remove the hard drive for an operation of this sort. But, I think I don't want to go there to begin with if I would not be able to then re-install Windows XP as my operating system. I want Windows XP more than I want a BIOS upgrade. Do you know whether what I just said is correct, that I would not be able to reinstall XP or reutilize XP once I ran the flash? Do you know of any upgraded BIOS that would in fact work with my computer and Windows XP, an update beyond A08? I appreciate any help you can continue to give me in sorting out these questions. I assume right now that my Symantec anti-virus program is not interferring with this whole issue as I at one time thought----

John

I think the Dell Tech(?) who told you that has been eating too much fermented applesauce. To remove the harddrive, remove the single screw in the Caddy's bezel and slide it downward, then pull straight out to remove the harddrive/caddy. Flash your BIOS with the Floppy Method, then reinstall your harddrive/caddy

Everyone:

I really apologize that I'm not making much progress on these various issues. It's frustrating that my original problem (concerning a simple inability to get a flashBIOS upgrade to work properly) has raised so many additional problems that I don't seem to be able to tackle. I'd ask you all to listen to yet another explanation of what I'm trying to accomplish and then see if you can speak from experience and advise me as to what I can/cannot do.

As I've mentioned, I've a Latitude CPx J650GT. I run Windows XP on it. I have the A08 BIOS. I have a USB 1.1 port only (not a 2.0).

What I want to do is this: I want to get a "Buslink 52x32x52x16 CD-RW/DVDROM Combo - USB 2.0 - RWD-5216-U2" peripheral. I need CD-RW capability pretty desperately. I don't need a DVD player so urgently, but would like to have one if at all possible and most CD-RW's come with DVD players at this point (at least this is what I seem to find). My first question then becomes whether or not I can connect to this peripheral and make it work properly.

Because I only have a USB 1.1 port, it was suggested that I get a PCMCIA adapter to connect this peripheral. I guess that a USB 2.0 connecting plug is shaped differently from a USB 1.1 plug, and that's the reason to go to this PCMCIA adapter. I was told by the Dell technician (see copied message below) that I will still have only the transfer rate of a USB 1.1. Is this true? If I can't get around the 1.1 transfer rate, maybe I'd better abandon this whole peripheral idea, because it might not work properly at this slower rate (maybe the CD-RW would work okay, but slower, but the DVD reader would just not work at all??).

This first suggestion led in turn to the suggestion that I try to upgrade to an A15 BIOS----perhaps with an upgraded BIOS I could get the PCMCIA adapter to really work at a transfer rate of USB 2.0? As I've mentioned several times----I can download the CPSJ-A15 and make a floppy, but the floppy won't work in a flash installment (proper term?). I can't get the CPSJ-A15.exe file to work the way it should. The Dell technician says its not compatible with Windows XP anyway. He says to not even try for an upgrade, in effect.

I've had this issue of my RAM sticks not seating properly, and I understand this is a common problem for this computer. I had thought a few days ago that this problem might be improved by a BIOS upgrade, but now understand that this isn't the case. I can handle the seating problem in other ways, anyway, so I'm no longer considering the upgrade for this particular problem.

So, I'm more-or-less dissuaded from doing a BIOS upgrade, but then come back to the question of whether the peripheral will even work with my system (with a USB 1.1 transfer rate, despite the installation of a USB 2.0 PCMCIA adapter) if I only have an A08 BIOS. I began to think of the possibility I mentioned earlier today-----of going back and re-installing my original Windows ME operating system in addition to Windows XP and having two different systems on my computer. The thinking was that, with the earlier O.S. I might be able to upgrade to a newer BIOS with no difficulties. Then (and it gets a little fuzzy here), I might be able to handle a true USB 2.0 transfer rate with my PCMCIA adapter and be able to use the peripheral the way it was meant to operate. Then, I could use Windows XP for most of my work, but boot-up Windows ME whenever I needed to use the peripheral for writing CD's or viewing DVD's.

Well, anyway, I am including here the text of the most-recent message from the Dell technician. I don't really know exactly what he is suggesting I consider, he seems to think that I won't gain anything one way or another by making the changes under consideration:

["With the help of USB 2.0 PCMCIA adapter you can connect USB 2.0 devices
to your computer (the transfer rate would remain that of USB 1.1).

However, I am not a position to say whether the drive would work with a
particular version of BIOS or not because the fixes (that the BIOS
update addresses) are generic and not specific to any particular drive.

In fact the latest BIOS update (A16) was released to make the computer
compatible with newer batteries. Even the A15 release does not address
any USB issue.

I apologize I am not able to give any definite suggestion because it is
not possible for me to say for sure that updating the BIOS would make it
compatible with the USB drive.

I would suggest that, if feasible, you first try to connect that drive
to your computer first and find out whether computer recognizes the
drive or not. If it does you could order it; if it does not it would be
better not to buy it.

I would also like to inform you that you could install two operating
systems on your computer but this makes troubleshooting software issues
a little bit difficult (in case there are issues).

If you intend to install two operating systems on your computer (Dell
does not recommend it) I would suggest that you create two partitions
and then install the two operating systems on different partitions.
Please install Windows 98 first and then install Windows XP.

If you need any other information / clarification related to this issue,
please feel free to contact me again, I will be glad to assist you."]

I also am including here the specs for the peripheral that I got off of the Internet:

["Technical Specs
-Device Type - Disk drive - CD-RW / DVD-ROM combo
-Compatibility - PC
-Type - 1 x CD-RW / DVD-ROM combo - external
-Interface Type - Hi-Speed USB
-Read Speed - 52x (CD) / 16x (DVD)
-Write Speed - 52x
-Rewrite Speed - 32x
-Supported CD Formats - CD Extra, CD-DA (audio), CD-I, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, Video CD, CD-ROM, CD+G (Karaoke CD)
-Supported Media Types - CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R
-Buffer Underrun Protection - Yes
-Media Load Type - Tray
-Compliant Standards - Video CD
-Interfaces - 1 x Hi-Speed USB
-OS Required - Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition / Windows ME, Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP
-Service & Support - 1 year warranty
-Service & Support Details - Limited warranty - 1 year"]

So, my questions now become requests for general advice----I have these complicated issues facing my potential use of this peripheral. I don't want to simply buy the peripheral and see if it works, I'd rather try to make some basic changes to my computer to assure that the requirements of the peripheral are met before I actually invest in the peripheral. I may be asking for advice that can't be given directly----but if you have had experience along these lines, I'd appreciate you making any appropriate suggestions as to how I should proceed.

Thanks, John

(Thanks to Frank and leduke30 specifically for their most recent attempts to help me out---)