I heard that I have to upgrade BIOS to run 4 GB on my Inspiron 1501. I have version I believe 2.5 and I heard I need 3.6 to get my computer to use 4 GB. Thanks.
Same here ... I was already at BIOS Version 2.6.3 before upgrading to 4GB. The chipset documentation supports 4 GB but the original BIOS may have been dumbed down. Try it and see?
When you ran the exe as administrator and it failed to run it should have extracted all the files in those files that were extracted one of them is named WINPHLASH.EXE. If you also ran this as admin and it failed there must be another problem. One thing comes to mind here. Are you running a 64 bit version of Vista? If you are then it will not work as the 64 bit OS will not load the driver files required to flash the BIOS.
Here is a work around for the 64 bit limitation of the winphlash utility:
C3PO5
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August 22nd, 2008 05:00
Hi
You may need the bios version 2.6.3 so you can use 4 gig,s of ram .
But i can not say for sure because
i installed my 4 gig,s after the bios was updated to 2.6.3 !!
Have you tried it without the bios update
to see if you really need it ?
If you use a 32 bit windows it can only use about 3.5 out of the 4 gig,s anyway !
Good Luck
pcgeek11
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August 22nd, 2008 09:00
Same here ... I was already at BIOS Version 2.6.3 before upgrading to 4GB. The chipset documentation supports 4 GB but the original BIOS may have been dumbed down. Try it and see?
pcgeek11
DMGrier
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August 22nd, 2008 11:00
pcgeek11
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August 22nd, 2008 12:00
Here is a link for the BIOS File which must be run in Administrator mode by right clicking it and choose run as administrator.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R174470&SystemID=INS_PNT_1501&servicetag=BBSSCC1&os=WLH&osl=en&deviceid=13120&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=9&catid=1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=236967
To see how much ram the system sees right click "Computer" on the start menu and then select " Properties".
You can also check in the BIOS by pressing F2 at startup.
pcgeek11
DMGrier
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August 22nd, 2008 18:00
C3PO5
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August 22nd, 2008 18:00
Hi
You have to right click on the WINPHLASH.EXE
and run it as administrator also .
Good Luck
DMGrier
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August 22nd, 2008 20:00
pcgeek11
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1.9K Posts
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August 23rd, 2008 01:00
When you ran the exe as administrator and it failed to run it should have extracted all the files in those files that were extracted one of them is named WINPHLASH.EXE. If you also ran this as admin and it failed there must be another problem. One thing comes to mind here. Are you running a 64 bit version of Vista? If you are then it will not work as the 64 bit OS will not load the driver files required to flash the BIOS.
Here is a work around for the 64 bit limitation of the winphlash utility:
http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/archive/2007/02/17/solution-for-updating-the-bios-on-windows-vista-x64-machines.aspx
pcgeek11
DMGrier
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August 23rd, 2008 02:00
C3PO5
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August 23rd, 2008 04:00
Hi
The only other thing i can think of are you the real user administrator
of the laptop or is someone else the user administrator
and you are a user on a separate account ?
If you or not the real user administrator you need to sign
on as the user administrator then run the .exe as administrator
Good Luck