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6293
Optiplex 390 SFF won't boot from flash drive
Hello, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post.
I recently bought a refurbished 390, Service Tag .
I swapped out the single 250 HDD for my SSD, and added a 1TB HDD.
I then installed Linux Mint 19.3 on the SSD, which is working fine.
Problem is, the 390 won't boot from a flash drive. I've been through the BIOS half a dozen times, no joy.
Could anyone help with suggestions? This isn't a deal breaker, but I would like to be able to upgrade the BIOS from A06. BTW, can I run the BIOS .exe file from FreeDOS?
Thanks!
redxps630
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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10.3K Posts
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April 6th, 2020 18:00
What I meant was I was able to boot a desktop PC into DOS with a bootable usb stick created per Dell instruction. That is why I trusted the method. Give it a try. If it still does not work, then I would test the usb stick on a different desktop or laptop computer to see if it boots. If it boots another computer without issue, then we know by that time it is your 390 acting up. We can go from there when we get there.
option 2: instead of running against a brick wall, bypass the block since your end goal is to update bios (you do not care how you get there). if you can not boot w usb, but you can see the usb in linux, can you just run the bios.exe on usb in linux OS? (I have never used linux). If all failed, you could remove ssd, install Win 7 or 10 on hdd, update BIOS in Win OS.
redxps630
7 Technologist
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10.3K Posts
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April 6th, 2020 16:00
those are very good points in the first reply. are you able to see the usb stick in linux?
I would prepare a bootable usb stick from Dell and copy/paste the bios.exe onto that usb, remove your ssd and hdd, then try to boot from usb by clicking F12. this is how Dell taught me how to create the usb and it worked for me. https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-hk/sln143196/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-using-dell-diagnostic-deployment-package-dddp?lang=en
donm4599x
478 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 16:00
Not sure sure why it won't boot from flash, but I can say that I ran the dell bios flash update under freedos on a 790 and it worked fine. But it was on a fredos usb flash drive (I created it using rufus, then copied the flash exe onto it).
My machine has a bios setting to enable/disable booting from usb ... be sure you didn't miss that. and there are settings to disable/enable the usb ports front and back separately.
Did you try using F12 for the boot menu? Be sure the flash drive is inserted before you power up and that it really is a boot-able flash disk. Else the bios may not recognize it.
Maybe someone can help more.
ANickNameNotInUse
4 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 17:00
Hello, and thanks for the reply.
Yes, I can see the flash drive in Linux. That's how I was able to copy the BIOS exe to it. (See my reply above).
When you say you created the bootable flash drive per the Dell support article and it worked for you, are you saying that your machine wouldn't boot from a flash drive before you did that?
ANickNameNotInUse
4 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 17:00
Thanks very much for the reply.
I also have a freedos flash drive with the exe copied to it. Just powered off, inserted drive, booted, F12, chose USB Storage Device......."The selected boot device failed. Press any key to reboot the system."
I actually do have "Enable USB booting" set to Enable, and all the USB ports enabled.
donm4599x
478 Posts
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April 6th, 2020 19:00
I've seen posts where people had serious problems flashing the bios with windows running. I was afraid to try that.
I don't know much about linux (haven't used it in 20 years), maybe it would be less risky?
ALSO: Be sure to try the rear USB ports as well as the front. Might be good to try more than one of each.
As redxps630 mentioned, you should also see if that flash drive will work on any other machines. You could have a faulty one.
nyc10036
5.6K Posts
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April 7th, 2020 06:00
@ANickNameNotInUse
EXE cannot be run in Linux.
I have used a USB with FreeDOS image to update BIOS on a Dell Latitude E6400. Your USB flash drive may not have been created properly. The suggestion to try the FreeDOS USB flash drive on another PC is a very good one.
.
ANickNameNotInUse
4 Posts
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April 7th, 2020 12:00
Alright everyone, Success!!!
I actually went to the trouble of installing Win7 on the backup drive in my computer.
That enabled me to flash the BIOS to A14!
Doing that ENABLED BOOT FROM FLASH DRIVE!!!
I killed 2 birds with one stone!!!
Thanks very much for all the input!