Reuse IronPort C160 as PE850 (replace bios)

Question

Hey folks, im trying to reuse our old PE850 based cisco ironport c160 (email security appliance) as a linux server for some internal monitoring applications. as mentioned in the title i've been facing issues replacing the cisco ironport bios with the dell bios. i downloaded the file PE850-A04.EXE and copied it to a freedos bootable usb. flash util can be started using command 'PE850~1.EXE /FORCETYPE'. flash util message 'verifying system configuration. checking rom file. CRC-32 File is correct' appears along with the question: Press Y to replace '!!!' with 'A04' BIOS. after entering Y the screen stucks immediately. i've waited aprox 10 minutes (i've never saw an bios update taking more than 1 minute). if i press anything else then Y a proper message appears saying that the update was cancelled by user..  so it looks like the flash util works fine, only after confirm with Y everythings stops.. did i forget something? The USB Stick has something around 15gb and is connected to the PE850 over an usb-hub alongside with my keyboard (since it seems to be the only possibillity to use an bootable-usb and keyboard at the same time). i tried downloading the A01 instead of A04 but i cant use that program in dos.. any hints are well appreciated!

Ametrin · Answer

Hello!

First sorry for my bad einglish. I'm not a native speaker.

I know i do some kind of grave-digging but anyway.....

In my situatuion the Ironport C160 was based on an Dell R200 ( Mainboard: DA0S55MB8C0 Number found between fans and CPU Cooler under the black plastic thing).

The correct BIOS was found on dell site using "R200 bios" on gooole. After downloading and executing the text on the blue screen changed from:

press Y to replace "!!!" with "A04" BIOS to

press Y to replace Ironport 1.4.3 bios with Dell 1.4.3 bios.

After pressing Y flash process started immediately.

Hope this helps.

greets Robert

PowerEdge OS Forum

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