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slick1

5 Posts

5759

March 19th, 2006 01:00

Upgrade to WinXP & Upgrade BIOS

I am upgrading my WIN 98SE to WinXP Home Ed. I am running a DELL Dimension XPS R400 which was upgraded to a Intel Pent III 1GIG.  Memory is at 384, and have a Turtle Beach,  Santa Cruz installed along with a Nvidia GeForce 2 MX400 32 MB AGP.  I am also planning on installing a internal Maxtor HD 40GB.  This system is Awsome but needs a change,  what I need to know is should I upgrade my BIOS from A09 to A13  ??  Never had no problems with the A09, but now with all the upgrades I don't know what to do.  Thanks in Advance.

dave51_2fe887

2 Intern

 • 

1.3K Posts

March 19th, 2006 11:00

slick1,

I've done the same 98 to XP upgrade on a Dimension XPS T700 with Bios A11, no problems.

Majestic

2 Intern

 • 

9.4K Posts

March 19th, 2006 12:00

Slick1, although it is generally recommended that you use the latest BIOS version when installing Windows XP, there have been a number of XPS R owners who reported their systems didn't work as well with the A13 update and they reverted back to the earlier A12 release.  Although Dell no longer has the A12 version available for download it can still be downloaded at Bob Matthew's web site by clicking here.
 
The other option is since your present BIOS is working good then you may want to try Windows XP with it.  In the later BIOS releases from version A09 there was nothing specifically added for Windows XP or the hardware changes you made.  Since there is always a risk in updating the BIOS and you are in doubt, I would suggest leaving your present BIOS version in place and then see how the XP and hard drive upgrade performs.  In the event you encounter problems with the upgrades you can always update the BIOS then. 
 
For your reference I have listed the BIOS history of the later BIOS versions.
 
     DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION
     BIOS RELEASE NOTES
     Copyright 1998,1999 Dell Computer Corporation.  All rights reserved.

     System:        Dimension XPS Rxxx
     Version:       A13
     Release Date:  09/29/99

     1. Fixed issue where POST text and logo would not display correctly on IBM Flat Panel monitors.
     2. Fixed issue where system will hang on reboot with certain USB speakers attached to the system.
     3. Replaced small Dell globe logo with small Dell text logo because of flash space concerns.
    ********************************************************************
     System:        Dimension XPS Rxxx
     Version:       A12
     Release Date:  05/06/99

     1. Added [Ctrl]-[Alt]-L as an available hotkey.
     2. Modified Setup BIOS Version, Resume on Ring and copyright fields.
     3. Fixed Keyboard Configuration "NumLock" Initialization Feature.
     4. Added Windows 2000 support to the BIOS.
     5. Modified RTC update code.
     6. Fixed IBUAPI hang condition.
     7. Disabled PCI slot clocks for unused slots.
    ********************************************************************
     System:        Dimension XPS Rxxx
     Version:       A11
     Release Date:  09/24/98

     1. Added USB Legacy option back into Setup.
     2. Fixed possible removeable media ATAPI hang condition.
     3. Correctly default ECC memory and log all ECC errors.
     4. Modified USB device detect.
     5. Fixed IBUAPI hang condition.
     6. Corrected unattended start mode problem.
    ********************************************************************

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