I didn't use the download manager... when I say extract, I really just meant I saw a progress bar briefly before the message saying it was going to reboot and install it.

I get this in my event log:

Faulting application name: E6510A09.EXE, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Faulting module name: E6510A09.EXE, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0003e32a

Faulting process id: 0x2134

Faulting application start time: 0x01cc2196c801a4ea

Faulting application path: C:\Users\*****\Desktop\E6510A09.EXE

Faulting module path: C:\Users\******\Desktop\E6510A09.EXE

Report Id: 066260fe-8d8a-11e0-94cc-1c659d50f000

You do not need to extract it if you skip the Download Manager and download the file directly. Click on the file instead of the Download button and you will go to the next page where you can download the actual file then you can click it to run.

I am having this problem.  Spent ~2hrs with Dell yesterday trying to get it to load.   Saw the same status bar flash by followed by nothing.  My event logs show the same errors. 

guess we'll just have to wait for a new version to come out... the tech support guy I was e-mailing with already wanted to replace my system board... normally I'm all for replacing hardware, but this seems like purely a software problem.

Fyi - In the last 3 weeks I've had the motherboard replaced 3 times, LCD replaced and all the memory swapped out, trying to resolve a system lockup issue so this isn't a hardware problem.  

I also tried installing under Safe Mode using the /forceit parameter from the command line and it generated the same fault message in the event logs.

Have you tried installing it via DOS? I couldn't get any DOS boot disks to read the cdrom or usb storage...

The best and safest way to flash the bios of any computer is from plain vanilla DOS with no drivers or config.sys loaded.

The best way to to this on a modern system is to make a DOS bootable USB flash memory drive. There is a well known HP (Hewlett Packard) utility specifically for this purpose. Google it if you wish. You also need the DOS system files from Windows '98. You can download an archive with the utility, files and instructions here. 

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

Please note that you will need to give administrative permission, after extracting the ZIP archives, to run the HP utility on Vista and Windows 7. Right click on the icon/executable and select run as administrator and answer the prompt.

Once you have managed to create a bootable USB flash memory drive, copy your bios flasher .exe file to the USB, boot the USB and then run the .exe file.

It is always best to disconnect all peripherals, boot the system, use F2 to enter bios setup, then find the option to load bios default values and save and exit before attempting a flash.

It is safest to use a USB stick of 2GB or less, these are quite old now. I use an old 256MB SD card from a camera in an SD card reader and this works fine.

Don't flash the bios if there is an unresolved hardware problem, fix that first. Unless the bios update is specifically to address such a hardware issue.

Glad to hear it worked. I have edited my post to reflect your download source since my link did not not work.

I got mine to work using this method as well, thank you so much!