BIOS A21 can only be run from DOS floppy ???

SpeedStep - thanks for post and good advice to uninstall AV first.  However, have you installed this A21 yourself on an XP machine?

this is an error.  runs from xp vista or win7

uninstall any antivirus sofware when tyring this  then reinstall after

SpeedStep - I ran A21 - it seems to work.  Thanks for your good advice.  In my case, I did not UNinstall Avast AV but instead used my CodeStuff Starter (while in SafeMode) and Task Scheduler to turn off Avast's start-up entry AND its service.  Tested a few times (a few reboots without the network connection) to be sure Avast AV would not come on in reboots, then ran the A21 BIOS update.  Then reversed the process.  But I would recommend that most folks follow your advice instead.  Reminder to unplug the network FIRST and plug it back in LAST.

SpeedStep - thanks for post and good advice to uninstall AV first.  However, have you installed this A21 yourself on an XP machine?

Done XP SP2 and SP3

As well as Vista Business and Vista home

And windows 7

Had various AV systems stop the update mid write and brick the machine.

Some newer dells bios require INTEL MANAGMENT ENGINE so safe mode doesn't work.

It will halt with cryptic message saying ME not installed.

SppedStep:  My Optiplex 755 came with Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT), which I had to shut off because it made the fan rev up at odd times.  I am still miffed that Dell sold me a machine with this technology because I had made it very clear to the Dell sales staff that the PC was for home use, not in an office network.  So, now, Dell is making this worse?  And not warning folks in their BIOS instructions?

There are have been too many layoffs and changes. The 755 has updated versions of the AMT and HECI and SOL drivers.

When you updated the bios this also updated the AMT firmware.   755 is quite old now.  The new OptiPlex models are 4 digits 9010 or something like that.

The "PCI Serial Port Driver is not actually a Serial Port

Its the Intel AMT HECI & AMT SOL/LMS Hardware.  

The Current Driver for this works with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 32 and 64 bit.

One Size Fits all.

Operating Systems

Windows 7 32-bit

Windows 7 64-bit

Windows Vista 32-bit

Windows Vista 64-bit

Windows XP

Windows XP x64

Chipset

ftp.us.dell.com/.../R174616.exe

AMT-HECI

ftp.us.dell.com/.../Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe

AMT-SOL

ftp.us.dell.com/.../Intel_AMT-SOL--LMS_A02_R255438.exe

Hard Drive Installation (via WinZip) with Setup.exe File for Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe

Download

1.Click Download Now, to download the file.

2.When the File Download window appears, click Save (Windows XP

users will click Save) this program to disk and click OK.  The Save In:

window appears.

3.From the Save In: field, click the down arrow then click to

select Desktop and click Save.  The file will download to your desktop.

4.If the Download Complete window appears, click Close.  The file

icon appears on your desktop.

Install

1.Double-click the new icon on the desktop labeled Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe.

2.The Self-Extracting window appears and prompts you to extract or

unzip to C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R255437. Write down this path so the executable (I.e.

Setup.exe) file can be found later.

3.The Self-Extractor window appears.

4.Click OK.

5.After completing the file extraction, if the Self-Extractor

window is still open, close it.

6.Click the Start button and then click Run.

7.Type C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R255437 in the Open textbox and then click OK.

8.Follow the on-screen installation instructions.           

Speedstep:  What do HECI and SOL do?  I'm still interested in this topic, but neither Dell nor Intel ever explained the function of these drivers.  My only understanding of iAMT is that it's a back door for a network supervisor to reach dead machines on his network to fix them remotely.  Doesn't apply to me because I use this 755 only at home with only a WORKGROUP home network to connect to a few other devices.

Host Embedded Controller Interface, abbreviated as HECI, is a recent (introduced in 2006) technology used for Active Management Technology (AMT) in Intel chipsets that support Core 2 Duo microprocessors.

SOL is Serial over LAN.   (Not the other thing you were thinking).

Details

The HECI bus allows the Host OS to communicate directly with the Manageability Engine (ME) integrated in the chipset. This bi-directional, variable data-rate bus enables the Host and ME to communicate system management information and events in a standards-compliant way, essentially replacing the System Management Bus (SMBus). The bus consists of four wires: a request and grant pair along with a serial transmit and receive data pair.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have historically provided active management technologies through the use of proprietary on-board controllers, such as Baseboard Management Controllers. These solutions typically suffer two main disadvantages due to their proprietary nature. High BOM costs are usually incurred due to need for additional components and routing. High PLC costs are incurred due to the non-standard implementation, which increases software and hardware design and validation costs while remaining relatively inflexible to future changes. On the other hand, the inflexibility is even greater with HECI due to coupling HECI with a chipset, and having to redevelop HECI software for each different chipset as opposed to one common BMC software for multiple chipsets.

HECI and the previously used SMBus have the following aspects in common: the Host OS is able to control system management devices such as: on-board fan controllers, remote wake devices such as Wake-on-LAN, power supply devices such as Smart Battery Data. Builtin HECI functionality and 3rd-party management cards can allow the Host OS to directly initiate management events (such as remote wake, or, out-of-band throttling to decrease thermal and power profile) in case HECI is supported by the running OS. Example devices are network cards and graphics cards. Besides that, both HECI and other ME technologies are chipset/ME vendor-specific.

Host Initiated Messages

   Read battery status

   Read thermal data

   Enable/disable wake devices

   Notify devices to change power state (thermal, performance, or power throttling)

Manageability Engine Initiated Messages

   Alert Host to battery event

       Low or Critical battery level

       Switch between A/C (wall) and D/C (battery)

   Alert Host to thermal event (Hot or Critical thermal trip)

   Change Fan Speed

   Detect network wake

   Boot/Shutdown System

   Detected Host Intrusion

   Change boot device

   Report system inventory

Example

As an example, assume the case of Wake-on-LAN. Traditionally, the OS controls Wake-on-LAN and must call third-party device drivers to enable support on a network card. With the HECI bus, the host is able to assert its request line (REQ#), the ME will assert its grant line (GNT#), and the host can send its message using its serial transmit signal. Upon receipt of the Wake-on-LAN enable message on HECI, the ME directly enables Wake-on-LAN in the integrated (or externally supported) network device. Without HECI drivers in the OS, Wake-on-LAN functionality is lost even if standard network drivers would be able to enable it. This is a major problem in large-scale enterprise deployments with standard software images.

When the magic wake packet is received by the LAN device, the encapsulated data is passed to the ME, which has its own TCP/IP stack and can decapsulate the packet. The ME then asserts its request line (REQ#), the host acknowledges by asserting grant (GNT#), and the message is passed to the host to initiate a wake event.

With this technology, the magic packet may be encapsulated in TCP packets thus allowing the packet to traverse network infrastructures via routers and thereby increasing the attack surface, something which traditional Wake-on-LAN does not enable. An advantage in Intel-centric deployments is that the solution does not require non-Intel drivers. If no host/ME interaction is needed, HECI and other ME technologies are OS independent.

References

   Hofemeier, Gael. "Intel Software Network Blogs >>Intel(r) AMT and the Intel(r) ME".

   Mungara, Ajay. "Intel Software Network Blogs >> Let us talk about HECI and LMS".

   "Open Source Intel Active Management Technology Drivers and Tools".

   "Intel Active Management Technology".

   "Intel Software Network Blogs >> Baseboard Management Contollers (BMC) vs Virtualization Appliance-Based Management".

See also

   Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)

   Baseboard management controller (BMC)

   System Management Bus (SMBus)

The backdoor is independent of the OS.  Bios upgrades and even OS upgrades can be done remotely with INTEL VPRO

"Big Brother" software built into the BIOS/Hardware

The backdoor is independent of the OS.  Bios upgrades and even OS upgrades can be done remotely with INTEL VPRO

"Big Brother" software built into the BIOS/Hardware

Wow !!!  Useless to me but thanks for detail.