BIOS Update Question

Insulfrog, the need to update the BIOS depends on a couple of factors.  First, is your system still under warranty.  Second, are you experiencing any problems or have done any hardware or operating system changes?

 

Since there is always a slight risk when updating the BIOS, it shouldn't be done needessly on a machine out of warranty.  If the system is working good with your present BIOS then the BIOS is best left alone. 

 

If your system is under warranty and / or upgrading to Windows Vista is a future plan then you should consider updating the BIOS.  In the A03 BIOS release, which is the latest and probably last one Dell will issue, there was improvement related to hardware support for the Vista operating system.  If your system is still under warranty then I would suggest you contact Dell Tech Support and have them walk you through a BIOS update.  That way in the unlikely event the BIOS update goes bad you will be sure to have warranty coverage for repairs.  If your warranty is no longer in effect then I would wait until you experience a problem or plan to upgrade the operating system to Vista before flashing the BIOS. 

 

I have included a full BIOS history for your model below for your reference.

 

In the event you decide to update the BIOS on your own then click here for the A03 download.  Just follow my directions below for using that download to update the BIOS.

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Updating the BIOS is easy to do, but there is a slight risk in doing so.  That risk change range from a minor problem of having to clear the NVRAM to the worse case scenario of the BIOS update corrupting the installed BIOS on the motherboard.  This would then require a motherboard replacement.  If the system is still under warranty then repairs related to a bad BIOS flash are covered by the warranty if the flash was done under the direction of Dell Tech Supprt.  To lessen this risk never do a BIOS update will weather conditions outside might indicate a possible power outage such as doing the update during a thunderstorm.  I would also suggest closing out all unneeded Windows applications prior to doing the update and disconnecting all unneeded USB devices except for the mouse and keyboard.  This will lessen the chance of the system hanging during the reboot phase of the BIOS update due to a Windows problem. 

To update your BIOS just download the file to a folder on your hard drive and run it from there.  Avoid saving the file to your desktop as Windows has a quirk which can make deleting the file afterwards difficult to do.  Once the file is run the process of updating your BIOS will take less than 30 seconds so your exposure to potential problems is minimal.

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DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION
BIOS RELEASE NOTES
Copyright 2005 Dell Computer Corporation.  All rights reserved.

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System:        Dimension 9100
Version:       A03
Release Date:  8/11/2006

The following changes have been made to BIOS rev A02 to create A03:

1. Improve keyboard parser buffer operation.
2. Allow USB Controller to be disabled.
3. Improve support for bootable optical drives.
4. Add new Service Tag editing feature.
5. Add support for VIIV logos.
6. Add PCI and Sigmatel support for for Vista.
7. Update the Copyright to 2006.
8. Add support for newer processors.
9. Improve S3 operation.
10.Improve PME functionality.
11.Correct size reporting in setup.
12.Improve PCIE detection algorithm.
13.Correct USB detach performance.
14.Improve stability when no boot device is present.
 
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System:        Dimension 9100
Version:       A02
Release Date:  12/07/2005

The following changes have been made to BIOS rev A01 to create A02:

1. Updated microcode for newer CPU steppings.
2. Updated SMBIOS tables to meet new specifications.
3. Improved USB support.
4. Improved BIOS flash support.

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I must have forgottern to include the specifications of my PC in my inital post, so here they are :) : -

 

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.                
System Model: Dimension 9100               
Processor: Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c

Video Card + display mem: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX @ 256.0 MB

Sound Card: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [C880]

Input: Mouse, Keyboard, 2 X Game Pads

Drives - HDD: Int HDD drive C, Ext HDD drive F

Drives - Floppy: Ext USB Floppy drive A

Drives - Optical: DVD Drive drive D, DVD Re-W drive E

 

The reason why I'm asking is that I am experiencing a blue screen with a 'Stop 0x0000007E (KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)' error and its suggested to me to basically do either: -

 

1) Check disk space

2) Check drivers

3) Check BIOS updates

4) Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing

 

So what I thought was to check for any BIOS updates to see if there was any before I carry on.  I am not going to install any BIOS updates at this time until I take a look at the other options.  I think that would be the best option for now.

 

Thanks anyway

 

 

Insulfrog, click here for another web site that explains STOP error messages.  I would try updating the drivers first.  If you also installed any new hardware recently, that maybe the culprit as well.

 

As for the caching and shadowing, a Dell BIOS lacks any options to disable or enable those features.  By default those options are already disabled.

 

If your still under warranty then I would consider updating the BIOS anyways.  Better to do it now then wait till after the warranty expires and you really have a need for the latest BIOS version.

 

 

Thank you for your reply but I am still getting error messages.  I have got adequate disk space, I've checked and updated my drivers, my message is asking me to change video adapters but mine are ok at present.  Then it asks me to check for BIOS updates, and give me the technical info which is:

 

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x806E494F, 0xF79E1C30, 0xF79E192C)

 

Then dumps physical memory, then askes me to check tech support.

 

After reading your replies, the only thing that I can think of is that I have a new Game called Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars.  Its when I have played this and come out of the game and open my DVD ROM drawer is when I get the error message.  Could the game be the culprit of the problem?