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tekz0r7865

11 Posts

90168

October 27th, 2004 01:00

flash bios A01 succeeded, 700m-- acts as though failed.

I flashed the bios in windows [something that i hate doing but i dont have a floppy/usb floppy drive i could have booted from for my laptop]. I received the laptop THREE hours ago, and wanted to flash to the newest bios [i had A00 on it currently], so i downloaded the in-OS bios flash program, ran it, it said it was successful and asked me to reboot, i clicked OK, and the system powered down [which is normal when flashing from windows (i tried it on a dell insp. 5100 a few days ago and thats what it did)] except it did not turn back on when i hit the power button, the fan spins up, the hdd spins up, all components seem to run, but the only light on the laptop is the battery charging light.
 
 
I dont want to send it back in, should I just take it apart and remove the coincell battery to clear the CMOS? or will that not work? Will it void my warranty??
 
 
EDIT: yes both battery and AC were plugged in the entire time.

Message Edited by tekz0r7865 on 10-26-2004 09:29 PM

johnallg

2 Intern

 • 

7.3K Posts

October 27th, 2004 02:00

Another one bites the dust.  It is dead and only a motherboard replacement will fix it.  Call and get it scheduled. 

MZI

3 Posts

October 27th, 2004 05:00

Can you explain the procedure of removing of the "battery"?

tekz0r7865

11 Posts

October 27th, 2004 16:00

well, upon removing merely the hinge cover, i was shocked at what i'd found. electrical tape used to hold together a display cable. and though its' purely cosmetic, when i removed the keyboard, it looks as though the dell tech who put together my laptop didnt mind eating lunch during the build process, looks a lot like mayo fingerprints and for some reason it smells like mayo too. thanks for the quality workmanship dell. i got about half way through and then decided to stop and just send it in, it wasn't worth the risk on a brand new laptop. afriend of mine gave me a great analogy "it's like performing surgery on a newborn baby".  http://img86.exs.cx/img86/7471/laptop2.jpg

 

Message Edited by tekz0r7865 on 10-27-2004 12:38 PM

bacillus

2 Intern

 • 

14.4K Posts

October 27th, 2004 17:00

I hope you realise that dell doesn't actually build those laptops themselves!

johnallg

2 Intern

 • 

7.3K Posts

October 27th, 2004 18:00

Removing the battery will only wipe your clock.  The BIOS is burned into a chip, and things like setup parameters and passwords are flashed into another smaller chip.  Security for theft reasons.  Resetting factory defaults is done by keystroke while in the BIOS, which right now your notebook doesn't have.

What I don't understand is why the notebook BIOS isn't designed with a failsafe area that is not written over or erased that would, upon not finding a valid BIOS to boot from, allow a boot to floppy or cd so a reflash could be implemented.  Having the code written to implement that would be a lot cheaper than continually replacing motherboards and having to reflash them in the refurb center!!

tekz0r7865

11 Posts

October 27th, 2004 20:00

i cant believe this is even an issue with a laptop-- it shouldn't be. there should be a jumper or hard reset to restore original bios. pc mobo's have had them for as long as i can remember and on top of that the laptop had TAPE on it! that is pretty shady, im going to include a note with my rma pointing out that i want a new display because this one will probably die within a few months of regular use due to the falty connection. im so outraged by it, it may seem a minor defect to most but imagine receiving a brand new laptop and finding one of the components is being held together using standard electrical tape..

olouie

1 Message

October 27th, 2004 21:00

just happened to me too, only second day with the 700m and now its dead :-( so sad.

I hope they get a replacement sent out soon, but I am guessing they will take their time on that one.

JoeVane

2 Posts

October 28th, 2004 02:00

The same thing just happened to me, I just wish I had seen this thread sooner, I already have a case number and I'll have to ship my 700m back for repairs :smileysad:

 

Dilbatt

191 Posts

October 28th, 2004 11:00

You might call Dell Tech Support.  There may be a way to fix this without sending it in.  Many times Dell has a recovery procedure for corrupt BIOS upgrades.

Ed C

2 Intern

 • 

3.2K Posts

October 28th, 2004 13:00

I have never heard of one and don't believe anyone else that posts to these forums have ever either. Otherwise someone would of posted it. Dell will tell you to send the unit back or have a tech come out, if you have a onsite warranty, to change out the system board.

MZI

3 Posts

October 28th, 2004 17:00

Hi all,
 
What else can a corrupted bios do beside damaging the mobo?

Ed C

2 Intern

 • 

3.2K Posts

October 28th, 2004 18:00

A corrupted BIOS does not damage the motherboard. If the BIOS is corrupted the PC will NOT POST (Power On Self Test="P" "O" "S" "T"). If no POST no boot the OS, NO computer.

johnallg

2 Intern

 • 

7.3K Posts

October 28th, 2004 21:00

The BIOS is the software that wakes the cpu and tells it where to find everything, and in what order.  Without it (a bad flash) the cpu has no instructions.

tekz0r7865

11 Posts

October 28th, 2004 22:00

i love the fact that you guys are waxing intellectual about what exactly a bios is, but we all effing know what it does and what happens with a corrupted one. the problem is that dell has no failsafe for their notebooks for such an issue. which is fairly poor technical planning on their part, instead of implementing a jumper to clear cmos on the underside of thenotebook with a simple screw down shell [like where the hd or ram is], we have to send it in for repairs [ie new bios chip, new mobo, whatever they plan on doing (i prefer new mobo)]. its plain inefficient.

Bay Wolf

4.4K Posts

October 30th, 2004 15:00


@tekz0r7865 wrote:
i love the fact that you guys are waxing intellectual about what exactly a bios is, but we all effing know what it does and what happens with a corrupted one. the problem is that dell has no failsafe for their notebooks for such an issue. which is fairly poor technical planning on their part, instead of implementing a jumper to clear cmos on the underside of thenotebook with a simple screw down shell [like where the hd or ram is], we have to send it in for repairs [ie new bios chip, new mobo, whatever they plan on doing (i prefer new mobo)]. its plain inefficient.

It may be considered "poor technical planning" by some, but for others, it is one step taken for security.  If someone can not "reset" the BIOS through a jumper, then they also can not remove a BIOS or Hard Drive Password that has been installed.  If they can not remove the password, then the notebook is useless to the thief. 

A potential thief knowing the above, may not take the risk to steal the notebook if there is a potential that it is useless to them.

 

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