Vostro 3500 BIOS update

You may wish to force flash the bios back to the one that worked. So if it's A02 then download the A02 bios rename that file to A02.exe and copy it to a bootable drive. You'll need a DOS bootable usb drive. While the system boots press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb drive. Once it boot type the following into the command line read " X:\a02.exe /f /s " [X=the drive letter you run the file from]. Depending on the bios file version the system should automatically reboot and flash the previous bios. If it doesn't, press CRTL + ALT + DEL to soft-reset the system and the flash should do it's thing.

Do let the battery fully charge first. Let us know how it goes.

Google your model name and number, IE " Dell Vostro 3500 BIOS A02 " and it should show up and you can download it. As for the shutting down, try booting to the usb drive with a full battery, AC plugged in, but with no other drives[take out the HDD and DVD]. See how long it stays on. Of it stays on for more than 120 seconds on a consistent basis, then it would seem safe to flash as the flash process never takes longer than that. If it won't stay on, also take out one stick of RAM and retest. If it stays on, you have bad RAM and may not need to reflash anyway. If it doesn't the swap the sticks of RAM and retest. Chances are that if the system was fine before the bios update and then borked after, something went wrong during that programing session. Use your own discretion though, and when in doubt, seek help from someone who knows what their doing AND can physically see the system's behavior.

I think I can create a DOS bootable usb drive but where can I find the A02 bios? it doesn't seem to be on the Dell site when I search for it.  Also since I don't know what is causing the laptop to shut down I would be worried that it could shut down part way through flashing the Bios which would be a bad thing! 

And perhaps you should try the Winery A10 first, if the system still on.

www.dell.com/.../DriversDetails

I've taken the hard drive out and plugged it into another computer via a usb adaptor it is now running scan and fix under windows 7 which I assume is the same as chkdisk.  I've created a bootable usb drive and put the Winery A10 file on it.  I assume the correct command would be " X:\3500_A10.exe /f /s " In a minute I'll take the DVD drive out (have another cup of coffee) and see if it works.  (I'll make sure it stays running before I try the flash)

The hard drive has been scanned and fixed and the laptop without hard drive or DVD drive in boots to DOS from the usb stick and seems stable.  It won't run the command C:\3500_A10.exe /f /s   because the command f isn't known.  Can some one help with the correct/alternative syntax please.

I played around with it, this bios series doesn't seem to have much in the way of command line arguments. Have you tried running it without any?

I've not tried without the arguments (the idea that a Bios could contain 2 sets of information is new to me and I didn't know if the arguments were anything to do with where the winery information went in the bios).  I will now try the command without the arguments but not until a laptop cooling pad that I have ordered arrives. (May as well maximise the chance of successfully flashing the bios without thermal shut down) also it should give me a greater chance of looking through the bios settings to see if there is anything available concerning heat and/or fan speeds. 

Lexluthermiester, thank you for the help so far, I thought I had totally killed the laptop but at the moment I have hope.

Tried to flash bios without arguments but got error message "Rom version should be newer than Bios version".  Thinking of putting hard drive back and seeing what happens.

Hard drive back in - booted into windows.  Ran speedfan to monitor temperatures.  Uninstalled  Adaware which seemed to dramatically reduce CPU usage.  Had a short test with Word wrote a bit of text inserted a picture.  Ran Firefox, all seemed fine, updated and ran Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.  No temperature rose above 74 degrees C and had fallen back a little when during the scan the laptop shut down. Previously at least one temperatures had to rise to 100 degrees before that happened. 

Apart from booting into the Bios and seeing if there is anything in there that I can change I don't know what to do now.  Suggestions very welcome.

Thought that's what would happen, but it was worth a try.

Probably should have asked this already, but have you made sure the system fan is fully functional?

The fan does work at least on two speeds but does not operate at high speed as the temperature rises towards maximum. I don't know how to force the fan to operate or how to test it. I was hoping there would be some form of control in the updated bios.