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techseeker
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September 2nd, 2004 02:00
Dell Tech support says "wait to install SP2"
It's a long story, but I spoke with a Dell support technician this afternoon because as you have been reading something on Dell's support alerts from several weeks ago said that it might be necessary to upgrade the bios before installing SP2. And in fact there is a bios upgrade available for my computer. However the technician I spoke with the first time seemed confused and in fact gave me the wrong bios download which because of his hesitancy I didn't install. Tonight I was on the phone with Dell support for an hour..including a supervisor to figure out the correct bios upgrade and to find out if it was safe to install SP2. The conclusion from Dell is that there seems to be a systemic problem between Dell computers and SP2 and they are advising owners of Dell computers not to install SP2. They said there are some arguments going on between Microsoft and Dell re: who is responsible here, but the support technician advised waiting for several more weeks, I had turned off the automatic updates in lieu of waiting for the cd which arrived this week. I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop which is a year old this week. And if this is official Dell policy shouldn't we be told to wait on our installation instead of leaving it to chance?
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 03:00
"And if this is official Dell policy..."
I don't believe this is official Dell policy as Dell posts instructions on how to install SP2.
And it appears to me that a majority of members (including myself) in this forum have had no problems with SP2, except for minor problems like Dell Solution Center not working - which really is a worthwhile trade-off for the increased security.
Besides, what do you want to wait for?
I doubt Microsoft is going to make changes any time soon.
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 04:00
I basically agree. All the people waiting for "the bugs to be fixed" will be waiting a very, very long time (read forever). If anyone will be fixing things, I have a feeling it will be dell.
So while I suppose you could wait for more updates and testing, keep in mind that SP2 seems to work fine on the vast majority of dell systems. This is *not* to say that you should not backup your files ... if you don't, and have anything important, you are a fool.
As for a bios update, there has been talk that it may help with a few select systems. I honestly don't know. It shouldn't be hard to find the correct ones though ... and if there are updates coming, bear in mind you will have to flash it in the future (if the bios is at fault), so it's not like you're going to get out of doing it.
Evaluate the upgrade on your own. If you don't need what it offers, then consider waiting. Personally, I got it the day the network install came out (both because ZoneAlarm [free] was driving me insane and because I had been waiting on its release for freaking forever).
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 13:00
The Dell support site recommends that before installing XP2 that you ensure that you have latest bios for your system. How do you safely determine if you already have the lastest bios. I sure don't want to mess with the bios if I don't have to.
Thanks
JimCaher
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 14:00
Check out my post about SP2 on my three year old Inspiron 4000.......and I did not update to the latest BIOS. Worked fine for me and is working fine now, too. Maybe it's a roll of the dice, but, what the heck, you gotta take a plunge sometime. Back it up first, of course....1570
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 16:00
There are several ways. When you first boot up the computer, the bios version will be listed on the splash screen that first comes up.
To see what the latest is, go to the download section of dell's support site and enter in your model. Click FlashBios downloads and it will give you the latest.
If you use the hard-drive version (which isn't recommended by a lot of people), it will also list your current version before giving you the option of upgrading.
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 17:00
I'm really not sure why he would possibly tell you to go to A23. Originally, the 5100 bioses were phoenix. If you still had one of those, you would need to upgrade to A22 (which was the first dell bios), before upgrading to anything higher.
I am running A29 on my i5100 and have not noticed any problems at all. ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/I5100A29.TXT will show you what each new version does (A22 onward).
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 17:00
The flash really doesn't save itself to the harddrive at all ... not to blame dell, but I'm betting if you call again you'll get a different answer...
Speaking of which, you can bet even if it's a completely unrelated problem, they're first advice will be to upgrade to the latest bios
But yes, generally speaking, there is no reason to flash unless you need it. I personally do NOT think you will need it for SP2.
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 17:00
I should first say that I am not a power user, but just someone who is eager to learn. As a follow up to learning which is the new correct bios to install, I followed all the correct directions with a Dell technician on the phone guiding me. The resulting bios up grade was an A29, but the technician told me that was not the one for me. Instead we went to a list of previous upgrades and he said to pick A23 which would be best for me. When I asked how I could have possibly known which one was right, he said, "You should always consult with tech support first". Frankly I'm back at square one. Still too timid to make the upgrade and mess with a bios that is working perfectly fine. Dell Inspiron 5100 barely a year old.1570
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Posted September 2nd, 2004 17:00
Thanks for that reply. My original bios is A22. The tech support guy said we look at everything about how your computer is configured and then we recommend which bios upgrade you should take. Again it's why I'm staying put at the moment. There was something about the A29 not being saved to a hard drive or something, but I am afraid try as I might I just couldn't understand it.
bois dormant
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Posted September 14th, 2004 12:00