XPS 8300 BIOS A06 or A07?

Hi guys, ok... A07 doesn't bring Ivy Bridge support. I have tested my XPS 8300 running BIOS A07 using an i7 3770 CPU and it didn't POST.

I have however been investigating what it would take to mod this A07 BIOS to add Ivy Bridge support myself. I have managed to deconstruct the A07 ROM file and found that it does indeed only include CPU microcode support for Sandy Bridge CPU's. I also discovered that the CPU microcode within A07 for Sandy Bridge CPU's is dated 21/06/2011 and is update revision 1A. A quick search in Intel's website shows that the latest microcode for the Sandy Bridge CPU's is dated 24/04/2012 with update revision 28.

So, long story short, I have replaced the Sandy Bridge microcode within the A07 ROM with the latest update revision 28. At the same time I also added the latest Ivy Bridge microcode 09/01/2013 update revision 17 to the A07 ROM. I have re-flashed my BIOS with this modded ROM (still running a Sandy Bridge CPU) and everything went well. The tool AIDA64 now reports that I am running CPU microcode revision 28 instead of previously showing revision 1A.

The A07 ROM I have modded now contains:

• 06A7 is Sandy Bridge microcode
• 06A9 is Ivy Bridge microcode

Now that I know modding the BIOS to include these updated microcodes didn't brick anything, I will test my rig with an Ivy Bridge CPU again in the next couple of days and report back whether it has been a successful exercise. I don't own an Ivy Bridge CPU so I need to again borrow one for my testing. If it works, I may just have a reason to finally purchase one.

Fingers crossed ;o)

Sorry guys, Dell has beaten me... it didn't work. Definitely no Ivy Bridge support for the XPS 8300 ;o(

Hi, Im encountering the same issue as well.

Bought Power Colour HD7850. XPS 8300 i7.

The system is unable to detect the graphic card. What can we do about it?

Thanks~ 

Hi, Im encountering the same issue as well.

Bought Power Colour HD7850. XPS 8300 i7.

The system is unable to detect the graphic card. What can we do about it?

contact power color support. theyll send you a non-uefi bios to flash your video card with. youll need to use another computer that can boot with the card in order to flash it with the new bios.

Thanks for your reply ooandyoo~ upgraded my BIOS to AO7, but unable to work as well.

May i know how long will it take for them to reply u? And what kind of information did you provide them with. I just told them I'm using XPS 8300, and the system is unable to detect the card.

If it will take them super long to reply, I'm thinking of going down for an exchange tmr, and change to GTX660 instead (in case the shop owner refuses to do the exchange with me)

Thanks again!

I bought my XPS 8300 a little more than a year ago and didn’t upgrade the video card, since I'm not gaming and was ok with the onboard graphics until now, because I've just bought the Dell’s U2713HM new IPS Monitor with the native resolution of 2560x1440 and apparently onboard video of my XPS doesn't support that. (upgrading the Bios from .3 to .6 didn't help.. Where are the graphic’s settings anyway?)

I've somehow made a custom entry in Intel graphics drivers for that resolution, but it won’t allow me to put more than 30Hz refresh rate. So I've upgraded my graphic card and just realized that the S/PDIF pins are missing on my 0Y2MRG motherboard. The dots are there with the "spdif 2" spelled out underneath of them,
but the actual connector pins are nonexistent.

Can you guys tell me if I'd solder the spdif signal wire (which pin it supposed to be? (I know I can get the "ground" from anywhere)) to the mobo, will it work or the whole chip is “routed” to the onboard HDMI and that’s the reason dell’s got “greedy” on putting the pins?

I really need the HDMI sound. What should I do? Will the v.7 Bios help me? How to go to vBios to increase the onboard graphics memory and other videocard
parameters (I see nothing related with graphics in Bios)? Is there a way to somehow connect the fiber-optical S/PDIF Out to my graphic card? Or any other solution to have the 2560x1440 60Hz resolution on DVI and HDMI w/ audio on this Dell XPS 8300 with service tag <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy> ?

TIA :emotion-21:

So glad I stumbled on to this Post. I have 2 Dell XPS 8300, and these 2 computers have me stumped beyond space and time.

I created a post here looking for answers....and NADA..

He is quick issues

Running a new Gigabyte HD 6850 OC.....Card run in 1.1 x 16 on both PC's....or GPU-z shows this"even under load and Render Test"-Pulled card and tested in another computer"non-Dell" runs correct..

Mini Wireless Card is running at 72 M instead of wireless N 150....Pulled the card out and tested in my dell laptop-Card run correct in my dell laptop.

I purchased a 2tb Seagate 64cache 4k sata 6g....and both dells, runs at sata 3g and 32cache. Card runs correct in other PC's...and yes I plug it into sata port 0....and test 1---Port 0 and 1 are sata 6g..new drive running at sata 2

."Sata 6g 32 cache 1tb drive works in sata 6gb-old drive" old drive runs at sata 3

To the average person--Computer runs Great, But To me--I've been building for around 12 years--I want that extra speed...

To me it seems this computer is only running at half.....

To the people with the A7 bios, Did you figure out what it fixes? I really want to try this bios, But I don't want to be in the same spot if I do...

So glad to find fellow users of the XPS 8300

R7 260x Won't work , Hope they going to update the BIOS or it's my PSU problem?

When will the A07 Bios release ? :'( My r7 260x won't work, no signal to the monitor.

To extract your A07 BIOS follow the below: * Download the A06 BIOS from Dell's website here - downloads.dell.com/.../TR-A06_QS.EXE * Run the file (it will tell you your BIOS is newer and won't actually perform the update) but before you close, open a Run command and type %TEMP% * Look for a folder containing the file afuwinx64.exe and other files (my folder was called "_971B.tmp") * Copy this folder and all its files to a location such as C:\Dell_BIOS * Close the A06 BIOS update screen * Open a CMD window as Administrator and change directory to C:\Dell_BIOS * If you are running 32bit Windows 7 or 8 run - afuwin.exe A07.ROM /O * If you are running 64bit Windows 7 or 8 run - afuwinx64.exe A07.ROM /O Note: The last command is a capital letter O. Once complete, the file A07.ROM in C:\Dell_BIOS is your extracted A07 BIOS file.

I followed the instructions above and was able to generate the A07.ROM file.  How do I install this to the XPS 8300 BIOS?  Is there a particular Flash installer I should use?

Has anyone had any success with a video card higher than the 7850?

so, i bought a evga gtx 750 ti superlocked the other day and it worked without issue on bios 06.

follow instructions on this thread, remove old drivers for the amd card before and it worked fine. now i wonder if other nvidia cards will work.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19587710.aspx

I also would love to get my hands on the A07, I don't care if it is a beta or in test I want to see if it works better for virtualization. So if anybody can get it to me at  it would be great and I will not say a word SHHHHHLOL....

I have a "sandy bridge" code when I run CPU-Z.  Is there a new Bios for this that has the UEFI instead of bios, and will this still run all my programs?  I'm have a resolution breakup constantly with "display driver stopped working, now has recovered.  I have a Radeon 5770 HD card in it, but drivers are not available for this, or does this card take the UEFI.  It worked good with my windows 7, but windows 10 display is action up, sometime I have to re-boot several times to get it to work again.  My MSINFO32, does not work don't know what, and I don't know how to fix it with windows 10.