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Inspiron 560: Rollback to Original BIOS and Reinstall New BIOS if Needed (unique details)
Hello
I upgraded my BIOS recently (I believe from A04 to A06) because I felt it might be needed to support a CPU upgrade. Problem is, the new BIOS adds no new features that I can see, and takes 10 seconds longer to boot. Fastboot is enabled. This is a problem, since I recently installed an SSD and this new BIOS appears to be doing nothing, and is getting in the way of an otherwise lightning fast boot.
What is the correct procedure for restoring the system to the BIOS which it shipped with? I think I can remove the battery, but is there not a preferred method?
Also, it is remotely possible, given the processor upgrade, that the old BIOS will not boot. I would prefer not to put in the old processor, reinstall the new BIOS, put in the new processor... Decades ago, a floppy disk would have come to the rescue, I believe Dell has a procedure for installing a new BIOS from a flash drive if a system fails to boot, what is the correct procedure?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
beamermt79
4 Operator
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July 8th, 2017 17:00
Hello! All you have to do is download the original BIOS found here under BIOS and run the windows program. It may warn you that you are 'downgrading' the BIOS or installing an older version but from what i've seen just hit ok. According to the install instructions you should be able to do this from DOS via USB drive. You will have to create a bootable MS-DOS based USB drive and put the files onto it.
As for if the processor will work or not, that depends on if DELL ever officially supported the processor. If it is one that would have come with the machine in the first place then in theory you shouldn't have any issues example going from an i3 to an i7 in the same family and DELL sold configurations like that. If its something DELL did not officially support but the chipet/motherboard does, you may run into an issue.
AARRGGHHH
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July 10th, 2017 03:00
Downloading and installing the old BIOS will be easy enough (thank you for the link). What I'm concerned about is: if the computer won't boot with the old BIOS, how do I get the newer BIOS reinstalled? I know Dell has a procedure, but I do not know the details. The last time I did this, it involved a floppy drive. Could you enlighten me on Dell's current procedure?
Regarding the CPU (a Quad Core 3 GHz) I do not know whether Dell ever supported it, but it's working fine. I just hope it works fine with the older BIOS, since the new BIOS adds no new features, and takes way too long to boot.
Thanks
PS: I temporarily rejected the answer so that the question would still be open for replies, in some forums, an answer closes the topic. I appreciate your insight!
RoHe
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July 10th, 2017 11:00
A06: "Update CPU microcode" which means it may improve support for existing CPUs and/or add support for new CPUs. So no "new features" for the user.
I presume you updated BIOS before installing the new CPU so you have no way to know if the prior version supports that new processor. So going backward might make the PC unbootable with the new CPU installed.
Updating BIOS, doesn't -necessarily- mean settings from the older version were preserved. And unfortunately, you probably didn't copy down those settings before you updated BIOS. So did you check in BIOS setup to make sure the boot SSD is first in your boot sequence and that USB Boot is disabled (assuming that option is available)?
The Inspiron 560 is too old to have the ability to recover BIOS from a hidden file on the hard drive. So if your downgrade fails, your motherboard will be toast.
Too many "don't knows" to risk downgrading BIOS, IMHO.