How to flash the BIOS on a Dell Desktop or Notebook with a USB thumb drive

The BIOS can be flashed from the F12 boot once menu, outside the operating system.

This can be useful when your computer is not booting or when the BIOS .exe file fails to start the flashing process.

Affected computers

• Any Dell System with a USB port and access to the Boot Once Menu

A USB flash drive and a computer that is connected to the Internet are required for the following steps:

1. Browse to the Dell Drivers and Downloads page:

   • Dell Support Site

   • Alienware Aurora R9 Drivers Page

2. Select the Operating System.

3. Under Category, select BIOS.

4. Locate the latest System BIOS.

5. Click Download and save the file to your computer.

(Figure.1 Support Site Drivers Page)

6. Ensure that your flash drive is formatted as FAT32 when you open File Explorer and right-click the Flash drive and select Format.

(Figure.2 Format Drive)

7. Copy the BIOS update file to the newly formatted USB flash drive.

(Figure.3 Copy to Flash Drive)

8. Plug the USB flash drive into the computer that you want to flash the BIOS to.

9. Turn that computer on and enter the boot menu by tapping the F12 key at the Splash screen as the computer starts up.

10. Under OTHER OPTIONS, select BIOS Flash Update.

(Figure.4 Boot Once Menu)

11. On the update screen, using either the mouse pointer (if available), or the Tab key, highlight the file name of the BIOS. Click it or press the Enter key.

(Figure.5 BIOS Update Screen)

12. The filename would be populated in the Current Path: and the BIOS Upgrade File: fields. At this point, use either the mouse or the Tab key to highlight the Flash Upgrade button. Then click the Flash Upgrade button or press the Enter key.

(Figure.6 BIOS Update Flash)

13. The BIOS flashing process is going to start and the progress would be shown on the screen.