Dell screws up A7 BIOS for DEll Latitude E6410


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  On 30/03/2011 at 00:00, jwoodfin09 said:

The Dell BIOS A7 update refuses to run. The laptop has been repaired (new hard drive) and the update is run on a fresh install of Windows 7 x64. Here is a screenshot. Dell refuses to admit to the update being faulty.

Repaired with a new HDD? This makes me think the machine is the problem and not the update.

Have you ruled out faulty RAM or other things? Have you done an MD5 comparison of the download on the PC and the one on Dell's website to be sure it is the same?

Also, have you seen other complaints of this?

You should always start by blaming your machine or self first then when you've ruled out enough possibilities you can jump onto someone else.

1) Why the hell is this in the 'Back Page News'

2) Secondly, you should know not to update important stuff like 'BIOS' via Windows or any OS which has applications running in the background which can halt the procedures, that's why it's best to do it either via the BIOS itself (newer motherboards can do it, but not sure in your case), or through a DOS boot disk.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:04, Frazell Thomas said:

Repaired with a new HDD? This makes me think the machine is the problem and not the update.

Have you ruled out faulty RAM or other things? Have you done an MD5 comparison of the download on the PC and the one on Dell's website to be sure it is the same?

Also, have you seen other complaints of this?

You should always start by blaming your machine or self first then when you've ruled out enough possibilities you can jump onto someone else.

I've ruled all those out, as I am an IT specialist.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:08, jwoodfin09 said:

I've ruled all those out, as I am an IT specialist.

I see...

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:13, jwoodfin09 said:

Not an option on Dell Latitude E6410

You shouldn't be so quick to spout off titles as if they mean something...

If you are an IT specialist you should know how to read Dell's website. If you were to do so you would know that you can in fact install the BIOS via DOS.

Dell Website

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:19, briangw said:

Ummm, yes it is

Unfortunately, that is not an option. Dell no longer supplies floppy drives for their laptops. If you had checked Dell's website, you would know this.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:25, jwoodfin09 said:

Unfortunately, that is not an option. Dell no longer supplies floppy drives for their laptops. If you had checked Dell's website, you would know this.

And USB drives do not work.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:22, Subject Delta said:

Some Bios updating apps will only work in 32 bit versions of windows

Some, yes. Dell's BIOSes work in x32, x64, and DOS so it doesn't apply here. Since his concern is about this specific laptop and not BIOSes in general...

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:26, jwoodfin09 said:

And USB drives do not work.

They don't work why? You can make USB bootable drives in Windows Vista or later or using free tools online.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:26, jwoodfin09 said:

Unfortunately, that is not an option. Dell no longer supplies floppy drives for their laptops. If you had checked Dell's website, you would know this.

And USB drives do not work.

sounds like your computer is having major issues if USB drives don't work!

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:22, Subject Delta said:

Some Bios updating apps will only work in 32 bit versions of windows

You can use Dell's Repository Manager to create SUUs which will install regardless of it being 32 or 64 bit, at least it worked fine in the 6000 series

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:27, Frazell Thomas said:

Some, yes. Dell's BIOSes work in x32, x64, and DOS so it doesn't apply here. Since his concern is about this specific laptop and not BIOSes in general...

They don't work why? You can make USB bootable drives in Windows Vista or later or using free tools online.

Dell allows for booting from usb for Windows installs but not BIOS, something about if the usb drive was accidently pulled, it could brick the mobo.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:26, jwoodfin09 said:

Unfortunately, that is not an option. Dell no longer supplies floppy drives for their laptops. If you had checked Dell's website, you would know this.

And USB drives do not work.

OP: I've been managing Dell servers and Desktops a long time. If you were an "IT Specialist", you'd most likely heard of or checked into Repository manager. It will create bootable media for you.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:32, jwoodfin09 said:

Dell allows for booting from usb for Windows installs but not BIOS, something about if the usb drive was accidently pulled, it could brick the mobo.

So how does the computer discern that the OS it is booting from the USB drive is Windows' setup and not DOS?

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:34, jwoodfin09 said:

Dell will not tell me that info, I asked.

Tell you? Why would they have to tell you? You would just attempt to boot the machine with the Boot Drive set to the USB drive. You would then be able to see exactly what happens when the machine attempts to boot DOS via USB. I'm sure it would boot just fine to DOS.

Get a usb floppy drive (or usb key). Create a bootable floppy disk and do the following

  Quote
NOTE: You will need to provide a bootable DOS diskette. This executable file does not create the DOS system files.

Copy the file E6410A07.EXE to a bootable floppy.

Boot from the floppy to the DOS prompt.

Run the file by typing Y:\E6410A07.EXE (where y is the drive letter where the executable is located).

if you try to run the file from dos and it complains about needing windows, then ok. but i'd try this.

OP, try this: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

Format a key using that tool and be sure to specify the option to put Windows 98 DOS files onto your key (link also contains Windows 98 files). I've had two Dell laptops so far and I don't believe for a second that its BIOS only boots Windows install media and nothing else.

  On 30/03/2011 at 00:35, Frazell Thomas said:

Tell you? Why would they have to tell you? You would just attempt to boot the machine with the Boot Drive set to the USB drive. You would then be able to see exactly what happens when the machine attempts to boot DOS via USB. I'm sure it would boot just fine to DOS.

Don't the newer Dell workstations/laptops have something similar to the Unified Server Configurator, where you can FTP to Dell to obtain updates before the OS boots?

Otherwise, The Client Repository Manager will create a ISO that you can boot from to install updates.

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