How to do a Dell Bios Upgrade

Camper · 12-21-2005, 11:10 PM

I might be doing one soon on a friends Dell Dim. 4300. I have never done one before and I just want an idea of what I'm getting my self into.
Also the 4300 bios version is A04 and I downloaded the A06 version, but should I first upgrade it to A05?

johnb35 · 12-23-2005, 02:11 PM

You only want to upgrade the bios if it actually fixes a problem you are currently having. Be very careful if you do because if something goes wrong during the upgrade the motherboard will be useless, it won't boot. So if its not broke, don't fix it!!!!!

Camper · 12-23-2005, 03:39 PM

I think the problem is with the BIOS. It dose not see the hard drive and the cd rom drive is rarely seen by the BIOS. I change the IDE cables and installed the hard drive and cd-rom drive into my system and they worked fine.

Merky Works · 12-24-2005, 05:56 PM

ok i have a 4300(man i wish i had a better comp

) with A04 and i have upgraded to A06 bios, without going to A05. go to the dell website and download it and just install it. it fixed my problem with a external dvd drive and a pci 2.0 USB card not working good, so it might help your problems to.

you are going to have to put the boot file onto a floppy disk and then turn the computer off. now when you turn the computer back on hit F12 to go to the boot menu and then select the A: drive and then it will run itself and then once it is installed just turn the computer off/restart and then your good to go. you will know if you did it right cause on the bios screen you will see version A06.

Camper · 12-26-2005, 04:44 AM

thanks things are working good now.

**Praetor** · 12-26-2005, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Also the 4300 bios version is A04 and I downloaded the A06 version, but should I first upgrade it to A05?

You can do A04-A05-A06 but you should be able to go straight to A06. As for how to do the upgrade .. it depends on Dell ... if you have a Windows BIOS Update you can use then I would reccomend that route

12-21-2005, 11:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
Camper Diamond Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: /dev/null Age: 22 Posts: 1,227	How to do a Dell Bios Upgrade I might be doing one soon on a friends Dell Dim. 4300. I have never done one before and I just want an idea of what I'm getting my self into. Also the 4300 bios version is A04 and I downloaded the A06 version, but should I first upgrade it to A05? __________________ Dell Inspiron 530 Q6600 Quad 3gb RAM Nvidia 8600 GT 500GB HD

12-23-2005, 03:39 PM	#3 (permalink)
Camper Diamond Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: /dev/null Age: 22 Posts: 1,227	I think the problem is with the BIOS. It dose not see the hard drive and the cd rom drive is rarely seen by the BIOS. I change the IDE cables and installed the hard drive and cd-rom drive into my system and they worked fine. __________________ Dell Inspiron 530 Q6600 Quad 3gb RAM Nvidia 8600 GT 500GB HD

12-24-2005, 05:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
Merky Works Bronze Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 36	ok i have a 4300(man i wish i had a better comp ) with A04 and i have upgraded to A06 bios, without going to A05. go to the dell website and download it and just install it. it fixed my problem with a external dvd drive and a pci 2.0 USB card not working good, so it might help your problems to. you are going to have to put the boot file onto a floppy disk and then turn the computer off. now when you turn the computer back on hit F12 to go to the boot menu and then select the A: drive and then it will run itself and then once it is installed just turn the computer off/restart and then your good to go. you will know if you did it right cause on the bios screen you will see version A06. Last edited by Merky Works; 12-24-2005 at 06:04 PM.

12-26-2005, 04:44 AM	#5 (permalink)
Camper Diamond Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: /dev/null Age: 22 Posts: 1,227	thanks things are working good now. __________________ Dell Inspiron 530 Q6600 Quad 3gb RAM Nvidia 8600 GT 500GB HD

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12-23-2005, 02:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
johnb35 Platinum Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: IL, USA Age: 38 Posts: 880	You only want to upgrade the bios if it actually fixes a problem you are currently having. Be very careful if you do because if something goes wrong during the upgrade the motherboard will be useless, it won't boot. So if its not broke, don't fix it!!!!!