PC crashed when attempting BIOS upgrade

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dkh

New Member
Downloaded the BIOS upgrade from Dell's website to upgrade from A04 to A06. Everything seemed to be going well, DOS screen said BIOS A04 erased successfully, BIOS A06 flashed in successfully. Then it attempted to restart. Fans came on, LED came on, but there is no signal to the monitor. Tried about 20 times, each time having to power off the PC by holding down the power button for 5 seconds because there is no signal to the monitor, and no response to keyboard or mouse inputs. Please help so I can leave this university library and go home to fix MY computer.
 
You most likely had a bad flash. This can be from a few different things like misspelling one letter or number during the process or a bad download as well as having download the update for another model board. If you used the floppy method the copy to disk may have been incomplete. If the flash was done by a downloaded utility that may have been incomplete there. Going back to the support site to verify the correct update or download of the previous if this was a beta and reflashing could correct this. You need a new copy of the flash utility as well or if Windows flash try dos utility.
 
Like the previous thread said, see if you can find the CMOS clear jumper. Unplug your computer, turn the PSU off, switch the jumper and leave it for 10 minutes, then switch it back, replug everything, turn PSU on, power up, and it should work. I had the same problem when I flashed my BIOS.

Or, you can unplug the CMOS battery for a bit also.
 
34erd said:
switch the jumper and leave it for 10 minutes
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I don't get this, why 10 minutes, I reset my CMOS settings after switching the jumper just for a few seconds.
 
Simply clearing the cmos may not be enough if the programming in the non violitile ram was effected. Even with only a partial wipe of the A04 you would still need to perform a complete reflash. Did you backup the prior version before trying to update?
 
filip-matijevic said:
Ok, my question is, how can he reflash the CMOS if he can't even boot up his system.
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You don't reflash a cmos. You reflash to reprogram the eprom chips. On a number of newer model boards you would first download an update to the hd and restart the system to enter the flash utility by pressing a key prior to the start of Windows loading. This is not part of the F8 menu. The older method requires preparing a 3 1/2" floppy where the flash uitlity is booted from instead of the hard drive itself. Newer but not newest flash utilities ran while Windows is up and running. Clearing the cmos might get to the initial setup and no further to use the onboard if available. That leaves the manual floppy method to correct this. Some burn updates/utilities to cd-rs if no floppy drive is installed.
 
filip-matijevic said:
I don't get this, why 10 minutes, I reset my CMOS settings after switching the jumper just for a few seconds.
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For normal resets I only do it for 3 seconds, but alot of people reset it for longer if their system doesnt boot after a flash.

You might only need to do it for 3 seconds, but I've heard that if your system doesnt boot after a BIOS flash you shold clear it for longer. I'm not sure if its actualy necasary, thats just what I've heard... lol.
 
PC eye said:
You don't reflash a cmos. You reflash to reprogram....
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A friend of mine once reflashed BIOS on his older mobo, when he pressed the Power ON button the screen was just blank, nothing on it, there was nothing he could do, he couldn't reflash it back couse he didn't see anything else but the black screen. So he threw it away.
 
Even after clearing the cmos for only a few seconds by popping the battery out for those few and moving the jumper back and forth the incomplete flash would most likely stall the works. He could have had a good flash with the wrong model's update or a bad download. What model board is in the Dell?
 
PC eye said:
Even after clearing the cmos for only a few seconds by popping the battery out for those few and moving the jumper back and forth the incomplete flash would most likely stall the works. He could have had a good flash with the wrong model's update or a bad download. What model board is in the Dell?
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Why dont we wait to see what his results are before we jump to the conclusion that its a bad flash. Many people (including myself) have the exact same problem that is fixed by what I said in my post.

You don't reflash a cmos. You reflash to reprogram the eprom chips. On a number of newer model boards you would first download an update to the hd and restart the system to enter the flash utility by pressing a key prior to the start of Windows loading. This is not part of the F8 menu. The older method requires preparing a 3 1/2" floppy where the flash uitlity is booted from instead of the hard drive itself. Newer but not newest flash utilities ran while Windows is up and running. Clearing the cmos might get to the initial setup and no further to use the onboard if available. That leaves the manual floppy method to correct this. Some burn updates/utilities to cd-rs if no floppy drive is installed.
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I think he meant reflash the BIOS. You cant reflash his BIOS because his sytem doesnt boot up at all, he cant even get into DOS. I'm sugesting clearing the CMOS.

dkh, if you still cant solve your problem, hopefully your board has a removable BIOS chip, so you can get a replacement from dell.
 
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It's never 100%. But that is the more common problem seen. A good reflash with a fresh download of the same version or even the one just before would see if this is corrected. With the cmos cleared the time and date settings would crop up first to see manufacturer's defaults loaded provided there was no hardware issue involved with this. Often before proceeding with any update the strongest advice given is to first backup the current in the event something like this does happen.
 
PC eye said:
Even after clearing the cmos for only a few seconds by popping the battery out for those few and moving the jumper back and forth the incomplete flash would most likely stall the works. He could have had a good flash with the wrong model's update or a bad download. What model board is in the Dell?
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Everest Home edition calls it Dimmension 4300.
 
Wow. Lots of help here. Unfortunately, you folks need to keep it coming. I took the CMOS battery out for 2 hours and got the same results. Please... please let me be able to fix this.
 
I don't know if anyone said this yet but... the only way to solve this is to replace the chip, if it is replaceable that is.

If it looks like this, then it can be replaced:

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