[Solved] Updating the BIOS on a Dell Inspiron 1521?

[SteveTaylor]

My current BIOS is A02. Dell has an A06 version out. I have downloaded the file but it says to run it from Windows or a DOS boot disk. I am running Kubuntu 9.10 and do not have windows installed on this computer. I also can't make a DOS boot floppy since the computer doesn't have a floppy drive. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to update the BIOS or even whether I should bother. How about running the .exe update file from wine? I am a little hesitant to try that without some feedback from others saying that it works. I suppose I could make a bootable DOS CD with the BIOS update file on it. Or maybe a bootable USB memory device. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

[SIR_Taco]

Re: Updating the BIOS on a Dell Inspiron 1521?

You might want to try this:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (Information)
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html (download)

It has a bunch of stuff on it (most that you may never need), but it does have a DOS shell and BIOS utilities which will let you flash your BIOS. To make things easier you can place your BIOS ROM file/program on the CD before burning it (add it to the ISO or download the zip file, unzip it, add your file, then burn), or there are instructions on booting it off of a USB memory stick (if your BIOS supports booting from an USB device).

Hope that helps

Cheers

[SteveTaylor]

Re: Updating the BIOS on a Dell Inspiron 1521?

Thank you, that worked. I downloaded the UBCD and burn it to a CD. I also burned the BIOS update file to a separate CD-R/W. Then I booted the UBCD into Free-DOS, took the CD out and replaced it with the BIOS update CD and ran the update program. It complete just fine and then I rebooted into Linux and all is well.
Thanks again,
Steve

[SIR_Taco]

Re: Updating the BIOS on a Dell Inspiron 1521?

I'm glad it worked out for you

If you could add a "[solved]" tag to this article it would be much appreciated by those that frequent the forums, and those looking for a quick solution to their problems

Cheers