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12761
July 14th, 2008 15:00
Upgrading BIOS in a floppyless Dimension 4300
I have a Dimension 4300 (details below) with 20GB C drive having only 7% free space. I wish to replace it with a Western-Digital-WD1600AAJB-Caviar-SE-160GB-7200rpm-8mb-cache:.
Belated research makes me think that that's not going to be a straight forward job.
The freebie "HD-Tune Info" shows 48-bit Address unsupported. So a BIOS update is necessary;(yes?).
Dell Drivers and Downloads led me to BIOS update procedure R851 which is for either a "floppy based update", or a "Windows based flash". Not having a floppy since upgrading the video card and stealing the floppy power supply to drive the video card fan, I chose the "Windows flash route". Unfortunately, this file when I double clicked on it got me into a routine requiring floppies.
So what is my next best move?
Dimension 4300
CPU Pentium 4 1.6 MHz
Drives
C: Maxtor 2B020H1 (20GB)
E: F: G: WDC WD800BB 75CAA0 (80GB)
K: WD 5000AAKS External USB (500GB)
D: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148
H: BENQ DVD DD DW 1625
Video card Radeon X1550 (Powered by diverted floppy supply)
PCI USB 2.0 card
OS XP Home Version 5.1.2600 SP3 Build 2600
BIOS Dell A03, 20/11/01
SMBIOS Version 2.3
AVG 8.0.138
Acronis True Image 10
Perfect disk 8.0 (Build 67)
PETER345
5.8K Posts
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July 14th, 2008 16:00
The Windows based update shouldn't require any floppies. Are you sure you got the right version?
Are you sure the info you got is referring to the BIOS and not the HD itself?
Peter
Svgom
2 Posts
0
August 2nd, 2008 10:00
Thank you PETER 345 for your time.
Since posting I have had a go at trying to understand what I am doing; difficult! Hence the delay, so thank you for patience.
I’ve copied part of the page from Dell Drivers and Downloads for Dell Dimension System BIOS,which implies that both download formats require a floppy drive to work!
Floppy
BR61806.exe Description: This file contains a compressed (or zipped) set of files. Download the file to a folder on your hard drive, and then run (double-click) it to unzip the set of files. Follow the instructions to create a set of floppy diskettes, and then use the diskettes to complete the installation.
Non-Packaged
D4300A06.EXE Description: This file format consists of a BIOS executable file. To use it, download the file and copy it to a DOS-bootable diskette. With the diskette in the floppy drive, reboot the system and run the program.
So yes I’m sure I got the download referring to BIOS, but it does not seem to be executable in Windows.
If it is possible to update my BIOS ( without floppies) I assume that would give me 48-bit addressing capabilities which would be better than using a DDO ….or so I read somewhere.
Svgom
PETER345
5.8K Posts
0
August 2nd, 2008 14:00
You shouldn't need a floppy drive. All you need to do is boot the machine in DOS mode and execute the proper file (the one you get after you unpack the download from Dell). You should be able to boot from a CD, USB drive (if your machine supports that) or even a HD with DOS on it. I generally update from Windows, so I haven't tried any of these other approaches, but I know my 4550 can boot from a flash drive, maybe your 4300 can.
I'm not sure about the benefits provided by that BIOS update.
Peter