About Dell BIOS recovery

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by redalerthan, Dec 5, 2009.

  1. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    some models dont respond to recovery.. programmer time.
     
  2. GrTea

    GrTea MDL Novice

    Jul 15, 2013
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    Someone from a South African site used this method and it worked to unbrick their Latitude E6400. Still no luck from me. Tried reseating the RAM and CPU.
     
  3. neuroticallyyou

    neuroticallyyou MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2013
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    I have a latitude E4300 which my cousin updated the bios from A23 to A24 but the laptop shut off in the middle of the update now i can't boot to setup or boot options after a while it tells invalid system information - please run setup program.

    i followed the steps to flash the BIOS again but it doesn't seems like it works, anybody can point me to some other solutions? ill gladly appreciate it.
     
  4. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    #205 LatinMcG, Aug 1, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    open CMD and drop the E4300A23.exe on it.. then add (space) /writehdrfile
    E4300A23.exe /writehdrfile

    put that in usb stick.
    take battery and power cord out. hold END key and plug in power .. now it should recover.
    if not try different usb ports.. and try a different usb stick.. works for sure with sandisk cruzers .. transcend seems a no go.
    names LOLA***.HDR or E4300***.hdr maybe E4300.hdr
    Code:
    in the hdr file with hexeditor
    LOLA?à.0BIN... HDR..`C.E4300.
    *** = bios version A23
     
  5. neuroticallyyou

    neuroticallyyou MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2013
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    #206 neuroticallyyou, Aug 1, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    thank you for your prompt answer, ill give it a try today, will report back
     
  6. neuroticallyyou

    neuroticallyyou MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2013
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    thanks again for pointing this info, i tried yesterday but no luck i know it takes time to try until it's finally done, will try this today.
     
  7. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    so u try LOLA23.HDR not LOLAA23.HDR
     
  8. jackpapa

    jackpapa MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2013
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    Hi there, thanks for all the info here, I'm trying to recover my E4300 that failed BIOS update from A24 to A26. I think I'm having trouble to enter BIOS recovery mode, when holding END key and plug in power, with battery unplugged, I only see battery LED amber and then off, nothing happens. Please advise, thanks!
     
  9. neuroticallyyou

    neuroticallyyou MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2013
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    that's where i am right now however i haven't have the chance to try what LatinMcG suggested last week, ill do it tomorrow , i know it takes a couple of tries until you get it right...
     
  10. jackpapa

    jackpapa MDL Novice

    Aug 5, 2013
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    I'm reporting a success story here hopefully to help those who are stuck with bad BIOS on the E4300. It happened when I tried to update BIOS from A24 to A26, the update process hung...

    Sandisk 4GB flash, formatted with FAT default (slow format took a while), my 1GB USB won't work with no reason.
    A single E430026.hdr file (extracted and renamed from Dell E4300A26.exe by CMD e4300a26.exe /writehdrfile), LOLA26.hdr or LOLAA26.hdr won't work in my case.


    Remove battery pack, plug in USB flash, hold END key while plug in AC adapter, battery LED will show orange, release immediately upon seeing orange color, after a couple of seconds, PC will start reading flash, you will see battery LED flashes orange and blue (never RED), for about a minute or two, then reboot, wow, A26 BIOS.

    I appreciate all the previous postings, though not entirely proven true, inspired me to try and eventually figure out the right way for my specific model. Let me know if I can be of any help to the forum users, good luck!
     
  11. neuroticallyyou

    neuroticallyyou MDL Novice

    Jul 31, 2013
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    #213 neuroticallyyou, Aug 6, 2013
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2013
    another success story here, i followed LatinMcG steps and it worked! however i had to rename the file just like jackpapa, my laptop went into reading the USB and finally boot up without any issues; Im re installnig Windows 7 on my laptop, im really happy i managed to get this to work thanks again guys!, if i could i would invite you guys a beer haha

    thanks again!
     
  12. casper_1707

    casper_1707 MDL Novice

    Aug 15, 2013
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    Hi everyone,

    What is the BIOS code for Latitude XT2?
    I've tried with default XT2_A??.hdr and it's not working.

    Thanks.
     
  13. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    #215 LatinMcG, Aug 16, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
  14. atzdgreat

    atzdgreat MDL Novice

    Aug 27, 2013
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    hi guyz good day to all of you.. i have dell n5110 laptop. now when im trying to update the bios, even not yet finish i tried to restart my computer because it takes time. when the laptop restarts. nothing happen black screen and 3 beeps repeatedly. i saw this forum. i download the bios driver N5110A11.exe and convert to N5110A11.hdr. i copied to my usb (formatted with fat32) i removed the battery of my laptop. insert the usb. hold press the End button then insert the AC plug.. nothing happens no led light.. anyone can help about dell n5110 on how to fire up using the method that has given? thanks guyz :(
     
  15. bastilia

    bastilia MDL Novice

    Sep 17, 2013
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    Hello,

    I got a E6420A08.hdr file for my latitude E6420 from E6420A08.exe using DecompNewDell.py
    I put the E6420A08.hdr file on a 2GB sandisk usb stick and tried the DEL key method, but it's not working for me.
    The power led stays white for 3 seconds and that's all; it doesn't turn orange not even after 30 seconds.
    One or two dimms, all usb ports.

    Any ideas?
    Thanks
     
  16. t4ure4n

    t4ure4n MDL Novice

    Nov 17, 2009
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    #218 t4ure4n, Sep 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    Looking for a HDR file for Dell E6430 BIOS version A03 or lower...
    Please help because I tried
    Code:
    D:\Hardware\HDR>E6430A03.exe -writehdrfile
    and
    Code:
    D:\Hardware\HDR>E6430A03.exe /writehdrfile
    on my wondows 7 64-bit machine many time but windows just throws an error and nothing happens...
     
  17. urie

    urie Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 21, 2007
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    #219 urie, Sep 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    it should just be
    Code:
    E6430A03.exe /writehdrfile
    not
    Code:
    HDR>E6430A03.exe /writehdrfile
     
  18. t4ure4n

    t4ure4n MDL Novice

    Nov 17, 2009
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    #220 t4ure4n, Sep 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    I tried it on my Windows 7 (64-bit) machine. But every time I rum it from command prompt with admin rights
    I get windows error message that the application E6430A03.exe has stopped working.

    I used the JimboBobB's python script (DecompNewDell.py) to extract the HDR file..

    Now I can extract rom file using the following command

    Code:
    E6430A03.exe /writeromfile
    becasue I am getting the same error message as before