It is an Dell Inspiron 1525 (clearly says it on the laptop) and original service tag matches the model listed on Dell's support page. I have tried changing the service tag and putting PASS:12/31 and PASS:12/34 on another attempt. A08 listed M07. A16 listed M07 as well. A17 is supposed to be M09 if going by what was said in the RW software. Now, my question, when the EEPROM was erased during the service tag reset, was I suppose to update the BIOS via DOS? Or, in windows? Because, I installed the BIOS modded A17 in Windows and it still didn't show the SLIC 2.1.
OK, had to ask... The eeprom reset (changing service tag number) has to be done after updating the bios, if you do it beforehand it should update it to the M08 that the other unmodded bios have. Either way it shouldn't be M07. No chance that you could have a vista loader installed is there? I still don't understand because it should be showing either M08 or the new modded SLIC... Just trying to think of reasons this may be happening to you and not to others.. I don't suppose there is any chance that you played around with loaders in the past perhaps? Some Dells will dump the current bios in dos with a -readromfile command or you could use the universal bios backup on this site problem being if there was a loader installed then it may not back it up accurately. Are you the original owner? Is it possible that it was originally a non-windows model and someone installed Vista with a loader before selling it to you? I an not sure if the slic toolkit works if you boot to a "live xp" cd such as Hiren's but if it does then you would be bypassing any loader and it would narrow down the possible explanations..
I've never used any Vista loaders, too paranoid of them having key loggers or trojans in them. And, I'm the original owner of the laptop, bought it directly from Dell brand new. I upgraded the Vista installation from Home Premium to Ultimate as well, clean installation with full format.
yep you need to run the file D3000A03.exe file in the downloaded folder "Modified Bios and Flash Utility", bios.gz is required when flashing under DOS, but I would leave it there for Windows as well. you can run the file in XP just fine.
Hmm, flash cache module huh, must have been the culprit! I'll remember that , none of my Dells have that option in the bios (must be kinda a quick boot module, wonder if you re-enable it if it will store the new slic now?), that I have seen and never had any complaints about it before. Thanks for reporting back and I'll add that to the post on page 1 in the next few days. Again, thanks for reporting back!
I did using the tool and the RW report from the other model, likely the same result but it will be safer to use the proper one, I recall flashing the other model using the phoenix flasher, it recognizes the hdr file (that is what Dell used on the early models as well) so just follow the link, download and install rweverything and create a rw report, upload it for me and I will prepare the flash files for you, I already extracted your current bios from Dell files, just need rw report. There is always a risk, I was especially nervous with the C840 because I had to use the phoenix flasher but my friend had been given the laptop for free and was willing to let me play around, not at all concerned if it were to brick... (all went well except the ram requirements, SLIC 2.1 showed in slic tool, running it in XP)As I said there is always a risk but since it worked fine for the C840 I suspect the C640 should be fine as well. In my opinion Win 7 will be a bit of a stretch on these but MS will be dropping support for XP soon and at least 7 will be supported for a longer period (I expect)
Thanks for your help...will get these files for you hopefully tomorrow. Yes this machine's a bit old but it is as fast as my IBM Thinkpad T42 which also has Win7 on it. This C640 originally had Win2K on it but I installed XP and it runs OK