BIOS Computer Issue-PLEASE HELP

MrMoe

My boss is running a Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop and I am trying to upgrade the BIOS (have it on a boot disk downloaded from the Dell Website) so that I can install Windows2000 over an existing '98 OS - as without the BIOS 2000 will not install. But, I keep getting this error... and I cannot install the proper BIOS because I get various memory manager messages... such as: phlash won't run with memory managers present for example EMM386 or HIMEM BIO upgrade Need to disable this "memory manger" in order to boot the BIOS... but is the memory manager in the OS. Argh... can ANYBODY please help me? I am so confused...

Valis

Moe...have you tried booting the laptop with the floppy that you downloaded from Dell? Usually for a BIOS upgrade you have to boot the machine w/a bootable floppy disk that contains a BIOS update program and not be in Windows. Will check back to see if this helps soon.

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

dmouse

I would have thought that you needed to boot from a floppy to upgrade the bios. If the one from Dell isn't a system disc (one that you can boot up from) then if you have a spare floppy handy you can make that a boot disc. To do this put a blank floppy in the 3 1/2 drive, open windows explorer, right click on the floppy drive and select format. At the bottom of the box that appears will be a check box to make the disc an MS-DOS boot disc. Select that and let windows create the disc.

Leave the floppy in place and restart the computer. It will boot up from the floppy and leave you in the A: drive, no memory managers should be loaded. Swap the floppy and run the bios upgrade program.

Francois

A nasty prediction. Overlaying Windows 98 with Windows 2000 will be the source of never-ending problems, heartache, frustration, and anger. Best to save your data files and format that sucker and then start fresh with 2000. Of course you'll have to reload the programs and the data, but in the end you'll spend far less time than doing what you're doing.

francois

Yizuman

Flashing the bios is a very risky business and if something goes wrong, it's all ruined. Be careful when flashing it to upgrade the bios, otherwise you may end up buying a whole new motherboard.

Yizuman

Nathan Natas

Hi Amanda,

Some systems have a jumper on the motherboard that is used to enable writes to the BIOS. This jumper protects the machine from unauthorized BIOS editing by various malware. I don't know if this would be the case with your laptop. If that is the case Dell should be able to tell you.

The other advice about booting from the BIOS update disk is correct. I don't have personal experience with puting Win2K on top of Win98, but I would not be surprised if it DID cause difficulty. Best to do a backup and reformat the hard drive as Francois suggests, if you can.

It is true that "flashing" the BIOS is serious business, but don't get scared. A gal could also slash her femoral artery while shaving her legs, but it doesn't happen often, does it? If you're not drunk or stoned or playing water polo while you flash the BIOS, it will be fine, and delighted to have been flashed by such as you.

Edited by - Nathan Natas on 30 December 2002 14:36:36

Simon

You need to boot from a 'clean' boot disk. Try pressing the F8 key when it's booting from the disk or held down the left shift key so that only the basic OS loads

Normally, Dell supply the BIOS updates as a disk image but you may need to make sure you use a clean disk to make it or else check that it is in fact booting form the disk (and you're not just booting from your HD and then trying to run the program form DOS)

MrMoe

Thanks for the tips!!! It worked... YAY!!! Really appreciate all the help and Nathan making me giggle...

Win2000 is now installing.

BIOS Computer Issue-PLEASE HELP

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