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Hi Britton30. My understanding of the procedure is that I will flash 3X in total correct? A09 first followed by A11 and finally A15. Does that seem correct?
Hi Britton30. My understanding of the procedure is that I will flash 3X in total correct? A09 first followed by A11 and finally A15. Does that seem correct?
Hi emerald08,
You can easily update the BIOS from command prompt as well. Just download the BIOS file on to a USB drive.
Then using a disc boot to command prompt:
Command Prompt at Startup
Then go to USB drive. Like if it is E drive then type E: and hit enter. Type the name of the file and hit enter.
It should start updating the BIOS of the system. Make sure AC adapter is plugged into the system while updating the BIOS.
Hope it helps. If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us.
I think the OP wanted to know if he had to do the prerequisite updates first. install new bios
Hi,
I guess i missed the second page of the post. It is not needed to flash all the BIOS one by one. You can directly flash the latest A15 Bios and it should install fine on the system.
It is not needed to flash the earlier version of BIOS before flashing the latest one. Hope it helps.
Hi guys.
@SandeepP. Thanks for the USB BIOS update information. Some background information on my E6510. I had just ordered one a couple of days ago and it is due to arrive today. I will not get around to updating it until perhaps this late this evening or tomorrow as I will be studying most of my day for a scheduled evening final exam . The E6510 should be arriving with everything included except for a hard drive (or OS for that matter). This is the reason I was pushing for a bootable BIOS update method. I do have two W7 disc handy from which I can boot to command prompt and I have also already placed the BIOS update executable files on a USB drive. The explanation for the USB method seems fairly straightforward and simple. I will be installing W8 once I receive my hard drive next week. Thanks :)
Disclaimer: if you do not have any issues with your current BIOS you should not update. Also if you do not feel comfortable doing the update you should not proceed as well. A bricked laptop does not equal a happy laptop...or owner!
Now for my run-through with my BIOS update without a windows installation.
1. Downloaded and ran Unetbootin
2. From the 'Distribution' box I chose the distro Freedos 1.0 and installed it to my USB flashdrive
3. Unetbootin asked if I wished to reboot afterwards but I chose 'No'
4. Put the boot exe E6510A09 and E6510A15 on the same USB drive that Freedos was installed to
5. Made sure my battery was charged on the Dell E6510 (power interruptions=BAD BAD BAD)
6. Connected the USB that I had installed Free Dos 1.0 (that also contained the BIOS exe)
7. Pushed F12 when the Dell splash screen appeared to boot into 'Boot Select' mode
8. Chose USB Storage
9. The Freedos menu showed up and I selected 'FREE-DOS Live CD only'
10. command line appeared
11. typed in c:
12. followed by typing in E6510A09
13. Dell BIOS update menu showed up
14. It will ask if you want to proceed with BIOS update
15. and BIOS update will run the flash
16. On the next reboot the BIOS version that was flashed will be reflected on the Dell splash screen
In my case I followed the directions to flash A09 first then A15 (the latest BIOS for the E6510) afterwards. The process was quite easy although made me a little nervous! Installing W8 now :)
Thanks for the help SandeepP, Briton30, and richnrockville. Reps for each of you +
**ive edited this as i hadnt really explained properly...**
just incase this helps anyone - the upgrade from a05 to a16 (via ao9 and a11) seems to have solved a very odd problem where it would look like the boot sector would get corrupted. even from recovery console the list of operating systems showed zero (bootrec /scanos). and the machine would not boot no matter what i did. tried all sorts of things but no joy. when the disk was put into my recovery box, all the partitions were there, the correct one was active, it was fine.
i built the machine twice, it would work for a while and then just lose the operating system.
windows 7 pro 64, 8gb ram and a 1tb sata disk.
i noticed there were some comments in the bios notes about >4gb of Ram giving disk issues and also "Addressed IDE-R issue in ATA and AHCI mode".
this has fixed it (thank $deity)
maybe this will help someone...
Last edited by kevineaton77; 17 Jun 2015 at 14:11.