Updating microcode for Dell Dimension 8300 BIOS

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

The latest version of the BIOS for the Dell Dimension 8300 desktop computer is A07 ( here ).

The Dell Dimension 8300 computer uses an Intel Pentium 4 Northwood (D1) processor.

The Dell A07 BIOS contains microcode revision 0x21.

The latest microcode that Intel Corporation released for the Intel Pentium 4 processor (FC-PGA2) (CPUID 0xF29, stepping D1) is 0x2E (according to Intel Documentation (Table 1)).

I wish to update the system BIOS with the latest microcode. I have tried using the Intel tool "CHECKUP7.EXE" to update the BIOS with the current microcode, but the utility reported that it could not update the BIOS (BIOS does not implement Intel microcode update API).

How can the system's microcode be updated in BIOS or where may an updated BIOS be acquired?

Coded below are the BIOS Agent 3.66 report and Processors Information section of the CPU-Z 1.45 report.

Code: Select all

Program:   eSupport.com BIOS Agent Version 3.66
BIOS Date: 09/27/04
BIOS Type: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A07
BIOS ID:   Dell 0W2562 BIOS Version: A07
OEM Sign-On: None
Chipset:   Intel 2578 rev 2
Superio:   Unknown
OS:        Win2000 SP4
CPU:       Pentium 4 2800 Mhz MAX: 3600 Mhz
BIOS ROM In Socket: No
BIOS ROM Size:      512K
Memory Installed:   512 MB
Memory Maximum:     4096 MB
Memory Slot 01:     256 MB
Memory Slot 02:     256 MB
Memory Slot 03:     0 MB
Memory Slot 04:     0 MB
ACPI Revision:      Unknown

Code: Select all

Processors Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores      1 (max 1)
Number of threads   1 (max 1)
Name         Intel Pentium 4
Codename      Northwood
Specification      Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Package         Socket 478 mPGA (platform ID = 2h)
CPUID         F.2.9
Extended CPUID      F.2
Brand ID      9
Core Stepping      D1
Technology      0.13 um
Core Speed      2793.1 MHz (14.0 x 199.5 MHz)
Rated Bus speed      798.0 MHz
Stock frequency      2800 MHz
Instructions sets   MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 Data cache      8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Trace cache      12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 cache      512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control      no
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[cp]

once Windows is loaded the latest microcode will be loaded, too. it's already build into the OS (and already the latest available if you've done OS updates lately)

cp wrote:

once Windows is loaded the latest microcode will be loaded, too. it's already build into the OS (and already the latest available if you've done OS updates lately)

The latest microcode update driver available from Microsoft Corporation for Windows 2000 does not contain the latest microcode for the Intel Northwood Pentium 4 processor. The latest microcode update driver ("update.sys") for Windows 2000 released from Microsoft Corporation was in June 2003 with Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. Windows XP Service Pack 3 contains the the latest Microcode Update Device driver from the Microsoft Corporation, but I have not fould a way to apply it to Windows 2000 operating systems. If a way exists to apply a newer Microcode Update Device driver on Windows 2000, please inform me as to how.