DELL BIOS Research - your help is needed.

Borg Number One · Master Flasher Joined: 02 May 2004 Posts: 169

Hi.

For DELL BIOS research I need your help.
If you have a DELL computer/mainboard/notebook with an onboard graphics card then you are really important.

What you can do to help.

Dump your DELL BIOS and the VGABIOS from the DELL's Onboard graphics card.

In other words:
Built an image or a copy from your DELL BIOS and VGABIOS.

How to dump the DELL BIOS.

1.)
Download the "Phoenix Winpflash Utility".
For example from here:
ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/utilities/winp...hlash-utility.zip

...and install it.

2.)
It sounds weird and crazy, but take any PhoenixBIOS update,
for example from acer:
ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/extensa_3000/bios/3a06_intel.zip

You can also take any other (256K/512K/1024K) Phoenix BIOS updates.

3.)
Run WinPhlash for Windows, extract and add the .wph file from the mentioned
example BIOS file: 3a06_intel.zip to the:
"Specify new BIOS file" -field.

4.)
Choose: "Backup BIOS only"

5.)
Choose: "Advanced settings"
Then deselect all clickboxes and press Ok.

6.)
Now press: "Backup BIOS" and send me the backup file.
(compressed!!! (rar3 -> progressiv or zip ->both in/with highest compression)

How to dump the VGABIOS.

1.)
Download and unpack:
http://bnobtc.pix-art.com/bnobtc-files/dumpvgabios.rar .

Now, with the help of the .exe or .img file you can build a bootable disk which dumps the vgabios to the floppy disk while boot

or

you unpack the .dbg & .bat files to your desktop and run:
all .bat-files.

After this you should see:
-vgabios.bin
-vgabios2.bin
-100000.bin

on your desktop.

Compress/pack them with winace, winzip or winrar or... and send the files to me too.
_________________
BIOS backup - Multi BIOS - prevent a BIOS update failure:
RD1 BIOS Savior
[url=http://www.ioss.com.tw]
http://www.ioss.com.tw[/url]

js76 · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:32 am Post subject:

When I did the VGA BIOS dump, I also got a file called SYSBIOS.BIN (64k) -- in addition to 100000.BIN, VGABIOS.BIN and VGABIOS2.BIN. Do you want that as well?

I'm not too confident about the system BIOS backup obtained by Winphlash. I've tried this in the past and the backup I make is never usable to reflash the BIOS. I went ahead and did it again as per your instructions and the filesize is rather weird, like 513k.

Also, where would you like these files sent? I didn't catch an email address.

Borg Number One · Master Flasher Joined: 02 May 2004 Posts: 169

Thanks for the stuff.
You got a personal message with more details.
_________________
BIOS backup - Multi BIOS - prevent a BIOS update failure:
RD1 BIOS Savior
[url=http://www.ioss.com.tw]
http://www.ioss.com.tw[/url]

Ruudjah

I have a dell Inspiron 8200. The videocard can be replaced, and is not integrated onto the motherboard. Can I still help you?

Borg Number One · Master Flasher Joined: 02 May 2004 Posts: 169

Hi.

If the DELL computer has an onboard graphics card then put out the PCI/AGP graphics card and use the onboard graphics card.

After this you can begin with dumping the mentioned stuff.
_________________
BIOS backup - Multi BIOS - prevent a BIOS update failure:
RD1 BIOS Savior
[url=http://www.ioss.com.tw]
http://www.ioss.com.tw[/url]

Optimus · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:22 pm Post subject:

I have a Dell Latitude C810 with an nVidia GeForce2 Go integrated video card.

I tried to backup the BIOS as you described, but when I opened it in the Phoenix BIOS Editor it came up as the ACER BIOS for which you gave a link instead of the DELL BIOS that it is. So I tried the same process using the ROM extracted from the DELL BIOS Update (Version A12). This time it gave an error saying that the part table in the file was corrupt. Error -161.

It occured to me, while poking around in the BIOS setup that the copyrights are a little unusual:

Phoenix Technologies 1985-1988
Dell Computer Corporation 1988-2003

Either this is a misprint (Normally I would not think so after 10+ BIOS revisions, but this is DELL) or DELL is using a very old version of the PhoenixBIOS.

That being said, I can also backup the VGA BIOS and send it to you along with the botched BIOS backup, however the BIOS backup is probably not going to help.

Let me know.

KachiWachi · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:17 pm Post subject:

Any way to do this from DOS?

I just got a Dell OptiPlex GX1 (BIOS is A07, but A10 is the latest available) from the trash heap. It *appears* to work, but I'm sorting it out now.

It uses an on-board ATi 3D Rage Pro AGP 2X chip (8MB upgrade in place).
_________________
CPU - DFI 586IPVG, K6-2/+ 450 (Cyrix MII 433), i430VX, 128MB EDO.
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).

RE*S.T.A.R.S.*2 · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:12 am Post subject:

This thread is all, i want to backup my dell bios, i used the program but phoenix bios editor says the size is wrong, can you help me?

thanks in advanced