Flashing PhoenixBios help needed to remove virus

Don't ask how to hack password. (BIOS Passwords)
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masterrh
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:25 pm

Hello, I am working on a friends dell inspiron 2600 laptop in which he had a virus (I believe). He informed me he wasn't too cautious or aware about viruses and one day his computer screen said 'Dumping memory' or something to that extent and since then when he powers on the laptop it says 'No Operating System Detected'. I looked into the bios (PhoenixBios 4.0 release 6) and saw that it says there is No Harddisk, hence fdisk or mbr have no use.
My thought was try to and flash the bios in order to clear out the virus but I am having trouble figuring out this step.
I have the Dell Update BIOS for this model downloaded from their site, but when I boot from the disk nothing happens. I found these flashers at this site:
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/flash_utilities.html

When I tried using them or the flasher from dell.com I keep getting the error 'File not found platform.bin' or somethign similar to a platform.bin error. Where can I get this file?

and I think one of those will help, but I'm confused as to what I need. Do I only need one disk to flash and reset the PhoenixBios? Or do I need a disk to flash it, then a seperate disk to reinstall the correct phoenixbios? Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

Ryan
Yaye
BIOS Rookie
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:12 am
Location: Near Milan, Italy

Are you sure that you need a BIOS update?

I think you must set the HD drive on AUTO, save into CMOS, restart and see what happen:

- if the BIOS remember the settings (check during the start up, after the POST), it isn't a BIOS problem: you possibly must re-format the HD loosing all data;
- if the BIOS doesn't remember the settings, try to change the internal battery or connect an external battery like explained in the motherboard manual.

I can't help you about BIOS update and restore, but I try to give you help!

Good luck.
masterrh
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:25 pm

I can't set it to auto because it says 'None' and does not let me select it to change its' value.

I managed to get 52% through the flashing process with the dell driver, but it always stops with the same error "Failed to close BIOS.ROM" any idea what that means? Thanks for the help.
Sharedoc
Notebook Genius
Posts: 679
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2003 8:46 pm
Location: Finland

Symptoms point towards a harddisk failure - not bios problem.

Try remove the hard disk and insert some other hard disk
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