I have a Dell Vostro 430 with an old BIOS (2.0.1). This BIOS has a annoying bug with detecting incorrect temperatures…. Details here
I tried updating the every way suggested by Dell or the community for Linux users:
- http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Repository/firmware
- http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2008/01/update-dell-laptop-bios-with-ubuntu.html
- http://danlynch.org/blog/2009/01/upgrading-dell-m1330-bios/
My system ID is 0x02EC, and there simply was no “system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x02EC…” here http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bios-hdrs/
In the end the solution was simple.
- 1. install UNetbootin: sudo apt-get install unetbootin
- 2. use unetbootin to create a bootable FreeDOS usb disk
- 3. download the latest bios from here: http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R294233&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=439760 and copy it to the USB disk
- 4. reboot… from the FreeDOS boot menu select 3. FreeDos Live CD with HIMEM + EMM386
- 5. c:\SYEO-240.EXE …. wait … pray
- 6. reboot … pray … done