Dell BIOS

[gustie]

has anyone here bothered hacking DELL bios's? my g/f's PC is dell and its really dumbed down!

its out of warranty so id like to maybe replace it with a standard intel bios...

easy?? or not?

[stevo1210]

Re: Dell BIOS

Providing that the motherboard from the Dell system is the exact same as an aftermarket one (say Intel in this case), then yes you probably could just reflash it with the BIOS from the aftermarket manufacturer. But I dunno if Dell may have improvised any locks into reflashing the BIOS with a different one other than a Dell BIOS. What model is the Dell system you are trying to hack?

I know that I have successfully reflashed an ECS BIOS onto an ECS based motherboard that was installed inside a system built by Micro center, when they had some "Power spec PC" (or something like that) BIOS installed on it.

Thanks.

[gustie]

Re: Dell BIOS

its only a P4 thing

dell dimension 3000

thanks

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Dell BIOS

If:
All chips on the boards are the same: *same chipset, sound, LAN, etc...
and
The BIOS chip supports the BIOS code you want to flash..
and
There is no security chip..

Then it should work.

I have seen cases (or rather one case but several times) where the BIOS chip used by the OEM fit in the same socket but was not the same as (or compatible with) the chip used on the manufacturers 'manufacturer branded' motherboards.
Because of that if you wanted to use the manufacturer's BIOS you would have to replace the BIOS chip itself.
-
I don't remember specific numbers but this will get the point across.
Boards were identical except BIOS chip.
Manufacturer's BIOS used a 2 Mb BIOS chip.
OEM used same BIOS chip socket but used a 1 Mb BIOS Chip.
So: Manufacturer's BIOS wasn't compatible with OEM's chip.

There are a couple of companies around that will burn you a custom BIOS chip.
Also some that will sell replacement chips for either/or manufacturer's or OEM's BIOS.
Only helps if BIOS chip is the socket type or you are brave enough to solder in a pre-programmed BIOS chip.

Prices for these things has come down because more companies are doing it now but usually I think you are still better off just replacing the board.

.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Dell BIOS

I have the Dell Optilpex GX 180, PIII, 1 Gig, and the Dell Dimension 4550, P4, 2.4 Gig. While I have found retail boards that are similar they are not exactly the same for these things. My feeling is that you would be getting into a whole big nest of snakes, and worms trying to reflash the BIOS using the flash utility for the similar retail board. A Dell BIOS is dumb, and you can't do much to over clock these PC's but at least they work. Well they work most of the time on a good day. I'd love to upgrade my 4550 to a board that supports SATA, and a Duo-core CPU. I don't think that Dell will be of any help in this area as all they want me to do is buy a new one with Vista "Windows ME II" preinstalled. I'll just have to gut this case, and do some test fits with retail boards down at my friends PC shop. I also have a Saws-All. I can make things work if I have too.

[bgavin]

Re: Dell BIOS

It might be worth your time to grab a copy of MODBIN6 or whatever current flavor of bios editor is out there.

I use this tool to customize the bios settings for client machines that I build. If Dell has "dumbed down" their bios, there is a good chance all they did was disable the display of hidden features. You can easily turn this on with MODBIN.

Note this program ONLY runs under DOS, so you will need a FAT32 disk, and MSDOS6.x operating system. I have not had much luck with it running in a RAMDISK either. I keep a VMware DOS machine available for doing DOS work. Works a treat.

[jpdoe]

Re: Dell BIOS

Hi, bgavin
Did modbin6 gave you any trouble? (as in resulting in a no boot motherboard at some point?)
TIA

[gustie]

Re: Dell BIOS

thanks

DOS scares me hahah

but cheers for the info - i think ill leave it incase i render her DELL useless lol