How could I recover my bricked Dell Latitude D610's BIOS?

[redalerthan]

How could I try to recovery Dell D610's bios by its internal boot block?
I can enter the boot block mode by the key "End", while it seems that I have no put the right ROM image file on the floppy, the recovery will not start, just shutting down.

Anyone know what file should I put on the floppy for this recovery?
*.hdr, *.rom, or exactly filename.ext ?

Thanks.

[t_ski]

Do you have one of the Dell BIOS CD's? Perhaps if this is still under warranty you might be able to get Dell to assist. I like Dell chat a lot...

[redalerthan]

Originally Posted by t_ski

Do you have one of the Dell BIOS CD's? Perhaps if this is still under warranty you might be able to get Dell to assist. I like Dell chat a lot...

I have no such a Dell BIOS CD, there is only the Resources CD yet, and this laptop is out of warranty now, I do have called to Dell 800 support, while they do not provide any support on this and provide nothing information for my recovery, just tell me to replace the mainboard.

[3870x2]

if you have no such a bios cd (do bios CDs exist?) look on the website for something under driver downloads. They have a bios section there.

[redalerthan]

Originally Posted by 3870x2

if you have no such a bios cd (do bios CDs exist?) look on the website for something under driver downloads. They have a bios section there.

There is only a bios file used to update like: http://ftp.dell.com/bios/D610_A06.exe;
What 's different of BIOS CD and this D610_A06.exe;

D610_A06.exe -writeromfile 'Can extract the rom file, while I do not know how can this be used for bootblock bios recovery.

The laptop can not boot to Dell Screen, in my opinion, it has to be done the bios recovery in bootblock boot mode, no info display on screen, all is blind to us.

[t_ski]

The Dell BIOS CD's have all kinds of BIOS files for all kinds of boards. IIRC most of the time they are completely automatic - pop it in and go.

Where are you located at?

[redalerthan]

Originally Posted by t_ski

The Dell BIOS CD's have all kinds of BIOS files for all kinds of boards. IIRC most of the time they are completely automatic - pop it in and go.

Where are you located at?

Is the BIOS CD necesary for the BIOS recovery from bootblock?
I can just download the right bios file from Dell : http://ftp.dell.com/bios/d610_a06.exe.
Is the Dell BIOS CD special and is it the only one resource can be used for the recovery?

And else, I am from China.

[t_ski]

All the Dell BIOS files are a self-extracting file. You run the EXE and it starts the flash, but it reboots the CD also. The BIOS CD is used by repair tech to update the BIOS on a new board when they install it on the customer's computer. Unfortunately, the D610 file that is on the CD I have is the same kind of EXE like you can download from their site. I can't open up the file in WinRar or anything like that to see what's inside.

Maybe you can try this:

http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic6739.html

[redalerthan]

Originally Posted by t_ski

All the Dell BIOS files are a self-extracting file. You run the EXE and it starts the flash, but it reboots the CD also. The BIOS CD is used by repair tech to update the BIOS on a new board when they install it on the customer's computer. Unfortunately, the D610 file that is on the CD I have is the same kind of EXE like you can download from their site. I can't open up the file in WinRar or anything like that to see what's inside.

Maybe you can try this:

http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic6739.html

Thanks, while I still no found what I need yet. Is there truly some secret for Dell BIOS?

[redalerthan]

Thank you all very much, I have truly recovered my bricked D610 now, and I have found the common method for this.
AZED????BIN, AZED????HDR, AZED????HDC, AZE?????BIN, AZE?????HDR are the files can be accepted

[t_ski]

Cool. Glad you got it figured out.

[redalerthan]

1. Download BIOS file from Dell: http://ftp.dell.com/bios;
2. Extract HDR file from EXE: xxxxxx.exe -writehdrfile, a file xxxxxx.hdr will be there;
3. Copy xxxxxx.hdr to a formatted floppy disk;
4. Unplug AC adapter and battery from the bricked laptop;
5. Plug USB-Floppy with the disk prepared;
6. Holding press "END" on the keyboard, plug AC Adapter;
7. Then you will find that the battery light is on with red;
8. Release "END", you will find the power light is on and laptop power up;
9. Keep waiting... USB-Floppy will start to work. A continuous reading instead of a short seek action. Keep waiting...
10. Finally, the lapop shutdown or restart.
That is all, power on again, you will find it is working properly.
While the key point is the hdr file, what filename it shold be in the floppy disk, this is different with laptop type/model.

For D620 and later, *.hdr and *.bin can be accepted;
For D610, AZED????BIN, AZED????HDR, AZED????HDC, AZE?????BIN, AZE?????HDR, can be accepted.
For D410, VENI????BIN, VENI????HDR, VENI????HDC, VEN?????BIN, VEN?????HDR, can be accepted.
...
So the upper step 3, you have to rename the file to the right filename on the floppy.

And where you can find the exactly filename, you can winhex the .hdr or .rom file and search "hdr".
Report

[t_ski]

Thanks for the info. By any chance do you have some website links from your research? We have more than 100 Dell laptops here (505's, 510's, 530's, 610's, 620's, 630's and E6400's), and although I never needed the info before, it might come in handy in the future.