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leor · Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:40 pm

OK, so i have a pretty badass problem here, and would welcome any input anyone has to offer;

I have an opportunity to get an alienware 5620d laptop, but the bios was flashed with the version for the 64Mb video card, but it has a 128. the display is all messed up now, and I have to figure out a way to flash the bios back.

The machine has no floppy, but i have a USB floppy drive, and it does have a DVD/CDRW.

any brilliant ideas?

UberGerbil · Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:43 pm

Can you do a dry run (stopping just short of the flash) using another machine, and memorize the key sequences and then do it blind?

blitzy · Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:45 pm

if you can find someone else who has the same system, and get them to step through the procedure while you repeat exactly what theyre doing on your gimped machine you might be able to do it

maybe alienware tech support may be able to help?

leor · Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:53 pm

if only i had access to another machine . . .

apparently alienware tech suport are good for nothing if your machine is out of warranty.

Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:58 pm

My suggestion would be to create a bootable CD which performs your best guess as to the proper procedure for flashing the BIOS. If the flash utility is reasonably well-documented, this probably has a better than even chance of working.

leor · Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:13 pm

yeah, heh, i'll be making a bootable DOS cd, lol - but that seems to be the best option so far.

i found the link for when he went for help on his own, maybe the clever boys on TR are smarter?

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.ph ... ight=5620d

Looking for Knowledge · Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:22 pm

Those guys over @ notebook forums are pretty up on the version of notebook they're commenting on. I go there for Sager and Dell support....So knowledgeble folks, for the most part.

Is there a jumper, or a board battery, you can use to reset?

Only other option I can think of it the bootable disk, as mentioed before, with a new bios to flash.....

kvndoom · Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:33 pm

ALL you need is a windows 95b or windows 98 CD. Burn flashing program and ROM onto a separate CD. Boot to the win 95/98 CD, "start computer with CDROM support" and once you get to a prompt, put in the CD with the flash program and ROM, and run it off that disc.

I've flashed 2 motherboards on computers with broken or no floppy drive in this manner.

leor · Tue Jan 11, 2005 10:59 am

that's all well and good, but without being able to see what i'm doing it willl be a tough one.

unless i have another computer running next to it and i watch the steps, and stop at the actual flashing part . . .

sativa · Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:13 am

make a dos boot CD, put the flashing program and the BIOS file on there...

edit the autoexec.bat file to include the command for flashing the bios... e.g.

biosflasher.exe newbios.bin

then just hit enter a few times lmao.

FireGryphon · Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:28 am

Try using the VGA output on the laptop and see if the display is corrupted if you output that way. Try different res/refresh output settings, too.

EDIT: Maybe you can replace the graphics BIOS chip like they do with mobos. It shouldn't cost too much, if it's possible to do.

leor · Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:18 pm

i think he only flashed the motherboard bios, and it's expecting a 64MB 9000 graphics chip and it has the 128MB so it's all screwed up.

the guy said he tried outputting to another display with no luck

the last time i wrote a batch file was over 10 years ago and i've totally forgotten how to do them, i'm sure i could get instructions on google, but is there anything specific to this situation i would have to do?

FireGryphon · Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:23 pm

If he only flashed the mobo BIOS it should be easy then, just buy a replacement chip. People do it for desktops, so I'm sure it can be done with laptops. The flashing bit seems like a shot in the dark, judging by the responses here.

leor · Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:24 pm

that was my firs suggestion, but the guy said the chip was not removable

dslegend · Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:00 pm

all chips are removable. As everyone else has said, figure out which firmware the chip uses(Download from Alienware?) The recent firmware flashers are pretty automatic. If you can get the laptop to boot, you will be able to autoexec flash with ease. There are probably even flags assosciated with the flash utility itself that allows for blind flashing. Not having a display on a bad flash is nothing new and most flashers allow for autoexec + certain flags set to allow for blind flashing.

Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:26 pm

dslegend wrote:
all chips are removable.

Yeah, but if the chip is not socketed, soldering surface-mount devices without the proper equipment is asking for trouble.

Splinter · Sat Jan 15, 2005 4:27 pm

Even with the proper equipment is pretty damn risky.

That solution to me would be a total last-ditch effort, if nothing else worked and it was between that and throwing the thing in the garbage, or recycling for parts.

chris_gundlack · Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:51 pm

i have a 5620d and i have the same problem does you flicker with different colored lines i checked my bio and it was at 32mb when its suppose to be 64mb i stupidly did not change it becouse i thought that was suppose to be like that but my hard drive just went out so im stuck now. does any one know if the video car is intergrated in the motherboard or can it be replaced

good luck and keep me updated

FubbHead · Sun Aug 07, 2005 1:38 pm

BAT files aren't hard to edit. They're basically just a list of commands. So, if you can get around in DOS, you can edit a BAT file, for christ sake

.

BTW, you don't have a USB memory stick to boot off?

chris_gundlack · Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:04 pm

i changed the vidoe aputure back to 64 butt when i restarted the computer still registered the old configuration and yes i did save and exit

please help

nerdrage · Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:08 pm

On another PC, run the flash program from the command prompt, giving it a "/?" parameter like so:

awdflash /?

That should be able to tell you the options for an automatic, no prompting, no backup flash. Write it all down. Burn a CD with that program and a copy of the correct BIOS. On the same PC, write down the keystrokes needed to boot off a Win98 CD into "command prompt with CD support" mode, as someone mentioned earlier. Make sure you include changing the current drive to D: or E:, whatever the boot CD picks for the CD-ROM drive.

Then, on the dead machine, boot off the Win98 CD using the keystrokes you wrote down. Next, insert the flash CD, wait a few seconds for it spin up, and type the flashing command you researched above. Pray, and wait at least a few minutes before resetting the machine. Good luck.

Looking for Knowledge · Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:53 pm

Yea, so....leor...what ever happened with this lappie?

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