Dell Inspiron 1100 with Non-Dell (regular) XP pro installed can't flash BIOS to upgrade

I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
However I can not run the update because it says:

NOTICE!!
Running on and unsupported system



and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
default install of windows for this laptop.

I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.

one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
ltd?

<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
> installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
> two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
> screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
> there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
> However I can not run the update because it says:
>
> NOTICE!!
> Running on and unsupported system
>
>
>
> and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
> wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
> default install of windows for this laptop.
>
> I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.
>
> one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
> upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
> ltd?
>

Often you can't make that many version changes at once to a BIOS. Read
through the readmes and it should explain.

That said, you seem to be unaware that the XP that Dell provides is plain
vanilla XP without any applications or bloat of any kind. No anti-virus, no
applications, nothing. It is a real XP CD. The only difference is that
Dell often adds their drivers (which is nice) and the Dell version does not
require any activation.

If you're running the BIOS upgrade from floppy, which is the safest way to
do it, XP isn't loaded anyway.

Are you sure that the BIOS update is for your model
computer? The BIOS update would look at the motherboard,
not the operating system.
A flash BIOS would run from a floppy and express BIOS would
run from within Windows, but the error message would be for
a BIOS/mobo issue.
plane,plain


<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
|I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs
fine. I
| installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I
recently bought
| two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept
getting blue
| screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS
update, which
| there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is
to A32.
| However I can not run the update because it says:
|
| NOTICE!!
| Running on and unsupported system
|
|
|
| and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty
lame if dell
| wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy
glutted out
| default install of windows for this laptop.
|
| I need to know how to force the install and update the
BIOS.
|
| one thing I noticed is that it says that the version
numbers for the
| upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix
technologies
| ltd?
|

something doesn't sound right about this.
the initial release of the bios for the inspiron 1100 was a20. so you
probably don't have an inspiron 1100 and should be grateful that the author
of the flash program has taken the time to check your current version and
prevent you from ruining your machine.... you might have a machine that say
inspiron 1100 on the case but not be what is on the inside. the fact that
you don't have the original windows xp disk suggests that there is more to
this machine than you are telling us. i suggest that you reboot the machine
and press f2 to enter the bios. there you will see the designation of
make/model, bios version, and system tag number. that should point you in
the right direction.
also, since you loaded xp from scratch, did you apply the chipset driver?
it is critical for a stable system. it really should be the first thing
done after installing window but better late than never. you can find it on
the dell download page where you found your video driver - but first figure
out exactly what sort of machine you have there... as far as i know the
inpiron 1100 was not sold with a bios revision a06.

<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
> installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
> two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
> screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
> there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
> However I can not run the update because it says:
>
> NOTICE!!
> Running on and unsupported system
>
>
>
> and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
> wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
> default install of windows for this laptop.
>
> I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.
>
> one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
> upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
> ltd?
>

Normally that message has nothing to do with the OS ... in fact, Windows
is not normally running when you do a BIOS update. You may have the
wrong BIOS file, or the DMI information saved in the Dell's CMOS may be
incorrect (this happens often if the motherboard was ever changed, and
can also happen under other circumstances). Contact Dell. Again,
Windows is not normally even running when you do a BIOS update, and it's
unlikely that your non-Dell version of Windows has anything to do with
this at all.


wrote:
> I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
> installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
> two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
> screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
> there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
> However I can not run the update because it says:
>
> NOTICE!!
> Running on and unsupported system
>
>
>
> and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
> wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
> default install of windows for this laptop.
>
> I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.
>
> one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
> upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
> ltd?
>

if memory severs me I think there were 3 board that fit that case
<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
> installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
> two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
> screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
> there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
> However I can not run the update because it says:
>
> NOTICE!!
> Running on and unsupported system
>
>
>
> and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
> wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
> default install of windows for this laptop.
>
> I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.
>
> one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
> upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
> ltd?
>

The case definatly says inspiron 1100 strange that they would have so
many versions! I didnt steal it or anything, and I do have hte OEM
disks its just XP home and bloated. I dont belive I installed the
chipset driver so I will try that to see if it helps. I think I got
the video driver from the Intel website since it uses a "intel
graphics extreme" display. Do you think that would have installed the
pheonix bios or would windows have donw that while loading default
drivers? I downloaded the bios flash program off of the dell website
from thier support downloads page. Its wierd, I know.

The BIOS has nothing to do with the O/S , it is its own chip on your
motherboard so the intel drivers or win XP cannot and do not affect the
BIOS.
Drop into the BIOS bt pressing the F2 key when you see the Dell splash logo
and just see what system the BIOS is reporting your machine as.

And Dell XP Home is not filled with BLOAT either.

As mentioned in this NG. it is a genuine copy of XP produced by Dell
withsome of their drivers slipstreamed into it.

Follow this link and download all the drivers you need and the BIOS update
from this Dell page.
http://support.euro.dell.com/support...&os=WW1&osl=EN
<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> The case definatly says inspiron 1100 strange that they would have so
> many versions! I didnt steal it or anything, and I do have hte OEM
> disks its just XP home and bloated. I dont belive I installed the
> chipset driver so I will try that to see if it helps. I think I got
> the video driver from the Intel website since it uses a "intel
> graphics extreme" display. Do you think that would have installed the
> pheonix bios or would windows have donw that while loading default
> drivers? I downloaded the bios flash program off of the dell website
> from thier support downloads page. Its wierd, I know.
>

re-read my previous reply. you can determine exactly what machine
(motherboard and bios) that you have by entering the bios.

<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> The case definatly says inspiron 1100 strange that they would have so
> many versions! I didnt steal it or anything, and I do have hte OEM
> disks its just XP home and bloated. I dont belive I installed the
> chipset driver so I will try that to see if it helps. I think I got
> the video driver from the Intel website since it uses a "intel
> graphics extreme" display. Do you think that would have installed the
> pheonix bios or would windows have donw that while loading default
> drivers? I downloaded the bios flash program off of the dell website
> from thier support downloads page. Its wierd, I know.
>

Given that the Inspiron 1100 chassis is shared with several other models of Dell
notebooks, is it possible that the motherboard inside is not an 1100, but rather
some other model of board?

The BIOS inside a Dell starts out with core software from Phoenix Technologies,
just about the last BIOS development company left standing. Consequently, that
is what is displayed by the BIOS initially. However, press the F1 key to enter
the BIOS setup and determine both the MODEL and the revision of the BIOS. The
BIOS MODEL tracks the motherboard MODEL pretty much in lock-step.

It is possible to finagle a flash BIOS update for a model of motherboard
different than the one which is in hand. But it is not easy, it is dangerous,
and it is beyond the scope of this newsgroup.... Ben Myers

On 18 Feb 2007 14:04:11 -0800, wrote:

>I installed a plane version of windows and everything runs fine. I
>installed the graphics driver from the dell website. I recently bought
>two 512 ram sticks to upgrade to the max RAM and I kept getting blue
>screen windows crash dumps. I looked online for a BIOS update, which
>there is one. I am running version A06 and the upgrade is to A32.
>However I can not run the update because it says:
>
>NOTICE!!
>Running on and unsupported system
>
>
>
>and I can not choose continue to install. This is pretty lame if dell
>wont let me update the bios unless I install thier crappy glutted out
>default install of windows for this laptop.
>
>I need to know how to force the install and update the BIOS.
>
>one thing I noticed is that it says that the version numbers for the
>upgrade is dell and that the current version is pheonix technologies
>ltd?