Dell 425s/L BIOS

[BuggZ]

I have a Dell 425s/L 486 system that was working fine until recently. I powered it up one day and received the following message
"System BIOS is damaged. Reloading from diskette in Drive A:..."
It then attempts to read from the A drive. I searched Dell's support site and finally found the BIOS but the download is an executable (.exe) file which is not read when the system searches the disk. I tried extracting the file on another computer but receive the message. "Cannot use a Dell "System Wild BIOS" in a XXX" (XXX is actually a series of ASCII characters that I believe the program is trying to use to identify the system attempting to run it). "Press any key to exit. ROM has not been updated"
I think I need the actual BIOS binary file on the disk in the A drive for the update to reload but I have not been able to find it anywhere. Any chance someone here might have a copy or could make a backup image of the Dell 425s/L BIOS? My system has the on-board TSeng Labs graphics chip. If I can't get the BIOS updated then it will be headed for the recycling bin. Thanks in advance.

 

[RWallmow]

I have a Dell 425s/L 486 system that was working fine until recently. I powered it up one day and received the following message
"System BIOS is damaged. Reloading from diskette in Drive A:..."
It then attempts to read from the A drive. I searched Dell's support site and finally found the BIOS but the download is an executable (.exe) file which is not read when the system searches the disk. I tried extracting the file on another computer but receive the message. "Cannot use a Dell "System Wild BIOS" in a XXX" (XXX is actually a series of ASCII characters that I believe the program is trying to use to identify the system attempting to run it). "Press any key to exit. ROM has not been updated"
I think I need the actual BIOS binary file on the disk in the A drive for the update to reload but I have not been able to find it anywhere. Any chance someone here might have a copy or could make a backup image of the Dell 425s/L BIOS? My system has the on-board TSeng Labs graphics chip. If I can't get the BIOS updated then it will be headed for the recycling bin. Thanks in advance.

Where did you find that executable file, I cant find anything on dell.com on that model? If you can provide it maybe one of us could help extract a raw binary from that EXE.

 

[BuggZ]

I found it on Dell.com/support after entering the service tag. I was surprised it came up. I have the file but I didn't want to attach an .exe file to my original post. The file is available here if anyone wants to take a look at it.

 

[RWallmow]

I found it on Dell.com/support after entering the service tag. I was surprised it came up. I have the file but I didn't want to attach an .exe file to my original post. The file is available here if anyone wants to take a look at it.

I was hoping, like some self-extracting archives, it could be opened and extracted via some other program (like winrar, it can extract several formats of self-extracting executables), but no such luck on this one.

I will still play with it later though to see if I can find any hidden switches like a "4xxL_A17.exe /e" or something to do an extract option, but it might not be possible.

 

[BuggZ]

I de-compiled the .exe file and believe it is not the BIOS file, just a Y2K patch or test program. I pulled the hard drive from the system and checked to see if there was a back-up or older copy of a BIOS update but didn't find any. I also noticed some corrosion on the board near the Flash Eprom so I decided to part the system out instead of fixing it. Thanks for the help though.

 

[RWallmow]

...I also noticed some corrosion on the board near the Flash Eprom...

Exploded battery corrode leads and traces? Common issue on these older PCs, gotta cut the batteries out of all long-term stored PCs.

Maybe clean up the leads and repair any cut traces, might start reading the BIOS again. Worth a shot before you part out anyways.

 

[BuggZ]

The corrosion on the board is close to the BIOS chip but the battery is on the opposite end of the motherboard. The battery is not corroded but it was discharged. Since I'm getting ready to move I don't have time to work on it and I'm trying to scale back my collection and only take systems that work or would be worth the time and trouble to move if they don't work. Unfortunately I can't take everything.