Up and Downgrading your 1645 BIOS

Based on my original post here, I decided to create a new thread to keep things neat and visible.

After a development version of the BIOS for the Studio XPS 1645 turned up, some people were concerned about reverting back to an older BIOS after flashing the X29 version. To solve this problem I extracted the WinPhlash utility from Dell's BIOS package and modified the settings.

Now you have several options:

- Simply backup your existing BIUOS
- Upgrade to any version you like
- Downgrade to any version you like

I compiled a package that contains the following BIOS versions:

A01, A02, A03, X29 and A05, A07, A08

This is as far as I know the order in which they were released. The X29 version was never officially released.

Just to be clear: I did not change anything to the actual BIOS files, just to the WinPhlash program settings. These are original, untouched Dell BIOS files, and the same program Dell uses to force-flash your laptop. I just changed a few settings (allowing us a choice of options).

Disclaimer:
I cannot and will not assume responibility of somehow your laptop is bricked during the flashing process. This can happen with Dells own updat packages as well. I myself have used the tool in my package, and others have too, with success. This is however no guarantee for succes.

Please also note that I do not have either a 1647 or a 1340, so I cannot test these files. The theory behind updating the BIOS is the same for all these machines, and the 1340 packages appear to use the same WinPlash64 tool.

The packages can be found here:

20100327_Dell_Studio_XPS_Bios_Tools.zip This package contains the flash tools and the crisis recovery bits.

I have put the different BIOSes in their own packages:

20100327_SXPS_1645_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1645, including the latest A08.

20100327_SXPS_1647_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1647, including the latest A05.

20100327_SXPS_1340_BIOS.zip contains the BIOS files for the 1340, including the latest A11. The BIOS files for the 1340 seem to be smaller (about 2Mb vs 5Mb) than the 1645/1647 files.


UPDATE: I added the A06 version to the package. Also included Andrew's crisis recovery kit (see this thread for details). I have moved the package to my own server.

UPDATE: A07 is now also included

UPDATE: A08 is now included, and added packages for 1647 and 1340.

 

--- reserved for updates ---

 

Thanks for the post! major props for this thread and what you complied. Flawless and awesome.

Thanks

 

I thought the newest 1645 BIOS is A03?

 

No the latest is A05. I've installed it and it works. Just an FYI it isnt uploaded on the dell site yet

 

Just updated the package with A06, Adrew's brick recovery stuff and moved it to another server. See first post for details.

Will Add A07 when that is released.

 

good stuff to have.

 

I added in A07 and created a new file, check first post.

 

Since Dell hasn't been good enough to provide any real description for each of the upgrades, is there someone that could comment in some detail what improvement each bios provides?

Thanks for the thread by the way!

 

Sorry if this slightly off-topic, but does anyone know if a similar modified BIOS Flash utility exists for the Studio XPS 1340? I'm currently running BIOS revision A05. The latest revision is A11. I've read of some people having freezes with Widows 7 running A11, so would like to be able to revert if I had a problem with the A11 version.

Thanks

Geoff