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Grandpa

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22 years ago

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Grandpa

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14718

February 26th, 2005 00:00

Dimension XPS B733r Bios

I have a Dell Dimension XPS B733R MT, PIII from Feb 2000. I am going to upgrade memory from original 128 RDRAM to 256. 256 is now the minimum. (I had planned on just getting another 128 but guess that is now "old".) The info provided said to upgrade the bios. Two choices were listed: BXPSB_08.exe or XPSB_A08.exe. Which one?
I am also thinking of getting a NIC card instead of USB connection through cable modem. I have a NETGEAR router available and saw a NETGEAR Ethernet PCI card on the Dell site, however when I searched by setting up my service tag they recommended another PCI card.

  • V

    volcano11

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    27973 Posts

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    Posted February 26th, 2005 03:00

    Two choices were listed: BXPSB_08.exe or XPSB_A08.exe. Which one?  BXPSB_08.exe would be easier.  You download this file to your hard drive and double click on it to run it.  It will prompt you to insert a blank formatted floppy disk in the a: drive and then it will create a DOS bootable floppy disk with the BIOS upgrade program on it.   Boot from this floppy and it will boot to DOS and prompt you to flash the BIOS.  
     
    I am also thinking of getting a NIC card instead of USB connection through cable modem. I have a NETGEAR router available and saw a NETGEAR Ethernet PCI card on the Dell site, however when I searched by setting up my service tag they recommended another PCI card.  You should be able to use any PCI network adapter.  Check stores like CompUSA, BestBuy, Circuit City, Office Max, etc.  You should be able to find one for less than $10.
     
    Steve
     
     
     
     
  • G

    Grandpa

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    Posted February 26th, 2005 18:00

    Steve - Thank you. 
  • A

    allesennogwat

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    Posted March 11th, 2005 17:00

    Infact the dell recomended network card required a certain bios version.If you're running Windows XP DO NOT update bios past version AO6.I have the exact same PC.I was going to add more memory after I added 128 to the original 128.I have 256 now.It's very expensive memory and 256 works with 733 P3.I went to bios AO8 with Windows 98 SE but went back to AO6 for Windows XP.I am using Netgear ethernet card that was given to me by my ISP.The 3Com 905 card causes some problems that's why Dell had a special bios for it.I think AO7 for it and AO8 for the firewire card.AO7 and AO8 will cause power problems with Windows XP.Some people even go back to bios AO4 but I haven't had problem with AO6.I have the same RDRAM Rambus memory in my P4 Dim 8200.The original hard drive controller is ATA-66.My XPS B733r still works fine but I wouldn't sink a bunch more money into it.I know it was plenty expensive when I bought it.I think I ordered it March 2000 and received it April 2000.The fatesr P3 they offered at the time was 800Mhz for an extra $200 I think.Memory at the time was $1250 for another 128mb.Then went down to $795.I got mine on sale years later for $35 it was a Dell 50% off sale.Now memory prices are back up for Rambus RDRAM.

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