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Go to SolutionVostro 3500 BIOS Flash Failure Recovery
I had a working Vostro 3500 laptop and was doing maintenance to bring it up to date. I downloaded and installed the recommended BIOS update for this laptop... Dell Vostro 3500 System BIOS 3500A12.EXE | Windows/DOS (3 MB) BIOS Release date 7/21/2014 Last Updated 7/21/2014 Recommended The BIOS update failed and left the computer with no working BIOS. F2 is dead. It will not boot. I am pretty sure that there is a backup or primitive BIOS still in there, as when I start the machine with no battery and just AC power using the End key it continuously tries to read data from a 2GB flash drive which I have plugged in. I assume that it would like to reload the BIOS from a file. I know how to get the ROM contents from the above file using the /writeromfile parameter. The big question is, what kind of file does the 3500 want to read, and what is the file name that it is looking for? Does the flash drive need to be bootable? Is it better to use a USB Floppy Drive than a flash drive? Is this an AMI or Phoenix BIOS? Can someone please help? Thanks, Terry
temuskoff
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Posted September 9th, 2014 07:00
Here is how to recover from a failed BIOS flash update of a Vostro 3500 laptop...
1. Download the Dell BIOS update .exe file to a USB flash drive.
2. Run the .exe file with /writehdrfile parameter
3. Run the .exe file with /writeromfile parameter
4. Copy the .hdr file to winery50.hdr
5. Remove the battery and AC power from the dead computer
6. Insert the flash drive into the dead computer's USB port
7. Hold down the End key and then connect the AC power
8. Dead computer reads USB flash and asks if update should be done
9. Allow the update to finish and then reboot.
10. Computer is now working normally.
Helpful web site: mickitblog.blogspot.com/.../dell-bios-switches.html