[GTALUG] Dell Latitude E6400 -- free

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2015 at 11:02:49AM -0400,  wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2015 at 12:37:32AM -0400, William Park wrote:
> > I can't even get to BIOS.  Power LED comes on and few other keyboard
> > related LEDs.  Then, it turns off.
> 
> Some people have managed to get it to reflash the failed update to A34
> by putting the bios on a 2GB or smaller USB key and holding down END
> key while turning it on.  You have to put the HDR and ROM files on the
> USB key.
> 
> Apparently failling while updating to A34 has happened quite a bit.

>From what I have seen the procedure is:

Extract the bios files:

E6400A34.EXE -writehdrfile

This even works with wine:
# wine E6400A34.exe -writehdrfile

resulting in:
$ file E64*
E6400A34.exe: MS-DOS executable
E6400A34.hdr: Dell system BIOS version A34

Then place the resulting file on a usb key that is no more than 2GB
(probably needs to be FAT16 is my guess).

Unplug battery and power, then insert usb key, hold END key, and plug
in power (leave battery out apparently), battery light should go red,
release END key, and it should reflash the bios again.  At least as far
as I understand the instructions.

-- 
Len Sorensen