[GTALUG] Dell Latitude E6400 -- free

[William Park]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2015 at 02:20:25PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> 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.

I have ThinkPad T43 (Windows 10) fortunately.  I extracted HDR file,
copied to 256MB usb stick (FAT16), and booted per instruction.  The
battery LED flashes orange/blue (blue is default colour)... it's been
flashing for 2 hours. :-(

Keyboard LEDs are diagnostic LEDs during POST, and they say I may have
processor failure.  What a shame... its keyboard is the best laptop
keyboard I came across.
-- 
William