BIOS UPDATE

[Guest]

I received a BIOS update for my VISTA operation system. I downloaded the
file, however I get FLASH ACCESS DENIED. Log on administrator and retry. I
am logged in as the administrator. My sign in is the only person on the
login and I am designated the admin. Anyone have a answer as to what I need
to do to apply this update?

 

[TE]

I received a BIOS update for my VISTA operation system. I downloaded the
file, however I get FLASH ACCESS DENIED. Log on administrator and retry.
I
am logged in as the administrator. My sign in is the only person on the
login and I am designated the admin. Anyone have a answer as to what I
need
to do to apply this update?

My guess is that your motherboard has flash protection enabled. Some boards
have a jumper to protect the bios from flashing. Consult your computer
manufacture.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I received a BIOS update for my VISTA operation system.

That's not even remotely possible. Vista is an operating system, a
form of software. A computer's BIOS is stored on the CMOS chip on the
computer's motherboard, and is completely separate form any software
installed on the computer.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213814,00.html

http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid44_gci213860,00.html

I downloaded the
file, however I get FLASH ACCESS DENIED. Log on administrator and retry. I
am logged in as the administrator. My sign in is the only person on the
login and I am designated the admin. Anyone have a answer as to what I need
to do to apply this update?

Very, very few BIOS flashing utilities run from within Windows, as this
is a very dangerous thing to do. Have you carefully and precisely
followed the instructions provided by the computer's motherboard
manufacturer?

More importantly, why are you trying to flash your computer's BIOS?
What specific problem are you experiencing that the motherboard
manufacturer says will be fixed by the Bios flash? If there is no
specific problem, don't flash the BIOS; it's far to easy to render a
computer completely unbootable by applying an incorrect BIOS "update."



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I will try to contact Dell to find out if that is what is happening.

 

[TE]

Thanks. I will try to contact Dell to find out if that is what is
happening.

A quick Google for 'Dell FLASH ACCESS DENIED' returned this
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pes_bios&message.id=2517

Seems other dell users are having the same problem.

 

[Guest]

I received a BIOS update for my VISTA operation system. I downloaded the
file, however I get FLASH ACCESS DENIED. Log on administrator and retry. I
am logged in as the administrator. My sign in is the only person on the
login and I am designated the admin. Anyone have a answer as to what I need
to do to apply this update?

Do NOT update bios with Windows. Boot to dos and update or use
boot-disk and so on.

 

[Angry_American]

That's not even remotely possible. Vista is an operating system, a form
of software. A computer's BIOS is stored on the CMOS chip on the
computer's motherboard, and is completely separate form any software
installed on the computer.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213814,00.html

http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid44_gci213860,00.html

A lot of computer manufacturers are only handing out BIOS updates packaged
to be run from Windows, Dell does this now as well. They used to give an
option to update the BIOS either by booting with a boot disk or flashing
from windows, but now its exclusively a windows package now.

Dan

 

[Angry_American]

Do NOT update bios with Windows. Boot to dos and update or use
boot-disk and so on.

With a Dell the op does not have a choice, the BIOS update is an exe and
must be run from Windows.

Dan

 

[Bruce Chambers]

A lot of computer manufacturers are only handing out BIOS updates
packaged to be run from Windows, Dell does this now as well. They used
to give an option to update the BIOS either by booting with a boot disk
or flashing from windows, but now its exclusively a windows package now.

Dan

Yet another reason to avoid Dell products. Oh well....


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

With a Dell the op does not have a choice, the BIOS update is an exe and
must be run from Windows.

Dan

That may be the only option Dell provides, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the actual motherboard's manufacturer didn't provide a safer means.
Remember, Dell doesn't actually make computers from scratch; they just
assemble them from components made by other companies. Those other
companies usually have support web sites, as well.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[retroman]

I received a BIOS update for my VISTA operation system. I downloaded the
file, however I get FLASH ACCESS DENIED. Log on administrator and retry. I
am logged in as the administrator. My sign in is the only person on the
login and I am designated the admin. Anyone have a answer as to what I need
to do to apply this update?

Hello Zman,

It's not an update for Vista, but for all Dell machines of a type. In
the instructions, Dell neglected to mention that before running the
update, Vista users must set the "run as administrator" option on the
file. Logging in is as admin is NOT sufficient.

So right-click on the update .exe file in Explorer and choose that
option from the compatibility tab before running the file.

I just did this on my Dell Dimension 9200 and it worked. On my first
attempt, I got the same error message that you did.

FYI, the Dell forums are a better place for questions like this.

Doug M. in NJ

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Actually, they have instructions for running the BIOS update either way.

From the Dell website:


Method 1
Run the BIOS update utility from Windows environment
Double click the Icon on your desktop labeled XP051A07.EXE.
The Dell BIOS Flash window appears
Click the Continue button.
The message Pressing OK will close all applications, shut down Windows,
Flash the BIOS, then reboot. appears.
Click the OK button.
The system will restart and the BIOS Flash will be completed.

Method 2
Run the BIOS update utility from DOS environment (Non-Windows users)
NOTE: You will need to provide a bootable DOS diskette. This executable file
does not create the DOS system files.
Copy the file XP051A07.EXE to a bootable floppy.
Boot from the floppy to the DOS prompt.
Run the file by typing Y:\XP051A07.EXE (where y is the drive letter where
the executable is located).

 

[Angry_American]

Actually, they have instructions for running the BIOS update either way.

From the Dell website:


Method 1
Run the BIOS update utility from Windows environment
Double click the Icon on your desktop labeled XP051A07.EXE.
The Dell BIOS Flash window appears
Click the Continue button.
The message Pressing OK will close all applications, shut down Windows,
Flash the BIOS, then reboot. appears.
Click the OK button.
The system will restart and the BIOS Flash will be completed.

Method 2
Run the BIOS update utility from DOS environment (Non-Windows users)
NOTE: You will need to provide a bootable DOS diskette. This executable
file does not create the DOS system files.
Copy the file XP051A07.EXE to a bootable floppy.
Boot from the floppy to the DOS prompt.
Run the file by typing Y:\XP051A07.EXE (where y is the drive letter where
the executable is located).
--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

Depending on the system, with the newer ones Dell does not offer a DOS
executable BIOS flash alternative.

Dan

 

[Angry_American]

Yet another reason to avoid Dell products. Oh well....

Or any large branded computers, I prefer local shops.

Dan

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mr. Chambers. The request for an update to the BIOS came from Dell
(whom I purchased the computer from) due to a setting in the BIOS that did
not work well with the VISTA operating. I really don't know what the problem
was but since this came from the manufacturer, I wasn't going to argue. On
top of that I have had several system failures, which could possibly have
been caused by this problem. They want to fall back to a previous version of
the BIOS. Maybe I should have explained that better. And it was DELL that
requested to do a FLASH to reload the previous version of the BIOS. Anyway
I contacted Dell this morning about the Flash access denied. After spending
an hour and a half on the phone I was given a set of instructions that was
supposed to be full proof to allow me to flash the BIOS. Their full proof
procedure didn't work. However, I figured out how to get it done. I went in
to the CONTROL PANEL - USER ACCOUNTS. Clicked on ADD OR REMOVE user
accounts. My user accounts was highlighted so I clicked on GO TO MAIN USER
ACCOUNT page. Then clicked on TURN USER ACCOUNT CONTROL ON OR OFF. Unchecked
USE UAC and clicked OK. I then booted the machine. Once up I was able to
complete the BIOS flash. After following instructions to boot again, once up
I went back in checked turn the UAC back on. and rebooted one more time. I
checked when coming up and the older version of the BIOS was being called in.
Anyway thanks to all that responded with helpful info.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mr. Vernon. However, the steps I had to follow was not the problem,
it was not being recognized as a user with administrator authority. But I
appreciate your responding.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Doug. I did end up going to a DELL chat forum. But the instructions
they gave me didnot work. I an earlier post I explained what I did to get by
the problem. Whether or not what I did was correct, I was able to complete
the flash. Anyway, thanks for you responding. Wish i had seen this before i
wasted an hour and a half with Dell. This is the second time I spent
considerable time communicating with DELL, and got no satisfaction. They
last problem (which I still have) ended up costing weeks of recovering lost
data when I followed the instructions per DELL's techs.. I still have not
recovered everything I lost.

 

[Guest]

I have a new Bios ROM update for my motherboard/CMOS as well to address
specific issues with my Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 and VISTA compatibility fixes.
I have tried both the DOS boot floppy Flash utilities as well as the Vista
"compatible" version and followed all instructions from both American
Megatrends, Inc. and EliteGroup, Inc. for my hardware, and Vista Ultimate OS.
I made sure all CMOS BIOS Protection features were off as well as any
jumpers on my motherboard that prevents any modifications of the BIOS. I
recieved the same error regardless of my permission levels (file or logon).
I am the only administrator and still cannot get the bios to flash properly.
I have yet to try your suggestion to disable UAC but before I do, I want to
know if flashing my BIOS (if successful) will cause Vista Activation
Verfication issues or if I am not using BitLocker or UAC? Has anyone run
into problems that can give me some suggestions before I continue?
--
"Man, I have to get more sleep!"

Windows Vista Ultimate (32 Bit)
EliteGroup P4M800PRO-M(v2.0)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU 1.8Mhz
American Megatrends, Inc. BIOS/CMOS 12/14/06
1024M DDR1 RAM