The A08 update for the Dell 4550 here, comes in three versions. So there is
more than the floppy-dependent version.
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFile...
Generally, there is a "risk reward" analysis to be done. If the BIOS
is fixing something absolutely necessary to machine operation, then
you do the update. The release notes (should be on this web page as well),
should detail what is fixed. And then you can decide whether you've ever
run into the problem before or not.
If you don't have a floppy, you can make a bootable CD with MSDOS
on it. Basically, you can create up to a 2.88MB floppy image (.ima)
and put that on the CDROM, with the appropriate software. That
would be suitable for the DOS version of the BIOS update. So
it *is* possible to build bootable CDs, that look like a floppy
for all practical purposes. And if a partition on the hard drive
is FAT32 type, even put the Dell .exe file for the unbundled
flash, onto that partition, change directory to it in the DOS
prompt, and flash from there.
http://www.infocellar.com/CD/Boot-CD.htm
Doing the BIOS update from DOS is marginally safer, as with
the Windows based one, there is a (slight) danger of the
update stopping part way through. Perhaps you forgot to disable
the AV or something, or the machine already has a problem with
Windows, which might happen to freeze things half way
through a Windows based update.
The way I look at it, from a risk perspective, is "how do I
fix it, if it gets bricked?". Motherboards have the BIOS
chip on their surface. The chip is either sitting in a PLCC socket,
or it is soldered directly to the motherboard.
In this example from Ebay, the chip looks to be soldered. If you
"brick" the motherboard by attempting a BIOS flash, then that chip
would have to be unsoldered. Whereas, motherboards with a socket-mounted
chip, you pop the chip out and install another one in its place.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Dell-Dimension-4550-Motherboard-Processor-USB-...
In this picture, I've circled the BIOS chip. On retail motherboards,
sometimes the chip has a paper label with the original BIOS release
number printed on the label. In electronics, we use the label, to
keep track of flash chip inventory (because it's easy to forget
what you flashed in there).
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg705/scaled.php?server=705&filename=d....
So if something did happen, you couldn't immediately pull that chip
and order a new one. This site, for example, provides a means
of flashing a chip in cases where the motherboard gets bricked
on a BIOS update. But this is easiest if the chip is socketed.
All my motherboards here, have socketed flash chips (and I
haven't needed to change one yet). I've personally popped about
100 chips out of those PLCC sockets, for lab flash upgrades.
So if there is a socket, it's a real time saver - no soldering.
http://www.badflash.com/faq.html
"4. You flashed in a Window or over the internet. This is computer
Russian Roulette. It is only safe to flash from a bootablefloppy
with no drivers, autoexec.bat, and no config.sys. Even this is
not risk free. You should ALWAYS save the old file to floppy."
I don't think "safe" is quite the right word. If you know that
your Windows install is "sick", that increases the risk of the
flash update failing half way through. And then the computer
won't boot on the next power cycle.
So even without a floppy, it can be done, at least in this
case. Between the CD drive and the hard drive, you can
cook up an upgrade method. (The hard drive, being a place
to store the BIOS executable update file, on a FAT32 partition.
That's easier than editing the ISO9660 DOS image.)
HTH,
Paul
