Reinstall Latest BIOS On AIO AMD Motherboard am3+...?

[markuskobi]

A service technician looked at my (failing) system and suggested I reinstall the BIOS for the board myself in order to determine whether I have a software or a hardware issue before replacing it. I have a Dell Inspiron One 2305 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. the system is having a persistent failure to POST issue. I have replaced cables from mboard to PC components, reseated the hard drive and memory sticks. After tweaking the jumper I am able to designate a boot from the hard drive, after which the OS still boots fine and runs with no issues at all. I'm now looking to restore the BIOS to factory defaults and then reinstall the chipset from an exe. at Dell.com support that I have loaded onto a bootable USB. I know there has to be somewhere I can obtain a factory version BIOS for the board but the AMD support site was no help and Dell support site has the chipset download only. (Does the chipset contain the latest BIOS...? I'm under the impression that the chipset is the system drivers for the board, but I'm honestly not sure. I have asked Dell this question twice and have received totally conflicting responses!) I just need someone to clarify where the latest BIOS might be and how I can install it on the board to continue with this chapter in my troubleshooting process. Thanks MK

 

[ThatVietGuy]

The latest available on Dell's support website is version A08 released in 2011. Don't think you'll get any updates beyond this since the system itself is quite old.

 

[cklaubur]

The latest BIOS on Dell's website is A08. AMD won't have BIOS downloads, since they don't build their own computers, just chipsets, processors, and graphics cards.

The BIOS should never need to be reinstalled, except for if the BIOS chip is replaced or if a new version is released that fixes an issue. Otherwise, I'd recommend leaving it alone. A bad BIOS update can reduce your computer to a paperweight. It sounds like your service tech doesn't know what he is doing.

Are you receiving any error messages on your computer?

Casey

 

[markuskobi]

The System is not 'quite old' it was purchased in 2011 and remained in box until 2012. It has also never been used as anything but an occassional YouTube browser, and a TV tuner, so I am extremely frustrated with the value I'm experiencing for the 900 dollars the unit costed. I have a Dell Dimension 8200 in my bedroom that has never failed to boot and the machine is a little workhorse, so I'm rather disappointed in the performance of a much newer and more capable machine that is already failing. I am not getting any error messages, the thing just boots to the Dell logo screen and hangs. If I can access boot options before it freezes, Windows will boot, run perfectly fine, and loads all applications...so I have no idea why its not working properly. [strike][/strike]
I'm also capable of soldering new chips to existing boards, I just have no clue where I would obtain a compatible BIOS chip...(?)