Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Boot Problem

Not_The_Momma_2

Hi I received an Inspiron Mini 10 for Christmas.

I download some sugested updates today from the Dell site :mad:

One of these was a BIOS Update which Froze during insallation.

It will now not Boot and just does a series of Beeps.

I have the installation disk but would need to obtain an external CD Drive to use, would it Boot with an external drive?

I have read that it will boot from the SD Card Reader slot, what do I need to put on the card to Boot from there?

Any help greatly appreciated

Money_Grabber13579

Never a good idea to update the BIOS unless you're very experienced in computers. You'd probably need to rip the contents of the recovery CD to an SD card although I'm not sure that would even help.

Not_The_Momma_2

Thanks for your reply

If I copy the CD onto the SD Card will it Boot off that?????????

Would the xternal Drive work?

Money_Grabber13579

I know it would generally be possible to boot off a USB drive although I would have thought that you'd need to be able to at least access the BIOS in order to be able to boot from it. In your case though I'm assuming that the screen stays blank and it just makes a series of beeps? Or does anything come up on the screen?

gaming_guy

if nothing comes up on screen, then you may have bricked it (meaning that it could now be a nice expensive paperweight)

the beeps are often useful in diagnosing the fault. for example, 1 beep = successful boot, 2 beeps = ram error, 3 beeps = CPU error etc.

Not_The_Momma_2

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

I know it would generally be possible to boot off a USB drive although I would have thought that you'd need to be able to at least access the BIOS in order to be able to boot from it. In your case though I'm assuming that the screen stays blank and it just makes a series of beeps? Or does anything come up on the screen?

No the screen stays blank.

Ive just started to copy the disk onto an SD Card so fingers crossed.

Not_The_Momma_2

gaming_guy wrote: »

if nothing comes up on screen, then you may have bricked it (meaning that it could now be a nice expensive paperweight)

the beeps are often useful in diagnosing the fault. for example, 1 beep = successful boot, 2 beeps = ram error, 3 beeps = CPU error etc.

Please be a little subtle my wife is sat next to me and may now divorce me,;)

Money_Grabber13579

You would need to have some way of making the SD card bootable if it's to have any hope of working. I'm still searching for a solution to that. Although I have to warn that this might still not work.

I'm not a computer technician though (far from it!) so there may be others around here that will know more about how to get you on the road again, so to speak, if possible.

Mattjimf

There's a post here - http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-10-hardware-issues-problems/9950-bricked-mini-10-inspiron-1010-failed-bios-flash-recovery-3.html#post112164 that may help although you may want someone who knows what they are doing to carry it out, you'll also need a USB floppy drive and disk.
The full thread is - http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-10-hardware-issues-problems/9950-bricked-mini-10-inspiron-1010-failed-bios-flash-recovery.html

3_cheeky_princesses

Hmmm i am not happy I told him not to mess about with it (i am Mrs Not_The_Momma ) :rolleyes:

When you turn it on it is a blank black screen and does 3 beeps the first being a slightly longer beep then the following 2 beeps.

Thank you for all the advice we will have a go at your suggestions this afternoon otherwise it is going to a repair shop Tuesday :eek:

davb

Looking around at other reports of this, the best solution would be to read the thread that Mattjimf suggested. It looks like you are going to need a USB floppy drive though - and they are not common any more - I got one off Ebay.

Your other option is to contact Dell, as it's their BIOS update that caused the problem, so if it's under warranty they should fix it FOC. The down side is that you will probably have to send it away, and be without it for a couple of weeks.