late 2013 Alienware 17 r1 bios blind flash

[hamhatch]

Hello,

 

I Recently acquired an alienware 17 r1 with the single beep error code. All my sources say it's most likely a bios corruption issue and that seems to be the case so I am trying to do a blind flash. I cannot find any guides or anything on how to do a blind flash on this machine. I have pieced together multiple guides on multiple different alienwares and I am mostly there (I am able to do the whole end key thing to start the process.) Now I need to configure the usb stick with the bios file. I put the a17 and a05 .exe file on the fat32 drive, I have renamed it to .hdr. I have extracted it and looked for a .fd/.hdr/.bin. can't find any.

 

Does anyone know how to acquire the .fd or .hdr file I need to do a blind flash?

 

I am unsure of the specs other than what's on the alienware plate on the bottom, I am trying to disassemble this but unfortunately for me the last person in here decided to strip every screw they could get their hands on. Hoping they just did a repaste instead of an upgrade to something that requires a custom bios/vbios or whatever because I'm not on that step yet so I know nothing about it.

 

thanks.

[Eban]

I could never get a blind bios flash to work on a Ranger @Maxware79 @Reciever ??

 

Resetting cmos is possible with memory insertion method, but as you have ascertained there are a LOT of screws to remove (to get all the dimm modules and cmos battery out)...stripped screws are just the cream on top.

[Maxware79]

I just tried finding the .fd file in the A05 BIOS and yeah, it's not there, as far as I can see.

 

I have done the blind flash trick on a few M17x R3's and R4's but never a Ranger. The process may be the same but it could also be very different as, from memory, the CMOS/NVRAM is a little different in the 17. Since there is no .fd file then it may not be possible. 

I think you will have to try the memory trick that Eban mentioned above. 

The Fabulous MrFox gave these instructions.