Dell Inspiron 530 BIOS Updated

It would also be nice if they would open the BIOS up to change the CPU multiplier. At a minimum please set it to 9 (the default for Q6600 at 2.4GHz) instead of the locked 5 the system ships with. This essentially throttles the chip down to 1.5GHz.

Info on this comes from applying CPU-ID.

Dell always locks CPU multiplier on their consumer motherboards. Originally they did this to please Intel, but now they do it to promote their prosumer XPS line (which has the multiplier unlocked).

Thanks for the info (via Google). We got a 530 about a month ago shipped with 1.0.7 and it had boot issues – we’ll see if this fixes it.

Incase anyone turns this up on searches, Dell has recently released bios 1.0.16 and 1.0.2 for the 530 Inspirons.

My Inspiron 530 is happily chugging along w/8GBram on VistaHP x64.

Thanks for the heads up, it’s funny… this week I thought “hey, maybe Dell updated the Inspiron 530′s BIOS lately.”

I’ll give it a spin and report back on a new news item.

passinthru:

which version of BIOS (1.0.16 , 1.0.2) should I be using for Inspiron 530? Currently I have 1.0.16 on my machine but when I turn on my machine, not sure which fan makes clicking noise for a few seconds then goes away. Normally, when the machine turns on, the fan just goes on high speed for a few seconds then goes down to normal quiet speed. Reboot is fine, it doesn’t make the clicking noise when it goes on high speed.

I see version 1.0.2 fixes fan issue, but the version seems to be much smaller than 1.0.16.

It didn’t make that noise when I first got it two months ago.

1.0.2 is for the second revision of Inspiron 530 motherboards. If you have 1.0.16, you have the latest version for your 530.

New bios version 1.0.18 for 1st gen boards. Not sure what it fixes but they changed the boot up logo.

But, the BIOS looks like a generic phoenix bios now… odd.

Hello
i`m trying to upgrade the bios on a clients Inspiron 530 and it fails each time….Is the bios locked ?
I have tried numerous floppies,usb drives as wellas creating a bootable cd rom, all have failed, i`m suspecting the bios is locked….whats you guys input ? Help please !

Can anyone send me, or upload a previous version of the bio other than 1.0.18? After flashing my bios to this latest version, an entire slew of issues has begun. I will tell the computer to restart. It never actually restarts, fans come on, but it won’t boot.. It won’t even display the bios Dell Screen. I have to unplug the OSHA power cable from the back for 2+ minutes and plug it back in.. It will then restart with a warning about “ALERT! Previous attempts at booting this system have failed at checkpoint….”

Thanks y’all!

Brett, before you go searching for older BIOS (mine updated successfully, hence I don’t have older versions), I woudl suggest re-running the BIOS update, and then clearing all BIOS settings.

If that doesn’t work, power the system off and pop out the clock battery for a half hour.

Hi Christopher,
Thanks for the advice. I may try and remove the battery today. I did try a few times to re-run the BIOS update, but it says “Terminating, Current Version already installed” or something to that effect–so I cannot actually run the update again. I will clear all BIOS setting however first, before removing the battery and see if that help, although all settings are default.

Thank You!

I also updated 530′s bios from 1013 to 1018 recently and the machine then refused to boot if i had my DVI to HDMI cable connected. I have it connected to a 46 inch plasma screen and have had it working like that for nearly a year. As soon as i updated the bios and re-booted it no longer worked unless i plugged in a VGA cable to the on-board graphics card.

Once into windows it never recognised the add-on card at all. Dell have replaced the motherboard but with one using the same bios version 1018. This one does exactly the same except when i now load windows using the VGA cable it sees the ATI graphics card ok. But only work with the VGA cable not DVI to HDMI. I even went out and bought a new video card with HDMI on it and that’s the same.

I had to jump through the normal hoops to make the tech support guy happy. Even to the extent of telling him i re-installed windows as he said that would fix it (i ask you) I was told and given a link by tech support to download (one) previous version of the bios at a time and try to see if that fixes the problem. The only trouble is it gives me an error message telling me i’m trying to install an older bios version over a new one.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to downgrade the bios on a Dell 530s.

hello i have been trying to update to 1.02 but everytime it tell me “not ich7″ could any one help me i don’t know what this is

I’ve just upgraded to 1.0.18 and found the same – the system will not boot if my lcd is plugged in via the DVI on my after market ATI graphics card. Did you ever find a solution Chris?

Hi, yes. Managed to get this problem fixed. Just download the same bios version file you have updated from (old version). You need to boot up with a bootable disk with the old bios file on it. When flashing the bios you need to type the name of the bios file followed by “forcebios” this willl downgrade your bios to a previous version. Tha’s the only fix for that issue. Let me know how you get on. Good luck.

Many thanks Chris, using the command line

530_1016.exe /forecebios

did indeed resolve the issue and I am now booting fine, and indeed running my Windows 7 RTM upgrade.

Dell should have a note on the 1.0.18 BIOS warning of the possible impact.

Chris

I should also have said that you can run the above command “530_1016.exe /forecebios” from a command line within Windows quite successfully, useful as my PC doesn’t have a floppy drive.

Thanks for the thread, wish I read it before buying a new Mobo without doing more diagnostics. The new logo really cost me :(

Well, I’ll have to buy a proc and put the other one in my whitebox NAS box.

-e

Greetings, when I upgraded my 530 to Windows 7 I was not successful in getting the XPMode or Virtal Computer to run well. I receive a message regarding “hardware assisted virtualization.” The message says that my BIOS 1.0.18 has it turned off and I need to turn it on…but I have not been able to figure out how to do that…..any ideas?

Hey, really useful thread. I am running 1.0.7 (oops) and am having the infamous cpu fan trouble. The Dell site is recommending that I download the 1.0.18 flash, but given the problems with GPU support should I go for the 1.0.16 version? Any advice much appreciated.

Hi Dave, the problem I had was with the 530s so not too sure if it’s the same motherboard. When I bought the machine it was running bios version 1.0.13 and I updated to 1.0.18. That was when I started suffering with the GPU support issue.

After about 3 months I managed to convince Dell they had a problem but only after they made me buy an extended warranty. I did eventually get that money back though. To make a long story shorter, I did go back to 1.0.13 and the machine is happy now. I really only put the latest bios on as I was installing windows 7 and wanted to make sure of complete compatibility. So in short, if I were you I would go with 1.0.13.

PS, They told me no one else had reported this issue to them, but I don’t believe a word of it. I wonder if it’s still the same bios file for download?????

Chris.

I’m assuming that no one with a first-revision 530 board has > 4 GB running sucessfully, even with the 16 bios?

I have 2x2GB = 4GB running happily, but get RAM error codes if I try to put two more sticks in. TIA.

Hey thanks guys, especially for Chris for going through all the hardships and saving my rear end in the long wrong! I was just going to look to update the Bios from the 1.0.13 that came on my 530 to the newer 1.0.18, which yes Chris it is still for download on Dell’s website. So thanks again!

Hi Chris, I have just installed a new graphics card (ATI 4530 HD) on my Dell inspiron 530 running win 7 64bit and whilst I can plug in my HDMI cable, and get it to work if I am already logged in, I get black screens if I reboot or start up from shut-down unless the HDMI cable is removed and only the dvi is connected – I can reboot and start up as normal if only the DVI is connected though I have the 1.0.18 bios update on computer and my brother has managed to find your thread with similar issues on it and then he was able to locate and send me the 530_1016.EXE (and 530_1015.EXE and 530_1013.EXE files) and we have tried to follow your instructions but not being experienced in command line prompts etc we keep finding that it does nothing.

I have placed the 530_1016.EXE file in the local disk folder then went to RUN then CMD then where the flashing dash was I pasted your 530_1016.exe /forecebios and clicked ‘enter’ but it does nothing…. we also tried putting the .EXE file in my user folder but it still didn’t work. am I missing something? I don’t have a floppy drive and really need to fix this, can you help me please?

Examanation – if you get nothing at all then it must have found the command, otherwise it would give you an error and say that 530_1016.exe “is not recognised as an internal or external command”. So perhaps you are not an administrator on the PC? Click on the Start button as bottom left and type “User Accounts” into the search box – select that option when it appears – what type of account are you running, does it say Adminstrator or Standard user?
If you are a standard user then do you know the administrator user and password? Logon on as that user and try the same process you did

Chris

Hi Chris,
I am sorry, I was very tired after whole day of trying to solve this issue with my bro and wasn’t clear, I said nothing happened in relation to the BIOS still being the 1.0.18 version – when using the command we did get the message “is not recognised as an internal or external command”, and when we just tried to run the EXE files directly that we got “no operation” at the end of the install attempt as it didn’t want to downgrade. I am on the admin account and I just checked and still running with 1.0.18 so we haven’t got it right yet.

Where do you suggest we place the EXE file and then what exactly do we do from there (bearing in mind I am just a mum with a computer, not really sure of the whole ‘run’ , ‘command’ stuff). My brother lives 4 hours away and is trying to help by phone so we are getting desperate and are grateful for your help : )

Thanks so much for your quick response, very grateful – this is indeed quite stressful after buying a new graphics card and HDMI cable to have to go through all this.

I don’t know that it matters where you place the EXE file, when you place the file then just make sure that when you open the cmd window you change the directory to that location.

So if you copied it to the top directory C:\ then you would do a cd \ after opening the cmd windows to get to the correct location. The main thing is that when you type the command dir in the command window you get a list of files that includes the EXE – then you know you are in the correct place.
Now you can type 530_1016.EXE /forcebios and it will run the command – well it certainly did for me anyway.

If you type that and get the “is not recognised as an internal or external command” message then it is not looking in the local directory and you can force it to by using the following .\530_1016.EXE /forcebios as the leading .\ tells it to look in the current directory.

Let’s see if that helps – one step at a time!

I’m working from home today so just keep the feedback coming.

Chris

Thanks Chris, for being there : )
IT WORKED!!!!
You are an ANGEL!!!!!! xxxxxxxxx

Great news Emanation – glad we managed to get it sorted!

Thanks for the /forcebios tip! The 530s in our conference room wouldn’t boot with the projector connected after 1.0.18 and I couldn’t find downgrade instructions on Dell’s website anywhere. Thought I was going to have find a different PC for that room!

Hell Chris,

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 Quad with 8 Gig mem, windows 7, and a FireMV quad card from ATI. I am experiancing video stability problems while running windows 7. The Windows vista (still on same machine) is very stable. I recently upgraded to bios Version 1.0.18 and that is when the video started becoming unstable. ATI Tech thought the inspiron is too whimpy for the Job, and recommended using a work station. It was also mentioned by ATI that Win 7 accesses video differently and some bios/updates were problematic.

How do I roll back the Bios to an earlier version? (can’t to a down load and install to an earlier version)
Is the machine to whimmpy for job?