BIOS Recovery on Dell Studio 1747 with core i7

[s070757]

Forgive me if this is not the right place to post this, but i hope i can help someone with a similar problem. Maybe some1 will find this thread via Google or something.

Failed a BIOS update on my DELL STUDIO 1747. I didnt have the 7 beeps of death but i was adamant it would happen to me sooner or later since my dell shipped with bios version A02. Besides, i was getting unreasonable hang-ups on Win 7 x86 which are unexplainable.

Looked around for a solution till i chanced upon the 2 threads below.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...udio+1747+bios
Link for the newest phlash16.exe

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...-BIOS-Recovery
My inspiration

Steps:

1. Extract the bios version you desire from official Dell website.
1a. Have a small USB Drive i.e., one with a filesize allowable by the FAT filesystem. i reserved a 128Mb for this specific purpose. Its only purpose in life is for BIOS flashing and recovery.
1b. Create a bootable USB-Drive with any of the methods available. You may like to enlist Google's help.
1c. I installed HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.exe. IMPT FOR WINDOWS 7 USERS: make sure you run HPUSBFW.EXE as an administrator and Compatibility set to Win XP.
1d. Copy the XXXX.exe bios file to the USB Drive.

2. Boot into MS-DOS.
2a. In MS-DOS prompt, run XXXX.exe -writehdrfile.
e.g., 1747A07.exe -writehdrfile.
2b. Contrary to dell's instructions, this command does not give u any workable .hdr file.
2c. You would obtain PHLASH.exe, BIOS1.wph and CUSTOMER.txt on the drive.
2d. The PHLASH16.exe obtained should work (UNCONFIRMED. I used step 3's PHLASH16.exe).
2e. Copy BIOS1.wph to your HDD when you are back in Windows and rename to BIOS.wph.
2f. CUSTOMER.txt is useless.

3. Using a pre Win Vista OS (I used Win XP), obtain and run WINCRIS.EXE from the link, "Link for the newest phlash16.exe". Make sure BIOS.wph is in the same directory as WINCRIS.EXE. It will automatically load in the newest phlash16.exe.
***WINCRIS.EXE will not run correctly in any compatibility mode on Win 7 x64.***
3a. You should now have minidos.sys, phlash16.exe and BIOS.WPH on the thumbdrive.


4. Recover your bios.
4a. Remove your HDD. It shouldnt matter but do so to eliminate a source for possible troubleshooting.
Remove battery.
Insert the USB Drive
Hold "END" key.
4b. Plug in AC Power. YOU WILL NOTICE THE WHITE LED INDICATOR FLASHES ONCE INSTEAD OF THE USUAL THREE TIMES.
No other key combination would work.
4c. Switch on the Laptop using the power button. The laptop would not automatically power up. Herein lies the difference with Dell Studio 1737.
4d. Release "END" key.
4e. When BIOS recovery is complete, the laptop will beep 3 times, silence then repeats the beep-silence cycle indefinitely.

HELL YEAH. You've got your 1747 back.

Credit: I dun deserve any. Just wanna give something back.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...udio+1747+bios
Link for the newest phlash16.exe

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...-BIOS-Recovery
My inspiration

[bluebossa]

After running in the troubles described above I fortunately found this post. So I first could successfully recover the BIOS rev. A7. (The extraction of the BIOS1.WPH file did not work for me on DOS with the revisions A08 and A10). After having a running system again I opened a command shell and started the 1747A10_W32-64.exe. The installer starts without asking the flash process; please note where the extracted files are placed (C:\Users\Administrator\Local\Temp\WinPhlash64 or something like this). After extraction of the files and before touching the BIOS the installer stops with an error message. I simply took the BIOS1.WPH file and did the work described above with this file. Now I have a running system with the newest BIOS version.
I hope this helps everybody that will probably fall into the same trap.