[flashrom] Error Reading BIOS on Dell Optiplex 745

[Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Anthony,

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 4:16 PM, Anthony DeRosa <anthony at ransomed.us> wrote:
> carldani,
>
> Requested output below.  Invalid opcode?  The MX25L8005 datasheet says the
> part supports opcode 0x03, read data.

IIRC the newer Dell OptiPlex series have a special way for flashing
the BIOS. You use a Dell-provided utility to copy the new BIOS image
into a special (non-volatile?) memory, then reboot the machine. Once
it reboots, it will automatically start to flash. The same technique
is used by IBM with most of their Thinkpad models, I don't know
whether this still applies to the more recent Lenovo models.

Btw: I think Dell also provides flash utilities for Linux (since they
ship machines with Ubuntu), but my memory might deceive me ;).


Adrian