Bricked Dell Xps 1340
Hey all,
I’ve recently had the pleasure to brick a friend’s XPS 1340. The notebook presented the notorious blocking problem that the XPS 1340 has and I tried a bios update that froze half way through, rendering the machine inoperable. Here is the recovery procedure.
1. Head to Dell support and download the latest bios. This will be an exe file.
2. Extract the rom image from that file by using the following command line switch: /WriteRomFile (that means run the following command: 1340_A11.exe /WriteRomFile). This results in a file called 1340_A11.ROM being placed in the same folder as the 1340_A11.exe file.
3. Grab a usb stick (try to find an old one that only shows as a single drive) and format it to FAT. Not FAt32, not NTFS just plain old FAT.
4. Rename your ROM file to BIOS.WPH and place it on the usb stick along with PHLASH16.EXE (phoenix flash utility) and MINIDOS.SYS (from minidos).
5. Remove the battery from your Dell and unplug the power chord. Plug the USB stick in a free USB slot. Press the End key, plug the power and release the END key. This will power on the laptop and make it search for a valid PHLASH16.EXE and BIOS.WPH on the usb stick. If your usb stick has a led indicating activity this should be blinking for about 2~3 minutes. Once the led stops blinking the actual flashing will be performed. This will take another 3~4 minutes. Once the flashing is completed the machine will restart and boot.
Took me 4 days to figure this out.
Special thaks go out to Andrew (BULFORCE G M A I L C O M) for the archive he put together. I’m also posting a link to it and I do suggest you use it.
March 30, 2010 at 7:49 pm
thanks a lot for your explanation, you saved my 1340!!
(last time I try to flash my BIOS under 7…)
March 30, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I’m really glad to hear this!
I also flashed it under 7. It froze at “Erasing block 11″. Yours?
April 19, 2010 at 7:20 am
My XPS 1340 froze while trying to upgrade to the A14 bios. I’m trying this method and it isn’t working… the USB blinks and blinks forever and the hinge light on the 1340 alternates between amber and white forever.
Any idea what’s wrong? I’ve got the three files on the USB stick…
April 19, 2010 at 7:38 am
Hey Jeff,
I am by no means an expert but if I were you I would try going back to the A11, see if that works and take things from there. By the way, this method of updating the bios has become my favourite
I also upgraded to A14 to try and solve the freezing problem but alas it makes no difference.
April 19, 2010 at 7:54 am
I’m trying to go back to A11, but the method isn’t working. The USB drive endlessly blinks, the led light hinge flashes amber and white, and nothing happens. I wish I knew why it wasn’t working.
April 19, 2010 at 8:05 am
Ok, understood.
At this point I would be guessing that there’s something wrong with the usb drive you’re using. I had to try 2 before I found one that worked. If you can get your hands on a 128 or 256 mb one go for it. Also make sure you formatted your USB key using fat/fat32.
Let me know how that goes
April 19, 2010 at 8:06 am
I’ll try another drive. Do you think a cd stuck in the slot load drive could be preventing the system from accessing the USB?
April 19, 2010 at 8:09 am
Don’t really think so but it would be good if you could eject it just to eliminate any doubt. You can use a pair of small slim tweezers to get the stuck CD out, but very careful when doing it. Is the CD being accessed at all during this recovery procedure? (don’t think so…)
April 19, 2010 at 4:17 pm
It’s fixed!
I tried a new USB drive and I copied the files from a 32-bit system to the USB drive (no idea if that actually made a difference, but I read it somewhere). I did not remove the CD, but it must not have been causing any problems.
I used the info from this site and the files and Wincris.exe program from http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19330692/19690712.aspx to make the boot disk.
I substituted the XPS 1640 ROM with the A11 ROM for the 1340 (following this site’s “WriteRomFile” procedure).
Many thanks to the author of this site and for your help, Smurariu. I can’t describe how awesome it was to see my boot screen again.
April 19, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Yep… I kinda know the feeling
You welcome, glad it worked out!
April 25, 2010 at 3:00 pm
My 1340 was also bricked after an unsuccessful upgrade to A14 (error code: -200). I can start the computer in “recovery mode” (high fan speeds, hinge lights alternates white/yellow) but it won’t accept my USB drives.
I’ve tried three USB drives, all of them have activity leds, but they don’t show any kind of activity at all.
smurariu, you wrote that you had to try three USB drives before you got it working. What was the problem with the two first? Did they show any kind of activity?
April 25, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I had to try 2 or 3 because they’d this new kind of usb sticks that had more than one partition, autoruns and stuff like that. I recommend a stupid simple usb stick (256mb or so) and you have to format it to use fat or fat32. Hope this helps
June 7, 2010 at 4:00 am
smurariu – thanks for taking the time to write this up. Just saved my bricked 1340 also.
One this to note for other visitors – I couldn’t get this working until I downloaded the linked file above and used the WINCRIS.EXE program to create the USB stick. In my case it wasn’t setting the USB Stick as bootable unless I did this and I only got two quick activity flashes on the USB and then nothing.
Why hasn’t Dell put a big warning up on the site about this?
June 7, 2010 at 7:23 am
I’m glad to hear that. Thx for the note as well.
June 8, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Incredible. It worked. I could not get it to work with A14, but I was able to do it with A11 and then upgrade to A14. I am so very thankful to you. I was absolutely certain that I bricked my XPS.
As a side note to those having trouble with this, it took sever tries so dont lose hope.
Thanks again. You saved my week!
Aaron
June 8, 2010 at 6:58 pm
So glad to hear that.
April 19, 2011 at 11:46 pm
HOW DD U DO IT? AND WHICH USB DRIVES DID U USE?
June 10, 2010 at 8:49 am
Thanks so much! I thought my computer was gone forever.
For those having problems, remember to use a 32-bit operating system to run Wincris.exe and create a bootable USB stick.
Once you’ve done that, all you have to do is follow steps 2, 4, and 5 above.
June 10, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Fortunately I had no problem running the A14 bios update, aside from using the forcetype command line parameter. I was curious, however, if there seems to be an overall increase in temperature. My laptop seems to be warmer than usual. I’m running the NVIDIA Hybrid SLI 9500M, 2.6GHz, WLED, L6 Cache, etc. My cpu is about 56C in performance mode and 50C in Power save, per CoreTemp.
Any idea if setting the power save modes processor power management setting to run a min 5% and max 30% will have a pos or neg effect on temperature?
June 10, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Hey Mike,
The A14 bios may have a rewritten heat map in order to reduce the noise coming from the fans but I have no clear indication that it does. If you’re upgrading from A11 then the only fix (according to DELL) is the e-Sata hdd not being recognized on Studio XPS 1340. If you upgrade from an earlier version other fixes might be in there as well.
I have not noticed any temperature increase because I stopped using the 1340 altogether due to the stability problems that it is so famous for. Bought an 1645. The 1340 is gathering dust (if anyone is interested).
Regarding your last question the answer is that I have no idea. You have to try it and see how it goes.
Best of luck,
Serban
July 4, 2010 at 1:18 am
[...] using these 2 sites as a guide: http://en.community.dell.com/support…/19690712.aspx http://smurariu.wordpress.com/2010/0…dell-xps-1340/ [...]
July 25, 2010 at 1:59 am
Thank you SO much for this, smurariu! You saved my 1340!
Managed to get to A14 with the WINCRIS.EXE. Looks like you do not have to have a 32 bit OS to prep the USB drive. I was using “XP SP3″ compatibility mode for that program to work on an x64 Win7.
You should have seen my face when I finally got to see the boot screen again, haha. Many many thanks!
July 25, 2010 at 11:46 am
Your face when you saw the boot screen again must have been much like mine, no doubt. But even though I managed to un-brick it I still can’t use it as it freezes randomly if I install a video card driver
Have fun,
Serban
April 21, 2011 at 11:27 pm
how much for the old dell xps 1340 i am intersted cause i think they r a seriously awesome bit of kit
April 24, 2011 at 8:20 am
I’m using it as a virtual machines server now.
July 27, 2010 at 4:33 am
Thank you very much for the information in this blog! I was able to restore my XPS 1340 BIOS.
I used a SanDisk Cruzer 4GB flash drive. Loaded the A14 BIOS 1st try.
This was after I attempted to use the flash drive that is integrated with an mp3 player. Tried 2 different mp3 players we had around the house. Not bootable. Don’t waste your time with these devices.
I am currently trying a Targus Laptop Cooling Chill Mat to attack the heat problem. Too early to tell if success, but, I have not had a lockup since using it the past few days. Will let you know.
Rob
July 27, 2010 at 8:31 am
Hey Rob,
Some people advocate the use of Arctic Silver 5 to replace the “stock” thermal compound that comes with the laptop. However I don’t really think that your lockups are due to a heat problem. Most of the XPSs 1340 (mine included) had a faulty graphics chipset that caused the computer to freeze randomly.
Best of luck anyway,
Serban
August 6, 2010 at 1:47 am
smurariu – are their some steps that one can take to successfully apply this Bios update? I am seeing comments that there are, but I’m not clear how people are doing it.
Thanks.
November 21, 2010 at 5:39 pm
very very very thanks you
my xps froze during the bios a14 flashing
i had to try with 2 usb drive, and try to load the older bios a11 several times.
now, it’s ok!
November 22, 2010 at 6:07 pm
You welcome!
Take care!
November 29, 2010 at 10:42 am
Thanks dude!!!!! works perfectly!
November 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm
December 19, 2010 at 4:00 am
Thanks for the blog post but actually, the instructions DON’T work perfectly – PLEASE make it clear to readers that the flashing sequence requires very precise timing as listed in the Dell forums XPS16 thread above:
Press END for _3_ seconds, then release as you are plugging in the AC adapter, otherwise the system will not power on at all. This will prevent a lot of cardiac arrest moments for those still struggling with these flaky models..
December 21, 2010 at 9:54 am
Hey moose,
Thanks for letting us know. In my case I didn’t have to fiddle with the AC adapter at all and that’s why it’s not in the post.
January 2, 2011 at 11:11 am
[...] Bricked Dell Xps 1340 March 2010 31 comments 3 [...]
February 27, 2011 at 9:20 am
Thank you so much for this info!! F..n Dell and their shitty Bios.
My laptop is alive again !! Some people could charge a good money for this
Cheers from Japan!!
March 1, 2011 at 11:20 am
You welcome Joel
April 15, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Hey Smurariu.
i just bricked my dell studio xps 1340. i tried what u told to do but i have no result, so if i understood corectly i take my usb drive format it quick FAT and than copy these 3 files BIOS.WPH PHLASH16.EXE MINIDOS.SYS (i have these files from the link posted above).
after this i took out my battery insert stick hold down End insert ac adapter and let go of end button.after this my laptop starts fans are working maximum i have the ember and white blinkink and this is it .nothing happens.
what to i do wrong?please help me out
thanks
April 16, 2011 at 8:57 am
Hey mate,
This has happened to me as well and it’s usually because your usb stick is “not recognized”. When I had this problem I tried several different sticks until one worked. Like I said it’s better if it’s a really old one. 256 megs or something similar.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Serban
April 16, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Salut . well ive doni it. i mean a friend of mine who works at a dell servise. he took aout mu bios chip rewrote it from another dell xps 1340 w v A15 put it on a ney memory chip and put it back.
but now i know one thing i will not mess w another bios update…..maybe until a new one will be released.
thanks for ure fast reply and thanks for ure blog. an for those unlucky one who will post desperatly here there are solutions for fixing ure bios!!!!
April 17, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Great news!
I’m happy that it worked for you and don’t let this (bad) experience put you off!
Best of luck!
April 17, 2011 at 6:33 pm
JEEE !!!
Worked for me…
pfffffff.. i was afraid to kill the laptop.. performed the udpated.. and.. killd it.. its like this feeling.. you know it will go wrong.. but you think nehhhh.. and thenn… yes…. it goes wrong… bottom line is: its not my laptop, its from a friend that i sayd.. give it to me.. i will update it… windows.. etc.. so.. lucky me i found this thread… !!
Thanks alot !!!
April 17, 2011 at 8:56 pm
I know the feeling
Been there, done that.
April 19, 2011 at 4:22 pm
im not sure wats going wrong ive tried a 256 mb and its not recognised it, ive renames th bios to BIOS.WPH.ROM AND TRIED BIOS.WPH AND BIOS.ROM WHICH ON IS IT BECUASE if its BIOS.WPH then it does not becomes a rom file anymore and should i try loads of other usbs to try and get it to recognise?
April 19, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Not sure. If you got a 256Mb one then the usb stick is very unlikely to be the problem.
April 19, 2011 at 4:32 pm
i have aslo tried a sandisk titanium plus 4gb no luck
April 19, 2011 at 5:36 pm
WHERE DO I FIND THE FILES FROM? MINIDOS AND PHOENIX
April 19, 2011 at 10:02 pm
I don’t have them. All that I had is in the archive linked in the article. If you figure it out maybe you could post the solution
Best of luck!
April 19, 2011 at 10:57 pm
I USED THE FILES FROM A WINCRIS ZIP PUT THE USB BLINK FOR A FEW SECONDS THEN DOESNT BLINK FOR A BIT THEN IT BLINKS AGAIN IVE GOT 2 256MBS THEY ALL DO THE SAME DO U THINK IT WILL NEED A NEW MOTHERBOARD? IVE ALSO TRIED A 4GB SANDISK AND A 1GB MEMORY STICK STIL TO TRY A 8GB COULD POST ANYSOLUTIONS TO THE PROMBLEMS IM HAVING
April 21, 2011 at 11:42 pm
i am soo happy i used wincris if you were here right ow to see my facial expression, i could of had an heartattack and especially wen every compputer repair place declined my request of to use their usbs and when dell said 200-300 pounds to rapir it, i am astonished.
April 24, 2011 at 8:21 am
Glad to hear that!
You saved yourself quite a bit of money
April 23, 2011 at 10:18 pm
hy i just realized another problem.i dont have audio sound on my hdmi port.i see the picture but no sound.before a15 update i ve had none of this problem.do you have this problem.what do you think help me out please.thanks
April 24, 2011 at 8:22 am
No idea mate. Never used the HDMI port.
April 25, 2011 at 9:27 pm
My 1340 froze during the A15 update and is now bricked. I’ve got my USBs ready to go but no matter what I do it won’t power on. I’ve tried two different power adapters and various methods listed here and elsewhere – do you know of any other way to get it to power on? The hinge lights never light up so maybe the board is completely fucked
May 2, 2011 at 7:26 am
I’m afraid not, Lee. Sorry.
May 1, 2011 at 5:40 am
I so very much thank you guys <specially Andrew as I bricked my Dell 1647 XPS Studio few days ago. Tried everything I possibly could. Then today i came to this website and clear instructions and link helped me recover my Bios and my computer is working as normal. Thank you so very much .
May 2, 2011 at 7:27 am
Happy to hear!
May 2, 2011 at 9:46 am
No problem, seems the motherboard was fried during the bios update crash and Dell replaced it (even though it was out of warranty).
May 12, 2011 at 5:45 am
Thank you so much!
By combining tips from all the comments here I was able to bring my 1340 back from the dead.
I’ll type out exactly what I did, in case others need help.
1) Find a USB stick. The drive WILL be formatted, so make sure to backup if desired.
2) Download the files posted in this original post and extract them to your desktop.
3) From the files downloaded, right click on “wincris.exe” and set it to run in “XP SP3″ compatibility mode.
4) Run wincris.exe
5) Ensure the proper USB drive is selected in the wincris.exe window, and then click Start
6) Once completed, reattach the USB key.
7) Head to the Dell Website and download the latest BIOS version.
8) I downloaded a file named “R301782.exe”, yours might be slightly different depending on what BIOS version you download
9) Double click on the “R301782.exe” file and extract the files.
10) Open the command prompt and navigate to the place where you extracted the files.
11) In the command prompt, type: 1340_A15.exe /WriteRomFile (your exe file will be different if you are flashing to a different BIOS version)
12) There should be a file called “1340_A15.ROM” in the same folder. Rename this file to “BIOS.WPH”
13) Copy this “BIOS.WPH” to the USB key, overwriting the one that is currently there.
14) Remove the USB key from the computer
15) Remove the battery from your dead Dell and unplug the power chord. Plug the USB stick in a free USB slot. Press the End key, plug the power and release the END key. This will power on the laptop and make it search for a valid PHLASH16.EXE and BIOS.WPH on the usb stick. If your usb stick has a led indicating activity this should be blinking for about 2~3 minutes. Once the led stops blinking the actual flashing will be performed. This will take another 3~4 minutes. Once the flashing is completed the machine will restart and boot.
This is what I did to fix it! Thank you!
May 30, 2011 at 9:48 am
Quite an experience you had
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Regards,
Serban
May 27, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Just a heads up. Not sure if anyone else ran into the same difficulties as I did. The winphlash software would not write to my USB on my Windows7 64-bit system. I tried a million different ways for 3 days. After using the same steps described originally by Serban on a 32-bit Vista system, everything worked perfectly first time. You have to run the .exe file by right clicking and selecting to run as administrator. Excellent information BTW and I really cant thank you enough for saving my 1640!
May 30, 2011 at 9:46 am
Glad to hear it Brian,
Thanks for the extra info as well.
Regards,
Serban
May 30, 2011 at 9:27 am
Thanks for this post. It was very useful, but it didn’t work exactly like that. I would like to tell you also my experience.
First, it didn’t work by copying the files directly on USB stick, so I had to use WinCrisis. I tried to use the software on Windows 7 in many ways (64 bit, 32 bit, XP compatibility) but it didn’t work. I didn’t put the 3 files on the stick event if it said that the process was successfully done. The solution was to take a computer with a real Windows XP 32 bit (SP3) and to use WinCrisis on it. After that, the flashing of the XPS worked flawlessly. Now I have A15 on my XPS. I used a 2 GB USB stick.
May 30, 2011 at 9:47 am
Thank you for your insight Stefan!
June 4, 2011 at 3:14 pm
hi i found hope here but i dont understand how to do the second step i feel stupid cause everyone seem to have no problem i m confused with how to extract it as where to write the command
June 5, 2011 at 9:39 am
Hey there dentaldoctor,
I’m in a bit of a time squeeze now but I will try to get back to you on Monday and see if we can work it out. In the meanwhile if anyone else could help that would be great.
Regards,
Serban
June 6, 2011 at 11:23 am
hey again i have done step 2 finally i know what command prompt is but now i dont know how to get the other two files i tried the links above but they seem to not work could you suggest any kind of solution thanx for the reply and i know what it means to be on a time squeeze so do it on your own pace i ll keep trying and check this site from time to time so thx again
June 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm
i can t dscribe how happy i m thank you very much it worked and my laptop is working now really simple step guide just needed a bit of of info on some of things thank you you are amazing
June 6, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I’m very happy to hear that the information i gathered helped you out!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
Regards,
Serban
June 11, 2011 at 6:40 am
Muchas gracias desde Chile, Me has Salvado. Funciono!!!
Gracias. Thanks
June 11, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Me alegro
Cuida te tio!
June 19, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Thank you so much for this blog post, saved my gf’s Studio XPS 1340. I bricked it for her trying to update from A11 to A15 (freaking Dell) Only thing we had to do different though was download A15 Bios and use /WriteRomFile function in a DOS prompt as the A11 rom that was in the package was not restarting the computer.
June 20, 2011 at 8:25 am
Glad to hear it Nate.
Take care,
Serban
June 28, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Ive followed the steps and I get the LED blinking on the flash drive for 2-3 minutes, but after that the computer just stays on … and on… and on. Anyone else had the problem of it not restarting after the flash?
June 28, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Is there a particular PHLASH16 that is required? Where did you obtain yours?
Thanks
July 6, 2011 at 4:31 am
Smurariu, Just wanted to say thanks to you and everyone who contributed for this fix. I used this info to unbrick my 2008 Studio 1537. Dell was no help, of course. They said I’d have to replace my mother board and pay for tech support. So I searched the web and found this blog. I had tried updating to BIOS 1537_A11 and it bricked my system. I did exactly what you said to do, except just changed the file name to 1537_A08 which was the last BIOS I had on the computer that worked. After a couple of tries my laptop is up and running like new. Thanks again for all the info!
IRISHWOOKIE
July 6, 2011 at 9:58 pm
It’s stories like yours that keep me going. Glad you made it and that you restored your bios, and now, that you know how it’s done, why not try to upgrade it to the latest version?
All the best,
Serban
July 11, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Wow such bullshit lol. I messed with this for 3 days, 2 weeks later I popped the SAME exact 4GB flash drive in without changing anything on it, and it worked, insane… lol
July 18, 2011 at 10:36 am
Glad to hear it worked.
Serban
July 15, 2011 at 6:22 pm
how do you get the rom file written ….. whenever i try to extract the files, the exe wants to execute and nothing happens, I have a bricked studio 1450 laptop, will the above procedure work on it
July 18, 2011 at 10:34 am
The procedure should work on it.
You should execute the exe from a command prompt window and make sure you pass the /WriteRomFile parameter to it. Indeed, nothing obvious will happen but the ROM file should be created by the exe in the same folder. If this doesn’t work you could post a link to the exe you’re playing with and I’ll try to extract the ROM file.
All the best,
Serban
July 23, 2011 at 1:47 pm
thank you for your reply
here is the link for the bios:
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/1450_A06.exe
I was trying to upgrade from A05 to A06, so which rom file should I use.
the link for A05 is:
http://ftp.dell.com/bios/1450_A05.exe
July 24, 2011 at 7:28 am
I had already submitted teh links but i can see that they are not here anymore so I am giving the links yet again. Also plz tell me which BIOS to use…. A05 that was originally working on the laptop or A06 that I was upgrading to.
The links are:
http://ftp.dell.com/bios/14550_A05.exe
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/1450_A06.exe
thanks for your help
July 19, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Thought I would add something here… Struggled with this process for a couple hours with no success last night. Used wincris.exe to setup a 256mb USB, followed the steps to boot to it, saw the blinking activity LED and waited 30 minutes… Nothing. Repeated multiple times with the same results. Pulled the power cord and went home fumming. Came in this morning and tried one last time and it worked! Only thing I can think of is letting the the main board dischanrge over night helped. Used the same USB stick and formating from previous evening. Thanks…
July 19, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Thank you Jimbo,
Interesting info
July 23, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Thank you for the info.
I’ll have to try this discharging part though.
July 26, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Thank you really much for this information!
I had to use a laptop with Windows XP to create the bootable USB. Wincrisis didn’t work with Win7 64-bit or Win7 32-bit for me.
July 27, 2011 at 2:39 am
it works for my xps ! thank you so much for this!
August 7, 2011 at 9:34 am
I hold the end key while I plug the I wait 3 secon and I release the end key, but nothing happend. Please did anybody know why doesn’t work in my studio xps 1340
August 8, 2011 at 8:28 am
Just keep @ it.
If nothing but the bios is damaged this procedure should work.
August 8, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Excellent job, I used 8GB Sandisc and the files from the link on your article, revived the XPS 1340 in 5 minutes, many many thanks
October 16, 2011 at 1:15 am
Guys, did you have any luck extracting the rom from the 1450? As mentioned by Pravin Kumar the usual /writeromfile nor -writeromfile… Any help is much appreciated!
October 16, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Hi Guys, has anyone else manage to extract the BIOS from the 1450_A5 or 1450_A6.exe?
November 2, 2011 at 11:51 pm
I thank the author for posting this topic. I gave up on my laptop and thought of changing the motherboard. Thanks a ton once again.
December 9, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Hi All.
I have had the same problem when Dell sent across a ‘critical upgrade’ required as part of their support centre diagnostics. My warranty had run out and I was told I could purchase an extended one for £150+ or send it for repair as the motherboard was obviously fried. Symptoms were a keyboard that lit up, no display, a quick spin of the CD drive and nothing else.
I followed the advice from Smurariu and got stuck on the part that
Iandé Bailey Coutinho also struggled with, where you need to extract the bios. I found a link on youtube, followed this, added the files to the USB and the laptop is now working again!!!
The youtube link shows how to extract the bios to create a WPH file. Link below.
Thank you to the author and all who have contributed to this thread, you have saved my laptop!
All updates are now turned off and I hope never to touch a bios again.
December 12, 2011 at 9:05 am
Very useful info. Thank you for the post!
December 12, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Thanks for the input, Paul. I´ll give that notebook another try thanks to you!
December 12, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Sorry I could not help you in a timely fashion. Best of luck with the flashing!
December 12, 2011 at 4:09 am
Cheers to you mate!….
In your face Dell Support!
thanks!
December 30, 2011 at 6:51 pm
No luck guys,
The /writeromfile just opens the extraction for instalation program. Oh well, worth the try.
Happy new year to all of you!
January 1, 2012 at 12:38 am
Hey there,
Could you post a link with the file you’re trying to extract the rom from?
Regards,
Serban
January 9, 2012 at 7:07 am
HEY GUYS ! I HAVE A PERFECT FULL PROOF SOLUTION FOR YOU. THIS POST IS HELPFUL BUT IS NOT SUFFICIENT.
here’s what i did…i went to dell.com and upgraded my bios to a15 but it freeze and damaged my BIOS.
HERE’S THE 100% WORKING SOLUTION!
first download the link of this original post. take a pendrive and plug it to a real windows xp 32 bit computer , open WINCRIS and click start. now replug it and there u can see the 3 files on your pendrive.
now go to dell and download a11 (i’m saying old a11 because it worked for me and will work for u guys too i assure that.) now follow this original post method to make that a11 BIOS.WPH
The game changing part was PHLASH16 (by visiting several sites i found that there are 11 types of PHLASH16 file, the phlash file which is in this original post’s link is not correct one.
Now replace that PHLASH16 file in ur pendrive with the correct one (there is no option to attach that file in this post so mail me to get that correct phlash file)
That’s all! Now follow step 5. and CHILL!!
NOTE:
to find a11 go to dell site (after finding a15 page see below u can see ‘Other Versions’, click it and download a11.
January 13, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Hey mate,
There are 16 versions of PHLASH16 because different versions work on different laptops. Do not forget that the title of this post is Bricked Dell XPS 1340. Those files will work on the 1340, other versions will be necessary for other models. Your affirmation that “the phlash file which is in this original post’s link is not correct one” is not only false but also bothers me
Keeping this in mind (that different versions of PHLASH16 exist for different models), what you are claiming in your post, that you “HAVE A PERFECT FULL PROOF SOLUTION” is again not entirely true.
Nevertheless, thank you for taking the time to write it and let’s hope it will help others that find themselves in the same predicament as we have.
Best regards,
Serban
January 9, 2012 at 7:12 am
ibishwash@gmail.com
January 16, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Hello Serban,
U compelled me to clear things out.
First i want to let u know that my model was also xps 1340. I tried ur post’s method with ur version of phlash file several times but it didn’t work.
Then i replaced ur phlash with the other one then it worked like a charm!
That’s why i guaranteed that this method will work 100% for xps 1340. Not sure about other models.
January 17, 2012 at 9:02 am
Hey bishwash,
I remember I had to try quite a few of those PHLASH files before I found one that worked and I was quite sure that it has to do with the model but, based on what you’re saying it might not be so. Regarding the 100% guarantee, you might find yourself in the same situation as myself: a 1340 that would not work with your version of the file.
Nevertheless, I’m glad things worked out for you and that you added your comment so that others, faced with the same problem, might find a solution.
Serban
January 22, 2012 at 1:48 pm
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January 22, 2012 at 1:43 pm
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