Dell Optiplex FX170

[taz420nj]

Hey all,

I bought one of these little guys for a very specific purpose. I figured I could install the hardware driver I needed and run the program I need on the stock WES7 image, but it turned out to be so much more of a headache than I bargained for. I also tried the WES2009 image and ran into similar issues (it was mainly about a very small amount of free space on the DOM and permissions). In a last ditch effort before smashing it into the wall, I stripped an XPSP3 install as small as I could get it with nLite.. Now it works beautifully. However it appears the BIOS on these things have no SLIC table at all (first time I've run into this). So would someone be so kind as to insert one for me? I don't know if it takes more work to do newer ones, but as of right now it is running XP so I'd just need a 1.0. If the 2's can be installed without expending extra effort, those would be appreciated too.

The only thing is, Dell does not supply a regular self-extracting BIOS for this unit like they do with others. They have this tool from DevonIT, which creates a bootable Linux USB stick - and that's how you are supposed to flash the BIOS and put WES images on the DOM. Once you create the stick, it contains an image of the A02 update for this unit. I have also included a dump from the universal tool and the RW results.

Thanks in advance!

"Reflash Creator": http://www.mediafire.com/download/d4x82e...-FX170.exe
(Dell direct download) : http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/1...erId=NDXCD

BIOS Dump: http://www.mediafire.com/download/w7j8k8...6.00PG.rom

RW Results: http://www.mediafire.com/download/argsdi...cpiTbls.rw

[jmsandrsn]

Hey all,

I bought one of these little guys for a very specific purpose. I figured I could install the hardware driver I needed and run the program I need on the stock WES7 image, but it turned out to be so much more of a headache than I bargained for. I also tried the WES2009 image and ran into similar issues (it was mainly about a very small amount of free space on the DOM and permissions). In a last ditch effort before smashing it into the wall, I stripped an XPSP3 install as small as I could get it with nLite.. Now it works beautifully. However it appears the BIOS on these things have no SLIC table at all (first time I've run into this). So would someone be so kind as to insert one for me? I don't know if it takes more work to do newer ones, but as of right now it is running XP so I'd just need a 1.0. If the 2's can be installed without expending extra effort, those would be appreciated too.

The only thing is, Dell does not supply a regular self-extracting BIOS for this unit like they do with others. They have this tool from DevonIT, which creates a bootable Linux USB stick - and that's how you are supposed to flash the BIOS and put WES images on the DOM. Once you create the stick, it contains an image of the A02 update for this unit. I have also included a dump from the universal tool and the RW results.

Thanks in advance!

"Reflash Creator": http://www.mediafire.com/download/d4x82e...-FX170.exe
(Dell direct download) : http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/1...erId=NDXCD

BIOS Dump: http://www.mediafire.com/download/w7j8k8...6.00PG.rom

RW Results: http://www.mediafire.com/download/argsdi...cpiTbls.rw

Modified using Award Tool v1.53.  Please post your results.

[taz420nj]

Ok what is the proper way to flash this? I tried phlash16 and it wants the file to be named BIOS.WPH, and in WinPhlash it gives me an error -161. The actual reflash utility for this model (linked above) expects the file to be called BIOS.BIN. I know just enough about this to bite me in the @ss, so I don't want to go changing filenames without knowing it won't brick the computer.

[jmsandrsn]

You can rename the modified file to be whatever you want. Just rename the file and then replace the original file with this one.

[taz420nj]

Ok this isn't working.. I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong, but I need it double checked.. Winphlash is still giving me a -161 error. I tried renaming to BIOS.WPH but phlash16 still says it can't load the file. I also tried inserting it into the Dell reflash utility's image folder (it expects them in ZIP format, with a BIOS.BIN and META.TXT file inside), but when I boot to that, it is not recognizing the modded image as an available image.

This is the ZIP with the modded BIOS that I put into the Dell utility (I even changed the MD5 in the meta.txt to match the new file). http://www.mediafire.com/download/fzl2sm...70-A02.zip

This is the backup created by the flash utility (this one DOES show up in the list as flashable) http://www.mediafire.com/download/52mt89...backup.zip

Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it!

[jmsandrsn]

I was thinking that Winphlash may not work under some of the newer operating systems. What OS are you using and do you know if Winphlash will work with it.

My only other though would be you could try putting putting the BIOS and AWDFLASH on to the same bootable disk and do it from DOS.

[taz420nj]

Ok good news. It's running XPSP3, and I got it to flash using AWDFLASH.. However OEMBios still says no matching cert.. SLIC Toolkit is only detecting the 2.1 cert. Under 1.0 it says No OEM SLP String found.. Did you not put it in or is it just not working?

[jmsandrsn]

I must have misunderstood. I thought you needed SLCI 2.1. So you need SLP 1.0 for XP?

[taz420nj]

Yeah. If both can be kept in there, that would be great in case I decide to go to Win7, but if not it's cool too (I can just flash the one you already did).

[jmsandrsn]

Yeah. If both can be kept in there, that would be great in case I decide to go to Win7, but if not it's cool too (I can just flash the one you already did).

Try this one.  They should both be in there