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General discussion

Unable to Update Firmware on Inspiron 518 Samsung SATA Drive

May 21, 2009 10:32PM PDT

Dell recently issued a firmware update for Samsung drives installed in any number of Dimension, Inspiron, XPS, and Precision systems designed to correct what's described as a "hang" condition. The problem is, I am unable to update the firmware on my PC using Dell's instructions.

When I reboot my PC using the bootable CD created by Dell's update, it simply displays an "HD (04)" message and does nothing further. I then simply turn off the PC and restart it normally.

I've already posted this problem in the Dell forums and the Dell representative told me to follow the bootable USB drive instructions, with even less success.

This problem affects a large number of Dell PCs (not just the Inspiron 518), so I am hoping that others have had success in applying the update.

Has anyone been able to successfully update their hard drive firmware using Dell's update and, if so, what were the steps you used to complete it?

Discussion is locked

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Hi, Rranger
May 23, 2009 11:03AM PDT

You did not specify your drive, so I looked through several f/w installations. None of them creates a bootable CD, but some require you to copy certain files to a bootable CD. Some CD burning programs can create a bootable CD to which you can add other files. Check the documentation that came with your burning software to see if you have this capacity.

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Thanks for the response
May 23, 2009 11:45PM PDT

Hi Osprey:

Thanks for the response. The drive I used to make the CD was the factory-installed Optiarc DVD drive, and I booted from the CD in that. I also tried to make a DVD, with exactly the same results.

The instructions Dell gives explain how to use your burning software to make a bootable CD. I use the Roxio package that came with the PC, and followed its instructions for creating a bootable drive from Dell's .ISO file. That apparently did not work. I'm thinking of using Nero instead to see if that works.

Interestly, the steps I took exactly mirror those of someone else on the Dell forum who was able to accomplish the update for an older, smaller Samsung drive on his/her Inspiron 530. So, I don't think I'm missing anything with respect to Dell's instructions.

I'd like to give one more shot at this using a bootable USB drive, but I haven't found easy instructions for how to create that using Vista. If you know of a good site for creating a bootable Vista USB thumb drive, I'd love to check it out.

All of this is really odd, because I've never had a problem with this kind of thing before, with either Dell or HP PCs. I think there may be something wrong with Dell's ISO file, and it just hasn't been tried by that many people yet. The file is only about a week old.

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RRanger:
May 24, 2009 7:46AM PDT

A bootable device should boot regardless of the installed operating system, so you could try any generic instructions for creating a bootable flash drive, such as these:
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

Unfortunately, I don't have a system that can boot from a USB device so I've never been able to try out one of these procedures. But if you try it, let me know how it works.

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Problem Solved
May 25, 2009 10:54PM PDT

The issue was inadvertently solved by downloading and installing a trial version of Nero 9. The problem is very clearly with Dell's instructions, and I wasted a great deal of time trying pointlessly to create a "bootable CD/DVD" based on this step in Dell's instructions:

4. Refer to your CD burning application instructions to create a bootable CD using the provided file "C:\DELL\Drivers\R220045\CD Image\Samsung Utility.ISO".

All I had to do was what I always do with a .ISO file, that is, simply burn it to a DVD and restart booting from the drive. And, the only reason I tried to do that was that I couldn't figure out how to make a "bootable CD/DVD" with Nero the way that Roxio so easily allows you to select.

Suggestion to Dell: Change the text to say "create a CD/DVD using Samsung Utility.ISO disk image file". That would avoid a lot of confusion.

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Thanks for the update
May 28, 2009 10:26AM PDT

I only use Nero, so I never had problems writing ISOs to a CD.

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After making the bootable DVD, then what?
Aug 4, 2009 1:55AM PDT

Hi rranger1:
After making your bootable CD/DVD disk, what were the next steps that you carried out?

Nero 9, on my older Dell computer, made a bookable DVD when I double clicking on the "Samsung Utility.ISO".file.

My question is: How does one deal with the other four files included with Dell download: 1)AUTOEXEC.BAT 2)BACKGRND.COM 3)F1_FW_17.exe 4)UPDATE.BAT.

(The file examples are for my XPS 435T computer and download R220314. A similar situation with Samsung HDD's, just different computers).

Does one burn a second, normal, DVD containing the four files 1)AUTOEXEC.BAT 2)BACKGRND.COM 3)F1_FW_17.exe 4)UPDATE.BAT and load this DVD after the bootable DVD?

Or does one somehow append these four files to the bootable DVD created by "Samsung Utility.ISO"?

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I didn't make a bootable CD/DVD ...
Aug 4, 2009 7:32AM PDT

... and that was precisely the issue with Dell's instructions.

All you need to do is use the Roxio software supplied with your PC, plop in a CD/DVD and tell it to make a data disk, selecting the .ISO file.

Then, restart the PC and the firmware will automatically update. It all takes about 10 seconds from beginning to end once you've rebooted.

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Perform a normal "burn", of "Samsung Utility. ISO" to a CD
Aug 4, 2009 1:01PM PDT

Thank you Rranger1. I installed the Samsung firmware upgrade, as per your suggestion. It worked exactly as you stated.
To correct Dell's instructional step 4, one needs to modify step 4 as:

4a) Perform a normal "burn", of "Samsung Utility. ISO" to a CD.
4b) Not required to make a bootable CD
4c) Not needed and not used are the other files, such as Autoexec.bat, Backgrnd.com, F1_FW.exe, and Update.bat

And then follow Dell's procedure, Steps 5 to 12, inclusive.

Again, Rranger1, thank you for the solution. Upgrading the firmware to one's hard drive is a stressful operation and clear upgrade instructions are vital.

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Windows Disk Image Burner in windows 7 works better
Dec 21, 2009 11:31PM PST

Thank you Rranger1 and Edward500 for the proper instructions.
I tried using roxio to burn samsung utility.iso image as per suggestion but the cd/dvd simply could not be booted. Then, I tried Windows Disk Image burner which comes with windows 7 and it worked like a charm.

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Unable to Update Firmware on Inspiron 519 Samsung SATA Drive
Feb 11, 2012 9:24AM PST

having the same problem. i thought i was doing something wrong until i read your forum. good luck.