Dell Vostro 200 Award BIOS mod

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

Fernando,

I did as you requested previously and extracted the 3 modules. I have:

RAID1017.BIN - Intel RAID for SATA v7.5.0.1017
AH_A135S.BIN - AHCI Option ROM BIOS Revision: 01.03.50 Date: 04-26-2007…Copyright (c) 2006-2008 Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BA1250L2.LOM - Intel Boot Agent GE v1.2.50

2

Are you running the HDD/SSD of your Dell Vostro in AHCI or RAID mode?
Depending on the answer I would just update the related ROM module.

3

Well the answer is both…

I have several Vostro 200’s, one of which is currently running in RAID, the other 6 run as IDE (there is no AHCI option available in the BIOS).

4

You can easily check the IDE mode, if there is any Windows OS installed. Just open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section of the Device Manager and look for the name of the listed Controller(s). If there is "AHCI" within it, the SATA Controller has been set to AHCI mode.
It would be a big help, if you can check and transmit the DeviceIDs of the Intel SATA AHCI/RAID Controllers (right click onto the Controller > "Properties" > "Details" > "Property" > "HardwareIDs", the DeviceID is listed as DEV_xxxx). The RAID Controller can be found within the "Storage Controllers" resp. "SCSI- and RAID Controllers" section of the Device Manager.

5

I wasn’t able to access the PC’s again until this morning, so here are the details you requested:

RAID PC
Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller
-> DEV_2822

IDE PC’s
Intel (R) ICH9 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 2926
-> DEV_2926
Intel (R) ICH9 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 2920
-> DEV_2920

6

@ rharrison:

Thanks for your additional informations, which verify, that the IDE PC’s neither need nor use any AHCI or RAID PCI ROM module.
As a consequence I suggest just to update the Intel RAID ROM module of the RAID PC BIOS. The best option will be the insertion of the Intel RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527, but this RAID ROM module needs much more space than the older ones.
This is what I recommend to do:

  1. Remove resp. delete the Intel RAID ROM v7.5.0.1017, save the BIOS and then insert the Intel RAID ROM v10.1.0.1008 (contrary to the simplier “Replace” procedure this may save a little bit space).
  2. If everything should work fine after having flashed the modded BIOS, you may try to insert the Intel RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527 instead.

Good luck!
Fernando