Flashing over OEM-R BIOS/Firmware on Dell hardware | Blah, Cloud

[mylesagray]

Written on 02/25/2018 13:07:11

URL: https://blah.cloud/hardware/flashing-over-oem-r-biosfirmware-on-dell-hardware/

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/23/2016 08:30:02

Please help me Myles. I just bought a Dell R210ii XL that apparently has an OEM BIOS. No Dell logo and it's stuck on BIOS v1.1.1 from 2011. Been trying for days to update it to no avail. I am having trouble creating a MSDOS bootable usb drive. I don't know if it's the image that's bad, or if my server is just being stubborn, but it won't boot to it.

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Myles Gray on 03/23/2016 21:09:48

As far as creating a bootable USB, I use Rufus most times: https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Give that a shot, and follow the instructions again, make sure when it boots you're hitting F11 (if that is BIOS Boot Manager for your server) and select the USB as the boot drive (may show up as a HDD).

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/24/2016 04:34:12

I finally figured out how to boot to usb. This R210ii XL is a little different than I'm used to. I'm going to use Rufus 2.8 now to create a FreeDOS boot disk with MBR partition type, then copy a few Unpackaged BIOS files over and give this a shot. I'm nervous it's not going to work. You make it sound way easier than it is. Wish me luck! I'll report back shortly.

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/24/2016 04:47:02

Well, I got further this time, but it didn't like the bios file I downloaded. Not sure why it says T110 II, since I have a Dell R210II XL. Service Tag is 2TWNW12. Do you mind taking a look and verify that am downloading the correct file? My BIOS is currently verion 1.1.1. I tried the 1.3.1 unpackaged BIOS file first (PER210II_010301.exe), then tried 2.7.0 (PER210II_020700.exe). Same result. There has to be a way to flash this dang thing back to Dell standard BIOS.

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/24/2016 05:02:09

http://i.imgur.com/my4UCYl.jpg

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/24/2016 05:05:56

Looks like I'm making progress. I tried using the command "PER210II020203.exe -wipeclean -forcetype" and now I see this screen. Think I'm going to cancel and make sure I have the correct BIOS version. I'm don't want to brick my new server.
http://i.imgur.com/q05WWfd.jpg

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Aqxea on 03/24/2016 05:32:18

Decided not to cancel and just go for it. Success!
http://i.imgur.com/FDBjWs9.jpg

Thanks for your help.

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Myles Gray on 03/24/2016 22:24:24

Good to hear man!

[mylesagray]

Comment written by MJ on 08/01/2016 06:38:30

Dude. You are a legend;

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Motonuke on 04/18/2017 17:39:48

This was a lifesaver, thanks!

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Empresa de Servicios Públ on 05/20/2017 01:07:00

Doesnt work on my R610, the program starts, then the decompresion goes up to 100%, but the blue background was never shown and the update wasnt done

[mylesagray]

Comment written by Scott Morris on 02/11/2018 20:54:38

DUDE!!! I cannot possibly thank you enough. I have been fighting with some OEM R510 servers all weekend. I was about to break out my BFH (Big "Frickin" Hammer) when I saw your post. The /forcetype switch did the trick. Life Cycle Controller launches again. THANK YOU

[vanko345]

Any idea how to run this trick on OEM R720, there is only "efi" version of firmware update, (R720-020900C.efi) but it doesn't have "/forcetype" functionality

[mylesagray]

That's a great question @vanko345 no idea, there may be some other params on there if you throw it through some linux apps like strings etc

[HJKOCHER]

I installed BIOS 2.9 one hour ago. The BIOS 2.9 is for OEMR R720/R720xd and for R720/R720xd. So no forcetype is necessary. I used iDRAC to install the "Update Package for MS Windows"

[tichi43]

I am unbelievably thankful for this post. I just got an old R610 to play around with and it had a Polycom firmware on it. I was suspicious that I needed a flag for the DOS updater, I just didn't know what is was. Thank you again, my savior.