Update Dell XPS BIOS with Intel standard BIOS?

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

So the P965 chipset on the Dell XPS410 is capable of addressing 8Gb of Ram, but the XPS410 only addresses 4Gb. I believe this to be because the BIOS is limiting the total addresseable memory. I am running the very latest BIOS from Dell for this system (2.5.3), the setup is also known as a DXP061.

So, if I can match (and I have not tried yet) the Intel BIOS numbers with the similarly marked BIOS numbers on the Dell board, could I flash an Intel Bios onto it?

I dont want to hear from those that think that it ‘could’ break the board, if I decide to do it I will have decided to sacrifice it.

Instead, I want to hear from those that know whether:

  1. There is absolutely no way it will work because Dell m/b designers deliberately build in differences that must be resolved using the BIOS

  2. It might work because Dell would have used a reference design from Intel with little else added and at most maybe the AC97 audio chip wont work but everything else will

  3. No way it can work because some address lines are missing hence only 4Gb can be physically addressed

  4. Some other reasoning that is not only queerer than I did imagine but also queerer than I could imagine…

Regards,

Carlos

2

There’s a few different BIOS software companies, so if you’re wanting to flash an Award BIOS and the motherboard uses an AMI one, the Awardflash program won’t do the job.

Off-hand, I don’t know who manufacture’s Dell motherboards, but that who you should look at first. That should address the above issue.

Lastly, the only thing that you should consider, should this go to hell in a handbasket, is a replacement motherboard. What you have now is using the BTX standard, a failed attempt by Intel to address the hot running late Pentium 4/D’s. This was later abandoned by Intel for the most part. Most cases out there are ATX or it’s derivative microATX (mATX,uATX).
I’m not sure if this bit is still true, but Dell has been known employ power supplies (and consequently motherboards) with the main ATX power connector wired differently than the standard one.