Dapper corrupts Dell laptop BIOS!

[Alan Mckinnon]

On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 16:11 +0200, Francisco Borges wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of some Dell
> laptops.
> 
> [1]:
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
> 
> Honestly, I fell cheated.

Slow down, cowboy. Leave the !!!s and the ?!?s for the poor souls who
run a different OS and concentrate on the actual problem and the
solution.

Now, go back and re-read that bug page and realize the following:

1. Your machine is not broken
2. A corrupted CMOS is very easy to fix
3. This kind of problem has been around since the first PC was released
25 years ago. So any user who has [clue > 0] sooner or later runs into
it and learns how to fix it:

The coin cell is a big fat watch battery about 2.5cm across. It supplies
power to the CMOS memory and when you take it out and leave it out for
about a minute the CMOS memory is cleared. You'll find it under a cover
on the bottom of the machine on modern Dells, it has two wires and a
tiny plug on the end. Power down the machine, unscrew the cover on the
bootom and unplug this battery, wait a minute and put it back. Switch
the machine on, press F2 and reset your BIOS data.

The reason the machine can't boot right now is probably because the info
in the CMOS as to what devices are valid to boot from has probably been
cleared.

If you still have a problem with the bug not being assigned to someone
then I recommend you sign yourself up as the responsible person and
figure out the solution so everyone else can benefit too.

alan