Originally Posted by
John P. Myers
Short version: the motherboard is bricked. Ordering a new one since i'm determined to see this project through.
Went to update BIOS to ensure support for the new CPU and RAM i'll be getting. Had a DOS-bootable USB stick that i download the updated BIOS image to so i could boot to the USB stick and flash it. Dell provides a BIOS package download specifically for this. I was happy for Dell for once since they did something right....until i actually tried it. Unless you have already flashed your BIOS, you can't boot from a USB stick to flash your BIOS. Have i ever properly conveyed the degree with which i loathe Dell? Anyway...
So had to go the floppy route, but i didn't have any disks. So messaged my sister, who i got the lolDell from in the first place,to see if she had any spares. She did, i got them, made a DOS-bootable out of it and put the BIOS image on it. Stuck it in the Dell's floppy drive, rebooted, flashing began, then i get the lovely message: Disk read error in drive A: Abort, Ignore, Retry, Fail. If you remember your DOS, then you know it's over at that point. Bricked.