HOWTO: Update the BIOS/MICOM using DOS

[darkod]

I will do that later on. Thanks a lot.

I thought the command is already included in nc10-scripts that's why my surprise it didn't work after installing the package. Cheers.

[jay]

Do you have any idea how to accomplish this for N510? There seem to be a new version out for this one, too: http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/detai ... me=NP-N510

I already fail to unpack the exe, seems not to be a selfextracting zip this one...

Running the exe with wine complains about something like "Low battery and missing AC adapter", i hoped it would extract itself, but obviously it tries directly to go ahead flashing...

Maybe I missed some post in another thread?

[voria]

The official samsung updater extracts its files in the windows temp directory, runs the update and then removes all the temp files. If it does not detect the battery and AC adapter, it exits immediately before the files are extracted.
I use a VirtualBox virtual machine with XP installed, which is able to 'see' the battery, so the updater does not complain about it and goes on, until it hangs trying to update the BIOS. After a brute reset of the VM, I can get all the files from the windows temp directory.

[Megamock]

Hi guy,

I passed this morning my Samsung NC10 under Ubuntu Karmic Koala (Windows was seriously starting to rot, and my hard disk was suffering from it, makin' noises ad stuffs). So I am a total noob of Linux.

The fact is, before installing Linux, I made a few searches and I became aware that I had to upgrade the firmware, what I did under Windows with the official updater of Samsung. Everything went well...

At least I thought, because according to the BIOS, only the MICOM has been updated. The BIOS is still at 04CA.

So I would like to update the BIOS, and not the MICOM. Unfortunately, I lack of a bit of practice - but it seems that when I enter the first sudo dd command of this topic, the prompt says that there is no such file existing. What am I doing wrong ?

Thank you,

MM

[voria]

Welcome to linux (and to the forum, of course).

If you downloaded 'usbdos.zip' on your desktop, click on it with the right button and extract its content. You'll get the file 'usbdos.img'.
Now open a terminal and move to your desktop with this command:

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cd Desktop

Then, use the 'dd' command as stated above.
Make sure to use the right '/dev/sdX' device!
You can check it by using the 'Disk Utility' (System->Administration->Disk Utility).

Then, continue to follow the instructions in the main post.

If you need any other help, feel free to ask.

[Popo01]

Hi Megamock.
I had once the same problem when I upgrated my BIOS under windows. And to solve it, I just upgraded again in using the .exe file you downloaded on the website of Samsung. That's all.
Good evening.

[fREdonWEb]

Hi,

I try to update my bios 04CA to 11CA.

I've a problem with this step :

Unplug then replug the USB key in order to detect and mount the new DOS partition on it.

When I do it, my USB key disappear and I can not mount it a second time.
If I do a "mount -v", I do not see my key.

I'm on Debian testing, with a USB key formated on Vfat.

What must I do ?

Thanks

[voria]

Check in your dmesg if the key is correctly recognized, then try to mount it manually with a command like this:

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sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

[fREdonWEb]

After installing the usbdos, when I try to mount my USB key, I have this error message :

$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

$ dmesg | tail
[ 5560.170403] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[ 5560.170895] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[ 5560.170905] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.

I must reformat my key to mount it again.

[voria]

Try to create the usb key again with the 'dd' command.
When done, use the 'sync' command prior to unplug it (this way you are sure all the write operations are really completed).

[fREdonWEb]

I installed an other DOS version : DOS 6.22
It seems the installation is ok but the freespace is only 1.3 MB after it and I can't copy the others files (my usb key is 2 GB !).
Can I upgrade my bios with this dos version ?

I found the 11CA DOS executable version on the samsung websitehere.

Someone tested this file ?

[fREdonWEb]

There was an error.
You can find the 11CA DOS executable version on the samsung website here.

[Popo01]

I tested this file on windows and it worked perfectly.

[voria]

Looking around the web, I've noticed that someone has used the update method described in the main post to update the BIOS on other Samsung netbooks models, successfully.

It would be nice to add to the main post the BIOSes for other Samsung netbooks, ready to be used like the ones for the NC10.

If anyone can provide them, please post them here (be sure they work good).
Thanks.

[moreginger]

I tried this on an X120 from 03CX BIOS -> 06CX BIOS (extracted from the exe using the VirtualBox method, I couldn't find a MICOM image to flash) and it made some very scary beeping noises, and displayed the BIOS with an error message. It doesn't seem to have bricked it but I don't fancy trying again to note the message properly