# Dell Inspiron 1100 BIOS update warning!!

## chevymoon

Has anyone got 16bpp 1024x768 resolution on a Dell Inspiron 1100 with an i845GL chipset? I recently did some forum trolling at the Dell website. Most people are ready to burn their 1100's. I'm not there yet.  But I would really like better resolution at 1024x768 if at all possible. I've got 8bpp. If anyone has had any success in obtaining better resolution I'd love to hear about it...Last edited by chevymoon on Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:06 pm; edited 3 times in total

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## chevymoon

None, eh?

Well, let me ask a follow up stupid question. Winblows supports 1024x768 at 24bpp. What would have to happen for that to be the case in Linux?

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## chevymoon

Never mind. I can answer that. At long last I found a post which seems to answer my question. I apparently made the mistake of upgrading my BIOS from A06 to A22.  :Mad: 

It appears that I'm at Dell's mercy. I'm screwed until they fix the mess they created. Hopefully this will help someone else before they unwittingly fsck up their BIOS.

http://www.geocities.com/randomnumbergenerator2001/

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## AEblefisk

I recently bought an Inspiron 500m with the exact same problem as those unfortunate 1100's: Dell's BIOS doesn't allow you to set video ram, so you're stuck with less than 1MB. 

Somebody went and made a patch for the 500m and others using the 855someting chipset. You can find it at http://www.chzsoft.com.ar/855patch.html

I don't know if it'll work for you as is or if it'll need modification, but I believe this kind of patch should solve your problems. 

Please report back if this helps or not. This is not the first time I'm suggesting trying the 855patch on the 1100, but so far I don't know if anybody even tried.

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## chevymoon

Well, I tried it as is, and it didn't work. I still can't get full screen at 16bpp. I'm not sure what I would need to do to tweek the patch. Any ideas as to where to go?

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## AEblefisk

There's a thread on Dell forums dealing with this problem. Forum "Inspiron - BIOS", thread "Please Patch A22 BIOS ASAP". I don't know if a hyperlink will work if you haven't previously logged in there, but try this: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_bios&message.id=20580&view=by_date_ascending&page=6

It may be difficult to find among all the whining and idle abuse, but someone actually did some work to find out how to modify the 855patch, to try it out on a non-855 chipset. 

So far nobody reported back if they tried it on a 1100.

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## chevymoon

I looked at that Dell thread. LOT's of whining, I must say. I e-mailed Zietz about the possibility of an i845GL patch. I'm not sure I have the cajones (sp?) to edit the patch myself. I'm in wait and see mode.

It sure would be nice to rid myself of the winblows partition... but I can't without better graphics in Linux.

 :Sad: 

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## chevymoon

FYI, folks. I got a response from Zietz about the possibility of an i845GL patch. He's willing if I can send him a BIOS dump since he doesn't have a machine with this particular chipset. I'll have to do it tonite, but the future is suddenly looking a little brighter...  :Smile: 

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## AEblefisk

Looks even brighter now. Zietz made a 845 patch. See http://www.mail-archive.com/devel@xfree86.org/msg03199.html and http://www.chzsoft.com.ar/845patch.tar.gz

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## chevymoon

Works like a charm.  :Very Happy: 

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