Dell 600m thinks it's a D600 and won't let me reflash BIOS

[imported_Snagle]

I have a used Dell Inspiron 600m. I've always just used it for surfing wirelessly which works fine with my belkin wireless card.

Today I tried connecting it through ethernet to my network and it wouldn't work. Checked the device manager and the system doesnt see the onboard NIC. I went on Dell's site and installed the drivers and it still won't work.

Some googling turned up a guy with a similar situation who flashed his BIOS and then the drivers worked correctly after that. I went on Dell's site and got the 600m BIOS, tried to flash them and got an error saying they were incompatible because my system is a Lattitude D600...I have no idea what to do from here.

So to summarize, somehow the D600 BIOS are my 600m and therefore these drivers wont work and Dell's 600m BIOS will not flash from the executable I got off Dell.com. Any ideas?

 

[Slikkster]

Can't speak to the bios issue (although these are essentially the same machines), but is there any chance you accidentally toggled the "Fn + F2" key combination? That turns ON/OFF the wireless components. I'd try that before worrying about the bios.

Edit: Whoops! I misread your original comments about the onboard nic. Will repost on this.

 

[bruceb]

If it really is a Latitude D600 then you need this BIOS: D600_A16.EXE

http://support.dell.com/support/downloa...t=1&libid=1&releaseid=R103802&vercnt=3

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If it really is a Inspiron 600M then you need this BIOS: I600mA17.exe

http://support.dell.com/support/downloa...t=1&libid=1&releaseid=R103806&vercnt=2

You can go to: http://support.dell.com/ .... after you select what you want, there is a place to enter your Service Code ... usually on a Sticker on the computer
That will help to insure you get the correct items