Dell Inspiron Mini 910... no OS found

[Qacer]

My aunt's Dell Mini 910 became dysfunctional, so she asked me to take a look at it.

After initial troubleshooting, I thought the solid state drive was the problem. But before I get her to buy one, I wanted to verify.


Here is what I've done so far:

1. I tried Hiren's Boot CD and Ultimate Boot CD using an external, USB CD drive. The discs are recognized and I am able to go to the respective boot CD menus. However, if I run any of the utilities included in the boot CDs, then they just hang.

2. I tried downloading the A05 version of the mini 910 BIOS update. I was able to get Phoenix's PHLASH16.exe DOS utility and the ALLW.ROM image from Dell's website. I used the Dr. Caldera version of DOS to at least run the flash utility from a boot floppy. I used a USB floppy drive to boot the floppy disk. I am able to get to the command prompt, but running the flash utility doesn't quite work. The flash utility loads its setup screen, but when it starts the flashing process, it just hangs.

3. I tried running the OS restoration CD that came with the Dell mini 910 system. I get through the installation screen where it asks to select a disk partition. The screen shows no partitions found. When I continue by pressing the <ENTER> key, then it gives me the blue screen of death.

4. I took out the battery and still left the AC plug connected. This didn't quite make sense to me, but I've read that some failed BIOS updates were due to the system reading that the battery level was low. Anyhoo, I figured I'd trying doing all the actions in 1,2,and 3 with the battery unplug, but it still gave the same results.

Does this sound like the solid state drive is still the problem? I'm especially curious regarding the BIOS updates. Since I'm using a floppy disk, then the hard drive should not play into the upgrade. So the fact that the BIOS update screen hangs, I don't think this is a hard drive issue.

Any other tips?

I'd like to at least be able to update the BIOS from A00 to A05. The A06 update from Dell's website is packaged in a Windows executable, and I can't seem to extract the BIOS image from it.

Here are the system specs:
System Type: Inspiron Mini 9 (910)
Ship Date: 10/9/2008
Dell IBU: Americas


Quantity Parts # Part Description

1 W959F PROCESSOR..., N270, 1.6, 512KB, DMV, C0
1 Y877G Assembly, Adapter, Alternating Current, 30W, 2P, United States 910
1 G383G GUIDE..., PRODUCT..., INFORMATION..., WSI, ENGLAND/ENGLISH...
1 H510G GUIDE..., PRODUCT..., INFORMATION..., SERI, ENGLAND/ENGLISH..., WORLD WIDE...
1 M770H Guide, SETUP, Inspiron, 910, English
1 M958H Keyboard, 61, United States English, Single Pointing, Qiao Hong, Windows
1 Y635G Battery, Primary, 32WHR, 4C Lithium, Dynapack InternationalTechnology Corp
1 J141H ASSEMBLY..., BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., NOTEBOOK..., WO/WWAN, 910
1 G558J Assembly, Cable, Low Voltage Differential Signaling, WO/CMRALCD, 910
1 N302H Bezel, Liquid Crystal Display Silver, 8.9, WO/CMRA, 910
1 PP102 Dual In-Line Memory Module, 1G 800, 128X64, 8, 200, 1GBIT
1 R820G Liquid Crystal Display 8.9WSVGA, Light Emitting Diode True Life, AU OPTRONICS CORP...
1 R020C Kit, Software, Works, 9, English
1 J613H Card, Wireless, Internal Bluetooth, QH/YM
1 X422G Solid State Drive, 16G, ParallelAdvanced Technology Attachment, 4GX4, SALES & TECHNICAL ORGANIZATION...
1 T558J Kit, Software, Overpack, WXPHSP3 Low Cost, England/english
1 N204H Card, Wireless, Minicard Broadcom Corporation, ARCD United States
1 J126H Assembly, Cover, Liquid Crystal Display, IMR, Black, Wireless Local Area Network Card, 910

 

[code65536]

Why are you trying to flash the system? BIOS flashes are rarely (virtually never) the solution to disk problems. Nor do they fix problems that were not present before (they could fix existing problems, but very rarely can they address a problem that did not originally exist). And if the flash fails midway (which, fortunately for you, doesn't sound like the case here), you're just introducing new potential problems into the mix.

The best way to make sure that it is a disk problem is to take it out and try using it with another computer... the SSD here should just be a mini-PCIe card, which you can plug into the mini-PCIe slot of any other netbook/laptop/nettop you may have lying around (temporarily vacate the WiFi slot if necessary).

 

[Qacer]

Yep. I agree that flashing the BIOS will not fix the problem. However, I would like to know if a BIOS can still be flashed with no hard drive present.

If a BIOS can be flashed without any hard drives, then the problem is most likely not the hard drive since attempting to flash the BIOS results has been futile so far.

 

[Qacer]

Ok... After hours of messing around with it, I found a Dell Diagnostics CD. I booted it up and used Dell's own diagnostic tools. According to Dell's tool, the memory seems fine. I guess memtest does not work properly with the Dell mini even when booted from a DOS floppy.

Anyway, the tests seem to indicate that the hard drive is shot. I'm getting the following results for the STEC SSD drive:


Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg: DISK_0 - Block 0: Can't read, replace disk or remove Write Protection

...and so on

Error Code 0F00:0444
Msg: DISK_0 - Block 0: Can't read, replace disk or remove Write Protection

...and so on

Error Code 0F00:1A44
Msg: DISK_0 - Block 0: Can't read, replace disk or remove Write Protection

 

[code65536]

I would like to know if a BIOS can still be flashed with no hard drive present.

That wouldn't tell you very much, though. E.g., a shot controller would probably not affect the ability to flash. On the other side of things, a failed flash does not necessarily point to mobo problems, as flashing is often rather finicky.

Anyway, yea, it sounds like a shot SSD, but given that these mini-PCIe SSDs are wildly expensive ($70 on Newegg for a mere 16GB), if I were you, I'd still want to take the SSD out and test it on another system before grabbing a new one...

 

[Qacer]

Yeah... these suckers are indeed expensive. I'll see if I can locate another netbook to test this. Thanks!

 

[llee]

The Mini netbooks use PCIe SSDs. It sounds like your aunt's might be corrupted unfortunately. Doesn't Dell have a warranty for this kind of thing?