Dell L502X BIOS Update installer patching | Hacker News Reader

Dell L502X BIOS Update installer patching

r9c.net

38 pointsrobingchan15 comments

> Brilliant. Clicking OK - displays the same box over and over until the battery is >10%, I'm not interested in ordering a replacement battery for this, it's a toy at this point.

oh software people.

I'd be figuring out how I can jump some leads with the "right" voltage to the battery's leads to see if I can fool it (and hopefully not explode the leads), though might not work with OP's weird 255%/100%/0% simultaneous battery level reporting.

A good way to make a lithium battery explode/set on fire if you don't know what you are doing. So maybe it's good that us software people don't do that.

Dell BIOS updates usually have a switch to override the battery check. I remember /force working on some models, and then they changed it to something more obscure

I googled the string in the DialogBox shown in the blog-post, "L502xa12", which lead me to a driver download page.

The binary supports "-force", "/forceall", "/forceit" and "/forcetype", amongst other command-line options.

So it looks like your memory is good!

The L502X had the best keyboard and speakers of any laptop I've ever owned. It still has plenty of horsepower under Window 7 too, but everything has deprecated support for that OS. Maybe one day will install a flavour of Linux on it. It's too good to let go to e-waste!

This is making me quite curious, how does it compare to modern MacBooks which I’ve come to consider to have excellent sound?

The L502X speakers were in a completely different class for the era, and still competitive today against current MBPs.

IMO, ThinkPads from the same release year (T420 etc.) equipped with the NMB keyboard had a far better layout and feel.

I have Linux on mine and it's still alive.

It would be funny to if the person finds out there are command line arguments that force the update.

Unbelievably there was a BIOS update from 2020 - this thing was end of life in around 2014.

...and did you get any new features or bug fixes with the new BIOS version? My bet is you probably lost undervolting instead, due to "security".

Ads on the BIOS setup screen...

Two 30s unskippable video ads during POST

According to BIOS update page:

Fixes: - Fixed issue when system resumes from the Hibernate mode automatically after upgrading to Windows 8 operating system.

Enhancements: - Enhanced the support on Windows 8 operating system.

I still have my L702X in my closet next to me! The machine lasted me 7.5 years. Thanks for the throwback reminder.

Still use my L702x daily. It's heavy but I love the display and the speakers. It had Nvidia 3d vision with shutter glasses at one point, obviously not useful now. Windows 7 still on it. With an SSD it's still speedy and does a good job. I hope this 14 year old laptop will get me through another 6 years at least.

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