VosTro 3700 A12 Bios FULLY UNLOCKED

This works great, thanks very much!

I made an account just to thank DoZe for the modded BIOS, which worked at first try (I had previously flashed the Dell A12 BIOS as instructed).

What I did not read in this thread is, after changing the BIOS settings to those shown in the first pictures, Windows 7 would not recognize the Nvidia GPU and instead showed something like "generic VGA adapter"; I had to install the latest driver from Nvidia (341.95) for video to work properly again.
I then upgraded to Windows 10 and everything worked well, finally I installed the Windows 10 version of the same Nvidia driver.

All hardware is working fine, HDMI with sound ok, I did not need to use the modded audio driver. Backlit keyboard works, haven't tried fingerprint reader yet since I haven't used it in a long time.

I had upgraded this laptop's SSD, ram, even changed the CPU to i7 640M, was very disappointed not to be able to use Windows 10 because of the hybrid graphics. Its only weakness is the lack of SATA 3 and USB 3.0 really. Thanks to DoZe's BIOS my old Vostro will be good for many more years.

I hope more people with the same problem find DoZe's solution while the Windows 10 upgrade is still free.


If someone wants to be extra cautious, before upgrading to Windows 10, just in case things went wrong I cloned my Windows 7 partition in the same hard drive and made both partitions bootable following the steps in this thread< http://superuser.com/questions/520025/how-to-clone-a-win7-boot-partition-onto-the-same-hard-drive >important, follow lower answer by Rappeti2 about deleting registry entries. That works well too although I got some notification about my Office key being used too many times, will figure that out later.

Thanks to DoZe and all those who took time to contribute.

 

Hi DoZe
and thank you very much
my problem with my vostro 3700 and nvidia 330m driver in win 10 is solved.
and all seems to work fine.

thanks again

 

Thank you DoZe for your hard work in creating this new BIOS! I have flashed it to my Vostro 3700 and it works like you said it would.

However, I am still having a problem. :-(

The reason I found your site is, I did the free upgrade to Windows 10. I had Windows 7 x64 installed and it worked great for years.

When I did the upgrade, it went smoothly, but like the others on this board, it wouldn't properly detect the video card. I had the Intel one, and the generic Microsoft one.

But - and here's the big problem, since my work is not graphics-intensive - the computer would hang after a few minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but never more than an hour. And it would hang in a strange way - the mouse and mouse-overs would work, and some clicking, but nothing system - not the menus nor shutdown.

So I flashed with your new BIOS and changed the settings according to your screenshot. This got rid of the Intel video driver. Then I installed the Windows 7 x64 driver for GeForce GT 330M from Dell that was posted here - it says it is version 9.18.13.4192. This took a few tries and reboots but it shows fine.

I also saw the unknown audio devices, but when I tried to update those drivers, Windows said it found its own drivers and installed them. There are now 1 entry for High Definition Audio Device, 4 entries for NVIDIA High Definition Audio, and 1 entry for NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Etensible) (WDM). The audio seems to work fine but I haven't tried anything fancy like HDMI or the microphone.

I tried to install the IDT audio drivers posted here and they wouldn't - either it said there was a missing settings file, or the excutables wouldn't run at all. Maybe I'm missing part of the instructions? I also tried a manual install from the directory, but Windows said there were no drivers there.

There is also an "Other device - Unknown device" listed which I have disabled since I don't know what it is.

Anyway, I would think that I'm all set - except it still seems to crash at unpredictable times. It never did this before the upgrade so I'm guessing it still has something to do with the drivers.

If I have to roll back to Windows 7, I have to do it in the next couple of days because after that Microsoft won't let you, and then this computer will be useless. Any ideas?

Thanks so much for your support! I have a lot of Dell laptops but I'm not sure whether I will buy another one after them abandoning us like this. :-(

 

Hi all! this is great work, @DoZe, thanks!

I'm reading the whole thread while updating my BIOS to A12, so as to minimize unpleasant surprises =P

There're some things I don't understand, though: when/if I'm able to actually flash modded BIOS...

1. Will I be able to upgrade to Win10 FROM Win7? Or do I need to make a clean install? (which would you recommend?)
2. I understand we're supposed to enter BIOS settings and disable Hybrid-power... is that correct? is that necessary to install/upgrade to Win10?
3. Does that mean I WON'T BE ABLE to use my Intel embedded HD4000 graphics card? (even on a "parallel" linux install?)
4. Or does that mean that I need to enter BIOS settings and choose which card to use on that particular session if/when I want to switch cards?
5. Would that mean on first boot I'd need to install BOTH (nVidia/Intel) graphic drivers? (sort of: enter bios, enable card 1, boot OS, install driver 1 / reboot / enter bios, enable card 2, boot OS, install driver 2)
6. This drivers update thing, is to be done prior or post windows 10 upgrade? I.e.: should I
   1. install modded BIOS, disable hybrid-power, install updated win7 drivers, upgrade OS to win10
   2. install modded BIOS, disable hybrid-power, upgrade OS to win10, install updated win10 driver
7. Idem 6, but on other drivers: biometric sensor, audio, etc... are we supposed to update drivers prior or post Win10 upgrade?

I hope someone could clarify these before "deadline" (it's coming..!

 

Hi folks, I just updated to Anniversary Update (W10 1607) and it was a real pain in the ass; after three hours, here are the problems I encoutered:

1. the Bluetooth Audio that I had to deactivate to avoid blue screen on reboot that was reactivated (so I experienced some BSON on restart)
2. the process hangs at 75% with a black screen but luckily I found that unplugging the Logitech Unifying Receiver made the installation finishe
3. at the first start after installation the system performed very poorly, explorer bar continuously crashing; it solved by itself with a reboot, but it was a true pain

So, I had my system back to work with a reasonable speed (far more than W7 and progressively reaching the W10 release 1522). BUT: I had to disable the "Bluetooth audio" device to avoid BSOD, so if anyone doesn't experience the problem, may I know the drivers you are using?

My setup:

• IDT audio 6.10.0.6277 (07/04/2010), reinstalled from the original package for W7 and with all functions and interfaces working
  
• Audio Bluetooth: Broadcom 12.0.1.860 (08/12/2015), peripheral disabled because it causes BSOD on restart (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE)
• DW1501: Broadcom 5.60.48.35 (21/01/2010), I guess the original one belonging from W7
• Dell Wireless 365 Module: Broadcom 12.0.0.8047 (18/10/2013)

Am I missing something?

Thanks a lot
Patrizio

 

I recently installed win 10 Redstone 1607 without any issue at all
I'm using Bluetooth driver from lenovo ( Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 v 12.0.0.1600 )

its the 5th day and everything is OK

 

Hi :Op

Nice to see this thread is alive.

and === T-H-A-N-K-S === to ALL

 

I installed the anniversary update and after reinstalling dell-synaptic touchpad driver and updated lenovo bluetooh (yes it works!) everything is fine but the wifi: it keeps disconnecting every few minutes.
Does anybody have the same issue with wifi?
Which driver do you suggest (right now I am using the default installed by windows)?

 

No issue with WiFi or anything - all good
and using the driver installed by windows.

 

I am using the same driver as you, but I am having wifi issues.
Do you also have installed lenovo bluetooh driver (as the module is both wifi and bluetooth)?
I have lenovo bluetooth 12.0.0.6000