New laptop and a Nasty Scare...

Iskandar Blogger 2:15 PM
I've recently bought a Dell Studio 15 and, while very pleased with the laptop, the performance and the speed, I was rather taken aback when I updated the BIOS. It hung. Indeed it broke! The term used on the Internet forums is that I 'bricked it' or made my laptop into something with all the usefullness of a house brick.
It was a deceptively easy thing to do. I simply popped my Dell service tag into the Dell web site on http://support.euro.dell.com/support/ and downloaded the BIOS file that was recommended for my machine from the Dell website. I downloaded the file to my laptop, followed the installation instructions which were:
  1. Click Download Now to download the latest BIOS file.
    The File Download window appears.
  2. Click Save to save the file on your desktop. The file downloads to your desktop.
  3. Click Close if the Download Complete window appears.
    The file icon appears on your desktop and is titled the same as the downloaded BIOS update file.
  4. Double-click the file icon on the desktop and follow the instructions on the screen.
Even the software itself had further instructions - basically make sure the laptop was on the power supply and that all other applications were closed and your work saved. Then press OK. Easy.
Now before I go further, I should tell you that I have been updating the BIOS on computers since the now very old PC-AT - PC's that were based on the Intel 286 processor running at a staggering 12MHz.  I'll also add that I had never had a problem with a BIOS update before.  Not ever.  Until now...  What happened?
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