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September 10th, 2025 13:50

Dell Optiplex 790 Boot Options does not have Upgrade BIOS option

I have a Dell Optiplex 790 with BIOS A05. I am trying to upgrade the BIOS to the latest A22 which requires going first upgrading to A10. The Windows 7 is no longer running on the machine so am limited to the USB FLash drive upgrade method. I have the images on the USB drive but when going to the Boot OPtions the "Upgrade BIOS" option is not there. Is there something missing? i read at some point something about a jumper on the board to move but do not have that link anymore. 

Thank you, 

Bruce.

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September 10th, 2025 14:59

No you just run bios.exe on a bootable flash drive. No need to look for bios upgrade option in bios

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September 10th, 2025 15:01

I would suggest incremental small step bios.exe run from A05 to A10, A11, A13 on.  Easier n safer than using .rom or .bin of bios file.

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September 10th, 2025 21:19

@redxps630​ Hi, by bios.exe do you mean the O790-A10.exe file that I downloaded from Dell? 

The Dell site https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=v00kh&oscode=w764&productcode=optiplex-790  says to "If BIOS version A05 or later and BIOS versions before A10 is currently installed on your system, you must first update to BIOS version A10 and then update to the latest BIOS. " I have A05 so I was planning to update to A10 then A22, skipping all the in betweens. Do you think that will be OK since it comes from Dell, or is not reliable? 

Thank you, 

Bruce. 

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September 10th, 2025 21:24

I would not skip.  I would flash to every version stepwise.  just make sure you do not power off.

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September 10th, 2025 23:25

@redxps630​ Does the bootable flash drive need to run an OS like windows__ or is there something simpler? I have a linux opensuse 15.1 bootable flash drive, should it work to run the O790-A*.exe files?

Thanks, 

Bruce. 

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14.6K Posts

September 11th, 2025 01:29

no a bootable USB drive does not need to have OS.  you can use the Dell method https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000145519/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-using-dell-diagnostic-deployment-package-dddp

or you can use rufus to create a MS DOS bootable drive which has MS DOS (OS) on it.

 

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September 11th, 2025 17:47

@redxps630​ I made both flash boot drives. Using the Dell DDP and going through all teh flash upgrades.  Thank you for your help. 

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