Copyright 2001-2003, Dell
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

         Dell Portables POST Bitmap Update Program Instructions

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                            Table of Contents
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Section #   Topic

I.          Introduction
II.         SPLASH Command Line Options
III.        Using SPLASH.EXE, the POST Bitmap Update program
IV.         Supported systems
V.	    Unintentionally Removing a Bitmap from NVRAM

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I. Introduction
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The POST Bitmap Update Program allows you to replace the image that is
displayed during the Power-On Self Test (POST) of your Dell Portable
computer.

By default, the image displayed during POST is the Dell logo. This image can
be replaced by a specially formatted image loaded into non-volatile memory
(NVRAM) using SPLASH.EXE. The image remains in memory even when power has
been removed from the system.

The image which is loaded into NVRAM must be in bitmap (.bmp) format. The
image can be no larger than 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high and must use
16 colors without RLE encoding.


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II. SPLASH Command Line Options
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USE: splash {OFF | file}

Where:

	OFF	Unload the current bitmap image from memory
		and return to the default image.
	file	The name of the file containing the bitmap
		to be loaded into memory. (eg. myimage.bmp)


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III. Using SPLASH.EXE, the POST Bitmap Update program
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Splash must be run from a DOS prompt, not a DOS box from within Windows. The
program may not run unless a battery is inserted and AC power is attached
to the computer.

To load a new image into memory, boot from this diskette to a DOS prompt
and type:

	SPLASH file

where 'file' is the name of the file containing the bitmap.

To clear a previously loaded image from memory and return to the default
Dell Logo, type:

	SPLASH off

On some systems the program will restart the computer when it has completed
execution.

EXAMPLE:

The INSPIRON.BMP bitmap is included on this diskette. To load this bitmap
into memory, type:

	SPLASH inspiron.bmp

NOTE:
The program must be able to compress the bitmap image to fit into
approximately 64KB of NVRAM. It may not be possible to sufficiently compress
some images even though they meet the 640x480x16 requirement. In these cases
the program will display an error message indicating the image is too large
and the POST bitmap screen will not be updated. 


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IV. Supported Systems
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The program supports the following systems:

Dell Latitude
C-Series and D-Series systems, except for Latitude CP and Latitude CPi.

Dell Inspiron
3700, 3800, 4000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 500m series, 600m series.

Dell Precision
M-Series


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V. Unintentionally Removing a Bitmap from NVRAM
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There are two ways for a user to unintentionally erase a bitmap image from
NVRAM:

1)  Downgrading the system BIOS to a version that does not support the POST
    Bitmap Update.
2)  Flashing to any BIOS revision without using the /nvram option when the
    flash BIOS executable is run.

The BIOS flash diskettes available at WWW.SUPPORT.DELL.COM utilize a program
called UPGRADE.EXE to launch the flash BIOS executable. UPGRADE.EXE makes use
of the /nvram switch when it launches the flash BIOS executable. Users who
upgrade their system BIOS versions with these diskettes will not lose the
bitmaps they've previously programmed into NVRAM unless they bypass
UPGRADE.EXE and manually run the flash BIOS executable without the /nvram
option.



Revised 01/17/03

End of SPLASH.TXT
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