The Dell BIOS executables do have switches. Dell does not openly publish the list. There are snippets in obscure locations on their site of two of these. There maybe more switches than I have listed, and if so, please post them, or if you know what one of the switches I have not defined does, please let me know. Before I discovered there were switches, I had gone to the trouble of writing a BIOS Silent Flash script that pushed the extracted hdr file to the system.
Here is the list with definitions of the switches I have been able to define:
Command Line Execution Examples:
Used with MDT/SCCM as an application install allowing for the MDT/SCCM to reboot the machine upon completion:
T3400A11.EXE -nopause -noreboot
Writes a hdr, hex, and rom file
T3400A11.EXE -writehdrfile -writehexfile -writeromfile
Forces a BIOS update on a laptop without an AC power source
T3400A11.EXE -forceit -nopause
Creates a dat file in the same directory that contains the current installed BIOS version
T3400A11.EXE -reportstatus
NOTE: Not all of these switches work on all Dell BIOS updates executables. They vary by model. I have not confirmed these on all models, but I can tell you that the nopause, noreboot, writehdrfile, writehexfile, writeromfile, forceit, and reportstatus have worked on all 35 models that the company I work for has.
Here is the list with definitions of the switches I have been able to define:
| Switch | Definition |
| -boot | |
| -classic | |
| -edvu | |
| -factory | Resets the BIOS to factory settings |
| -forceit | Forces the BIOS updates even if a laptop is not plugged into an AC power source |
| -forcetype | Forces and BIOS file to any Dell model machine |
| -info | |
| -jabil | Force the BIOS updated even though the system says it is the wrong BIOS version |
| -nopause | Prevents the BIOS update from prompting when executing |
| -norburesults | No remote BIOS update results (no-rbu-results) |
| -noreboot | Prevents the PC from rebooting after the BIOS is flashed |
| -prgboot | Most likely is used to disable windows features when flashing from a bootable DOS media |
| -rburesults | Remote BIOS update results (rbu-results) |
| -reportstatus | Writes a dat file containing the current installed BIOS version |
| -verbose | |
| -wipeall | Cleans the DMI Data Area, Password, Service Tag, and Asset Tag |
| -wipeclean | Clears the ESCD and DMI data tables. This is commonly used to resolve conflict issues and corrupted BIOS settings |
| -writehdrfile | extracts the hdr (header) file to be flashed to the BIOS |
| -writehexfile | extracts the hex (hexadecimal) format file to be flashed to the BIOS |
| -writeromfile | extracts the ROM (Read Only Memory) file to be flashed to the BIOS |
Command Line Execution Examples:
Used with MDT/SCCM as an application install allowing for the MDT/SCCM to reboot the machine upon completion:
T3400A11.EXE -nopause -noreboot
Writes a hdr, hex, and rom file
T3400A11.EXE -writehdrfile -writehexfile -writeromfile
Forces a BIOS update on a laptop without an AC power source
T3400A11.EXE -forceit -nopause
Creates a dat file in the same directory that contains the current installed BIOS version
T3400A11.EXE -reportstatus
NOTE: Not all of these switches work on all Dell BIOS updates executables. They vary by model. I have not confirmed these on all models, but I can tell you that the nopause, noreboot, writehdrfile, writehexfile, writeromfile, forceit, and reportstatus have worked on all 35 models that the company I work for has.
