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Wyse Cx0: Firmware 

BIOS

The DEL key gets you into the BIOS. If it hasn't been changed the default BIOS password is Fireport

The BIOS identifies itself as Phoenix MicroCore Setup Utility. One nice feature is that the first screen does actually show the BIOS version and date, a feature that most lack leaving you to try and spot it in its (often sub-second) appearance during the boot sequence.

The Boot Device can be set to one of:

  1. IDE 0:
  2. PXE LAN: VIA Networking Bootagent
  3. USB HDD:
  4. USB FDC:
  5. USB CDROM:
  6. USB KEY:
  7. IDE CD-ROM Drive:

If you have something plugged in to the appropriate port you get a description after the colon. For example plugging in one of my 1GB test Linux pen drives resulted in the USB KEY entry showing: USB KEY: Generic Flash Disk-(USB 2(R/F)F

You can bring up a boot menu (if enabled in the BIOS) by pressing and holding the P key whilst the CX0 boots. On a C90LEW with a pen drive plugged into one of the USB ports I was presented with a choice of:

Boot Menu
  
1.   PXE LAN: VIA Networking Bootagent
2.IDE 0: 2GB ATA Flash Disk-(PM)
6.USB KEY: USB2.0 FlashDisk-(USB 2.0(R/F)F
 
<Enter Setup>
 

BIOS update

The C90LEWs came with BIOS 1.0B dated 10/07/2009. Checking the Wyse download site at the time the latest BIOS would appear to be BIOS 1.0G dated 01/16/2012. This came as part of the ACA0_S718_2048.exe download which also had the latest version of Windows Embedded Standard. I downloaded this file (all 1GB of it) and used version 1.19 of the USB Firmware Update tool to flash the BIOS. If you're not familiar with the process details can be found under the Wyse SX0 entry.

In February 2019 Dell closed down the old Wyse support site with all its historical support files. The above file was one of the ones that vanished. For those of you wanting to update the BIOS on your Cx0 you can download an image of it using the link below.

I pulled this image off my updated C90LEW using the Linux utility flashrom. You will need to use this or a similar tool to update your BIOS.

Download: Cx0 BIOS 1.0G

 


Any comments? email me. Added November 2014    Last update April 2020