Hello,

I would like to upgrade my older dell 8000 BIOS - CURRENTLY there is NO PASSWORD set.

By flashing the BIOS with dells version 23 (A23) upgrade will there be a password lock introduced into the BIOS as part of the upgrade?

* Currently I have to install a relativley small hardrive or BIOS will not allow me to navigate the pages - it is as though the BIOS version 12 does not support the larger hard drives... anyway please let me know if I dare do the upgrade.

* to clarify all settings are available and can be saved as long as the smaller hardrive is in place so my desire to upgrade is more a matter of convenience

Thankyou

You should not have that problem, but there have been lots of Dell password problems lately. Use only Dell parts and disks till it is over.
To use any hard drive larger than about 132 GB, you need to assure you have the Dell Windows XP disk with Service Pack 2. That is the usual reason for the hard drives size error. If you have Service Pack 1 or 1a, or no Service pack, then you can buy the upgrade disk from Dell for under $30 including shipping.
Just tell them you have lost your recovery disk set, or it is damaged, or doesn't work correctly.
Using an older Service Pack, then adding Service Pack 2 on a separate disk does not work.