Congo2.
In answer to your question above,here is the answer to your problem. I found this piece of information on one of the many sites I frequently visit.Hope I am not to late, and its not in the bin yet.
Flashing your dreambox, there are a few ways to do this on some dreamboxes , but only one way if your using a dm500s. by connecting your dreambox to your pc with a null modem cable . if you have a new or recently bought laptop it won't have the required rs232 socket that you would connect your null modem cable to ( a newer desktop may have an rs232 socket ) if this is the case with your pc you will also need to buy a usb to serial adaptor cable and you connect your null modem cable to it , giving you a null modem connection on one end for your box and a usb connection on the other for your pc . the usb to serial adaptor may come with a disk that you install in your pc ( this contains software or a driver as its called , a driver is needed for your pc to be be able to connect with your box via the usb to serial adaptor cable ) if you do not have a disk, you will have to go online and download a suitable driver . it must be noted that any pc that runs on windows vista may have problems when it comes to flashing a box with the above adaptor as vista has compatability problems with a lot of drivers . This is probably not the most effective or reliable way of flashing your receiver with a new image but it is a work around solution.Other than this look for an old desktop computer with an RS 232 socket running on windows XP problem solved. Hope this helps. Good luck.