How to fix failed flash update on 240X

[Stu]

Ran a flash update using the spsdks45.exe download and it hung. After powering off the system by removing the battery and power cord the system will not boot.

I get the initial beep, a pause and then one long beep followed by two short beeps.

I think I may have a had a bad floppy, I re-downloaded the update and copied it to a new floppy and the checksum of the files diff with the original floppy.

Is there anyway to recover from a bad flash update on the 240s?

[Stu]

I downloaded a crisis recovery disk from a HP site and replaced the BIOS.WPH file with the $0041000.fl1 from the latest 240X bios update.

When I power on the 240x with the floppy disk in I get:
Standard Beep
Long Beep followed by 2 short beeps.
The floppy starts to read...
Get 42 beeps about a second apart, the floppy is being read this whole time.
Next is a long and very low beep followed by 2 short beeps
and that's it.

The system will still not boot and I do not get anything on the display at all.

Any suggestions?

[phool@round]

Stu, have you tried re-flashing the BIOS after using the HP recovery disk? I personally tried to update my 240X without a battery and I got it work but not exactly as if I'd had a battery. It was the condensed version.....

The difference is that my 240X was boot-able and it did update.

Shortly thereafter I did buy a new battery and attempted to re-flash with the same BIOS version, it gave me errors in writing to the flash sector and kept asking me if there was a floppy inserted. So I downgraded the BIOS by one version, (I was asked if I was sure.) re-flashed and it worked. Then I was able to flash to the current BIOS version. (If you call 2002 current.) It allowed me to install XP-Pro though so no compliants.

Maybe if you step your BIOS down one version it will allow you to re-flash?

Have you used an external monitor with it? Might only be the 240's screen that is effected.

Two more things to be sure your floppy drive or disks aren't the culprits. I'd suggest to clean the floppy drive and use a fresh floppy. Trying to find a floppy cleaning kit might take longer than getting your BIOS back up. Shouldn't over-clean the drive, once is enough, I've seen them corrupt floppies or outright fail for that reason too.

Hope my questions, suggestions help Stu.