Another HP ProDesk G3 400 w/i5-6500 problem. BIOS recovery???

[VirtualLarry]

Friend called me up, said he had a power-glitch during the night, clocks reset on microwave, etc., power must have gone out.

Anyways, his HP ProDesk G3 400 PC that I had sourced for him cheaply when his refurb Dell gave out with a mobo error, was beeping, two long, two short. LEDs were flashing, RED RED WHITE WHITE.

Power button wouldn't force power-off.

I told him that his mobo was likely fried, and offered him a selection of PCs from my stables. (At really good deals.)

Come to find out, after searching out more documentation, I found the actual HP page documenting this behavior, it was doing a BIOS upgrade! Says not to power-off or interrupt. (WHOOPS!)

So, I relayed that to friend. (Weird that he wasn't paying attention, and saw anything about a BIOS update, which DO come down from Windows Update, yes, it feeds BIOS/firmware updates for OEM rigs these days.) I don't know if he tried letting it do it's thing then, for a half hour, and see if it finishes and reboots on it's own.

I did think that it was funny that a mere power glitch would have fried the mobo. (I had installed an after-market PSU to power the GPU installed.)

 

[lakedude]

My Gigabyte 570 mb has a cool feature to load bios from USB, even with no CPU. present, as I understand it. Only loosely related but a cool feature IMHO. Some mbs have dual bios so you can always revert to the old version.

It is really cool how far this has come. Historically I avoided bios updates because they were really janky back in the day.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, I need to do some more research, if the BIOS Boot-block on that HP OEM rig has some sort of USB BIOS recovery feature. Maybe his PC can be saved.

 

[lakedude]

I've heard stories of brave souls who soldered a new replacement bios chip...

 

[lakedude]

 

[tcsenter]

But does the BIOS update get offered via Windows Update as priority/important update? I encountered this once but I seem to recall it was offered as an 'optional' update like device drivers are.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've seen firmware / BIOS updates come down either way, as either an update that comes down as a "normal" update that automatically tries to install, and sometimes, I've seen it show up as an "optional" update, that needs to be manually installed.

Just a guess, it may have to do with whether or not the BIOS update is just an update, and whether it contains some sort of platform security update that's important. (To stop 0-days, etc.)

I've only really seen them for the big name-brand PCs come down through Windows Update, never for any of the retail DIY channel mobos.

 

[tcsenter]

Just a guess, it may have to do with whether or not the BIOS update is just an update, and whether it contains some sort of platform security update that's important. (To stop 0-days, etc.)

Probably a flag the OEM sets to denote a 'critical/important/required' update vs. 'optional/recommended'.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I told him that his mobo was likely fried, and offered him a selection of PCs from my stables. (At really good deals.)

Not blaming you but I think it would be a good idea to update all those PCs' BIOS to the latest, to prevent future bricking incidents.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not blaming you but I think it would be a good idea to update all those PCs' BIOS to the latest, to prevent future bricking incidents.

That doesn't even make sense. I generally do update BIOS and update Windows.

But he had the PC since Dec. You don't think that there were CPU exploits discovered during that time, and BIOS patches issued, to come down Windows Update?

Bottom line, I'm not responsible for the PC's day-to-day operation once it leaves my lab, and if he can't pay attention to what it's doing, like an update, I hate to say it, but he deserves what he gets. Just like clicking OK when a web site asks you if you want to install a virus (Flash Player).

 

[igor_kavinski]

I generally do update BIOS and update Windows.

That's what I didn't know. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

When I ran a busy break/fix, the BIOS updates on a lot of the OEM systems were downloaded and installed as critical updates. I presumed they were doing it to patch spectre and meltdown since those were both fresh at the time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Does anyone know the process for BIOS recovery?

I downloaded the N03_247.bin BIOS "SoftPaq", unzipped it, copied the BIOS .bin to a USB flash drive called "HP_TOOLS", formatted FAT32. I copied the .bin file to both /EFI/HP/BIOS/current , as well as Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/current , and tried booting off of it. It didn't seem to "take", there was no change to the blinking lights, nor was a BIOS recovery screen shown.

HP Desktop PCs - Recovering the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) | HP® Customer Support

The BIOS is the first software to run after turning on the computer. If the BIOS on your computer becomes corrupted, the computer fails to boot to Windows.

support.hp.com

 

[tcsenter]

Try letting the HP UEFI/BIOS Update Utility create the bootable USB Recovery Drive, it is suppsed to copy all required files to the flash drive. Try inserting the USB drive into the rear (legacy) USB 2.0 port nearest to the PS/2 connector, if not already tried.

The board has both CMOS button and BIOS Password Reset jumper, if you didn't already try things there.

In the end, I'm seeing lots of used/refurb replacement boards on Ebay for $20 ~ $25 delivered.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Try letting the HP UEFI/BIOS Update Utility create the bootable USB Recovery Drive, it is suppsed to copy all required files to the flash drive.

I've tried that; it won't work, won't give me that option, says system BIOS image corrupt or not found, but the .bin file was unzipped by the softpaq and in the root dir of the softpaq, as well as the HPUPDRESC ot whever the program is called.

Seems like a bad update from HP? Didn't give any error unzipping the softpaq via the .exe.

I was trying to do it from a non-HP Win11 64-bit laptop (a Lenovo). Is that a no-go?

 

[tcsenter]

Yes it appears this useless HP BIOS Recovery Utility checks for an HP SMBIOS and DMI data on whatever computer it's executed, will only let you create the USB recovery drive on an HP system. Luckily, I have an EliteDesk 705 here that I could try.

It created the USB drive but it did not rename the volume to HP_TOOLS as was described in HP guides and video. It also does not make it bootable at all. It just copies the extracted ROM .BIN to the USB drive, with the following directory structure (D being the volume letter):


D:\Hewlett-Packard\
D:\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\
D:\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\Current\
D:\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\New\
D:\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\Previous\
D:\Hewlett-Packard\BiosUpdate\

The .bin file was copied only to "Current" folder but nowhere else. Maybe try copying to "New" or "BiosUpdate" as well?

Also did you try holding the Windows Key + B as advised during power-on? If the system can't even get to the boot block then it's pretty much a done deal, unless you have a device programmer, replace the BIOS chip, or motherboard.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just realized, 99% of my attempts, were using the front-panel USB ports, which were actually previously DISCONNECTED (*), because the video card interfered with where it plugged in. (Stupid OEM mobo layout.)

No wonder it didn't do anything.

The other attempt, was using the bottom-most port below the ethernet jack.

I'll try the rear USB 2.0 port, after I rebuild the rig (re-install a CPU, and a PSU.)

(*) I did source my friend a USB 3.0 card with a front-panel port connector on it, but he never installed it, I guess.

Contact Official HP® Support – United States | HP® Customer Support

support.hp.com

 

[VirtualLarry]

I put a G4560 into the rig (that originally came with 6th-gen), it was dead-dead, so I swapped in a G3900 Celeron (Skylake / 6th-gen). Turns out my power strip had gotten turned off.

Got a white light when powering on, for like 30 seconds (after removing battery to clear CMOS, as part of the "hard reset"), then it went off, came back on for a time, and then the boop boop beep beep two red and two white blinking. That's WITH one of the BIOS recovery USB drives that I made manually plugged into one of the USB 2.0 ports.

At this point, I feel like the embedded controller was trying to restore the BIOS but failed. I tried Winkey+B at boot too.

At all times, I DID NOT get any video output.

I had a 4K-capable DP-to-HDMI active dongle- and them HDMI to HDMI to my 4K TV/monitor that I use.

BIOS chip physically fried in a spot, due to power glitch?

I've tried leaving the PC for literally hours, with the USB drive plugged in, and the two red, two white, flashing.

Thanks for all the help. I have a hard time believing that I'm so incompetant, that none of this is working, so I think it might be toast.

Although, when I switched off the power in the back, I got three red and four white, which is some sort of power-related problem.

The PSU is a Gigabyte PS450B, one of the lower-wattage models of the ones that catch fire (750W models). I'm not aware that the lower-wattage models of that family were recalled.

Then again, this supposedly happened after a power anomoly... Son of a B, maybe I just need to replace the PSU... It was new a few months ago!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Tried another PSU and keyboard. This one lit up, but still no dice.

I'm going to try to invest in some USB 2.0 flash drives.

I'm getting the white light for like two minutes, whether or not I have a USB flash drive plugged in.

 

[tcsenter]

Did you find a solution or get it working?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Nah, I tried most everything, or so I thought. I gutted it, took out the PSU (which was an aftermarket that I had upgraded previously - and yes, I tried another PSU on the rig, a new one), took out the CPU (actually, moved it to a Z170 mobo rig that I had), and moved my friend's drives over, and gave that back to him with 32GB of DDR4. (Both 16GB kits from both PCs combined.)

Then I put in a G3900 Celeron, put the PSU back in for testing, and tried BIOS recovery, no dice. So I had him junk the chassis + mobo.