3/14/2017 HPCompaqBIOSCrisisRecoveryfromaFailedBIOSFlashingUsingaUSBFlashDiskSysTutorials

HP Compaq BIOS Crisis Recovery from a

Failed BIOS Flashing Using a USB Flash
Disk
BY ERIC ZHIQIANG MA JUL 13, 2013

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I tried to ash my HP Compaq CQ35-240TXs BIOS to F.15 but unfortunately failed. The
computer turned to white screen. When I restarted (powered off then boot again), this is
no response any more: the hard disk and caps locks LED keep blinding. I thought Oh my
God! I must send it to HP to repair it!.

But after searching on the Internet and nd there is a crisis recovery mechanism to
recovery
the BIOS even the CMOS dont work. I nally managed to recovery the BIOS with
a help of USB ash disk. I will introduce the procedure to crisis recovery my HP Compaq
laptop. You need to prepare a USB ash disk and another computer that is connected to
the Internet (we need to download the BIOS image from HP).

The steps to recovery the BIOS are as follows.

1. Format the USB ash disks lesystem to FAT16 on another computer.

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2. Get the BIOS image from HPs website (I use F15 version).

Download the BIOS update le from HPs website (an exe le). Execute the BIOS update
le on another computer. It will decompress the les. Select a directory to store the les
and you can close the program. In the directory selected, we can get WinFlash.exe. Unzip
WinFlash.exe using a program like WinRAR. We can nd two .FD les. For my computer
and the BIOS version I use, the two les are 306DF15.FD and 306EF15.FD. There are two
model for Compaq CQ35 computers, so there are two .FD les. You may try one by one to
see which model your computer use. Actually this model can be found in BIOS Setup (we
cant start it as the CMOS is bad)

3. Copy the le 306DF15.FD to USB disks root directory and rename it to 306D.bin. (the
le may be different depending on the model)

4. Remove the AC power and battery from the lapttop.

5. Plug in the USB ash disk to the laptop.

6. Hold two keys: WinKey + B.

7. Plug in the AC power.

8. Hold the Power Button for 5 seconds, then release.

9. Push the Power button as normal to power on the computer.

10. After the laptop starts short beeping, release WinKey+B.

11. The laptop will keep short beeping for about one minute, it will power off itself after
recovering the BIOS. If the laptop keeps long beeping or beeping for more than 3 minutes,
the recovery fails, possibly because of the wrong image le or the USB ash disk doesnt
work on the laptop. In this case, you may try another image le or another USB ash disk.

Normally power on the laptop after recovering the BIOS and you will see the Compaq logo
appearing again.

Disclaimer: I just tested the method in the post with my laptop and am not sure whether it
works with one specic model (although it seems work for some others according to the

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comments). The method in the post is just one example solution. If your data is critical,
contact a professional, such as the customer service from HP, to repair it for you.

Update 1:

Vadims experience with HP Pavilion dv6740er may help if you have a similar model:

HP Pavilion dv6740er

After bios update my notebook failed to start black screen+blue lights.

the BIOS recovery:

1. download bios le from HP site

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-
57224-1&cc=ru&dlc=ru&lc=ru&os=2100&product=3658256&sw_lang=

2. extract (unzip) 30CFF27B.wph le from sp38261.exe [1/1, 3.09M]

3. rename 30CFF27B.wph to bios.wph

4. insert USB ash to another computer

5. use WINCRIS.EXE to create a bootable USB disk.

6. copy bios.wph, MINIDOS.SYS, PHLASH16.EXE to usb disk

7. remove batery pack from HP Pavilion, unplag power

8. insert USB ash to @dead@ computer

9. hold Win+b, plug power, push power button

10. release Win+b after usb start blinking.

11. Wait 2 minutes till HP Pavilion shut itself down.

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