Does anyone have any more tips on how to get this to work?
Last week I reinstalled Windows on my Z820. After installing the HP driver update tool I noticed a new BIOS had recently been released, so I installed that using the Windows based update tool.
At the very end (last block of writing) Windows froze.
I let it sit for almost 45 minutes. At that time it was still frozen. Mouse cursor didn't move, and no response to ctrl-alt-del.
So eventually I had to hard-reset the machine. After powering it back on fans went to full speed, and nothing on the screen :(
After some searching on the web I found this thread as well as another on at https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/Z820-Bricked-Bios-after-Firmware-update/td-p/5718307/page/2
I tried all suggestions to recover the BIOS, but I can't get it to work.
- Set the crisis jumper to the recovery position
- Removed the password jumper
- Tried to clear the CMOS using the button
- I tried several different USB sticks, ranging from an old USB 1 or 2 256MB stick to a 32GB USB3 stick.
- Tried FAT and FAT32
- Tried creating a smaller partition on larger sticks
- Cleaned (partitioned and formatted) the sticks using the HPUSBDisk tool
- Dusted of and built back in my old DVD drive; tried both a CD-RW as well as a DVD+R disk with only the BIOS file on it
- Tried both J63_0391.BIN and the latest J63_0394.BIN (latter was the one I tried upgrading to at first)
- Tried both the top-front USB port as well as the rear USB2 ports.
It seems that the machine constantly keeps resetting the USB bus. Two of the stick I tried (including the old 256MB one) have an access light that lights up on power, and quickly flashes during reads and writes.
On the Z820, it never flashes quickly (as if reading) but constantly switches on and off in a slow pace. I have a keyboard attached (Some Razer mechanical thing) that has an LED that switches on when the bus is powered. This LED also keeps flashing in the exact same pace as the USB stick LED. It looks as if the machine keeps resetting the bus. All other USB devices (including the internal card reader) have been disconnected.
After 15-30 minutes of flashing like that the USB stick starts staying lit constantly, while the keyboard keeps on flashing. It seems to stop resetting that USB port at that time. If I remove and re-insert the stick the flashing starts over.
Still no read activity on the stick though. I never get to the expected beeps and red flashes (on the power button I assume?) and I'm not sure on how to proceed next to get this machine back to life...
I really hope someone has some more tips on what to try next...