C700 / CQ40 / CQ45 / DV4 / DV5 / DV6 / HDX18T - Insyde BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

It seems there maybe a way to flash the BIOS using a method similar to the one in the Acer Section

Unfortunately after flashing from ver F.04 to F.12 my notebook does not boot anymore, so how to flash?

So far this is what I have observed,

1. Disconnect the AC adapter
2. Remove the battery
3. Insert the USB thumb drive
4. Hold down the keyboard windows key + 'B'
5. Connect the AC adapter
6. Turn on the notebook with the power button
7. When the power comes on, the touch pad LED is amber instead of white*
8. Let go of the keys on the keyboard.
9. After a few seconds the USB thumdrive is accessed by the notebook.
10. The notebook appears to scan the files on the notebook and while doing
so beeps rather loudly. The more files on the thumbdrive, the more beeps
there are.
11. It seems to be looking for something, but not finding it the notebook
appears to recycle and try again.

So I guess the question is what file is it looking for? I've tried the normal .FD file and changing names like BIOS.FD, INSYDE.FD even ICL50HW.FD plus a multitude of other names to no avail.

Either it needs a special file name (probable), or this isn't fully implemented yet (unlikely), or the flash rescue system is also broken (maybe).

Anyone have any ideas?

Have tried asking via HP's online service but they were unable to help, will have to wait till Monday to use the land line.

 

Well I had just about given up, but decided to give it one last go before having to drive into town Monday and probably be told repairs would take several weeks.

And YES it worked, whoohoo !

A big thanks to the guys in the Acer section especially bigozone, thanks man.

What I did was try to guess file names that might used with this notebook, ended of with over a hundred files on the thumb drive, all the same file but different names. One of them worked, I will try to find out which one it was so at least other people with the same Compaq can hopefully find a solution.

Why don't the ODM's, HP and the like, make these things known then I wouldn't have to worry about making loud beeping noises at 2:00am

 

This recovery method should also work for HP CQ40, C700, DV4t, DV5 DV6 & HDX18T
C700 use the file name IBL80HW.FD thanks to macakox for this info.
CQ-401AX and similar use JBL20HW.BIN or JBL20.BIN or 30FB.BIN (TBC). Thanks to iq-myst.
DV5 see http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5022702&postcount=50. Thanks to dannyres.
DV6-1030us and similar use the file name either 3627.BIN or 3627.FD (TBC). Thanks to errodrigues.
HDX18T see http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5055420&postcount=57. Thanks to raj85.

For (TBC) only one file name is correct so if someone can confirm the correct one, please let me know, thanks.

There are probably other HP models with an InsydeH2O BIOS not covered here, so feel free to ask for help.

The following is a discription of how I managed to
recover the BIOS on a CQ45-107TX
running the InsydeH2O EFI BIOS
using a USB thumb drive.


IMPORTANT !!!
Obtained the correct BIOS file, HP seem to provide many different BIOS's.
For instance the BIOS for CQ45-107AU is not the same as CQ45-107TX.

For the CQ45-107TX I used the Insyde BIOS version F.04 file 30F7F04.FD then

• Renamed the file 30F7F04.FD to 30F7.BIN and placed it on a USB thumb drive.
  
  Disconnected the AC adapter from the notebook.
  
  Removed the battery from the notebook.
  
  Inserted the USB thumb drive into one of the USB ports on the notebook.
  Didn't seem to matter which one.
  
  Held down the 'Windows' Key and the 'B' key.
  
  Connected the AC adapter.
  
  Pressed the 'Power' button on the notebook.
  
  When the LEDs came on, let go of power button and the two keys held down earlier.
  On the CQ45-107TX the touch pad LED came on as amber (disabled) instead of the normal white (enabled).
  
  After about 10 seconds the notebook started reading the USB thumb drive.
  While searching for the file the notebook beeped once a second.
  The number of beeps varied, depending on how big the thumb drive was and
  the number of files on the thumb drive, from just one beep to many.
  If the file was not found, the notebook would reset itself and try again.
  
  If the file was found then it took about 12 seconds for the notebook to load it.
  No beeping sounds heard during the loading time.
  
  When loaded the notebook started flashing, indicated by beeps every 2 seconds.
  This took about 32 seconds.
  
  About 5 seconds after the beeping had stopped the notebook shutdown.
  BIOS worked normally thereafter.

Some notes:

The BIOS files appear to be in this format

Code:

  ????F??.FD
  |  || ||_|_____ EFI BIOS file
  |  ||_|________ Version number
  |__|___________ Model specific

Therefore I would guess if you had a CQ45-115AU and your BIOS flash file was 30FBF21.FD then you would probably rename it to 30FB.BIN for use with the USB thumb drive. But I don't know for sure and as can be seen some models use a slightly different or board model number.

Thumb drive formats.
A 128M thumb drive formatted with FAT16 worked okay.
A 16GB thumb drive formatted with FAT32 worked okay.

No beeping sound
It is possible that you will not hear any beeping at all in which case you should still observe the USB drive LED blinking on and off while loading the BIOS file then, if successful, the computer will shut itself down within 1 minute.

raj85 has made an excellent suggestion to unpack the BIOS service pack and check the platform.ini file for a hint as to what recovery file name might be. See post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5055420&postcount=57. Thanks raj85.

It seems some people are using the recovery method for their normal BIOS flashing. While this is possible, chances are there will not be all the safeguards that would normally be available with a software flash and therefore I would not recommend it unless you are happy taking the extra risks involved. Also be aware that using the recovery method you will not have a battery so if you live in an area prone to power cuts / spikes or are just unlucky, it may be advisable to be plugged into a UPS before using the recovery method.

 

found your post on google. can i you help me? i have the same situation, i did the reverse on what you did. the model i'm using is cq40-121tu this is for my friend, and i downgraded to f.04 from f.13 try to get the sound working in winxp. but after the reboot, nothing came up on the screen. can you send me the image file. from hp website the update f.13 is a exe file and i can not extract the file.

just an update, i was able to find the fd file by removing the hard drive from the laptop and connected it to a desktop. tried you steps and nothing seems to be processing, no lights or beep sound. pls. reply asap, it's been 2 weeks that i been working to make the sound function. btw, do you have a copy of the f.11c file? i was able to find one but not sure if it has all the files.

 

Hi Carl, sorry to hear you're having troubles.

For extracting the files from the softpaq (SP?????.exe) any good archiving utility should work. For instance Tugzip (freeware) should work. Note that with the BIOS SP's you will need to unpack twice i.e. unpack sp40621.exe to W30F7F04.exe then unpack W30F7F04.exe to get the files.

Have a quick look on google for F.11c.rar and aid=9039 its a Windows version.

Note that after f.04 HP have 2 different BIOS types, AFAIK the D (DIS) is for discrete graphics like the GF9200M GS with 256MB and U (UMA) is for shared memory graphics. Be careful to use the right one if you don't use the DOS or Windows flash utility.

If your switching on and there are no LEDs coming on, it may be a power problem rather than a BIOS problem.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I did try posting direct links (in bold) and nearly gave up posting at all. This board complains about not having posted 15 or more posts and as such wont let me use URLs sigh!.

 

thanks for the reply.

i just want to clarify, when you said that "...after flashing from ver F.04 to F.12 my notebook does not boot anymore...", you meant there is no post, right? Like the compaq logo splash screen did not come up the screen after turning on the laptop? That is what happened to me.

also, when i said that there is "no lights or beep sound", i meant after getting to the same situation on your step..."the touch pad LED came on as amber (disabled) instead of the normal white (enabled)".

i also tried turning on the laptop normally and get the led of the caps lock to blink 3 times and a pause, then loops back to the blinking 3 times. do you have an idea on what it means?

i tried your suggestion in finding f.11c, i was able to find one, filename is F.11c.rar. after the downloading and unzipping found out that fd file is f12. i tried it anyway using the u one for the integrated video card, but still get the same result, laptop did not read the usb flash drive or there is no sign of it reading the usb drive. i even waited for around 5 minutes, laptop did not automatically shutdown. i also tried it with an sd media card and cd-r disc, still nothing. laptop does not read them also.

 

I experienced the same as you, no post no BIOS setup and if IIRC not even the backlight came one for the screen (totally blank). As for the blinking CAPS I had that plus the Scroll Lock also but 1 or 2 minutes after the notebook was switched on. I would guess it had given up searching for the recovery file and reports this way to indicate a fault with the BIOS but I'm only guessing.

Yes, the file name in f.11c.rar is 30F7F12(D/U) but if you can get it to flash, BIOS will show f.11c.

I wouldn't expect the SD media slot to work. Not so sure with the CDROM but I had no luck with it.

The fact that your USB drive is not being read is a worry, maybe try a different stick although you have probably done that already.

I know it's a PITA but would you post a step by step of how you tried to flash, just incase.

 

what do you mea by iirc? i get the blinking caps only if i turn on the laptop normally, without doing the step you gave. doing the steps you gave, again nothing happens after to point of the laptop turn the led for the wireless and the touchpad to the color amber, i even waited for more than 5 minutes for it to do something even to automatically shutdown. but nothing happens all the led lights will stay on and nothing will change.

the scroll lock did not lit up if i just turn it on normally.

as for the usb flash/thumb drive, again i was using a 512 mb. formatted it with fat32 first, then tried fat. i don't need to make it bootable, right?

just to check if i understand your steps, all i need to do with the flash drive is to copy the bios file only nothing else, after renaming it to 30F7.bin, right? the laptop is suppose to read it and once able to find the file it will automatically flash the bios without trying to read or find other files. right?

what do you mean "PITA"? it followed you steps exactly, after copying the file. while the laptop is off, remove the ac adapter, then remove the battery, then plug the flash drive, then press the windows and b key while turning on the laptop. then i will see that the led for the wireless and the touchpad lits up in amber color, then nothing happens. then i waited for 5 mins or more, nothing still then i just turn it off.

 

IIRC If I Remember Correctly

PITA Pain In The Ass (irritating)

Just to clarify, its actually the num lock LED. The scroll lock and num lock are the same key and its the LED above that key, my bad.

Correct, the USB flash drive does not need to be bootable.

Looks like your doing everything correctly, if your usb flash drive has an LED, do you see some activity when you try this?

It probably wont make any difference but try extracting f.04 from sp40621.exe (download BIOS from HP site) rename 30F7F04.BIN to 30F7.BIN and try that.

Look for 'usb_format.zip' on google, file size is about 32k, and try reformating your usb flash drive with it.

Otherwise I'm out of ideas.

 

again it's the caps lock led that blinks three times and pause and goes in a loop, when i just turn on the laptop normally. is there any one that can tell us what that means?

i tried winxp formatting tool and "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool" with fat and fat32 with same result. tried also with a 2 gb drive.

led for the flash drive does not show that it's being read.

tried the f04, still nothing laptop does not seems to be trying to read off the flash drive.

 

It's looking like the BIOS boot block recovery may have been damaged. I still got usb flash disk activity even without the right file being on there.

Sorry to say you but looks like you'll probably have to send it back to HP or the supplier for repair.

 

i just want to make sure, is flashing the bios covered under the warranty? specifically downgrading instead of upgrading?

i mean, would they acknowledge the warranty if you do a downgrade of the bios to be able to install and work with win xp on the laptop?

 

I guess you'll have to ask HP to find out for sure. Personally I would be surprised if they charged you as it was their BIOS update (f.04) that failed. If they didn't want you to down grade then they could easily disable flashing an older BIOS with the included software. You said you flashed from f.13 to f.04 but according to HP's site f.13 isn't available for the cq40-121tu, f.12 is current.

From what little I've seen on the web you may have to wait one or two weeks before you get your notebook back. Let us know how it goes.

 

sent the laptop to the hp service center the other day. by the way, i'm here in the country, Philippines. rep that entertained me and my friend from the service center, told me that before doing any flashing of the bios, customers must call tech support first. this statement does seats well with me. he also said that sound will not work if xp is installed on it. i think he knows that it is a known issue and does not want to tell more. his advice is to just get vista a the cheap ver of vista, vista basic. i told him that we bought the laptop to save money, since we already have xp. he did not reply back.

i'm a computer tech from a phone tech support dept. for a competitor brand of laptops and desktops, we do not tell people that they call us first before doing such a thing. funny things is if that is the case, it should not be listed on the download page for that model where you see all the downloads for the drivers. the laptop did not came with a driver cd, the os is freedos. how will you connect and download the bios and the drivers if your using freedos? looking at the download page for the drivers and seeing the bios listed there, any owner may assume that it is part of the download that needed.

about f13, your right, i did double check, f12 is current one. i think i got from cq20 or cq45 series that has intel chipset. it was able to flash successfully, still was able to boot and working in winxp. funny thing again, it is the f4 bios image that's for the cq40 121tu that the flash failed.

 

IMHO flashing the BIOS should really not be a problem unless you use the wrong file or interrupt it during the flash but sadly it seems not always to be the case.

Yes, it seems strange telling you not to flash the BIOS when they're coming out with 1 to 2 BIOS upgrades per month for some machines.

What about this enhancement in f.13

Better hope one doesn't suffer 'an intermittent issue' to get it fixed.

Seriously though, if HP didn't list f.13 for the 121tu there may be a good reason for doing so. Hope it all works out ok.

 

update:

they said that they have to replace the mobo, and it has to from singapore. they don't have a spare part locally.

i and my friend who bought the laptop are getting worried, this is one more delay in using the laptop for his work. and we might not able to have it just replaced from the retail store since it is cover for a replacement with in the month of purchased we are consider getting a different model or a different brand all together. we really want to install winxp as it will be easier for me to support him on the laptop with winxp that win vista.

 

do anyone have f.11c?? i try to search in P Official but can not find it.
I've just damaged my Compaq CQ40-116TU by downgrading the BIOS from f. 12 to f.11c using INSYDE.

Now my laptop can not Boot, ONLY power ON and show BLANK LCD.

Thank you in advance for all your kind attention and help....

 

If you download f.12 for the CQ40-116TU you will need to extract the proper BIOS file since there are two. AFAIK for your machine it would be 30F7F12U.FD but you should check this is right before flashing. If it is then rename 30F7F12U.FD to 30F7.BIN and try the procedure in post 3. Good luck.

 

Yippiieeee...............................

Now my Notebook is alive again, THANKS for all of you who help me eith this beautiful Posting
Now back to my Original Problem, Using WinXP causes this notebook DIDN'T recognize the Audio Devices.
what should i do now??

FYI: Compaq Presario CQ40-116TU is using 30F7F12U.FD to 30F7.BIN cause its use share VGA Memory.

 

Glad it worked for you and thanks for the confirmation.

If you want to try f.11c for your audio device problems I would be happy to help but it would be better to start a new thread rather than place it under BIOS recovery.

 

the HP Auto Update borked my BIOS so I turned to your post as I know that the cq45 and hp dv4 share the same exact specs (almost)... downloaded the correct and updated bios from the dv4 driver download site and followed these directions to a T! My PC is alive again! You're a genius! Thanks to everyone who contributed finding this out... I'm keeping my USB and call it my Crisis USB! Woohoo!

 

UPDATE: hp have delivered the cq40 121tu back to my friend's house just a few days ago. they did not left any written report as to what was the cause of the problem. they said that they had to replace the mobo twice. after fixing the the boot problem they tried to fix the blue screen error, w/c is kind of odd since that is not their concern anymore since we bought it without an os installed. after getting the laptop back my friend turned it on and found win vista home premium installed w/c is not activated over that internet. we had win xp installed before the problem happened. so that only means that they were not able to fix the blue screen error. Once i was able to get to my friend's house to check what was done i saw that they have upgraded the bios to F.24.

I just want to ask, anybody here was able to install all the drivers for win xp properly with this new bios update (F.24) especially the one for the sound driver, w/c is the only problem i was not able to solve? problem happened when i try other bios version. w/c other bios version works with win xp with all the drivers other than F.11c?

 

So are you saying it took over 3 months for HP to fix a bad BIOS flash

Probably better off starting a new thread for your question on audio problems, IIRC there is a hack using devcon.exe and MS UAA but that was some time ago and there may be better solutions available since then.

One question I did want to ask you about trying the flash recovery, did you reset the CMOS before trying? The reason being that doing so may be detrimental to the recovery procedure.

 

Thanks for the confirmation with DV4s, happy it worked for you

may be it should be CQ40/CQ45/DV4 BIOS recovery procedure ?

 

Anyone know what file the HP Compaq C700/A900/G7000 bios recovery is trying to find when you perform the "win + b" command?

My notebook is dead after a winflash failed.

I've tried to rename the 30d9f34.fd file to 30d9.bin but notebook looks like it wants a different file name.

I place the file on a floppy, and the notebook reads it for 10 seconds and stop and retries over and over again.

If anyone knows what file the notebook is looking, please help.

 

Just a guess, maybe try renaming to HP.BIN and see if that works. Good luck.

 

Just tried HP.BIN from the 30d9.fd file, same thing not luck.

 

Can we use this info (from Insyde exe file) to correctly rename the .fd file?



Does it always match your file names? I have the dv5-1040ew and it does match mine. Although, I did not try to actually use the procedure above to update Bios, so I can't be sure if it works.

 

Sorry it didn't work for you. All I can suggest is don't give up too soon. One good thing about using the USB flash drive was that it was possible to try over a hundred file names in one go, do you only have the floppy option? Maybe try using the different extensions like .rom, .bin, .wph, .fd etc with names you might think appropriate such as 30d9 (maybe try 30d8 or 30da) or IBL80 which I think might be the board number for a C700 or perhaps the name C700 itself or do you have the A900? Take your time and if it does not seem to be working have a rest and maybe try again later. I take it that your fairly confident it's looking for a BIOS file and not a bootable floppy with crisis recovery? I don't know why HP don't actually give this information out, you would think they would be happy to not have to receive warranty repairs, maybe try to give them a call.

 

Post #28, thank you for the image, it made me want to run winflash on my notebook to see what shows up. When I ran the winflash on my Presario C700, the ID shows only as HP, not 30d9, so I'll try the following combinations: HP, HP.BIN, HP.FD, and HP.ROM

Post #29, I'll also try: C700, C700.BIN, C700.FD, and C700.ROM.

Update: Same blank/black screen.

 

James, if you have not tried using a FAT formatted USB flash drive instead of the floppy drive it may be worth giving it a go.

Also may be try the file name "BIOS" + extensions. Sorry I can not give you more than guesses but until someone can successfully recover using the method on this thread with a C700 or provide a different DIY recovery method then that's all I can do for now.

 

I've managed to place 50 variations of the bios file, 30d9f34.fd, on a 4GB USB flash drive, formatted to FAT then FAT32, and haven't been lucky enough to guess the exact file name.

So as soon as someone in the know tells us exactly what file name the system board is looking for, I'll be stuck with a 5LB brick that looks a lot like a Compaq Presario C700.

 

stinkyjames

good news? I have the same problem!

 

hi. i think, rather i m sure that may acer aspire 4730z/4330 has the same problem. bt now the real problem is when i try to do the blind flashing thing, insert the usb drive, and as soon as the laptop detects the usb fdd it turns off or stucks, as the power lite remains green bt everything else stops. i don't know if it even tries to to find the bios file or not. the version i have downloaded are :
al90_114.fd
al90_115.fd
al90_116.fd

please i need the solution as i cant send it back all the way back to ksa from pakistan to claim warranty.

 

YES I MADE IT!

THIS IS FOR ALL COMPAQ PRESARIO C700 SERIES
(dedicated for stinkyjames)

well the %$·%·$' file name is: IBL80HW.FD (finally!!!!)

I used the last version of the InsydeH20 BIOS --> F.34 (30D9F34.FD)
and my laptop is the model C770US

 

thats good. but how did u find out which name to use for your .fd bios file?? give me some idea atleast.

 

hey look
the aspire 5315 uses the ICL50 Motherboard model and uses this filename ICL50HW.fd to made the BIOS recovery

your model uses the IAL90 or JAL90 Motherboard model, so try whit the both file names:
- IAL90HW.FD
- JAL90HW.FD

note: I'm almost sure with that, And do the following steps
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284686

see ya & tell me what happened!

 

i have already read that thread. and how did you figure out that my mb model was ial/jal90? because i think the mb model is Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset. and what about ****"HW".fd. is this HW necessary ??but anyway i'll try it..

ok i tried and result is the same. as soon as laptop detects a usb fdd,it kind of sleeps, because the power button power turns off, fan stops, but the green power lite remains on and the power button won't work.. same old problem also tried burning the file to cd-rw but it won't read it from there.

 

Congrats macakox and thanks for sharing, this should be a great help for other C700 users with failed BIOS flashes.

 

I had the same issue as you and have solved it. Format your USB key in FAT16 (same as just FAT). You need to put on it the latest version of the bios (1.16) which I believe you have or can download from the Euro Acer site here. Rename that file to "JAL90x64.fd" and put it on your flash drive.

Now just follow the Boot Block Recovery steps: Power down the laptop, unplug the AC cord, remove battery, insert USB drive, hold Fn+esc and plug the AC cord in, press the power button, release Fn+esc after a few seconds, and just wait. The laptop will restart after 10 minutes and you will be in business. Good luck.

 

F3rha4n, did you attempt to use the method above to recover your bios? Is it possible for an admin to contact him directly... I think he ate (or tried to) and ran.

 

hi everyone

im about to die here... i won my laptop on one of the contests hp made last year (it involved many sites online).. its a dv4-1145go

i wanted to try windows 7 and since bios f.42 said that it had improvements to compatibility with newer versions of windows, i decided to update
:/
the insyde tool crashed right in the middle and now the lappy is dead
and hp wont take it cos the laptop is from the US and i live in argentina

i read this thread and i think i can re flash it.. but i have another problem, the f.42 update comes with 4 files!
30F7F42D
30F7F42U
30F7F423
7010F42D
all .FD

which one should i rename to .bin? (and, does it have to be something special .bin? like, bios.bin or smth)

 

Ah I've also had this problem before. The best way is to find someone with a similar laptop to yours - dv4-11xx and tell them to look in their BIOS under "System Information". Somewhere there it should say a four character id. Don't send it in.. as long as it switches on then you should be able to do this recovery procedure.

EDIT: Ah.. actually try downloading the initial BIOS release from HP! Often there is only one BIOS file in the initial release.. then once they bring out extra models they need to add extra BIOS files for newer mobos. I just downloaded the initial BIOS release for your machine and there is infact jsut one file. Rename it to 30F7.BIN.

 

thanks for the quick reply.. i'll try to look for the original one (i doubt ill update it anytime soon)

btw.. you still have yours?

EDIT: which one did u download? i got the old one, but it has 3 files :S
30F7F30D
30F7F30U
30F7F302

 

Here is the one:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2093&product=3795305&lang=en

Good luck! Remember to try WinKey+B and Fn+Esc as some mobos seem to use different key combos. At first it didn't work for me but then somehow I got it going.. it is a bit fiddly.

 

it worked!!

omg, i could kiss everyone in this thread right now ;D
seriously, thank you so much! specially u danny and "0.0"

i wasnt sure whether it had worked or not, since it beeps, stops, beeps again and they seem to change depending on ur usb stick... but i just left it doing his thing, waited some more, put back the battery and it booted!
everything is workin just as it was before

im gonna stay with this old bios now, and hell, next time i'll just try sp2/win7.. even if they dont work, it will still be a lot less worrying


thanks again everyone, for a sec i thought i lost it

 

They don't make it easy do they.

AFAIK your laptop uses integrated graphics (UMA) so then you will want the one ending in 'U' (30F7F42U.FD).


Would a moderator change the subject title to
C700 / CQ40 / CQ45 / DV4 / DV5 / DV6 - Insyde BIOS RECOVERY using a USB THUMBDRIVE

Thanks

 

Great I'm glad you got it working! I do recommend you upgrade to the latest BIOS though.. I think last time you just got very very unlucky!

Also 0.0 this method works on dv5's aswell.

 

Ok, I've not had any feedback on the DV5, is the recovery step for step the same and what about the BIOS file renaming?

 

Yup exactly the same steps. WinKey+B. Rename to 3602.BIN or 3603.BIN (depending on mobo.. even though my mobo says its board id is 3603, the BIOS I am ment to use is 3602....FD). To be safe I guess the best method is to flash to the original BIOS release as that way there is usually only one file - in my case 3602...fd.