HP Pavillion DV8 (dv8-1090ev) USB Flash Drive BIOS Recovery

HP Pavillion DV8 (dv8-1090ev) USB Flash Drive BIOS Recovery
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
6GB RAM

OK here goes nothing! Its a work in progress and i need some feedback.

Yesterday I see a BIOS update on HP Systems Messages on my beloved DV8.
I was not thinking at the time so just followed instructions closed all programs etc and clicked start to flash the BIOS and upgrade to F.21. Few minutes pass and my desktop is frozen with a error message "Out of memory blabla.. close few programs and retry"... but i never get my mouse and keyboard control to kill anything... So rebooted and now i see a black screen with message from BIOS stating that Cooling Fan is not running with error 902.

The fan is running fine... so now i try to flash the BIOS.

I Downloaded F.21 and F.17 BIOS images the only ones available...
If anyone has another version please message me


Extract them and find "7001F17.exe" and "Crisis_BIOS" folder containing "7001.bin" and for version 21 i get same structure.

I happen to have HP's USB Digital Drive so I am using that.

First Attempt with 7001.bin from F.17 version of BIOS copied from Crisis_BIOS folder to USB root

1. Removed Laptop Battery
2. Removed Laptop Power
3. Did Hard Reset (Press n Hold Power Button for 5 to 30 seconds)
4. Plug in USB drive in Left Port; Hold Win+B keys and Plug in the Power
5. While holding Win+B key I pressed the Power Button
6. After couple of seconds the USB is accessed and i can see activity
7. 10 to 15 Loud Beeps I keep holding the Win+B key
8. And laptop shutsdown
9. I remove power and usb
10. Plug in the power and press power
11. Laptop turns on and shuts down
12. I press power button again and it turns on to show me same message again Cooling Fan (902)

I repeat same steps with F.21 version and get same results only with different error code. Cooling Fan (908)

After reading a lot of forums i findout i should work with a xxx.FD file! So i check the 7001F17.exe and 7001F21.exe and find 7001F17.FD and 7001F21.FD files in their respective exez. Well the 7001.bin from Crisis_BIOS was exactly 2MB and the 7001F*.FD are exactly 2.5MB.

Anyway Next i findout the platform.ini lists PlatformName1=7001

Next I findout my Motherboard Part number 573758-001 but i cant understand what is my motherboard model!

I also find 7F0994 along with the part numbers.

Now i decided to name my files as following:
573758.bin
573758.fd
573758.rom
573758F21.bin
573758F21.fd
573758F21.rom
7001.bin
7001.fd
7001.rom
7001F21.bin
7001F21.fd
7001F21.rom
7F0994.bin
7F0994.fd
7F0994.rom
7F0994F21.bin
7F0994F21.fd
7F0994F21.rom

AND

573758.bin
573758.fd
573758.rom
573758F17.bin
573758F17.fd
573758F17.rom
7001.bin
7001.fd
7001.rom
7001F17.bin
7001F17.fd
7001F17.rom
7F0994.bin
7F0994.fd
7F0994.rom
7F0994F17.bin
7F0994F17.fd
7F0994F17.rom

Now I have the files ready... BUT

When i followed the above steps with Win+B key my DV8 kept showing me the cooling fan error instead of reading the USB. Maybe there is a check on how many times you can use the Win+B key the easy way

So after another 10 hours i accidentally findout the revival of Win+B key!

Here it is:

1. Removed Laptop Battery
2. Removed Laptop Power
3. Did Hard Reset (Press n Hold Power Button for 5 to 30 seconds)
4. Plug in USB drive in Left Port; Hold Win+B keys and Plug in the Power
5. While holding Win+B key I pressed the Power Button AND KEPT IT PRESSED
6. Laptop turns on and shutsdown, keep holding the Win+B key
7. Press the power button down again and KEEP it pressed
8. The power cycle turns quicker, keep the Win+B key pressed
9. Press the power button down again and KEEP it pressed
10. Do this 3 to 4 times.... with Win+B key pressed at all times
11. on 5th time Just press the power button to let it turn on...dont keep it pressed
12. And viola! it read the USB again...
13. But!!!! No Go!
14. For some reason it is not taking xx.FD files at all no matter what i do

Now after another 6 hours...

I use the link http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01670688&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3688712&prodTypeId=321957
to follow its steps:

1. I created the folders as

"\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\current"
"\Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\previous"

2. Copied the files in both folders as well as root of USB

3. I downloaded Copy As
Since i wanted to try files with all UPPERCASE! It Helps! Saved me a lot of time renaming 71 files.


Re-tried all the files again ... same steps but it reads the usb and doesnt want the 2.5MB xx.FD files... however it always responds to F.17/F.21 Crisis_BIOS folder version 7001.bin... goes through the beeps... but same thing....

So far I am stuck here...... I have one more trick up my sleeve lets see what happens...

If anyone has any more tricks that I should try please post here... EXPERTS please help...