HPZ820 Crisis recovery - stuck at FLASHING SYSTEM ROM 0%

[Corsair08]

My conputer was running well, until I tried to add a new Hard Drive. I powered down, and removed the power cable /(but forgot  to press the power button after the cable was removed. I added the new drive and the computer refused to boot - just a black screen, and at the time no beeps.  The fans were at full speed,  for a couole of minutes, then it would switch itself off, then back on for a minute or two and kept going in a loop.

I remoCMOS battery to check the voltage and it was about 2.79 v. I replaced the battery and tried using the old one on some callipers with a digital display and it didn't have enough voltage to power it  the lcd display didn't come on. 

After trying many different things, I have managed to boot it with a USB drive using this exact method, including creating a small partition:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Crisis-Recovery-Ju... 

But as others mentioned in that post, I cannot actually flash it as it is stuck at 0%, I have also tried removing the password jumper outlined in the service manual.

The Bios version  I am trying to flash is J63_0396.bin which I downloaded from the HP site by entering my serial number - it was the only one available to download.

Could rhe actual CMOS chip be damaged due to a power surge because I didn't drain the power when adding the drive or something? Or the motherboard?

I haven't tried creating a bootable drive with rufus yet, as that is not what the instructions in the readme file said to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions,  please? 

[Kakirman]

Welcome and first of all, get well soon. I hope your problem will be solved soon.

There is a thread like this. And if I have not misunderstood the problem you are experiencing, some steps are mentioned in this link I shared. Can you try what is written here and give information about the results?

Link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-Z800-BIOS-probl... 

Good luck to you. 👍

[Corsair08]

Thank you very much for your reply. I looked at the thread in the link you shared, and unfortunbatrely I don't think it applies as the problems I am experiencing seem completely different. After changing the Hard Drive (the fiirst time the problem occurred) there was no display, but also the computer would not boot. It was stuck in a power on with "fans at full speed, switch off and do the same thing again" cycle. After changing the battery, the 8 beep CMOS codes appeared. 

I think one of the problems could be that the battery had just dropped below the required voltage, but there's more going on. 

After creating a bootable USB with the bin file for the BIOS, it nowgets to the screen where it says it will flash the CMOS, the fans are at normal speed etc. So the video output is working, it's just that CMOS does not actually flash, it just stays at 0%. Others have experienced the same issue in other threads, including the one I provuded, but I cannot see anyone ever repkying with an answer to those posts, just other people saying they have the same problem. Thanks again though.

[DGroves]

you must perform the recovery in the exact correct order, any change will result in a non working restore

with that said, you might try a different usb key,  as some keys are incompatible

i recommend using a small 4/8gb usb 2.0 key

don't attempt a 64gb or larger usb key as they are  quite different internally from 32gb and smaller usb keys

also for some reason it's usually cheaper to buy a full barebones Zx20 (and get replacement parts) rather than just a motherboard

last if replacing the motherboard get a rev 2 board that supports all cpu's

better yet if possible upgrade to a Zx40 based system

[Corsair08]

Thanks - i am doing everything in the correct order.  The only thig I am not clear on is if I should REMOVE the USB key when it gets to the Flashing System ROM 0% screen or leave it. I have tried both... Thanks for the suggestion of trying a different USB key - I am actually using a 16GB Sandisk Compact Flash card (the smallest  I have). But I removed the parttion in DSK Management, created a new one and formated it as a FAT32 with 512MB. But it  might be worth trying to get an actual usb key and 8GB or smaller. 

[DGroves]

it's been years since i've done a bios recovery on thes HP models and the success rate was mixed

nowadays i would recommend system board or barebones system replacement

as the cost nowadays is no longer excessive

PM me if you want i might have some useful details for you

for the Zx20 line the bios.bin file goes in the root of a fat32 (non bootable) usb key

the non bootable key is important as the system will restart several times

and we do not want the usb key to interrupt the proper restore sequence

power off set the z820 crisis recovery jumper (JP-39) from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3,

insert the usb key with the bios image to be flashed 

power on

==========================================================

note

if the front usb ports do not work, try one of the rear usb 2.0 ports

DO NOT USE ANY USB 3 PORTS

once the recovery starts LEAVE THE KEY IN THE USB PORT,

this is for the z820/620, but should be the same for the Zx40 series also

except for the bios file location

SDH can also provide more help than i can on bios recovery at this point in time

=============================================================

Power on, and wait.... you should see it flash the USB stick on,

and then 7 red lights/beeps, now wait

it will reboot, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING

It will restart and you will get flashing USB Stick, and red light's,

but this time 8 beeps, then a couple seconds later the power light will change color blue

and the BIOS will come on, DON'T TOUCH It will restart again,

and the BIOS screen will display, and you will see it flash itself with the new bios image

system will now restart, and flash 9 times and shut off. at this point remove the usb key

and set the z820 crisis recovery jumper (JP-39) back to pins 1-2 and power back on

system should now boot, enter bios and set date/time and any other needed settings

or the sequence below may happen on some models

If the computer starts reading the rom from the boot media and successfully reprograms the bios,

at the end of the flash the three keyboard lights will illuminate,

and a rising-tone series of beeps signals successful recovery.

at this point power off remove the usb key

and set the crisis jumper back to pins 1-2 and power back on

system should now boot, enter bios and set date/time and any other needed settings

[Corsair08]

Thanks do much for the detailed info. That is exactly what it is doing, the only thing is it doesn't actually flash the ROM, it just stays at 0% forerver... Well, I think the most I wasited for is about 30 minutes. How long does it normally take? I have been using the front top USB 2.0 port.  The .bin file is in the root of the 512MB partition. The computer only sees it as one partition and only one drive leter, as I deleted the other partition.  Thanks for clarifying about the bootable drive, as that was the next thing I was going to try.

[SDH]

I agree with DGroves. I'd say the recovery process was a good idea if it worked reliably or even "only some of the time" but now, over the years, I'd say it works rarely. You've tried enough... getting a replacement used motherboard off eBay is what I'd recommend too.

Be aware that there usually is no way to know if the motherboard you get will have been "branded" for Windows or for Linux. However, getting a genuine unused W10 license code is possible for under $20.00 USD these days is possible. And that also will work for upgrading to W11 latest version if you choose to go that way.

[DGroves]

the last thing i can think of is that the bios image to be flashed/restored

is not being read due to improper name or bad bios chip

just to confirm you extracted the sp100751 and copied the 63_0396.bin  bios image file

onto a non bootable fat32 formatted usb key

confirm the bios file on the usb key is called   J63_0396.bin

you can also try renaming it to 0396.bin

note that if updating through windows the .bin extension will not normally be shown

when in windows unless the"show filename extensions" is selected in the view tab

[Corsair08]

Thanks - I did look at ebay for used motherboards but the ones I found are more expensive than getting a complete replacement Z820... And the one I saw looked like it had bent processor pins. I will keep looking, thanks for your help;