Howto update bios hp Pro 3300 mt?

[wlf46]

Could you explain me howto upgrade bios in HP Pro 3300MT?

I have try with sp64125.exe and other files presents in HP support web pages but the installation fail. 

Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

When I look at your PC's support page, I see a much newer BIOS update than that one.

Under the W8 driver section, I see version 8.13 dated 19 Dec 2014.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp70001-70500/sp70159.exe

You really should be updating the BIOS using a supported operating system.

None of the BIOS updates were written to be run on Windows 10.

[wlf46]

I haven't W8 installed.

How can I update the bios with W10? Is not possible upgrade it with USB key bootable?

Can you tell me wich file I need to put into USB bootable key to upgrade the PC?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I know you don't have W8 installed, which is why I advised you that it could be risky to update the BIOS in W10.

Your only options would be:

1. Risk updating the BIOS by running the file in W10, knowing that it may not work and completely wreck your PC.

2. Install Windows 7 or Windows 8 and safely update the BIOS using one of those operating systems.

The BIOS updates can only be run in Windows.  I used the free 7-zip utility to extract the exe file into a folder, and there are no DOS files...just a Windows flash program.

This is the latest BIOS update file for your PC for Windows 8:  v8.13

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp70001-70500/sp70159.exe

This is the latest BIOS update file for your PC for Windows 7:   v8.06

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp60501-61000/sp60638.exe

[wlf46]

Isn't there no solutions with USB bootable key and DOS prompt?

[SDH]

EDIT:  I find the process below to be even better than a DOS approach to upgrading BIOS.  With some HP BIOS updater SoftPaqs once they are unpacked there will be a DOS folder inside.  This one does not give you that, and the upgrade of BIOS from within BIOS is less risky and more streamlined in our experience in all cases.  Read on...

With older HP workstations and PCs updating the system ROM (BIOS) from within an operating system that the HP BIOS updater was not designed for could be risky.  For example, initially we thought the xw and Z workstations could safely updated BIOS using the HP updater program designed to run under W7Pro64.  That worked some of the time, but there were a rash of cases of motherboards being bricked if the workstation was running W10Pro64 at the time.  HP did some fixes and the problem became less common but still is an issue.

However, there is a safer way... updating BIOS from within BIOS, and I have posted many times in the forum about this.  Below are the basics.  You can extract the BIOS .bin file (.ROM file) with this information.  Here are the steps:

1.  Paul gave you the link for the latest BIOS for your 3330 MT... if you copy that, change the extension from .exe to .html you'll see the HP ReadMe for the SoftPaq.  This works for all these .exe files from HP, and click on this to see:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp70001-70500/sp70159.html

Note that it supersedes SP69169, with release date 12/19/14 and includes functionality for W8Pro64 so it may run fine on W10Pro64.  I would not take that risk, however, given what I'll present below.

2.  Updating BIOS from within BIOS requires that your BIOS has been programmed with that capability built in.  To confirm that for you I downloaded the latest technical and service manual for your PC,  HERE

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03565499.pdf.

On page 10 in the BIOS setup section you can see the quote "Flash System ROM    Allows you to update the system ROM with a BIOS image file located on removable media".  This is the same case for the more advanced HP workstations... your BIOS allows you to update BIOS from within BIOS, before any of the complexities of an operating system come into play.  This method is OS-independent.  The process runs under the most privative OS your computer can run... BIOS itself. 

From this older era of workstations and HP PCs you simply use a smaller FAT32 formatted thumb drive and copy only the .bin (.ROM) file onto it.  (EDIT:  regarding setting BIOS to factory defaults... I'd probably just try first using what BIOS settings you currently are using, and only change to factory defaults if things don't work well.)  You should have the BIOS set to factory defaults before you do this, have the computer fully off, insert the thumb drive, do a cold boot, navigate into BIOS first page, and in there you should click on "Flash System ROM".  BIOS should then know to look for the USB thumb drive, find it, and proceed with the update.  Do not rush things.... let it fully finish its work.

3.  How do you find that critical .bin (.ROM) file?  You can do this on any another computer any time to harvest it... download the SoftPaq from the .exe link Paul gave you (get the the latest SP70159 version).  Run that on any computer as administrator... this will unpack the SoftPaq.  On W10 here I saw a brief flash of what appeared to be a DOS screen..... nothing else.  Now navigate into the root level of your C drive.  There will be a new folder  there, SWSetup, and in there will be a "SP70159" folder.  Inside that will be the following 4 items, and this image will show when a moderator releases it:

The BIOS version 8.13 file shown above ends with ".ROM".  For many of the other higher end workstations it ends with ".bin".  Same thing.  It is about 8MB in size.  That file is the only thing that you copy to the top level of a blank thumb drive for this project.  Note that the thumb drive is not bootable.  BIOS takes care of using the thumb drive.  In the past we have found using a small thumb drive is better than a large one.  It only has to hold about 10 MB... so I use an old 256 MG stick, freshly FAT32 formatted.

You may not know that a .bat file is a batch file and can be viewed by changing the extension from .bat to .txt.  My system is set up to show extensions of known file type.  I change to that in all builds so I can easily see that added bit of info.  Below is what the batch file does.  Note that this is just for interest... when you do this process with a thumb drive BIOS itself does all the work of flashing the firmware on a motherboard's BIOS EEPROM chip.  But here is what happens if you ran that batch file from within an operating system.  You can see that if a new OS such as W10 has any name changes from those included in this small batch file program the upgrade will not work.  That is why the upgrade of BIOS from within BIOS is so helpful:

mountvol z: /s
del z:\efi\hp\bios\current\*.bin
copy .\PO2_813.ROM z:\efi\hp\bios\current
mountvol z: /d
safuwin PO2_813.ROM /p /b /n /r /reboot

4.  Depending on the BIOS the upgrade may result in one or even more restarts, including in some newer workstations what appears to be a full automatic shutdown and then automatic cold boot, and then some added things.  So, give it time.  The later Z workstations from the ZX40 generation upwards use a slightly different thumb drive approach.  It involves a nesting of several folders with exact names for each, with the .bin file placed in the deepest folder.  That approach is not used from the ZX20 generation workstations and backwards in time.  Also, earlier BIOS such as in the ZX20 and before does not include full USB3 capabilities so I always plug the USB stick into a USB2 port out of habit.

5.  A rare added bit of technique:  HP on its initial release of some workstations installed such an early version of BIOS that the upgrade process required use if an intermediate higher level first, and only after that was done could the upgrade to the latest version proceed.  I call this a "Step Up" BIOS upgrade, and it is rare to see these days.  Some early release ZX20 version 1 workstations with their original BIOS still installed need this.  I'm quite sure you'll not need to deal with that.

Finally, please get back to us when you try this.  A quick google search shows the BIOS upgrade process done from within an operating system on these computers has been a source of trouble for many.  I have upgraded BIOS from within BIOS many times on many HP consumer PCs and enterprise grade workstations and never have failed.

[wlf46]

I have installed Windows 8.1 N into another HD. I have downloaded bios upgrade (https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp70001-70500/sp70159.html).

I run the update with administrator permissions and the update give me an error:

"System BIOS image invalid or corrupt"

The upgrade don't work!

I have only lose time. ☹️

[SDH]

The picture you posted shows you are trying to use an old BIOS upgrade Paul mentioned, not the newer one he provided you.  Also, you have not tried the BIOS upgrade the way I have told you works.  

Send me your workstation and I will do it for you, or do it as as has been detailed, from within BIOS..  Stop this trying to upgrade your BIOS with an old version from within an old operating system.  At least make a try of doing it the way I detailed.  It will take you a few minutes, significantly less time than I took explaining how it has worked for years, for us.