Z440 (F5W13AV) BootBlock Recovery with USB

[liberation1312]

My Z440 is getting the same 8 beeps for BIOS problems (no video display). I was able to download M60_0261.bin which is the most recent bios image for F5W13AV and put it on a flash drive and connect it to the system while powered off. After booting the system up with this in the USB I can see the Flash drive hard drive light blinking for about 30 seconds and then stop. During this process the amber power light also does not come on, its now just a normal white power light. The system just sits like this with no video display, eventually the case fan will turn on. I've let it sit for 20 minutes and nothing changes no reboots, etc. After hitting the power button to turn it off again and removing the USB drive, it boots back into the 8 beeps. I should not there are no keyboard lights that display from a USB keyboard (thinking of trying a PS2)

This makes me think that the bios recovery function isn't working properly (or fully). Another user with a similar issue was able to get it to fully recover here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/Z440-BootBlock-Recovery/td-p/8644117

I tried both using the HP tool to prepare a USB drive for recovery (sp146166) and creating my own FAT16 partition and putting the flash image in the root of the drive with the same result as above.

I'm not sure if there is something I need to do with the boot block recovery jumper. I did reset the CMOS battery with the reset button.

I'm going to try to find an older flash image of the bios and see if that helps: M60_0259.bin

[liberation1312 · Accepted solution]

Good news! After powering the system down again and moving the Boot Block Recovery jumper to the left two pins from the right two, the system successfully detected the USB and even displayed the BIOS recovery sequence on the monitor!

I had to use the internet way back machine to get the Workstation Series Maintenance and Service Guide PDF to locate it but its near the cmos battery and labelled BBR

Another weird thing happened where AFTER it completed the recovery it boot looped back into the recovery again so I had to wait for the recovery to finish and the system cycle then pull USB drive out so it didn't keep boot looping.

*Important final step! After the recovery sequence completed I powered down the system and switch the BBR jumper back to its original position (out of recovery mode). Then it booted up fully recovered : )