AAHD3-HB Motherboard 7.16 BIOS Fixed

[hibiscusguy]

Okay, so I guess my original thread got locked...? Anyways, my old thread is HERE, if your looking for the back story on all this. 

Short version: I flashed my AAHD3-HB's BIOS from 7.07 to 7.16 and it bricked the board.

But.....

It's back! 

AND, it's running 7.16. Which appereantly this board was not supposed to use? -See other thread.

No thanks to HP of course, I had to jump through hoops to flash the BIOS back. I re-flashed the BIOS by using the ROM Recovery header and this guide HERE. If anyone needs any info on how to unbrick there AAHD3-HB, feel free to send me a PM and I'd be glad to help you out. 

Thanks for the BIOS bricking update HP! 

[old_geekster]

Thank you for posting the solution for your problem.  It may help others with the same problem who are tech saavy enough to complete the process.

[hibiscusguy]

No problem, it's the least I could do.

It's actually not too difficult. It's intimidating on paper, but in person it's really just connecting the dots and typing the commands. The only difficult issue I had was connecting the "Rom Recovery header" to the LPT port, since there are no go-to wiring diagrams for this, only SPI or JPNI1 headers.

Here is the pin out for the Rom Recovery Header to the LPT port:

pin 1 to 7 lpt                                    

pin 2 -- Not used

pin 3 -- Not used

pin 4 -- 9 lpt

pin 5 -- 3.3v (MUST USE 5V TO FLASH, SEE BELOW!!)

pin 6 to 10 lpt

pin 7 to 18 lpt

pin 8 to 8 lpt

A lot of guides state to use the orange 3.3v wire on the PSU, but I could not get spipgm2 to recognize the chip without using the red wire (5v wire). I can almost guarantee you will not blow up your BIOS chip with 5v. I spent several days with it hooked up to 5v and nothing ever went up in smoke.

Another MUST HAVE. I tried for two days without using any resistors only to find bits of the hex codes return FF in random locations. So it would write data fine for a few lines, then error out, then return to normal then error out, etc etc.

Once I added the x4 100 Ohm 1/4 watt resistors (Radio Shack $1.49 for a pack of 5) it flashed the first try. Also, you don't need a monster power supply. Any old PSU should get the job done. I was using an old HP 250W that's easily 10-15 years old and it worked without a problem. 

Some key points to making this work, and random stuff I noticed flashing the AAHD3-HB FM1 Motherboard:

- x4 100 Ohm 1/4 watt resistors are a MUST HAVE on lines 7, 8, 9 and 10. Your not going to blow anything up without them, but your not going to get a successful flash without them.

- You don't need an SPI cable. I used an old front panel power switch cabled and re-routed the pins to mate with the ROM Recovery Header. Example HERE and HERE. You can also use the single wire ones like this, HERE. 

- I connected pin 7 to pin 18, then to the PSU black wire (ground wire). I don't know if this was absolutly needed, but it was hooked up like this when I flashed it successfully.

- I didn't solder anything, just pushed the wires into the LPT port on the motherboard, and twisted the wires together on the resistors. 

- When you run command - "spipgm2 /i" mine recognized as Windbound unknown, and the JDEC was EF4015h.

- spipgm2 /i                                                                            /// Chip info

   spipgm2 /u                                                                         /// U is the unlock command

   spipgm2 /e                                                                        /// E is the erase command

   spipgm2 /u                                                                       /// Unlock again after erasing

   spipgm2 /s HIB_716.rom /d=512                           /// S for slow flash, rom name, then D is adding a 512ms deley

   This is the exact order and commands I used to flash succesfully. 

- The actual chip on the motherboard is the following: W25Q16BV ID:0xEF4015 Size: 2048KB (16384Kb)

- If you see FFFFFFh, a wire isn't connected properly or you don't have the wiring correct.

- If you see 00000h, your not using enough voltage. Use the red wire, or 5v line.

Thanks all I can think of now, If I can think of any other tid bits I'll add them later. Good luck and hopefully this will help others bring there bricked boards back to life. 

[melon2112]

I wish I didn't but I flashed my p7-1238 BIOS yesterday and although it said it went through I could not do anything after a reboot.  I get the keyboard error the first time I reboot and try again with nothing on screen.  I took out battery and RAM...again would get to partial post then a keyboard error and freeze.

I then followed your steps making the SPI programmer and it goes through.  I verified the HIB_716.ROM with the dump that was produced following the programming.  They were identical. 

After rebooting, I get no post what-so-ever.  I cannot even hold power in to shut off...I have to pull the plug.

My guess is the ROM I have is not the right one but the only one I can find...I don't know if you still have the ROM you used but if there is any way you can get that to me it would be so appreciated.  It seems like HP has completely removed from their site and the only one I can find isn't working.

Please let me know if you have the ROM or even a dump of your working ROM.

Thanks so much in advance.

[Andronicus]

I know that this is an old thread, but maybe some help.  I recently tried to flash the BIOS on my Pavilion 23-f269.  Apperantly I flashed an incompatible file, and now it will not recognise any boot media. 

It has a AAHD3-AT motherboard.  Is this guid likely to work with my motherboard?  Currently I am looking to buy a new bios chip from a guy on ebay, but this may be an easyer way to do the fix.

[hibiscusguy]

There is a rom recovery header on the board, but it's not like the one I posted. If you could find a pinout of that header, your in business. 

I'll poke around myself and see if I can come up with anything. Btw, do you have the following to flash it with:

Working computer with a printer port

Spare Power Supply

Some wire. Not alot, but you will need to connect wires to the rom recovery header then to the printer port

Software listed in my original posts

A radio shack nearby or some spare resistors as listed in my original posts