Not enough space in Runtime area. SMBios data will not be available. Inaccessable BIOS

[OxidizedPickle]

Hello, I was attempting a restore or Windows 7 install on a p6510y for a friend. Tried to go into the bios to select which device to boot from.

So I hit F10, it says entering bios or entering setup ... then it goes to a black screen with a blue bar across the top. The blue bar is bright blue in the middle and it fades towards the edge of the screen. It is not animated. I see no text or blinking cursor either.

If I don't attempt to go into the BIOS, I get the message "Not enough space in Runtime area. SMBios data will not be available" And if I hit F2 to continue, windows boots normally.

I've stripped the system down to a single stick of ram, tried a different psu, vga cable, graphics card, etc. I removed the cmos battery and moved the jumper over for a solid 30 mins. I still cannot access the bios.

This was an extremely heavily virused machine, I was able to install Windows 7 via bootable external hard drive. The restore partition is still intact, although it appears to be empty, yet taking up space.

I ran sp49851.exe in windows 7 on the machine, the install was apparently successful, yet the BIOS is still behaving the same way.

I am at a loss, have spent several hours checking these discussion forums to no avail. Is it possible for me to prepare a bootable usb flash drive and install the bios manually? I've extracted the contents of that exe into a folder but I don't know what to do next. The computer does not have a floppy drive port. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

You might have a boot sector virus.

You will need a set of the HP recovery disks.  If you don't have them then order a set for HP.

Run the below disk prep utility. Then try Windows 7 from a known good optical CD or the HP Recovery Disks.

Cyberlink recovery CD for hard drives. When you have created this CD, insert it into the system that is unable to boot, restart it and wait until you see a window with a green check mark.  Then remove the CD and insert your first Recovery DVD.  Restart the PC and go through the process of installing the Operating System again.  Hopefully it should install properly this time.

[OxidizedPickle]

Thanks for the quick reply. I can install and run Windows 7 just fine. The problem is I can't acces the BIOS, even with the hard drive detached. The BIOS screen is simply a black screen with a blue bar across the top. Also the error message "Not enough space in Runtime area. SMBios data will not be available." appears pre-boot, and requires me to hit F2 to boot, in which case, it boots just fine.

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

You did not say in your previous post that you had the same issue with the hard drive disconnected.

Double check clear CMOS jumper and make sure that it fits tight.  You need to pull the power cord (not stateed) when replacing clearing the CMOS.  Consider replacing the CMOS battery. $4

Try booting up using a known good native VGA cable and VGA monitor.

It's possible that the bios flash didn't correctly finished or the motherboard is failing.

There is an outside chance that the power supply is weak right after power on.  What happens if you do restarts?

[OxidizedPickle]

Thanks again for your reply. I did indeed pull the power cord when I cleared CMOS. Used a known good standard vga cable via the onboard video. Also tried a seperate graphics card (known good). The jumper feels tight and the battery has sufficient juice. The PSU is a brand new Corsair CX430, 430-watt. I have tried the original power supply and the problem persists. Also tried several sticks of known good RAM in different slots.

Would it be possible to boot from a flash drive or external hard drive, and update the BIOS manually? I've extracted the contents of the sp49851.exe, in hopes to update manually somehow. As I said, the machine does not have the port for a ribbon cable floppy drive.

Thanks again for your help!

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

Inspect the motherboard with a flashlight.  Look for capacitors that are flared at the top and possibly excessive oxidation (dull aluminum) look.

[OxidizedPickle]

I will do that. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks!

[OxidizedPickle]

Definitely no oxidation or leakage anywhere. No bulging caps. It's a dust free computer and I didn't see any excess thermal paste or anything like that.

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

Perhaps you should consider taking you PC into a competent PC repair shop.

Alternatively, you might consider trying to reflash the bios while Windows is up and running. However, there is the risk due to the conditions of existing problem that it may "brick" your motherboard.

Good luck.

[OxidizedPickle · Accepted solution]

I was able to successfully flash the BIOS manually, and it is behaving as it should. Here's what I did:

I extracted the contents of my bios file (sp49851.exe), using a program called Universal Extractor.

I Renamed the file alo6.09 to bios.rom (this was the only file needed)

I followed this guide:

http://www.bios-mods.com/bios-update/

MAKE SURE you get the HP USB Disk Format Tool, they provide a link.

MAKE SURE you get the DOS image they provide a link for.

I used AFUDOS for my AMI BIOS, hence the .rom file extension listed above. (they provide a link to AFUDOS)

I used the command line afudos bios.rom /P /B /N /C /E /K /Q /REBOOT (EXACTLY) how they said.

Went straight into the BIOS, was able to make changes. System seems to function properly. It is very important that you read all of that guide, and make absolutely sure you have the right BIOS before updating it. Thanks for the help Dave!