bios update with freedos

[jklaffen]

I have an Elite 7000 MT that is running linux.  Is there a way to update the BIOS with FreeDOS?  According to this link  http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4025606&..., the sp48334.exe which contains a AFUWIN.exe and Flash.bat file should work with FreeDOS.  However, when I run it from a bootable USB drive with FreeDOS, I get the message "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."  It seems that AFUWIN.exe is not intended for DOS, so is this an error that HP states that it should work with FreeDOS?  Seems I need AFUDOS instead...

Thanks.

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

Perhaps creating another partition on your hard drive or on a second hard drive and installing Windows 7 "30 day trial" would be one way to safely install the bios update.

Download the official Windows 7 ISO file. It’s about 123 MB.  Then burn it to disk using Imgburn.

[jklaffen · Accepted solution]

Great idea!  That worked.  Thanks for the suggestion.

John K.

[robertour]

Sorry but i nstalling a whole OS to update the bios is not, by any means, a solution.

Updating a bios shouldn't be OS/software dependant. I cannot believe that we are still strugling with BIOS update. It should be as easy as go to the BIOS configuration and look for update. Intel already has a similar idea.

And after 3 or 4 days seems the only woooooork around. 

[robertour]

And it's not about 123MB... it 2GB +

[clarkddc]

I spent a couple of days on this myself. On day two, I found this very helpful link; http://www.richud.com/wiki/BIOS_HP_Rompaq_FreeDOS_PXE_USB_Boot. After extracting the SP38286.exe archive, I discovered that there was an iso image embedded in the file. I hope that this helps.

(snip)

Extracting  /ROMPaq CD/Readme.txt
Extracting  /ROMPaq CD/ROMPAQ.iso
(snip)

[robertour]

thanks, i tried all of that but there we no isos...

i also read that hp used .fd extension for the .rom files...

the problem is that when i uncompress the .exe (executing it on .wine and then uncompressing ) i found three .fd files, all with very similar numbers and different sizes.... all bigger than a floppy disk...

anyways, i tried to execute the software with freedos but it is just non-sense because it includes dlls and güindous stuff...

the only thing i didn't try was try RANDOMLY one of the three fds with any other bios writter... as you guess that would haven just too risky...

***** Just to do some catarsis here *****

HP, explain me something.... what is the idea of just give the option of upgrade a bios just from a particular SO (W7... not even wxp or something light)?... i have enough with buying a license for an SO that i didn't use...until I have to upgrade the bios...  ridiculously .

I had to upgrade because of both a fan and a battery problem... so this was not for fun...

[DJ14]

I have Linux and need to use freedos to update the bios

for HP Compaq 8000 Elite SFF PC

However here my steps:

1. Create freedos USB stick, search with google how to do, there are many sites.
2. With Linux, download bios update spxxxx.exe (i.e. sp73578.exe),
3. use shell and change directory to your download folder
4. Create folder SP73578:
   $ mkdir SP73578
5. Change to folder:
   $ cd SP73578
6. Extract sp73578.exe with "7z":
   $ 7z x ../sp73578.exe
7. You see following files and folders:
   $ ls
   786G7.cab Bios Flash.htm DOS Flash History.txt How to Use.txt HPQFlash license.txt logo.bmp SP73578.cva SP73578.txt
8. Copy the whole folder SP73578 to your freedos USB stick and unmount friendly
9. Restart PC with freedos USB stick
10. In freedos startup: Press return to continue to freedos
11. Choose the third option, something with HIGHMEM drivers, sorry forgot
12. Change to Dos Flash:
    > cd SP73578\DOS Flash
13. start flash procedure:
    > flashbin
    ---- > some outputs and the ready message
14. disconnect the USB stick
15. I used CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart