BIOS Update Disaster Intel S2600CP2J

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Son of Homer

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May 9, 2016
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I attempted to do the update package (Sept 21, 2016) which includes System BIOS 02.06.0005, ME firmware 02.01.07.328, BMC firmware 01.27.9958, and FRUSDR 1.11. As each component was installed, it confirmed that it was successful.

On reboot, a short flash screen appears, showing only a few lines and showing the system BIOS is 02.06.0005. There is no opportunity to go into the BIOS, and I am left to forever admire this short screen.

I next tried to follow the BIOS recovery procedure. The first surprise was that the BIOS recovery jumper was already on pins 2-3 (recovery setting) and not pins 1-2 (default). With the recovery media on a usb stick, I tried recovery leaving the pins as they were, with no effect on reboot. I then tried again treating pins 1-2 as the recovery setting instead of being default, again with no result. Leaving the jumper at pins 1-2, I removed the recovery media, and tried again, and this time it complained that no recovery media was found. Rebooting again with the recovery media reinserted, and still with the jumper on pins 1-2, nothing but that same short screen.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
 
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Lennong

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Jun 8, 2017
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No prob. Once removed battery alsopress / short the power switch for a few seconds to empty any residing current. Then wait a few hours..

BTW, do you have your bord outside the case? I myself have a bit of a problem. I have managed to 'scrub' off one component on the back of the motherboard while removing it from the case. I have uploaded two photos to Imgur that pretty much tells what component it is. The designated place on PCB is named 'R6L29'

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
 

Son of Homer

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I still have my motherboard in the case. I tried a search to see if I can get any info for that position without any luck. Sorry, I do not have a clue what to suggest on your problem.

I will wait a little longer before reinstalling the battery.
 

Son of Homer

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I reinstalled the battery, and leaving the pins set in recovery mode and with usb recovery media attached, powered on, only to get the short screen. I powered off, removed the recovery media usb, and restarted. It again complained about no recovery media, but other wise the same short screen.
 

Lennong

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I'm sorry to hear that. I take it you did use the designated BIOS recovery files as per instructions? I also suspect the booting process is more dependant on the integrity of the USB stick when recovery. In normal BIOS update you boot the whole process in the UEFI shell in BIOS so in recovery it could possibly be more sensitive to the USB stick's integrity. Maybe you could try another USB stick and/or also use for example the HP USB format tool to format it for booting? I have submitted a good version for you.
 

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Son of Homer

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Yes, I strictly followed the BIOS recovery instructions.

Thanks for the HP tool. I will take a look at that tomorrow.

Any luck tracking down your scrubbed off component?
 

Lennong

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No, still working on it. Did another thread here but no answer yet. Sad thing is, I have access to university lab here with proper equipment and a full range of SMB components. It's just a matter of identify it and then I can solder one back on in a few minutes..
 

Son of Homer

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The mere thought of soldering on a component makes me shutter. I am nervous enough just trying to move jumpers around.
 

Lennong

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Soldering components is a material sport. Once you have the proper equipment it's fairly easy. If your BIOS is gone it's just a matter of deattach it and program it with a fresh BIOS in a EEPROM reader/writer and attach it again. Done it before with a botched router. ;)
 

Son of Homer

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I wish I could do that. Sadly, I am lacking the knowledge, skills and tools.

On your component problem, have you tried contacting your vendor to see if they can help you out? They probably have readily available uninstalled boards they can look at.
 

Lennong

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Yes, already contacted them and got response earlier today. They will get back to me on monday afternoon. ;)
 

Son of Homer

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I looked at the HP USB Tool, and hope that I used it correctly. After a very long process, it seemed to finish formatting the USB stick with FAT32 using DOS from Win98, although it seemed to take up no space on the stick. I then copied the recovery files to it, and tried again to reboot the server with the jumper set to recovery mode. Sadly, once again, nothing happened. The same short screen showed, as before, there was a brief period again where the flash stick was read, 2 beeps, and then internal reboots.
 

Lennong

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BTW, I solved my problem. Apparantely it should not be a component there as I was told in my thread. So I did some more digging and found one pin was bent 180 degree and twisted as well. It took me 1 hour and a lot af fiddling to get it in decent shape. It's now up and running! First time I ever bent back motherboard pins this much. :eek:
 

Son of Homer

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Glad to hear your solved your challenging problem.

I previously tried copying the recovery files to a USB adapter with a microSD card with no result, but it was formatted as NTFS. I also previously tried a USB stick just copying the files to it although that one also had the recovery folder on it, also with no result. This afternoon I also tried burning a DVD, also with no result. I will clean up another USB stick for a last try. After using the HP Tool, an I correct in assuming that I just copy the recovery files there? It seems weird that after the long process with the HP Tool, that there appears to be nothing on it, just a FAT formatted stick.
 

Lennong

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Yes, NTFS is not the best bet when booting *nix files. Yes, it should be a clean format with no DOS files on it. Normally it should be a few second thing to format a USB stick with the tool.. Maybe you should also try to do that with another computer? If you PM me your email I can send you another tool that can low-level format the media for you that remove any boot records and such. It's a handy tool in general but to big size for the forum.
Some part of me believe this is a media problem and the recovery process is halted because of the integrity of the USB stick.., or the recovery files themselves. Obviously I can be wrong, but as your board boots up and you see the BIOS version it indicates that that part of BIOS is working. Normally if a corrupt BIOS is beyond repair it's just a black screen and beeps.. I have seen a few of those..
 

Son of Homer

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Thanks for your reply. I have been doing it on another computer. Out of an abundance of caution, I was doing a full format, not quick. You are saying the the recovery files are *nix? The recovery files are: iFlash32.efi, ipmi.efi, R02.06.0005Rec.cap, rml.rom, Startup.nsh

My guess is that maybe the new BIOS is actually OK, but that one or more of the other concurrent updates in the package, ME firmware 02.01.07.328, BMC firmware 01.27.9958, and FRUSDR 1.11 was bad, and is somehow blocking a proper boot, and the chief suspect is the ME firmware. I should have followed my intuition and done each one separately.