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Interrupted firmware upgrade on Armad...

Trish's Escape from Hardware Hell Help Board » Hardware » Motherboard / CPU Related » Interrupted firmware upgrade on Armada 1592DMT « Previous Next »

Author Message
Rick Yang
Posted on Friday, May 26, 2000 - 8:31 pm:   

Hello....I just recently picked up an Armada 1592DMT from a friend of mine
and was also given a few compaq floppy disks. Not really thinking too much
about it I stuck in a ROMpaq disk that says Ver.5P_0604.98 at the top. I
executed the Rompaq.exe I think it was called, and after going through the
procedures that followed for upgrading the firmware or whatever, It just
hung up on the screen that said something like "Do not interrupt or power
cycle the system until completed"....and so...i waited and waited and then
eventually I powered down and back up again....now all I get is a black
screen and a couple of green lights that stay on...and the 2 arrows by the
touchpad just blink....but thats all it does.....
With only this little bit of information, can anyone tell me if there is any
way to recover from this or did I ruin the computer or corrupt the bios or
what. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. The computer is
not in the greatest condition and I didn't pay very much for it but it was
working fine before I did that and so if theres any hope then I wouldn't
mind getting it to run again.....thanks for any help....Rick
Danny Albers (Danny)
Posted on Monday, May 29, 2000 - 6:49 am:   

You should be able to download the latest ROM paq from Compaqs website. This should be a program that creates a disk or set of disks which you can use to boot from with your compaq, and then restore your system to functionality.

Most Compaqs do not use a BIOS chips the same way clones do. They store their settings and drive information on the hard drive in a partition that is invisible to DOS and Windows.

The ROMPAQ merly updates the data on this part of the hard drive. You will probably have to rebuild this partition and will need the proper program to do this. Download every program related to your computer and read the instructions. Make sure you download the ROMPAQ for the proper series of Armada!

Good luck.
SmashOgre
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - 7:44 am:   

What Danny says is true, but, Compaq's do have a BIOS chip on board ( you can wipe the setup partition and still boot one for example) and if during the flash process you power off of lose power, you could possibly have damaged this, and, it is not recoverable unless you replace the main system board that contains the bios shipset. Hate to be a harbinger of doom....
Danny Albers (Danny)
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - 11:14 am:   

I think the chip is fine. As I said, they do not "USE" a bios chip the same way clones do.

The explanation was that the ROMPAQ software was used, which usually only updates the compaq partition info.

However, if you are right, the fact that only a black screen is present would certainly prove your point. There should be something on the screen. I just wanted to point out that I did not say Compaq's have no BIOS chip. They do, and need one in order to even access a hard drive at all.

They just use it far differently.
Rick Yang
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - 1:57 pm:   

Yeah...thanks you guys.....I appreciate it.....
As far as trying the latest Rompaq....thats the very first thing I did....problem is it never gets that far. It powers up, but doesn't even look to the floppy drive.....If it wasn't for the blinking green lights I wouldn't even know that it powered up....it powers up then remains completely silent....I've tried inserting the rompaq diskette before powering up...while its powered up, I put my ear next to the floppy drive as I pushed in a disk and it makes noise for like....1 to 2 seconds....just acknowledging that a disk was inserted, but it wont read the disk...
I emailed compaq and they replied saying to try disconnecting the cmos battery for more that five minutes and then powering up with ac power
only ....I tried that....
same results........I also took the harddrive out and put it in my friends armada...it booted up to windows95....so at this point...I think it might be the system board thats failing....anyways..thanks again

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