Bios Recovery Procedures

Trombone-Player · Dec 25, 2020

KevinN206 said: ↑

bios recovery for hp dv6500

After spending 6 hours finding a way to recovery my friend's HP Pavilion Entertainment dv6500 (dv6500T), I've finally found the correct combinations. It all started from a bad flash within Windows 7 trying to install the latest BIOS version F.5A with SLIC 2.1. The flash seemingly was correct, and the laptop seemed to shutdown properly. But after turning it back on, all that was present were the blue LEDs and a black screen with the fan running. The correct way to recovery the dv6500, at least for my laptop, is discussed below.

Make/model: HP Pavilion Entertainment dv6500 (dv6500T)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Graphics: NVIDIA 8400MGS
Original BIOS version: F.22A
System board: 30D2

I found the oldest possible BIOS version to recover was F.22A since it added support for new Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Since the laptop came with the more recent Intel CPU, I opted to recover to this version. Not surprisingly, this is the same version that the laptop came with.

A. Preparations
1. Find a good USB floppy drive
2. Find a good floppy disk
3. Don't bother with USB flash drive - it didn't work for me even after 6 hours
4. Use a Windows XP or 2003 computer 32-bit. Don't use Windows Vista/7.

B. Preparing Phoenix Crisis Disk
1. Download this Crisis Disk with F.22A included:
1a. http // www dot mediafire dot com/?y6xw2ynm6vkyvxs (mirror below)
1b. http // www dot sendspace dot com/file/0b80fv
2. Extract downloaded zip file to a folder in C:\Crisis
3. The zip file contains the F.22A BIOS that's named "BIOS-DV6500-F22A.WPH"
4. Depending on your laptop configuration, you can rename that file to BIOS.WPH or download another BIOS of your choice
5. If you download a BIOS, it'll be an .EXE file. This needs to be extracted with 7-zip. After extraction, look for a file with extension .WPH. If you can't find the .WPH file, then there may be another .EXE file. Find another file .EXE file that starts with "30CCFXXX.EXE" where XXX is the BIOS version. Extract that file with 7-zip. There now should be a .WPH file.
6. Copy that file into the folder C:\Crisis, and then rename it to BIOS.WPH
7. The included PHLASH16.EXE is version 1.6.9.5 with SHA-1 # 00C603842F6C37369837191396B19086A44D40D6
8. The newer versions 1.7.0.21 did NOT work for this laptop. You may've to try other versions included in the zip file.

C. Running WINCRIS.EXE
1. Plug in the USB floppy drive and let Windows installs the necessary drivers
2. Put in an empty floppy disk
3. Open up Event Viewer from the Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer and navigate to Windows Logs>System. Keep this open.
4. Run WINCRIS.EXE by double-clicking on it and WINCRIS should see the drive A:\ as 1.44MB
5. Leave every options at default. Since the BIOS for the dv6500 is about 1MB, it'll fit on the floppy just fine.
6. Click on "Start". WINCRIS will automatically open up Windows' disk format dialog. Select FAT & default allocation. Leave the checkboxes UNCHECKED.
7. On the format dialog, click "Format" to begin and accept the warnings.
8. After formatting is completed, click OK but don't click Close yet. Now, go to the Event Viewer, refresh it, and look for the most recent red icons with white X indicating a critical error that has the word "floppy". Open it if you see it and it should say something like bad block detected on floppy.
9. You want to find a floppy that DOES NOT have these errors after being formatted. Even new floppies can have these bad blocks.
10. If there're no errors, then click "Close" on the format dialog and WINCRIS will automatically write the boot sector and copy over MINIDOS.SYS, BIOS.WPH, & PHLASH16.EXE
11. Once WINCRIS successfully created the disk, go to Event Viewer again and refresh it. Look for floppy bad block errors. If none exist, move to Step D. If there'r errors, then use another floppy disk and repeat Step C.

D. Booting the floppy disk
1. Disconnect the AC plug and remove the battery from the dead laptop
2. Plug in the USB floppy drive on the USB port next to the power connector
3. Put in the floppy disk
4. Get a stopwatch
5. While holding down WinKey+B, plug in the AC plug. Immediately, press the power button while still holding down the WinKey+B. Once the blue LEDs turn on, release the power button but keep the other two buttons pressed. Released all buttons when you hear two beeps or so, then start the stopwatch now.
6. If the floppy is created properly and the recovery is being executed, then the floppy drive activity light should be on immediately. The blue LEDs will remain on and there will be a repeating beep from the speak with no particular pattern. The beeps have various interval. After about 2min00sec, there'll be a brief pause for about 3sec followed by more beeping. At about 2min30sec, the laptop should turn itself off. If it doesn't, then let it sit for about 10 minutes more and it should turn off automatically by then. If not, manually turn off the laptop.
7. After the laptop shuts itself down, disconnect the floppy drive, disconnect the ac plug, reinsert the battery, and then reinsert the ac plug
8. Turn-on the laptop as normal. The screen should turn on. If it does, then you're home free. If it doesn't, then repeat Steps D and/or Step B with different versions of PHLASH16.EXE.

Lesson learned: 1st. do not flash a computer for a friend, unless the friend understands all risks and you're not liable for any bad flashes. 2nd: flash in DOS whenever possible
Click to expand...

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Dear Kevin,
I made the same error and found your interesting post. Unfortunately I was not able to recover the laptop. I guess it is due to the fact, that I have no access to the BIOS file F22.A under 1a/1b. Do you have this file and can provide access to it? This would be a great christmas present for me. Thank you in advance and Merry Christmas

Trombone-Player · Dec 27, 2020

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LatinMcG · Dec 31, 2020

just a tip for those that might need to get bios.cap from lenovo exe.. use innoextract 1.8 drag and drop to it and makes new folder with contents.

Ali Imran · Jan 4, 2021

Hi every body
Hi I have a HP Probook laptop purchased some days ago
he locked administrator password but boot menu worked fine
please help me break password

anybody help me ?

franzuck · Jan 8, 2021

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aster.plas · Jul 10, 2021

Odie Barrows said: ↑

Hello ,somthing goes wrong when tried to update my netbook bios, i have MSI GT60 0ND ,now the laptop start with black screen , i can desable/enable caps lock and numbers pad ,it seems it charge normaly without showing anything so i tried do bios recovery with latest bios put in usb stick with holding CTRL + FN + NUM7 at starting but nothing work .
i belive i can do bios recovery but i can't find the exactly combination keys for my model (some pepole say : CTRL + HOME ,and i don't have HOME button in my laptop
help me please ,thank you advance
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Try to remove 1-2 DDR memory sticks

MatingHoney · Sep 4, 2021

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LEO037_2021 · Sep 24, 2021

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Lukacs147 · Jan 16, 2022

Helló!Van egy MSI wind top MSI MS-AA53 All in one pc-m.
BIOS frissítés után nem indul a bios.Hogy todom újra íni a biost?

jmeno · Apr 6, 2022

For spi bioses I always use a programmer, and on many boards are sockets. A new chip is programmed and the original saved. For experiments a ZIF socket is very useful. Im not sure if sw toools are able read the flash like a programmer. DOnt use those clips, removing an SO8 SMD chip is matter of minutes.

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