I apologize for the ** in the http links. The forum won't let me post links until I have over 20 posts.
I tried using the HP Disk storage format tool and followed the instructions posted here for BIOS recovery. I tried using both the modded bios and the original bios, each containing three bios files. I put all three files on the boot disk I used and also took a copy of the first file (089CF45W.UMA) and renamed it to bios.wph Still no success. It does appear the the laptop is accessing the USB drive during the process, but its a 4 gig and I think that might be too big. No floppy drive available.
I havent been able to bring the system back....have tried all three bios files. Anyone here ever had to revive a bricked HP Pavilion laptop that uses a similar bios update procedure?
At this point burfadel I have determined that the ROMpaq download containing the program to flash the BIOS for my laptop, the zx5000, is used on about 30 other HP laptops, including the zv5000. I know now where I went wrong and bricked the board during the flash procedure in windows (I renamed the files with _SLIC at the end incorrectly and proceeded with the flash.) Yeah the HP tool won't let me do FAT16 but I found a few tools that do. Thanks for giving me the DOS commands to do so. The next issue I believe I am having is getting the correct BOOT files put on the USB stick. I have tried multiple kinds to no avail (Minidos, the one windows 98 uses when creating a bootable disk.) Assuming I have formatted the drive correctly with FAT16 and have the correct files to make the stick bootable my final issue is which of the four methods listed on the "Bios Recovery Procedures" sticky will work. I had tried them all before realizing I was formatting with FAT32. There are also two other procedures I am trying, CRISDISK and PEN DRIVE RECOVERY. I believe that the ROMpaq has three different potential files to be renamed to BIOS.WPH or BIOS.ROM, depending on the proceedure. After reading the Hardware Repair Manual pdf from HPs website for the laptop I was able to confirm that the .UMA is for the systems with either an Intel or Nvidia graphics chip. the M9X file is for systems with the ATI 9200 chip and the M10 is the systems with the ATI 9600 video chip. Im too tired to take the laptop apart but I am almost completely certain it has the ATI 9200 video chipset. So I will be renaming the .M9X file to BIOS.WPH or BIOS.ROM and going through each of the methods again, this time formatting with FAT16. Im gonna be pissed if its not working simply because the stick is 4GB or the system doesn't even support booting from a stick for BIOS recovery. ???Would a USB floppy disk drive work in place of an internal one, which I do not have??? I will report my results so that if I am successful they will be left here on the forum in case someone goes and does something dumb as renaming the files to be flashed to bios incorrectly and bricking their ancient HP Pavilion zx5000 that most likely isn't going to run so well on Windows 7 anyway.
Well I have came to the conclusion that I am not going to be able to revive this BIOS without a USB Floppy drive and floppy disk. BUMMER.