HP Z2 SFF G9 Workstation (5F0D1EA) - BIOS corruption fix

[EpicLPer]

Heya,

I'm currently trying to fix a “HP Z2 Small Form Factor G9 Workstation (5F0D1EA)” after HP issued a warning that some models may become entirely unbootable if left on specific old versions. The exact issue happened to the one I got right now: https://support.hp.com/us-en/documen...235-8577455-16

I've already desoldered and dumped the broken BIOS, over on the "level1techs" forums someone already took a look at it and sadly couldn't fix it either 😥 Still grateful of them taking a look however!
I guess the current BIOS/dump truly seems to be dead. I'm a beginner so not even sure where to start looking but willing to learn 😃

Later on I would also love to provide an anonymized BIOS dump to everyone who needs and looks for it if possible 😊 This specific model seems to be a bit of a nieche thing as I can't find too much information about it.


Fault behavior: PC turns on for around 20 seconds, then turns off. No display output, sometimes it restarts automatically but turns off again after 20 seconds. HP recovery is not possible, it doesn't even boot that far 😫 Removing the RAM still shows the typical red blinking LED, so "something" is still working at least 🤣 Trying to turn it on without a BIOS chip at all doesn't even turn the Power LED on, so some functionality is still given by it.

Board Details:
SCRABBLE
REV: A
M11 FMB-2202
Model Nr.: 5F0D1EA#ABD
Ser. Nr.: Please DM if needed, thanks!
Broken BIOS Dump: Please DM due to dump containing possible personal information, thanks!


Mainboard


Chip 1


Chip 2


Potential further information


To my best (yet beginner) knowledge one of them is the BIOS/UEFI chip and the other contains Intel ME data.


Thanks a lot already for your help! I'm also of course willing to donate a few coffees if this board works again ❤


Best regards,
Stefan

[SMDFlea]

Backup both and post them here in a zip file.

[EpicLPer]

Backup both and post them here in a zip file.

I don't want to publicly post the dump as it contains the serial number and Windows key, if there's a way to remove those before posting them here I could do so 😅
However DMing a link to a download is fine to me

[SMDFlea]

I don't want to publicly post the dump as it contains the serial number and Windows key, if there's a way to remove those before posting them here I could do so 😅
However DMing a link to a download is fine to me

The serial number is required, that`s one of the forum rules - https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...before-posting

You could blank the serial number using a hex editor, search for hex pattern 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1D 00 00 00

You could replace it with

Hex 58 58 58 58 58 2D 58 58 58 58 58 2D 58 58 58 58 58 2D 58 58 58 58 58 2D 58 58 58 58 58

or

ASCII XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

You can edit the windows key back in before flashing the new/fixed bios.
.

[EpicLPer]

I think I got the anonymizing down now, can't edit the initial post to add them tho.

Chip 1: Removed serial number
Chip 2: Removed Windows Key

I replaced both instances with the pattern "XYXY".

[SMDFlea]

I think I got the anonymizing down now, can't edit the initial post to add them tho.

Chip 1: Removed serial number
Chip 2: Removed Windows Key

I replaced both instances with the pattern "XYXY".

Try this one, flash it to chip 2 .Leave chip 1 as-is. See what happens.

[EpicLPer]

Try this one, flash it to chip 2 .Leave chip 1 as-is. See what happens.

Hi, thanks for the work already ^^ But I think you forgot to attach the BIOS?

[SMDFlea]

Hi, thanks for the work already ^^ But I think you forgot to attach the BIOS?

Yes i did

[EpicLPer]

Yes i did

Oh my god yes this works almost! There is LIFE!

It started up, complained a few times about something not being right and then showed the HP logo screen for a few seconds before restarting. Then it started beeping 4 times slow (red LED) then 2 times fast (white LED). After a hard power cycle it then showed "Critical System Failure", but I think it might be due to something else not being quite right yet with the BIOS or Intel ME.

I tried to quickly boot into the BIOS recovery but always ended up on the same critical failure screen, tho I still need to try another keyboard or USB stick potentially and see if that works.

If you still have another idea to fix the critical system failure screen I welcome any suggestions But this is BY FAR the furthest I've gotten yet! 👀

[SMDFlea]

Oh my god yes this works almost! There is LIFE!

Try this new one.

[EpicLPer]

Try this new one.

This one has the same behavior as the one before, it starts up, restarts a few times to recover things, then shows the same replacement board message again. I've also held Win + B the entire time to see if I can enter recovery mode, even while it restored some values, however it never booted into it.

So close, I can already smell a success 👀