Quote Originally Posted by Knight View Post
Is there a date for the final release of the BIOS? I can't afford a bad flash.

you can still get a bad flash with an official bios...if you follow my flashing instructions for flashing with a floppy, it should go ok.

my particular flash failure using the USB thumbdrive was my fault...i looked back at that event and i found my error...when it happened twice to me, i knew it was something that i had done incorrectly.

when i formatted my thumbdrive, i incorrectly used the FAT table (FAT16)...with that table, there is a maximum design limitation for a drive...up to 2G's is allowed for a FAT 16 table...my drive was 4G's...so, i screwed the pooch...i since then reformatted the USB drive to FAT32 and i have successfully flashed many times using the switches from my flashing guide link.

Aside from the inefficiency of FAT 16 on larger drives, it has a maximum partition size of 2GB. If you were to purchase a 4GB hard disk, you would have to partition or divide it into two disks of 2GB each in order to format it with FAT 16.
the HP tool does not allow you to divide the partition up if you use the "FAT" option to format....design flaw, YES!...but...i should have known better.