Summary: Upgrading FW on AS500/333

From: Partin, Kevin S <Kevin.Partin_at_SW.Boeing.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 09:37:00 -0600

Thanks to all of you who responded. Some of the respondents stated that I
could create a boot floppy with the firmware on it, boot to the floppy and
load the firmware. That trick would not work on such an old piece of
equipment. One of you indicated a that a Fail Safe Loader diskette that
comes with AlphaServers might be able to be used to reload the ROMs. I this
case, with the ROMs ruined, there is no way to boot to a floppy. Some of the
newer equipment might still boot to a floppy, but not an AlphaStation
500/333. From the number of respondents from around the world, quite a few
people were bitten by this Trojan Horse from Compaq. I find it interesting
that Compaq did not send new media when the bug was discovered.

In summary, if you have a v5.4 Firmware CD-ROM, throw it away. As they
always tell you, if the firmware upgrade fails, then you have to get a new
motherboard. Shame on Compaq for this one!

Thanks,

Kevin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Partin, Kevin S
> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 3:04 PM
> To: 'tru64-unix-managers_at_ornl.gov'
> Subject: Upgrading FW on AS500/333
>
> Has anyone had problems upgrading the firmware on an AlphaStation 500/333
> to 5.4 from 5.3? As it was programming the SRM, it comes back with
>
> Warning ROM 1 Pgm Fail, Offset ox28f7d, Exp 0x10, Act0x0
>
> It appears that the ROMS are ruined. I do not get a bios prompt (>>>)
> anymore.
>
> If anyone has any ideas, they would be appreciated.
>
> Kevin
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Kevin S. Partin
> The Boeing Company
> 502 Gemini St.
> Mail Code: 841-ZC01
> Houston, TX 77058-2752
> Phone: 281-853-1569
> Pager: 713-549-0713
> Facsimile: Unknown
> Email: mailto:kevin.s.partin_at_boeing.com
>
>
Received on Tue Feb 15 2000 - 15:37:55 NZDT

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