1. First, you need to get the Crisis Recovery Disk Tool. Google 'Phoenix Crisis Recovery' to find a disk maker - they are free and readily available.2. Use WINCRIS.EXE or the CRISDISK.BAT (both part of the crisis recovery disk maker package), to create a floppy that you will be able to use to recover the BIOS.3. Find your BIOS file in the current BIOS update on the HP support site. Run the update on another computer, don't install it obviously - cancel before it actually flashes the BIOS, and then find the WPH or ROM file that was in the packaged file and rename it as BIOS.WPH. Some HP BIOS updates ask where you want to decompress the files - find the WPH or ROM file there. Some just decompress to a temporary folder in the C: drive - look for a newly created folder that is just a collection of numbers and letters - you should see WINFLASH and other files there along with the BIOS ROM you need. This file needs to be copied onto your newly created crisis recovery floppy. Note you MUST rename it BIOS.WPH. Changing the name and extension may be necessary. 4. Remove the battery from the laptop, and unplug the AC power cord. Then plug in your USB floppy drive (with the Crisis Recovery Disk in it and ready to go). Next, With the AC still unplugged, press and hold the Windows and B keys. While still holding them, plug the AC power in, then press the power button. 5. The system should power on, but there should be no LEDs lit up, and the fan should not slow down like it normally does. If that is not what happens, and you get LEDs that light up, and the fan slows like normal, or nothing happens at all, unplug the AC power and try using the Fn (function) and B keys instead. Once the system has booted into the BIOS recovery mode, the floppy light will flash as it reads the BIOS file from the disk. You can then release the Win+B or Fn+B keys. After a minute or two, the floppy light will stop flashing.6. DO NOT shut the computer off, as the process is only half complete - the machine has read the BIOS but it still needs to write them. Wait while the system flashes the BIOS.7. After the floppy light goes off, leave the computer on for five minutes, or more if you want to be sure, and if the system does not reboot itself (many do not), unplug the AC power.8. Plug the AC power back into the laptop and fire it up - if all goes well, you'll have made a very expensive doorstop into something useful again. This works for most all newer models of laptops with Phoenix BIOS. All HP's have Phoenix BIOS so it should work on most. You will also find some laptops have other key combos to enter the CRM (crisis recovery mode). If this doesn't work try Googling a bit and see if you can find a key code for your specific laptop. That being said sometimes it is a problem with the motherboard and you will not be able to recover with CRM.I am posting this to help out the many people who I found today while searching these forums who are having failed BIOS upgrade issues. I had a bad BIOS brick my HP laptop. I am able to enter CRM, but even after it appears to successfully read and write the BIOS on my laptop, it still does not work. I have found a hald dozen people who are having the exact same issue - even with the Phoenix BIOS recovery mode appearing to work, it does not fix their HP laptop after a bad BIOS upgrade. I am guessing either the version of PHLASH16.EXE needs to be HP specific, or HP has put some other file marker on their CRM system so anyone else other than HP techs cannot use CRM to fix a BIOS issue and you will be forced to send your laptop back to HP for (costly) repairs.If anyone else has experienced this or found a way to get a HP laptop which refuses to take a new BIOS even after a successful CRM please let me know!Thanks in advance!
Newer HP's have a UEFI bios beginning in late-2008., I have been told if you download and unpack the bios file from HP for your model, copy the correct bios file (eg:68YHV.BIN, not ROM.BIN) to a floppy disk and use a USB floppy drive, USB keys won't work.
Phoenix Crisis Disk Usb Download
The floppy drive starts to read the disk and I leave it for 10 mins but when i restart there is no change. I think the problem im having is that I can use the actuall BIOS for my laptop as it is over 2mb so wont fit on a floppy. I have tried creating a CD and USB but there dont read like the floppy drive does. The BIOS im using is just one I downloaded with the crisis recovery program. I am unable to find a smaller BIOS file for the laptop (Toshiba L450) as the only one from the toshiba site is the one I've got.
How about downloading the firmware for the system on another computer, create a boot disk/usb copying the flash software and firmware onto it, reboot you system with the new disk/usb inserted and then run the flash software and reflash the system BIOS, Reboot and see if you can access the BIOS menu. 2ff7e9595c