ProLiant DL380 G3 & Smart Array 6402 (256Mb) - Firmware Upgrade Fails

[MC1903]

Hello,

Has anyone experienced system failures when upgrading the firmware on a Smart Array 6402 from 1.92 to 2.26C?

I am running the upgrade (CP004869.exe) from within Windows (2000 Server / SP4). The System BIOS is the latest available (P29 - 06/23/2004) and the PSP is version 7.10.

The upgrade starts OK, but fails after 2-3 mins with an " ERROR - ROM Flash failed, rc=55 ". The system then becomes very unresponsive and finally blue screens!

I also tried this on a ML570 G2, it also failed to update & promptly blue screened. The Windows OS installation was so corrupted, it refused to load and I had to run a system erase.

I now notice that the file has been removed from the public web site and has been replaced by an Offline version 2.26B.

I have a case open with HP in the UK, but to date they say they have been unable to reproduce the failure.

I have included the survey.txt & cpqsetup.log files (both zipped) if it helps.

Kind Regards

Martin Cooper

[Skaria Thomas]

The online upgrade software has had many problems, which is why they took it off the public website. The only way to do currently is to do the off-line method.

I did this recently and can tell you a couple of things:

1. you need SmartStart 6.3 or later but not 7.0.0
2. HP took out the ROM Update utility in version 7.0.0 and now have a separate Firmware maintence CD which you have to buy.

-Skaria

[JohnWRuffo]

Martin:

I posted earlier about this in:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=653763
and
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=653512

I spoke with HP this morning and they were removing the online version. The engineer recommended I do the off-line flash and re-flash the card with 2.26.

My controller still shows a degraded status and if after tomarrow morning it still shows degraded status with battery charge low, I am going to flash it back to 1.92.

I cannot believe that within 3 minutes time, the batteries can be completely discharged but cannot prove it any other way.

[MC1903]

Skaria/John,

Many thanks for your comments. I thought I was the only one who had been caught out by this.

I have had a call logged with HP (UK) since the 20th July and they still do not seem to *know* about this problem.

They also could not explain why the 2.26c Windows Online upgrade was removed from the public site.

I (mistakenly) thought these updates were properly tested before they got released - However I guess WE ARE the testers.

The question now, is whether HP will admit they had the problem or will they cover it over - I know where my money is !!!

Martin

[JohnWRuffo]

I checked on the controller we updated this morning and the batteries are charged! (it fully charged overnight).
Yesterday, I used SmartStart 6.40 and did the off-line update and forced the overwrite of the bios to use 2.26 from the diskette.
It did overwite the "on-line" version of the bios and after 24hours the batteries are charged.

[Nathan Gervais]

The Smartstart CD and Firmware CDs are now available for download in ISO form :)

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/subscription/PSM_subscription.html

[Lars Floden]

I have this problem too. Earlier today I tried to upgrade the firmware using the version control agent from SIM. It got through part of the upgrade and just stopped. When I checked on the server I found it just rebooting, it would get to where the indicator bar is all the way across on the W2K screen and reboot again.

It took me a while to find out that the 6.4 CD was the only one with the ROM update. I downloaded the 2.26B version to the disk, but was unable to overwrite the controller.

Do I have to go back to 1.92 and then upgrade?

[JohnWRuffo]

Lars:

When you use the offline update to "overwite" the broken 2.26 version you need to:

1. Use the update diskette
2. Select Custom
3. Allow Overwrite

Then it will use the version found on the diskette and flash properly.

G'luck! -john

[Lars Floden]

Thanks John, that worked. But it looks like Windows took a dump. Hopefully a repair will work.