laptop with no BIOS? or BIOS reflash pain

[Idwer Vollering]

> I've HP compaq 6715s laptop.
> It's all right with 10-current.
> I've got wireless and at one point
> I even managed to get flash working.
>
> My problem is with BIOS.
> Apparently it's wrong and John Baldwin
> provided me with a pci.c patch to get
> it to boot.
>
> There is an updated BIOS version, but
> so far I failed to get it installed.
> HP only provide MS and freedos executables.
> I tried BartPE - doesn't work.
> I tried plugging in a MS disk - doesn't work.
> The only think I haven't tried is getting
> a spare disk, installing freedos on it
> and then running the freedos executable
> from USB - what a fucking pain...
>
> For proper hardware (servers) HP provide
> images which are executed from management
> console, but not for laptops.
> I guess the idea that one might
> use their laptops for anything other than MS
> is so wild, that it never crossed their maid.
>
> Anyway, I think I've heard there are some laptops
> with no BIOS, is this true?
> Or perhaps there are brands where BIOS
> reflash is not such a great pain?
> I remember on Compaq Armada the BIOS was
> stored on disk and Compaq provided a floppy
> image to boot from and reflash BIOS.
> That was easy.
> Anything like this exist these days?
> Are there any EFI laptops?
> Any model people would recommend?
>
> Thanks
>
> Anton

Another approach is to use an external SPI programmer:
http://flashrom.org/Supported_programmers
The 'downside' of this is that you need to take your laptop apart.

ODM schematics of your laptop are found here:
http://notebookschematic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/6515b_6715s.png
Downloads for BIOS updates:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3356623&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3368539&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093#120
and ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp55501-56000/sp55556.exe

My guess (I am not a HP service technician) is that you need
ROM.CAB/Rom.bin from sp55556.exe - you can use 7zip to extract Rom.bin