Nathaniel Perez, A+, MCSA, MCITP

Christian

2/26/2016 12:35:33 pm

Hej Nathaniel, thanks for the guide. My N40L already has the 2011 mod BIOS. Do I have to revert to HPs original factory stock BIOS or can I upgrade from modded BIOS to modded BIOS right away?

Nate Perez

2/27/2016 11:44:57 am

I'm not sure what the process is for that. If it were me I would flash the hp official bios first then the mod.

Rich

3/20/2016 12:21:41 pm

You sir are a life saver, thank you for your work.

CiViC321

4/5/2016 02:53:42 am

As far as I understand this will work on the N36L as well. Is that correct?

Nate Perez

4/5/2016 10:06:43 am

I think so, but I've never tested it so proceed cautiously.

noiseboy

6/29/2016 01:06:30 pm

Yes, I've had it working on a N36L for sometime

Theo

4/15/2016 09:28:08 am

Hi Nathaniel,Thanks for your effort.
I found the same file on
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-HP-Proliant-Microserver-AMI-BIOS-MOD?pid=75965#pid75965 but the contents is different.

Which one should I use? Do do know what the difference is? What is the source of your modified BIOS?

Regards
Theo

Nate Perez

4/15/2016 09:45:20 am

I got the modified .ROM from bios-mods. I'm hesitant to make any recommendations because this is a completely UNSUPPORTED mod. However, I can tell you that I wrote this guide while I did the mod so if you follow my guide step by step, I'm confident things will work out for you.

Theo

4/17/2016 10:17:35 am

Hi Nate. The modified BIOS file I mentioned were downloaded from the above website. The modified BIOS has the same name, and is based on the same HP release (Oct 2013), as yours but when I compare the contents, the files differ. Did you modify the BIOS source yourself, or do you only host the binary file from BIOS-mods? I am trying to find out why there are different binary files with the same name/version doing the rounds. :-)

Nate Perez

4/17/2016 10:36:28 am

I just host the files, I didn't modify any of the contents. The confusion you're feeling right now is the whole reason I made this guide :)

Craig

4/20/2016 02:19:16 am

Thank you for this, finally my Server is working! Legend

Theo

4/21/2016 10:48:15 am

Is the BIOS file the same for the N40 and the G7N54L?

Nate Perez

4/21/2016 12:32:52 pm

I did a quick google and it seems like that model is an amd chipset so I would think it's a different bios.

oceang

4/24/2016 02:55:30 am

I can answer the open questions having used modded BIOS's on the Gen7's for some years now (I own 3 x N36L's, 2 x N40l"s and 1 x N54L), including the one mentioned above which is needed if you want the mods and also onboard NIC support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2 Server.

1. You do not need to revert to an original BIOS. Whichever one you use will override whatever you were using previously.
2. Same BIOS works on N36L, N40L and N54L.

Sabbir Ahmed

5/3/2016 05:40:27 am

Hi Oceang,

Just to confirm, the modded bios works with N36L as I own one and need the hot-swap to be working. Thank you in advance.

oceang

5/3/2016 08:11:19 am

As I said above, it works on a N36L.Hot swapping works for me but I only hot swap a couple of times for testing on Windows

Leigh Glasspell

8/26/2018 10:16:32 pm

I have a N36L and want to know if by using this bios I would be able to successfully run either W2012 or W2016 server?
I am currently running 2008 but I like 2016 (running on another system) better. I know this is old but if you can answer I'd appreciate it

Sabbir Ahmed

5/3/2016 05:35:50 am

Will this work with HP Microserver N36L? I really need my server to be hot swappable

Viren

5/7/2016 11:05:17 pm

Thank you kindly Sir. I nearly pulled out my hair until I found this guide...

Viren

5/7/2016 11:53:28 pm

If anyone else has the problem I had, which was NIC (ethernet) not connecting on Windows 10, once completing the BIOS update the NIC may still not work until you enter the BIOS setup on boot and choose "load optimal defaults" which can be found under the Save & Exit tab.

I did not use the modded BIOS only the SP64420 update as all I needed was the NIC to work.

Thanks again Nathaniel for providing a download link!

Tom Godfrey

5/27/2016 02:13:34 am

Installed successfully on my N36L with no problems. Thanks very much for providing this.

David Bala�ic

6/5/2016 04:21:35 pm

"version 041"

041 is not the version but the type. All versions have type 041.
Checking for 041 will accomplish nothing, as it is always that value.

Lumpy

7/4/2016 03:50:22 am

Thanks, This has really made my day I've been trying for several weeks to find a way to upgrade the 250 gb drive under Xpenology DSM 5.2. After imaging the 250GB and restoring onto a 1Tb drive using this MOD I am now able RAID 1 the 1TB and expand the the volume to use the full 1TB. Great post and thanks again, I'm very happy after tearing whats left of my hair out as this is all working really well. I gotta say this old NL40 is really living up to expectations and continues to surprise me with its longevity.

Grateful old ex-Unix Admin.

Paul

7/21/2016 12:00:59 pm

Smooth guide perfect install.

On N54L with new but unmodded BIOS and 1 USB dongle for KBY but KBY not required.

Thanx

Paul

7/21/2016 01:00:44 pm

Also read this: Allow Hot-Swap SATA and 5th SATA port full speed on HP N54l Proliant Microserver http://terfmop.co.uk/blog/2013/07/31/allow-hot-plug-sata-and-5th-sata-port-full-speed-on-hp-n54l-proliant-microserver/

Last para.

It's linked to from the originating guide for this one mentioned near the top.

it will tell u how to get hot-swop and sata300 on the cdrom sata port.

brian

7/26/2016 05:15:02 pm

Brilliant, allowed me to get the nic working after a Windows 10 upgrade. Windows was reporting cable disconnected, updated with the HP 2013 bois and all fixed. Will keep the modded bois for later.

Many thanks again, your a star!!!

Brian

Lars

8/1/2016 04:03:46 pm

THANK YOU!!!
I was looking "all over the internet" before this page really helped me out. Now everything works fine again.

Steven

8/1/2016 10:32:20 pm

Hi Nate, I have the same question as Theo had. I downloaded similar files from bios-mods.com here:
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-HP-Proliant-Microserver-AMI-BIOS-MOD?pid=75965

SP64420.exe is exactly the same as yours, but O41100113.rom from bios-mods is different from your O41100113.rom (located in O41100113mod folder). Just to double check, I compared and found it is also different from O41100113.original.rom , so it is indeed a modified rom, just seems to be modified differently than bios-mods.com version. Can you clarify the source of the ROM file if you don't mind?

Gustlik

8/9/2016 07:51:22 am

Hi Nate,
It works ok.
Thank You.

I posted link to Your howto on my site

Richard

11/19/2016 05:09:48 am

Just used this to upgrade my N36L, thank you very much for instructions and putting all the files in the one place. Machine is running well and no issues so far.

Cheers

Jure

11/20/2016 09:47:33 pm

Thank you it works great.

dean foote

1/2/2017 02:23:55 pm

unfortunately followed instructions exactly but did not do the flash to factory first, so the box is bricked
take not all, and return to factory first

Georgich

1/4/2017 03:16:43 am

Thank you by you ROM.
On win10x64, dont work HPQUSB.exe. This soft been kill the usb fs.
I'm use rufus.exe, Make freedos bootable usb and put in the root flash.bat, kbd.exe and O41100113.ROM. Then boot from this usb and start flash.bat.
OK!
(664447-425
ProLiant MicroServer AMD Turion II NEO NHP/SATA/UMTower/N40L DC (1.5GHz,2Mb)/1x4GBUD/No HDD LFF SATA(up to 4)/RAID(0,1)/DVDRW/GigEth, 1-1-1W)

James

3/4/2017 10:19:50 pm

I want to confirm this:

DO NOT RUN THIS ON WINDOWS 10 x64. FOR SOME ODD REASON IT KILLS THE USB STICK.

By kills, I mean Windows cannot read it any more; The partition table is probably corrupted and it confuses Windows. Disk Management fixes it quickly

Nate Perez

3/5/2017 02:51:42 am

I ran this on Windows 8x64 and had no issues but can't confirm on win 10. Worst case is you just have to open disk management and reformat it. It's highly unlikely that it will "brick" the flash drive. Hope this helps.

Neil

9/9/2017 08:55:37 am

Worked fine for me on W10 x64. Just make sure your HPQUSB.exe is in the same folder as the files that end up on the USB.

Otherwise whatever folder it is in it will try and copy the entire contents to the USB and ends up crashing.

Recovery of the USB is just a case of doing a CLEAN command in DISKPART.

Karol

3/10/2017 09:13:18 pm

I had the same problem, it turned out that the easiest way to fix it was to install a temp version of windows 7 somewhere luckily i had a couple PC's lying around. I then formatted the USB with HP's USB Disk Wipe utility, after doing all of this the PC started to tell me that the USB drive has a bad volume label. a tells you to run a piece of software that wipes all drives ever connected to the pc from registry LINK: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/usb-drive-or-flash-problems-how-to-cleanup-and-remove-old-usb-storage-drivers.145884/#post-875300

Finally after doing all of this i connected the drive and it worked first time. This is honestly a lot of work and it was "FUN" hope it helps anyone that reads.

All in all Windows 7 Is a requirement and a wipe of registry of all connected USB drives may help.

Karol

3/10/2017 09:21:43 pm

Just as an FYI, installing this Update allowed me to install windows server 2016 WOOP finally

Jase

1/4/2017 07:32:19 am

Hey, thanks for posting up the instructions + file, it very handy.

MrWani

1/13/2017 03:27:35 am

HPQUSB.exe does not support Windows 10 and wipes the partitions on your flash drive. Suggest you use Windows 7 or earlier to create the bootable flash.
If you've already had this problem and seeing the message insert disc on your flash drive then you can fix in: Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management.
Right click on your flash drive and add a new partition. Re-format to FAT32.

Marcos Junior

1/31/2017 03:33:08 pm

I installed 2x8gb kingston, but my stock bios sometimes reads 8gb only, sometimes 16gb. Do you know if this mod have something related to memory count?

Ziggy

2/21/2017 06:02:07 am

@MrWani I don't have a Windows 7 machine available. Only Windows 10 :(
Any suggestions as to how to create a proper bootable USB stick?

Littlejeem

4/22/2017 01:46:48 am

@Ziggy you could try using unetbootin to set up a freedoms boot disk. Second comment down on this link is from a guy who said it worked on an n54l

https://askubuntu.com/questions/46886/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-stick-to-flash-a-bios

Littlejeem

Eddie

6/28/2017 12:58:17 pm

Can any answer and provide me links to drivers, etc for my HP Proliant MicroServer N40L?

1. I installed Windows Server 2012 Foundation R2 with no issues (My BIOS says O41 Date: 10/1/2013 is this the latest?

2. I can't download any drivers from HP since they want a subscription. Does anyone have the facotry drivers? I have read you need them to make the HDD/SSD run and high speed. I have it on AHCI now and it seems to run.but it still seems a little slow on my SSD. Someone said you need to update the Microsoft Drivers to the AMD.

3. Is there a Chipset package? The processor seems to be at 100% all the time with anything running.

4. Bottom line, I'm just looking for a guide after a fresh Windows Server 2012R2/2016 install.

Thanks,
Eddie

Jay

7/22/2017 08:41:18 am

I think these are the latest chipset drivers from the AMD site, you can also get the RAIDXpert software from here:

https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows%207%20-%2064

Carl

9/26/2017 09:42:27 am

What are the differences between this modded .rom file and Tobi Oo's modded .rom?

James

9/26/2017 11:08:30 am

Good question

10/11/2017 01:42:53 am

How will I know if the BIOS upgrade has worked?

Is there something in the BIOS that shows what versions I'm on?
I upgraded - seemed to go ok, but there doesn't seem to be anything different in the BIOS screen.

ferko

10/23/2017 07:40:16 am

I would love to see an answer. same doubt here.

Jack

10/24/2017 08:13:35 am

If you have the fully modified Bios you will see two extra items in the banner at the top of the screen (PCIPnP and Chipset). The HP version doesn't have these options.

10/24/2017 12:35:01 pm

Thanks very much for that, i'll check when I get home.

Is there any way of telling which VERSION of modified bios is installed?

Paul

10/11/2017 03:41:54 pm

Resubscribing after accidentally desubscribing.

Eddie

10/23/2017 10:40:10 am

I installed the non modded version and was able to with SATA SSD 1TB drive. This was awhile back but it was the last firmware. I believe the non modded is in the .zip (SP64420.exe). Not sure but the other is for hot swap i believe. I just need SSD 1TB support which worked with just the SP file.

Mark Barnes

10/29/2017 08:57:51 pm

Have had my N40L running as Media server for ages but have had issues and now rebuilding with brand new Hard Drive and Windows 10 Install. I need a NIC driver to finish the windows install and connect to internet to start using it again. I can't find a NIC driver anywhere - Assuming Bruadcom is the Gigabit nic installed. Thanks

Aidan Padden

11/8/2017 05:52:31 am

I don't know if it helps anyone but I added an LSI 9200 SAS card to my N54L today and realised I couldn't access the cards BIOS as Interrupt 19 Capture wasn't enable or available as an option in the modded O41 BIOS I was using.

I saw the old BIOS here from TheBay had the option enabled but didn't have the support for latest OS' and I couldn't be bothered flashing backwards and forwards.

I've modified the latest O41 BIOS to enable the Interrupt 19 Capture option so you can enable that and then access the SAS card BIOS all while retaining the Windows 10 / 2012R2 / 2016 support.

Link is here:
https://mega.nz/#!gJtiCZwQ!orBZa7V5JM9BArSYXNDlQeF73Y4BKwivGcht4DR3vpU

Hope it helps someone.

Sqirrel99

2/2/2018 01:23:26 am

Hi Aiden,
Does your bios also include the bios-mods.com features ?
(ie. Hot Swap HDD, SATA II (3.0GBps on all SATA ports) and ACPI v3.0).

Thanks.

Ruud

11/13/2017 06:09:38 am

Sorry for the cross post (https://homeservershow.com/forums/topic/9810-n36l-and-windows-10/?do=findComment&comment=142274)
But my N36L on windows creator will not stay awake. The option "When Plugged in PC Goes to Sleep After" is not available. Bios is the stock one from 2013. Anyone familiar with this problem?

Gareth Parkman

12/18/2017 12:50:27 am

Does this still work on the microserver gen8?

Two of my ports are running at sata 3 and the other two are sata 2

Annonymous A

1/5/2018 02:22:53 am

I all
This BIOS Update also fixes the problem for Server 2012 R2 Ess
I followed the process then use the following network driver

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_be20632f280a4f5d8951c4544d

And it runs like a dream

Pierre

3/27/2018 08:34:35 am

Works perfectly on a Proliant N40L in my case. Thank you for keeping the files available here !
P.

Krug

3/29/2018 12:05:27 am

OK . Did all of that and yes I have 'two extra items in the banner at the top of the screen (PCIPnP and Chipset)' so all good but what I do not understand is I had Ubuntu running off the BIOS I guess because I took all drives out and after the flash it's still there operating as before. I had thought the flash would rewrite the bios? I'm now going to install Win7. If there are problems with doing that would anyone kindly let me know? TIA

Kevin Graham

4/7/2018 05:02:34 am

Really good up-to-date advice. Most advice on these servers is horrendously out-of-date.
Also, works for N36L servers as well.

Gerhard R�ssel

4/17/2018 12:46:19 am

Thanks Nathaniel. This saved me. The Support Policy of HP is really very bad. I had the NIC problem and your Download solved my problem under Server Essentials 2016.

Gene

7/21/2018 09:37:54 pm

Just wanted to post a BIG THANKS! for this web page and info. Couldn't figure out why my Windows Server 2012 R2 install was bombing at "setting up devices" and this BIOS mod made it work.

Thanks a lot for posting this info and the files!

Gstreet

8/11/2018 08:31:47 pm

Thanks for this! After six years of ongoing use, I�m updating my N40L server to a new operating system (Fedora/Amahi) and I also want to add a couple of drives. I successfully used an amended version of this process to flash the modified bios.

Georgich�s comments above were helpful as HPQUSB.exe won�t work under Win10 - you get spurious write protection errors. To re-summarise Georgich�s approach
1) create a FreeDOS bootable USB using Rufus or UNetbootin or similar
2) copy flash.bat, KBE.exe and Q41100113.rom onto bootable USB
3) insert USB into server and boot from it
4) at c: prompt, type flash

Takes about 10 seconds! Modified bios has new PCIPPnP and Chipset menus at the top.

Now if I could just find a good set-up guide for the new bios instead of a million forum threads...

Alex

9/12/2018 02:21:35 pm

I just did the update!!! I had the original 2011 Bios and went straight to the mod 2013 version! Everything worked without problem! Thank you very much my friend! Finally my network card is back to life! :D

Paulo

10/5/2018 07:16:02 pm

After a while I found your explanation. I applied your instructions to upgrade the bios. It Worked very well. Thanks. Best Regards

John

12/31/2018 08:14:57 pm

Has anyone got W2k12R2 working with the onboard NIC in Gbit-speed?
No matter how I try, and which ROM I use it never works with other than 100 Full Duplex....

Chris

7/23/2019 06:27:18 pm

I just wanted to give a quick note of thanks for making this blog and posting the files all in one place. After a LOT of internet searching, I've found exactly what I wanted.

I can 100% confirm that the above zip file contains everything you need for a BIOS update on the N36L and a N54L. Just did both now as I wanted the 4 original bays and the optical drive as storage, with an additional 6th SSD tucked in as the boot drive.

Can anyone confirm however, what are the correct BIOS settings for maximum drive speed for my SSD drive (and whether it should be connected to the old optical drive sata cable, or via the eSata cable connection (rear external)?

Pascal

7/28/2019 10:09:20 am

This link gives you all the information :
http://terfmop.co.uk/blog/2013/07/31/allow-hot-plug-sata-and-5th-sata-port-full-speed-on-hp-n54l-proliant-microserver/
Have a good day !
P.

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