How to Install Modified BIOS for HP Microserver N40L

A Step by Step Guide

How to Install Modified BIOS for Microserver N40L Step by step guide - Nathaniel Perez

If you're here because you have been searching through forums like crazy trying to get a definitive grasp on how to mod your N40l...then you came to the right place.

I spent at least two hours just trying to find the right files and once I got everything I needed and the mod was working, I thought I needed to make this easier for the next guy.

The original steps below were pulled from - http://terfmop.co.uk/blog/2013/07/31/hp-proliant-n54l-bios-modification-guide-allow-hot-plug-sata-and-5th-sata-port/
I modified the steps to make it work for the latest O41100113.ROM Mod

**Make sure to Upgrade your bios to the original HP Bios version 041 before proceeding**

**Prerequisites**

Remove all drives, PCI cards, Network Cables, etc. (basically return it to how it came from the factory without the drives)
Find a flash drive and format as Fat32 (At Least 1gb)

Download “N40L Mod Files.zip” – This has ALL the files you will need for this process
Extract the Zip and run SP64420.exe.
Keep going until you get to the screen where you’re asked where you’d like the files saved. Remember where you saved the files to, in my case it’s a folder on the ‘C:’ drive.
The application should finish, exit and load a webpage automatically.
If for some reason it doesn’t , the flashing utility can be run manually by navigating to the directory where you saved the files and running ‘HPQUSB.exe’ This file can be found in the ‘Flat Files’ or ‘USB Key’ subdirectories, in my case it could be found in the directory ‘C:\SWSetup\SP64420\USBKey\HPQUSB.exe’. *
Run HPQUSB.exe
Select your memory stick as the device – MAKE SURE THIS IS THE CORRECT DEVICE AS THIS UTILITY WILL WIPE THE DEVICE SELECTED.
Click Start and go through the application – the memory stick should now be reformatted.
Go to your memory stick in My Computer, you should see files there as shown in the picture below.

At this point, it is worth noting that what you have created is effectively a BIOS recovery/Upgrade memory stick. There is nothing modified about the files you have created.

AT THIS POINT IF YOU ARE NOT RUNNING VERSION 041, INSERT THE USB STICK INTO THE SERVER AND BOOT UP. THE SERVER WILL AUTOMATICALLY START UPGRADING THE BIOS. REBOOT ONCE YOU SEE “<C:\>”

If you mess up, just follow the guide up until this point to revert to the HP official Bios.

The following steps take the official BIOS installer, modify the file to flash and then covers how to flash this to your N40l.

Copy O41100113.ROM from the M40L Mod Files folder that you downloaded and extracted already
Paste it onto your flash drive. Select “replace” when prompted

You now have a memory stick with modified BIOS configured and ready to flash you N40l with. Just a couple of points:

When you start the server with the memory stick in a USB drive, it will automatically boot from it.
Do not remove the USB stick until flashing is done.
Do not power down / turn off / allow any sort of power failure while flashing is underway.
I didn’t have any hard drives, other USB devices, PCI cards installed and no network cable was plugged in when flashing the BIOS.
The whole process, from turning on the server to flash complete, should take under a minute.

Time to flash the BIOS.

Turn off the server at the socket.
Insert the USB Stick.
Turn the server on.
WAIT. Once you’ve done this, DO NOT TURN OFF THE SERVER / REMOVE THE MEMORYSTICK.
Lots of information should run past on the screen, then ‘C:\>’ should be displayed.

That’s it, you’re done. Now that ‘C:\>’ is displayed you can hit CTRL+ALT+DEL but remove the flash drive right away and way before you see the HP splash screen

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**Full Disclosure**
I don't make money from this site and I don't have any intention of monetizing. Thanks to a few kind souls who recently made a few generous donations, I was motivated to migrate this site to github. I'm hoping things will continue to function as well as it did on Weebly but web development is not my expertise so I'm learning as I go. If you'd like to encourage further development or just say thanks, I've provided a donation link below. Thanks again guys!