hp netserver LH3000 u - BIOS upgrade

[umbletech]

Hi All

I've got one of these second-hand and 9 10K SCSI drives so I'm trying to turn it into a diskbox for my VMware plus a few other tasks like backups and AV on my test lab.

I've got many issues getting an OS on it but first things first - I've updated the netraid bios but can't get the mainboard bios upgraded.

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Look...&h_pagetype=s-002&h_query=netserver+lh+3000+u

shows:

» HP NetServer LH 3000
» HP NetServer LH 3000r but mine's a LH 3000 U. I've tried the 3000r package: lh3000_bios33_fw44_en.exe but when I boot the floppy it freezes at 'starting ms-dos' and the system reboots. I tried with a dos boot disk and using flashsf3.exe <flash image name> but it gives me 'file creation error'

I've also tried smartstart 5.5 - hangs loading and the old HP Navigator CD - won't find the atapi cd-rom and when I look on the CD the LH BIOS folder seems to be a very old version.
So......anyone have a working copy of this they can give me?

Or since the one off the web just seems to have dead boot files anyone know what dos version it needs and how to run the update package at the commandline?

Much appreciated - I've already spent over a day on this so time to ask.