IBM X3550 7978-AC1
We were having some issues with one of our X3550 servers from IBM. The server kept doing a blue screen and hard stop. The errors we were seeing indicated that it was probably the RAID controller, the system board raid controller. To start trouble shooting the process, I ran UpdateXpress version 4.07 to update the firmware on all devices. While it was updating the firmware on the ServeRAID 8k-l the system hard stopped again.
After a re-boot the server was saying that the BIOS on the RAID controller was corrupt and giving a Error Code: 86. The solution suggested was to re-flash the bios from the OS. Well, controller card having issues also controlled the OS drive. I therefore tried to use UpdateXpress again (booting form the UpdateXpress CD) and it was unable to flash the RAID BIOS.
I then called IBM support and had a technician come on-site to update the bios. He change a jumper setting, and then downloaded 4 floppy images and was able to flash the ServeRAID bios.
I asked him for the article number so if it happened again, I could fix the problem myself. The article number is MIGR 5073641, and if you do a search on IBM.com you will find instructions on how to do the process, including the downloads for the Floppy Diskettes he used.
http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5073641
He was told to use the Floppy Disks instead of the CD download (something to do with the CD Drivers). In order for this to work, he had to put a jumper on J63 on the system board. This jumper is located by the RAID controller in the middle of the system board. After the jumper was set, you then boot to floppy disk #1 (downloaded from the link above). It then asks for the other diskettes in order, and then flashes the ServeRAID bios. When it has finished flashing the RAID card BIOS, then you power off the server and remove the J63 jumper. The RAID card should now have a valid BIOS and you should now be able access the drives on that controller.
I then suggest that you run UpdateXpress again and make sure that all of the systems are updated.