The DigitalPersonal Workstation a-Series contains AlphaBIOS firmware. AlphaBIOS supports the Windows NT operating system. The firmware does not contain diagnostics. (Manufacturing has a set of loadable diagnostics to support their environment.)
If a power failure occurs while the firmware was being updated in the flashROMs, it could corrupt the contents of the flashROM. The flashROM (containing the AlphaBIOS firmware) typically is loaded into main memory by the SROM firmware loader code. If the flashROMs are corrupted, or if the checksum verification failed, the POST code will attempt to boot a floppy-based firmware recovery diskette.
The firmware recovery diskette generally contains either a bootable copy of AlphaBIOS or the corporate firmware update utility. The recovery floppy should contain the firmware in a boot block format as created on an OpenVMS system using the makeboot utility shipped with the OpenVMS operating system, or under the Windows NT operating system using the makeboot utility. Refer to the following DIGITAL Intranet URL for further instructions on the location and use of the utility: http://www.ayo.dec.com/oem/public/firmware/tools/