Found it.  It's an SRM boot disk (mkboot fwupdate.exe), ARC 5.69 right from
the website at  ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/alphant/abpw433v569.zip.
(Dunno why this didn't work with the ARC 5.70 firmware update...)  File this
away for anyone else that manages to fry a Miata.

As far as the Multia goes, it would have to buzz the floppy in distress.  Get
mkboot from ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/utilities, and try
an fwupdate.exe for the platform at
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/.

Back to square one.  My thoughts are that DEC removed the SRM-switch
capability from the 500a ARC setup menu as of the earliest firware update I've
got, 5.3.  Is there a source for deprecated firmware, one that will allow me
to select SRM on this thing?

If I'm veering off-topic for port-alpha, please followup to comp.sys.dec.

dhop

Allen Briggs wrote:

> > In a long, sweaty, and arduous battle yesterday to get this 500a to run
> > SRM, I managed to cook the bios:  corrupt FlashROM.  All giggles aside,
> > I noticed this interesting bit from the technical manual:
> >
> > "When the system is powered on, the POST code, sensing the flashROM
> > corruption, will attempt to load from the floppy drive."
> >
> > Now, the fact is that the machine _does_ click through the tracks; a FAT
> > fwupdate.exe disk doesn't help, nor does a mkboot.exe'd fwupdate.exe
> > disk.  Any gurus on this list know what format the machine looks for?
> > My thoughts are that it's a mkbootarc'd *.cmp file, but I'll be damned
> > if I could find that for the Miata.
>
> On a related note, can the same thing (whatever it is) be done for a
> Multia?  I know of a multia with a toasted flash that we'd like to get
> fixed.  If this won't do it, does anyone have any suggestions?
>
> -allen