AIX

I have a 7029-6C3 that was running AIX 5.2; I tried to update to 5.2.10.5, rebooted, and the box went south. Upon further digging through the h/w logs, I found the error "Service Processor Firmware Failure"

I can't get the machine to boot - not even to CD. How can I recover from this? Or can I?

What "h/w" logs are you looking at?
What are the full details of the error log?
What firmware level is on the machine?
What level of CD have you tried booting from?
Does an old level diag CD boot?
How are you trying to boot from CD?

From the service processor menu, there's an option to look at various logs; I don't have the machine in front of me, so I can't quote the menu path. I think it's under "System Information"

3F040127

AIX 5.2 circa 2007, and 5.3 circa 2005

No

The system never gets to the point where one could boot from a CD (ie the double beep, hit F5, etc)

I did some more reading, and it appears that the only ways to recover from this are to replace the main board or install a floppy (27L4378) and try to re-flash the prom. I found a floppy online for < $10 and it's on the way.

Your firmware level is interesting, it seems :
a - it is not a released level - from the firmware update readme.
b - it is not high enough to support 5.2 TL10 - from the 5.2 TL10 release notes.

I think you need to check the error details on InfoCentre to understand what the failure is caused by because it may or may not be resolved by a firmware update, although you need to do the update either way to support TL10.

Fixed!

I got the new floppy drive in the mail last night, installed it this AM, re-flashed the firmware, and the machine is up and happy again.

Useful link for flashing the firmware:
70296C3F

Cool.

Remember folks, you cannot install new software on old firmware, keep the system firmware and device microcode up to date before trying an OS update or upgrade!

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/firmware/gjsn

I am glad it worked for you. Only once have I experienced this on a 44p when the power went off during the upgrade of the main firmware. After trying to recover the system IBM were called in and the engineer had to replace the planar after the firmware recover failed! Lucky the machine was covered by the support contract!