Firmware for MJ Tetrad.. Help! I bricked it!

[emschaub]

So, I'm new, but am frantically trying to find a solution since I
bricked our MJ Research Tetrad!

I was at Biorad website and saw there was a firmware upgrade, and
figured that I'd be a good customer and upgrade our machine just in
case there were some bugs that we haven't found. Typically this is a
good policy for just about all computer equipment I've ever owned...
until now.

So, I download it and run the upgrade utility on a computer via the
serial cable. The utility goes through 95% of the way, formats, starts
to install, and then makes it all the way to the end before it tells
me that our hardware is too old and incompatible with this firmware
upgrade. No warning, nothing in the instructions, nothing on the
website that we had obsolete equipment for the firmware until this. So
now it's a major paper weight. Anyone have any idea? I already called
Biorad and they are saying it's our fault and want $3,000 for a
service call (not including equipment replacement) and say they need
to replace the motherboard. When I turn on the machine it just says
that it's missing software and needs service. So, I think all we need
is the old firmware and a method of getting it on the machine and
things would be fine.

Anyone have any ideas or any leads on anything that might be helpful?
I wish I could find someone who actually wrote the firmware. I haven't
been very happy with Biorad--technical support is lacking. We received
a somewhat mean voicemail from them yesterday.

Eric