Download the firmware upload utility at the bottom of the page.
Firmware update instructions are in the operator's manual.
Many virus programs may have a problem with the utility since it's not a very common program but I can tell you that it's not a virus.
There are two versions of the firmware loader:
HR500 AutoLoader.exe - Quickly tries COM1 to COM255 'silently'
HR500 AutoLoader Debug.exe - Goes through the COM ports at a slower pace and shows it's progress
There function is the same but if it's having trouble finding the HR500 the 'debug' version may help us figure out what's going on.
Important Information:
I recently discovered that AVRDUDE (the utility that does the actual programming of the Mega) does not accept COM ports above COM9. If you plug in the Hardrock-500 USB port and the bootloader discovers it on a port higher than COM9 you will need to unplug the Hardrock-500's USB cable and remove your unused COM ports and the port that the HR500 was on. Then the next time you plug it in, it will appear on a lower COM port.
Here are instructions for removing unused COM ports:
The trick is to open the Command Prompt as administrator and start the Device Manager from the same command prompt.
1. Right-click “Command Prompt” in Accessories and choose “Run as Administrator”
2. Enter “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" – without the quotes obviously
3. Enter “start devmgmt.msc”
4. In the box that opens, select “Show hidden devices” in the ‘view’ menu.
Now if you expand the section on COM ports, all the COM ports that have ever been created will be displayed, the non present ones being in grey. You can uninstall away anything that you don’t want (right click, select uninstall).
The Bootloader will connect no matter what baud rate the USB baud rate it set in the amp. The actual FW upload takes place at 115200 baud but this is set automatically for you.