I'm beginning to regret buying an HP A5120 48 port switch.

I've lost over six hours today to it, and still haven't gotten any further than I was when I first powered it on.

Console connection is working, USB serial to RJ45, using Hyperterminal I can watch it start up. It then tells me that there is no default file to boot, and shows the following menu:

********************************************************************************
*                                                                              *
*   HP A5120-48G-PoE+ EI Switch with 2 Interface Slots BOOTROM, Version 621    *
*                                                                              *
********************************************************************************
       Copyright (c) 2010-2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
       Creation date   : Nov 12 2013, 02:05:35
       CPU Clock Speed : 264MHz
       BUS Clock Speed : 33MHz
       Memory Size     : 128MB
       Mac Address     : b8af6783fcb2

Press Ctrl-B to enter Boot Menu... 0
Auto-booting...

No correct default file to boot!

BootRom password: Not required. Please press Enter to continue.

Password recovery capability is enabled.

  BOOT  MENU

1. Download application file to flash
2. Select application file to boot
3. Display all files in flash
4. Delete file from flash
5. Restore to factory default configuration
6. Enter bootrom upgrade menu
7. Skip current configuration file
8. Reserved
9. Set switch startup mode
0. Reboot
Ctrl+F: Format File System
Ctrl+D: Enter Debugging Mode
Ctrl+T: Enter Board Test Environment

Enter your choice(0-9):

---------------------------

I can't seem to google myself the files that I need to make it go any further than this.  Plenty of searches come back with ''Use the CLI...". I can't get to the CLI, that option is not in the boot menu.  I tried "restore to factory config" but that can't be done because " Password recovery capability is enabled. To perform this operation, first disable the password recovery capability using the undo password-recovery enable command in CLI." and, you guessed it... CLI...

I thought I had found an application file - 13mb took just over an hour to upload using Xmodem, and right at the end it failed with "file is oversize". Could have bloody mentioned that at the start...

There doesn't appear to be any way to physically reset it to default , which would be a great place to start.  Old forum answers on HP etc provide links that are now dead, and I can't find anything of use in the new Aruba site.

Any advice / suggestions / files would be greatly appreciated, this was intended to be a sweet little upgrade from the 8 port poe and 24 port non-poe switch I currently have.