How to restore motherboard firmware on an unresponsive MBP mid-2009? My EFI was version 1.7 and I downgraded it to 1.6 by following the instructions in the answer given on How to downgrade EFI firmware back to version 1.6. (I made it to the end of step 4 and heard the "angry beep".)

Now when I power on the laptop the sleep LED lights up, fade to a dim solid light for a few seconds then does several (I think eight) quick flashes before returning to a dim solid light, and then this pattern cycles continually. The screen is off, the keyboard is unresponsive (no caps lock light), the machine makes no beeps or chord sounds and the behaviour is identical with or without the hard drive and/or memory.

(This question is meant as a DIY resource for others that experience something similar in the future and so responses along the lines of "seek AppleCare" or "it can't be fixed" are discouraged. )
A search for fixing broken firmware suggested that you can use a "firmware restoration CD". These are some instructions for creating and using one (although I don't see your machine listed). If you can't find the right CD for your machine, maybe you can take it in to an Apple store; they should have all the tools necessary to fix firmware if it exists. If they fix it, see if you can find out how.