Other than the chance of possible data corruption on the USB ports or cables... that was all I could think of.
On PC hardware, when a firmware won't flash, it's often due to a mismatch. Sometimes that is because it's not made for the specific hardware ( ie a mismatch )... sometimes it because the devices firmware got corrupted. Which is the case, I can't say of course. Still, having said that, often there is a way to force the flash but doing so is risky if it isn't really the right firmware for the device.