Bios update disables PC

[goodbotz]

My  notebook is 6 years old. I've been applying the latest HP bios as they're available. Simultaneously with each update I've noticed that my boot times keep getting longer and longer. HP Business support asserted that as these workstations age, its natural for them to take longer and longer to boot. Now with the latest Bios update (v1.49), HP has disabled my PC's ability to recognize any boot sectors on any attached storage devices (that all previously worked fine). I'm requesting help to downgrade the bios to an earlier working version, or even the original version from 6 years ago. They presently responding that they'll address my 'out of warranty' query if I pay them $50 - but they won't first tell me if I can obtain and install an earlier  bios version - so I can pay them $50 and be told "No earlier bios versions available for you" and be out my PC + my $50. It's bad enough my PC was disabled like this. I'll pay the $50 if they can represent that I can downgrade my bios - but they won't. My workstation was bricked by an HP bios update and now it looks like they want $50 to tell me "too bad, you can't downgrade your bios to an earlier working version  - buy a new HP workstation instead." My v1.49 bios upgrade bricked my notebook and it bricked my life. Any (non $50) insights available?

[TzortzisG]

Hello goodbotz.

Unfortunately most of us have discovered that letting BIOS updates occur whenever the "mothership" decides they should is the worst possible choice. You'd be surprised how many posts and reports we see here and on every other PC manufacturer's site about systems with issues, or in many cases completely bricked with these firmware updates. Personally, after losing a motherboard to a BIOS update gone wrong, I lock my business laptops so tight that you'd literally have to drench them in vaseline to get any kind of HP BIOS update in there.......

Your laptop/workstation is pretty old, and for these systems you're able to do some downgrading on a working system. Some BIOS versions along the way are locked, meaning that for security reasons you can't go beyond them, but usually you can take the BIOS several versions back. The HP drivers page for your system has BIOS versions all the way back to 2017, but as I said above you can normally take the system only a couple of versions back from the one you're currently at. And this is for working systems.

If I understand your post correctly anything connected to your system as a storage device won't work. What exactly happens when your system tries to boot? I know that some systems at some point had a Sure Start error and HP had fixed this with newer BIOS versions. HP has the following documents when it comes to trying to update, reflash or recover your BIOS, but you really need a working Windows system in most cases. Sometimes you can do this from the BIOS setup, but for your system (and if you can't have access to any kind of storage medium) I'm not really confident it will work.

HP Business Notebook PCs - Updating the BIOS 

HP Notebook PCs - Recovering the BIOS 

You can read these documents and see if anything works for you. When I lost a Probook G3 motherboard due to a bad BIOS update, I managed to salvage it by taking it to a non-HP specialized repair facility that deals with these specific problems by directly and externally flashing the BIOS chip with a working BIOS firmware. The cost was very low considering all the work they put in, and since they flashed an old version I was able to upgrade afterwards to the exact firmware I had before. If you are not able to recover the BIOS by yourself, then this is the course of action I suggest you take.....