ENVY 14 System Recovery doesn't work with latest BIOS

[belltown]

I have an HP ENVY 14t-1000 CTO Notebook PC running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

When I got the system I created a set of recovery disks using the HP Recovery Manager. I subsequently updated the BIOS to the latest version (F.12 A).

When I try to boot from the recovery disks to perform a system recovery,  the OS loads its files from disk and boots, then when it tries to run the Recovery Manager, I get the message:

"Contact HP Support

The system recovery media does not support this computer.

You are not able to restore this system with the media."

However, when I flash the BIOS back to the previous version (F.06 A), System Recovery works correctly.

It seems that the F.12 A BIOS does not support System Recovery, but F.06 A does.

[Mumbodog]

I think the bios update wiped/corrupted the bios tatoo, this tatoo has the system and serial number for your PC embedded in the bios, the restore discs look at this information before it loads recovery manager, this helps prevent pirating of Windows, in your case its just a big headache for someone who has a legal copy of Windows.

I have notified a moderator, hopefully they will chime in and help.

Glad you could revert to the old version.

[belltown]

I don't think you're correct. If updating the BIOS from F.06 A (factory installed) to F.12 A (latest on HP web site) wiped out the bios tattoo, then it would still be wiped out when I did another BIOS update from F.12 A back to F.06 A. However, when I did this last update the System Recovery worked correctly. So I still think it looks like a problem with the F.12 A BIOS code. Several other ENVY 14 users on notebookreview.com have reported the same problem with the F.12 A BIOS. The consensus there is simply not to update the BIOS to F.12 A, but to wait for the next release.

[Mumbodog]

Strange indeed, sounds logical.

hopefully they will get it fixed soon.

Were you trying to fix an issue with the upgrade, or was it just routine?

[belltown]

No, I wasn't trying to fix anything. I just got my new ENVY 14 a couple of weeks ago, and I've been testing out all its features. I'm planning to do a clean install, but first wanted to make sure that System Recovery actually worked in case I screwed something up. I'm actually quite impressed with how easy it is to do BIOS updates with this machine, including updating to previous BIOS versions. The BIOS recovery procedure works well, too. I don't even need the HP_TOOLS partition on my hard drive to do a BIOS update; I have it on a USB drive which works just as well. The only problem I've found is that System Recovery doesn't work with the F.12 A BIOS, but I can revert back to F.06 A and it works fine.

[Mumbodog]

How do you run the bios update from a usb drive, In windows?

[belltown]

Using Windows 7:

Just plug in the USB drive then run the SPnnnnn.exe BIOS  file downloaded from the HP support drivers website.

Assuming the USB drive is set up correctly (see below), the BIOS installer sees the HP_TOOLS partition on the USB drive, copies the BIOS and its signature file to the USB drive then runs the winflash installer. The system BIOS detects the USB drive and HP_TOOLS partition and the BIOS is magically updated.

I set up a brand new USB drive as follows:

1. Delete the HP_TOOLS partition from the hard disk (or rename it to something else)

2. Plug in the USB drive

3. Download and run the BIOS Update Utility (not the BIOS, yet)  from the HP support drivers page.

4. Select the option to install on a USB drive

5. Select the option to create the HP_TOOLS partition

6. The drive should now be formatted as HP_TOOLS with a Hewlett-Packard folder containing BIOS and BIOSUpdate folders. The BIOS folder will contain empty Current, New and previous folders.

7. Download and run  the HP System Diagnostics (UEFI) SP from the HP support drivers page

8. Select the option to install on a USB drive. This will create a SystemDiags folder under the Hewlett-Packard folder

9. Download and run the HP Notebook System BIOS Update from the  HP support drivers page

10 You should end up with an HP_TOOLS partition on the USB drive identical to the one that you deleted from the hard disk.

Once you've set up the USB drive you can update to other (newer or older) BIOS versions using this drive as I mentioned above: just plug in the USB drive then download and run the BIOS installer.

[Mumbodog]

How big a drive do you need for this.

Thanks for all the info.

[belltown]

I believe 1 GB should be sufficient. You can find more info about HP_TOOLS here.

One more thing I just discovered is that I was unable to update the BIOS using my HP_TOOLS partition after doing a clean install in which I had removed all but the Windows C: partition. I'm not sure if that was because the HP_TOOLS was missing from the hard disk, or if it was due to the SYSTEM partition being deleted.

The technique I needed to use in that case was:

1. Download  and install 7-Zip from 7-zip.org

2. Download the BIOS SP installer (SP49999.exe for the F.12 A BIOS) to C:\SwSetup

3. Navigate to C:\SwSetup\SP49999

4. Right-click SP49999.exe -> 7-Zip -> Extract Here

5. Right-click winflash.exe -> 7-Zip -> Extract Here

6.Double-click (open) platform.ini

7. In [ForceFlash] section, change ALL=0 to ALL=1 (Flash all ROM parts)

8. Save, exit

9. Right-click InsydeFlash.exe -> Run as administrator

No HP_TOOLS partition is needed anywhere to update the BIOS using this method.

[Mumbodog]

Great info, many thanks.

.