ZBook 15 G1 Finishes Bios Updates BUT Version Never Changes.. Still FW .69 from 2013

[Prerunning]

It won’t update! Im following the hp update process. It takes the normal amount of time, reboots when done but the firmware stays the same!  I’ve tried installing through the exe from windows and I also extracted the files to usb and installed through the bios utility. Same issue. 
Everything acts normal except it shows the version im updating to = the same version I’m on. (1.47 FW says updating 0.69 to 0.69..)  same with other versions. I’ve tried the oldest and newest bios. 1.04 is the oldest online.  No different. The newest bios 1.47 acts the same.   Still says my firmware is from may 2013. I’ve tried patches from 2014-2020 and they all claim they updated me to 0.69.   Idk why but the hp Diagnostic tool says my FW is current. The bios update exe completes  the update in windows but nothing is actually updated.  What can it be?    A symptom Thats possibly related.   I can’t login to amt / ME either.
The default password is fine but it fails to write my new password so I can’t continue.  Windows boots from a m.2 and I think maybe there’s a driver issue with this old G1 and m.2 storage.  
I’m trying to do a clean install of windows 10 with GPT drives and uefi set to native but the install won’t even continue because it says it’s missing a media driver. I manually added a ton of different drivers but none worked. No storage or chipset drivers work. I tried win 7 and win 8.1 hp driver multi packs but none work.  Also tried winPE + hp driver package, same error.          I don’t mind upgrading to win 10 from 7 or 8 if I have to but I’d really like to get the bios updated so it’s not so vulnerable to a decade of critical exploits.   Any help is appreciated.