Can I upgrade the BIOS if the PC is Windows 10...? not Windows 8

[lse123]

Can I upgrade the BIOS if the PC is Windows 10...? not Windows 8, well?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Use the guidance I posted in the discussion below--the F10 BIOS setup flash method.

Solved: HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF (BIOS Firmware update?) - HP Support Community - 8633691

DO NOT update the BIOS to the latest version if Windows 10 is installed in legacy mode, or it will take well over 2 minutes for the PC to restart from a warm boot.

W10 must be installed in UEFI mode to update to version 2.33.

Only update the BIOS to v.2.28.

[lse123]

Did you replied in wrong forums post?

The version numbers not match with the screenshot in initial post...

How understand if Windows 10 is installed in Legacy Mode vs is installed in UEFI Mode?

BIOS

MSINFO32

...?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

No, I replied to the right post and what you pointed to is not a BIOS update.

I have to confess that I didn't really look at your screenshot when I replied.

That is just some utility that is not needed if you don't remotely manage a bunch of 8200 Elite PCs on a corporate network or you don't want to change the BIOS logo with some other custom image.

I have two 8200 Elite PC's so I know what I am doing when it comes to updating the BIOS in that model.

You can tell if Windows is installed in UEFI or legacy mode by running the Windows system information app.

About 1/3 of the way down on the report there will be a BIOS Mode line.

That will either indicate UEFI or Legacy.

These are the BIOS update files, which can be found under the W7 driver section.

There are no W8 BIOS updates.

v2.33:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp96001-96500/sp96026.exe 

v2.28:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71001-71500/sp71294.exe

[lse123]

Please see the shots:

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I don't understand what is is you want me to look at in those screenshots.

Your PC's BIOS is on v2.15.

[lse123]

So, is UEFI ... PC System?

So, BIOS needs or DOES Not NEED update?

If needs, can update as is the OS in Windows 10 64-bit...?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

If Windows is installed in legacy mode, in the system information report, you either have to reinstall Windows by booting the USB flash drive from the EFI USB hard drive or you can convert your current installation from MBR to GPT without having to reinstall Windows and the PC will be in UEFI mode.

UEFI mode is not supported with a drive formatted with the MBR partition table.

Watch this video if you want to try converting the disk from MBR to GPT:

How to Convert MBR to GPT for Free on Windows 10 without Losing Data (Easy Method)

With the 8200 Elite, there are no BIOS settings to change from Legacy to UEFI, so you can skip that part of the video.

Just restart the PC after the conversion has been successful.

[lse123]

Backup my data required alwsys for any case, correct?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I sure recommend that you do.

I never tried the conversion before on my 8200 Elite CMT's.

I just reinstalled Windows 10 on them by booting from the EFI USB flash drive.

Then I did in-place upgrades from W10>W11 on the both of them, even though they don't meet Microsoft's minimum W11 hardware requirements.

I came across an interesting thing with my PC's:

Unless I plugged the USB Windows installation flash drive in the second USB port from the top (CMT) the drive would not show up in the EFI boot options menu.

I would imagine that would correspond to the second USB port from the left in the SFF.

Mine