Firmware Rollback F.57 to F.55 " Unable to open Signature file"

[ralf777]

Dear colleagues, I found a solution for our HP 285 G3 MT Business PCs which had the same problem applying the F.57 BIOS firmware update. In some cases we could not switch off the PCs, in some cases they would not start any more. These were about 15 PCs and HP refused to help because we are out of guarantee. That's the sad thing. But there's also a good thing HP has done and a very easy solution which worked for us:

1. download the appropriate (i.e. older) firmware for the the defective PC on another working PC (in our case it was Version F.55)

2. have a USB-stick which can be formatted and place it into the working PC

3. start the sp*.exe file and accept Admin rights

4. for us we had the possibility to apply the data files onto the stick which has to be formatted by the firmware tool

5. wait until the applicationto the stick is done

6. place the stick into the defective PC (it should be off at that time)

7. press the WINDOWS+B keys and hold them

8. switch on the defective PC and keep WINDOWS+B pressed until the first of eight beeps occur

9. wait. In a few seconds the firmware should be programmed

This way was successful for three PCs now so I guess it should work for the others too....

Best regards from Germany

Ralf Baumann it-management

[ihutch101101]

Hi Ralf777

The process you have listed is what I tried to do, but after the "first of eight beeps occur", it then gives into an error beep cycle 2.2  (major, minor) which, after many times, stops being audible but does not stop ( power LED continues to blink ), and no BIOS flashing occurs.

A strange thing about the F.57 BIOS firmware update in my case is that  "In some cases, we could not switch off the PCs" was only true for me if a user logged into windows with a windows user account.   If you use the  Power button on the User selection screen or a "username & password" prompt if you are using the computer in a domain environment [domain user accounts] with a windows server.

I speculate something is wrong with the package containing the F.57 BIOS firmware update from Microsoft, as it would break something.   I did find doing a  "Reset this PC" to scrub the PC of all data with the F.57 BIOS firmware and, therefore, reinstalling windows via this method would actually fix the Power Problems seen with some PCs and the inability to switch off properly was then resolved.   I did not test a reinstall of windows from a USB memory stick with the F.57 BIOS firmware installed.

Although "DGroves " has suggested reinstalling windows "etc.", I do not consider reinstalling Windows as an adequate solution to the problem in the first place, as it is very impractical to have to reinstall Windows everytime you do a BIOS update. 

It is likely that the Device Manager Device " Firmware => System Firmware" possibly has been corrupted in some way during the F.57 BIOS firmware update when this is done via "Windows Updates => Optional Updates".  I am speculating that some configured data somewhere between the BIOS versions in Windows Memory/Device Manager is mismatched/corrupted and this causes the problems on shutdown [which makes sense as different stages of the boot process and Windows loading affects which drivers and files [e.g. DLLs] are currently loaded and in use ].

When a BIOS update is done by downloading and running the sp######.exe whereby as an official HP Softpaq file, the BIOS ROM image would be placed into the EFI/HP/BIOS/NEW and the EFI boot file would likely contain reboot sequence, "e.g. something like WIndows+B Key" that sends the computer straight into the HP's UEFI BIOS Update Utility and then when we are next in Windows; Device manager refreshes the information about the BIOS, so preventing possible corruption.

Regards

Iain

[ralf777]

Hi Iain,

right now I had a PC where my list did not work, so I mutually destroyed the BIOS using AFU and afterwards the described reload of the BIOS worked well.

I agree that the BIOS nothing has to do with reinstalling Windows because BIOS acts on the motherboard chip und Windows starts thereafter.

I did not go further in research because now 4 PCs are back to F.55 and are up running. If I'll have further information I will post it.

Best regards
Ralf

[Windy-Bill]

Windsoldier,

You are the BEST!  I made a few mistakes because I did not understand all the steps required.  (I am working on a document that "dumbs down" the process to my level.  I would like you to review it when I am done, if you would not mind.)

Once I worked through my issues, I was able to reinstall F.55 BIOS successfully.  However, I have a new problem. 

Every time I reboot or restart my PC so far, it RE-INSTALLS F.57!  The first time it did it, it appeared to be done by the HP Support App saying there was a new BIOS that was needed or required or something to that effect.  But since then, it "seems" to be happening during the bootup or restart process.

I am at a loss for how to stop it. 

One odd thing is that some files were added to my USB drive. 

1.  A folder named EFI was added.  It contains a single folder named HP.  The HP folder contains two folders, BIOS and BIOSUpdate. 

-- The BIOS folder contains 3 folders: Current, New, and Previous. The Previous folder is empty.   The Current and New folders both contain 2 files named 08433.bin and 08433.sig.   ( I am guessing those in the Current folder pertain to F.55 and those in the New folder pertain to F.57, but cannot be certain.)

  -- The BIOSUpdate folder contains 30 files with names like BiosMgmt.xxx, CryptRSA.xxx, HpBios Mgmt.xxx, and HpBiosUpdate.xxx

The original folder, AfuWin64, does not appear to be changed.

My guess is that the EFI folder is somehow setting up the processes necessary to reinstall F.57 during the next reboot.  Purely a guess on my "Level 0.5" part.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. 

  --

[Mike360g1]

Hi Windy-Bill

Your guess is right. To cover extra steps that need to be taken I've updated my post, which had been the accepted solution. I've included some links to post which covers some of the issues we found. So check the first page of discussion.

new folder which contain the bios that is about to be flashed on restart, the System Firmware driver populates that folder. Once it flashed the new folder should be empty. Need to let it flash to empty that folder as deleting it cause error when it tries to flash. the current folder should match the version that bios currently has. Previous is normally empty for me, but it needs to have the 2 files for the HP bios recover to work if the bios gets corrupt.

Regards

Mike

[Wildsoldier]

Windy-Bill

Follow Mike suggestion. I didn’t experimented the issue of the computer rolling back again to F.57…I believe that the reason was because during troubleshooting I formatted the hard drive and since I couldnt install windows by that time i reconect the old hard drive that had an old version of windows that I was using before upgrading to a solid state drive…(a version of windows from 2 years ago)…I clone that old hard drive again  to my ssd…so I restore the computer back to an era that F.57 didn’t exist.

My guess is that at some part of your computer the F.57 bios is saved some where and is triggering the upgrade again.

[Windy-Bill]

Wildsoldier,

Just wanted to let you know your method worked great for me.  With some other help, I was able to get the F.57 BIOS to stop trying to reload every time I rebooted.  Thank you very much.

[Wildsoldier]

Thats great. I am glad it worked for you. 

[RodrigoReis]

I would like to document in this thread that I was able to revert the F57 to F55 firmware with Mike and Iain instructions, but I started to face an endlessly BSOD blue screen (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR).
Today I solved this issue by doing a roll back of system firmware driver in Windows device manager, like the below print screen.

For now, I will avoid more headaches keeping this 2006 Microsoft driver.

[papaj62]

Thank you