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

[Mike360g1]

Hi Iain

I'm having the same issue with the ones I'm trying to do now. I believe the ones which have stayed on F.55 are where I have completely wiped the SSD of all partitions or I've done a windows reset and then remove the BIOS image from EFI partition. On the clean windows install I do get offered optional HP firmware F.55 if I let windows update install that nothing seems to happen. So my current idea is windows update HP firmware get installed into windows then sits in the background and gets triggered if the BIOS is less than it's version and puts it back in the EFI partition

Regards

Mike

[ihutch101101]

Hi Mike 

I agree it looks like there are WIndows Update files hidden somewhere on the system.

I am probably going to start hunting for them.

Regards

Iain

[Mike360g1]

Hi Iain

Just had a thought after remember what I've seen in device manager before. Go to "Device Manager" logged in as administrator find Firmware and expand then right click on system Firmware select properties go to driver tab. Check the version probably saying 15.57. Click on rollback. In  the folder in C:\Windows\firmware a file called capsule.bin changes to an earlier version. I think we'll still have to do the EFI partition and AFU flash. If you haven't got a rollback could try uninstall and check what happens in that folder.

Regards

Mike

[ihutch101101]

Hi Mike 
If you do a Regedit Search for Firmware 
It should reveal to you on an HP machine the following.

1. A Windows Optional Update unpacks a file called "Capsule.BIN"  to "%SYSTEMROOT%/Firmware/<Filename>"
2. Various HKLM registry entries point to this,
   1. HKLM/Hardware/Description/System/BIOS
   2. HKLM/System/ControlSet0001/Control/Class/{class_ID_"GUID"}
3. You will see references to "UEFI/RES_{GUID}" of the F.57 BIOS Windows Optional Update 

If I could get away with deleting the "Capsule.BIN", I would be happy, but I think that Version numbers and other IDs in the windows Registry might need changing ... because when you shut down the computer having put it back to F.55, the windows registry checks the version numbers notices a difference and then puts instructions into Windows EFI boot file to update the BIOS the next time the computer is turned on.

Sadly Windows Registry in some locations has a hexadecimal version number for the BIOS version 0x0f570000, so checking everything would be a pain.

I have considered copying Registry information from a computer with version  F.55, but I am unsure how much I should copy and which parts, as "HKLM/Hardware/Description/System/BIOS"  also stores the Service TAG id for the HP support site which is a unique ID for each machine.  

I am not certain if Windows could pick up the correct ID from the BIOS hardware if it gets overwritten, although it should not be much of an issue if it is changed.

Regards

Iain

[Mike360g1]

Hi Iain

As it's treated as a driver it's also in the %systemroot%\system32\DriverStore. Ready to be put back.

In Device Manager Firmware > System Firmware is something which wants to keep updating the bios if System Firmware version is higher than the BIOS version.

So go to "Device Manager" logged in as administrator find Firmware and expand then right click on System Firmware select properties go to driver tab. Check the version probably saying 15.57 which is the one we don't want. Client uninstall Device and on the next window tick "Delete the driver software for this device". It will probably find the System Firmware and add it again but as an earlier version.

Then do EFI partition bits and then flash with AFU, I still need to test this, but I have to do other work now.

Regards

Mike

[ihutch101101]

Hi Mike 

There is a driver in the Device manager, and it picks up the firmware version.

Following your information about Device Manager

1. Do the EFI and AFU bits.
2. Reboot
3. Get into WIndows as Administrator
4. Go to Device Manager; if it says Fimware Version F.57, the one we do want, then delete it and all drivers/software
5. Scan for hardware changes
6. Reboot
   
   

A Variant on the above 

1. Do the EFI and AFU bits.
2. Reboot
3. Gone into Windows, and the computer has been used normally and  shutdown
4. Start up asking to do BIOS update
5. cancel update
6. Get into Windows as Administrator
7. Go to Device Manager; if it says Fimware update to Version F.57 failed, the one we do want, then delete it and all drivers/software
8. Scan for hardware changes.
9. Reboot

Regards

Iain

[UPDATE/EDIT]
I should point out that after doing the above steps,

• I did reboot the computer once
• I then shutdown the computer
• I then turn on the computer and shut it down.

All in an attempt to ensure my above steps in Device Manager were not just a once-off fix but a permanent method of preventing BIOS version F.57 form from being reapplied.

I will check again tomorrow when I get into the office, but I think we/I have a complete plan now 

Just one computer I had started to reinstall windows to get set up again , and 5 computers to reflash again with the above Device manager steps

[Windy-Bill]

Hi Windsoldier,

Sorry for my late response, my mail service decided that "some" emails from this site were spam and others were not. (???)

Thanks for the guidance, I'll give it a try.

[Windy-Bill]

Hi Winsoldier,

I want to insure I am following your directions correctly.

I have downloaded the Aptio V Ami Firmware Update utility from https://www.ami.com/bios-uefi-utilities/.   Extracted the folder, "AfuWin64" and put it in a USB Stick named "REDPEN500MB".

From HP, I downloaded BIOS F.55 Rev.A.  (The download is named "sp141607.exe".  Are the signature file and the BOIS both contained in sp141607 or do I need to do something else to get both files?)

(Sidebar: I did NOT see BIOS F.57 as an option to download from HP.  Seems very strange since I believe the HP Support App on my PC said it was available for my PC. ???)

Assuming the BIOS and Signature files are both contained in the file sp141607 AND that AfuWin64 will open the file and extract the two files, my next steps should be:

1.  Stop Defender from running.

2.  I do not have Bitlocker activated, I do not need to worry about it?

3. Close all other apps.

4. In the search window open the CMD prompt in "as Administrator" mode.

5. Enter: F:AfuWin64>afuwinx64 08433.bin /P /B /N /REBOOT

Then continue with the rest of the directions.

Just want to make sure I have the steps and syntax listed correctly.

Thank you SO much,

Windy-Bill

[Wildsoldier]

The .bin and .sig file shall be located in that sp141607.exe. When you run the exe just select the last option. I believe it says to extract the bios file to a location.

Your process looks to be accurate…don’t worry about defender or bitlocker.

When the process start the mouse will freeze…just let the process finish.

[Wildsoldier]

WIndy-Bill please let us know if you were able to downgrade the bios? And if yes if you encounter any issues.