HP Z640 Hangs when trying to change anything in the BIOS

[snowballeffect]

Hi there,

My HP Z640 hangs when I try to change anything in the BIOS.

I need to change the boot order.  I can get into it and see the main menu items but if I press enter to change anything the entire system locks up and can only be hard reset.

[Background]

I added a new NVMe drive (original HP option) - I imaged the SSD drive with OS onto the NVMe drive - All went well - except,  I now needed to change the boot order so the NVMe would boot before SSD - Have had to remove SSD to get system to boot to NVMe.  It's an awesome upgrade - the NVMe is WAY faster than the SSD - 

The system reports no issues on boot and works fine.

BIOS version - latest from HP website

Any help would be very appreciated - Thanks!

[SDH]

First, is there any way for you to see even the version of your current BIOS? The latest is 2.59, released by HP 5/5/22. You don't have to change any setting to see that from within BIOS, and you also can see that from within a functioning OS.

Second, do you still have the SSD that worked? If so then I'd put that back in and boot from it. But first remove the presumed HP Z Turbo Drive generation 2 you're using... you don't mention if that is the case. I'd also remove any other SSD/HDD drive except the boot SSD that you hopefully still have in reserve.

Third, there is a way to get BIOS back to factory default settings... BIOS has a backup mechanism that defaults to the factory settings because sometimes the settings that are set in the motherboard's EEPROM can get corrupted and thus unreliable. This is relatively rare but happens and can be corrected. Read up on that deep level of clearing BIOS settings by disconnecting literally every external device/monitor from the workstation, remove the motherboard battery, unplug from wall, push and hold the power button, wait, repeat, etc. etc. etc. You need to drain off any source of power that could keep the EEPROM set, and it takes hardly any.

Fourth, there is a very specific and safe method to upgrade BIOS from within BIOS if yours is not current. It involves using another computer to get into the contents of the HP SoftPaq (SP140182) that you download from HP, expand that the normal way on that computer, go into the folder that is creates on the root level of the C drive (C/ SWSetup/ SP140182/ Capsule/ copy out M60_0259.bin). Then you put that in a series of 3 specifically named folders on a thumb drive and have that thumb drive inserted as you cold boot, enter BIOS, and choose to update BIOS from that. More specifics can come later.

Good luck... this is a precarious situation to be in.

[snowballeffect]

Thank you for your help. I had already performed a BIOS refresh (It already had 2.59)
I had indeed kept the SSD intact and yes it is the HP Z drive NVMe (512GB version).

Booting to get into the BIOS was always possible - Just trying to make any changes to it is/was/is hanging the machine....

Let me explain ;)...

I did a little playing - as you do..
I swapped over 2 my to GPU's in slots 2 and 5 - 

I suddenly was able to boot to a EUFI GUI which I had not seen on this machine before - I could only ever see the normal ASCII type BIOS - 

I was able to change the boot order - NICE !! (Mission Accomplished,,,,,but)

When it rebooted (with SSD installed) it booted straight from the NMVe - Brilliant!!,,,,but

I decided to see what else I could tinker with in the EUFI GUI and once again - The same original ASCII BIOS returned and I could not change anything again...

So my boot issue is fixed - I can boot to NVMe drive - but I cannot make any further BIOS changes...

My instinct tells me it's ALL something to do with booting to the EUFI GUI and might be a graphics controller compatibility issue (in so far as modifying the BIOS) because the GPU's work fine when the system is fully booted.