New BIOS updates for Z420 Z620 Z820 and others

[SDH]

As many of us know there has been yet another Intel microcode weakness found that is addressed both by Microsoft software and HP BIOS updates.  HP had been doing a good job of sequentially updating THIS document from version 1-4, and now it sits dormant without the version 5 update that should be there instead.  For the ZX20 workstations and others their listing for the SoftPaq updater has been "Pending" for a long time.

Turns out HP has updated many of the BIOS packages for the "Pending" workstations without updating that document properly.  Solution is to do a google search, for example, for "Z620 drivers" and go to the top HP result and go from there into the HP BIOS section on that page.  The most recent BIOS release is there now and has been since 7/1/19.

The safest way to update BIOS is from within BIOS, rather than from within an OS (especially from within W10).  Read up on that process.  If you unpack the installer it creates a folder in your C drive called SWSetup, and in there you will find the same title as the SoftPaq you unpacked.  Go in that folder and find the DOS folder.  Copy out the .bin file from there onto the top level of a thumb drive.  Insert that into a USB 2 port (not USB 3 port) and cold boot.  Go in the first tab of BIOS down to the update system ROM option and select that..... let the installer do its thing and wait a while.... it may want to restart the workstation to complete its process.  In the ZX40 family of workstations it may restart multiple times so just leave it alone for a while.

[soccer_dan]

The easiest way to update the BIOS on ANY HP commercial system, including the Z class workstations, is by using HP Image Assistant - www.hp.com/go/clientmanagement

HP IA will also install/update any other drivers, if you let it