Somehow... Broke The Front Panel USB C on my Z4 G4... Is it dead?

[SeanVDMN]

I just recieved my new desktop and everything was fine.  Until I started swapping out SSD for bigger versions and went into the UEFI to disable Secure Boot.  The mistake I made was forgetting what F keys you pressed and I was unfamiliar with the Z4.  So it occasionally will appear off while it's doing UEFI maintenence.  Usually there is a click, some dead time and then things kick back on.  Well it was the second time it did this and I figured it was booting and I was hitting F9, F11 and the Del keys one after the othner trying to get something to happen.  Ofcourse I was looking for F10.

In any event, after that moment the system came up with an error saying to the effect that a firmware update had failed to complete on the following controller and underthat listed the premium front I/O USC-C device.  I tried reboot to update agian option but that did not make a difference.  The system would boot normally but the rear fan was running on high non stop.  

I tried updating to the lates BIOS and also flashed the Premium IO panel firmware with the latest version from HP.  Nothing changed.  I wound up unplugging the cord that feeds the USB-C.  Now I get an error about that when booting, which isn't great but the rear fan is running normally.

The question is, can it be fixed?  If so how or should I just get it replaced.

[BambiBoomZ]

SeanVDMN,

Ordinarily, it seems that a new system would have immediately attention under warranty. However, given that the system had this failure when making modifications, there may be some question as to the warranty situation. 

In my view, check first as to whether HP warranty support will help you.  If none of th USB Type C ports are working- and even if the back ones are working, check the Win10 equivalent to Device Manager and see if the USB controller is shown as working properly. If not,  consider downloading and installing the USB controller driver, which may or may not be: sp82180.exe , unless this is the I/O update already deployed.  Verify the proper driver before running and do not have any programs, utilities, files runnning, nor any USB device attached.  running or not. 

The oddity of the situation is that only the front USB C was mentioned. One quirk I've read about with USB 3.1 Type C is that the cables are quite difficult to make properly-that is, such that they achieve full performance, and somewhat delicate- the leads at the connectors are quite fine and closely spaced.. Perhaps HP might send out a replacement cable under warranty?

BambiBoomZ