00A -Missing Product Information - UEFI / BIOS - Updating Product Information V8P00AA 24" g020 AIO

[nerdstheword]

Hello, I've had my AIO for quite a while without any problems at all. Oddly enough, I've reinstalled Windows many times flawlessly, whether from a third party install or just using the system reset locally, never an issue. The bios was always working fine, I've never had any error messages. Runs smooth. Everything always worked as it should.. Until now. .. DUN DUN DUN......

i was running Windows 11 for quite some time, everything was working great. Recently I was intending on installing Linux on a bootable USB when apparently I managed to erase my PC hard drive containing Windows. I thought to myself, no problem, not like it's never happened before. 

So I got my bootable Windows 11 usb out and started a fresh install of Windows 11. I noticed there wasn't a partition on my hard drive, didn't think anything of it, but in the back of my mind I remember there was always a partition of some sort. Not this time. So, I installed windows on the drive. The install did it's thing. 

Then after it completed, and was at the desktop screen, everything seemed good to go. Until I restarted and was hit with a blue screen that read something like " manufacturing mode is unlocked" - Had no idea what this was, so I did some research and downloaded some bios tool that writes a folder to program files x86 HP- Bios - I think it was a bios configuration tool from HP. I ran some simple scripts in command prompt editing a txt file and deleted an asterisk by manufacturing mode unlocked and replaced it next to "locked". Saved the text, set the bios txt file using cmd. Saved successfully. Restarted PC. 

Well that fixed the manufacturing mode error, but then in it's place.. Main boss #1. The final boss. I can't' get passed this level, anything you do to this boss is just a joke to him. This boss's name is "Invalid or missing product information" for an invalid serial number, CT number and something else. Well I thought, easy, I'll enter it using the same method that I had used for the previous error, since all the information was in that same text file. Nope.

I gathered as much info about my pc as I could pertaining to the product info that is missing.

I've reset CMOS using windows key + v - I've tried to use windows key + B to no avail loading. I've downloaded hp cloud recovery tool and put on a micro SD card (that is placed in a usb card reader) and tried to recover the pc this way, but I am greeted with error code upon booting the usb, maybe I need to use an actual usb drive that doesn't read SD / micro SD cards , not sure if that is a problem ?) - 

I've removed the cmos battery internally. The only thing I haven't done is try to manually reset the bios by using jumpers or what not. I'm not exactly sure how this would be done, maybe someone has a manual they could point me to instructing how to do so with this system? 

I'm pretty much out of ideas, so I made an account and now am asking this forum. Is there anyone out there with any input aside from sending my AIO into HP for repair, that's out of the question, just not worth the hassle as it's an older pc, but I do like this pc and want to fix this issue. 

Hopefully I have listed the issues correctly and all of the things I have done to correct the issue. Help would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance. 

[nerdstheword · Accepted solution]

I SOLVED THIS ISSUE!! Wow, what a night.

So, I've seen this exact same question asked countless times on this forum with almost no answers that solve the problem. 

HERE'S HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBELM AND ENTER YOUR PRODUCT INFORMATION INTO THE BIOS.

You may need to download the BCU tool from HP. Bios Configuration Tool. 

Download here >>>https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03161127

I'm not going to explain how to use this tool, so read up on the manual. It explains how to use it clearly. 

But it may be a lot easier for many of you with 'newer' computers (2018 models like this one ).

Restart the computer and enter the bios using f10.

Press control + A at the same time. This will unlock extra settings within the bios.

Navigate to something called system information or device ID or something similar. It's the 3rd tab over in my bios. This information is usually locked and you're not able to change / edit anything, but with the Control + A keys, this is unlocked and you are now able to enter your product information, ie. The Feature Byte, Serial number, Asset Tag Etc. 

Enter your information, press f10 to save. Exit and restart. Everything is case sensitive so enter it exactly as it is shown. The featurebyte was too long to add in 1 line in my bios, but the tag on my PC shows the alphanumerics seperated into 4 lines, so I entered it the same way it was shown and it worked. My pc is now registered. 

I did not see a place to put the Control Board CT Number, so I used the BCU tool to do this.

Has it literally been this easy for years and HP wasn't able to tell the customers how to press Control + A? That seems pretty odd since it's a simple command anyone can do and it is not advanced at all. 

Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there. It was driving me crazy. I can't take the credit for figuring this out obviously, I found the answer in 1 out of the 100's of threads I read. It was a single response by someone on another forum all the way back in 2013 in response to "tattooing the motherboard". I decided to google this exact phrase for some reason, I know I came across the phrase at some point, I just can't remember where. But The thread was posted on tomshardware.com and there was an amazing explanation about the whole problem. Not sure if it's against the rules to link to other forums, but if you google it, you'll find the URL I am referring to. 

Please sticky this thread because it is the answer to I'd assume most questions involving similar PC's  dating back to at least 2013. This method was not shared as far as I can tell on this HP forum, I could be wrong but I went through dozens of threads which all refferred the customer to send the computer to HP. Not acceptable for something as easy as this fix.