HP ENVY Recline TouchSmart All in One - 27-k350xt CTO BIOS update 'bricked' the computer

[GreenBeenie]

I have a HP ENVY Recline TouchSmart All in One - 27-k350xt CTO running Windows 8.1 x64. I read that the latest BIOS update would not load if Windows 10 was installed so before I upgraded I ran the BIO update from the HP site being sure to select the OS as Windows 8.1 x64.  The existing BIOS was LA2 V 80.80.  The new bios was sp89089.exe (v80.10).  Again downloaded from HP's support website.  In Windows 8 I ran the new BIOS update as administrator.  The installation of the 80.10 BIOS went as expected. No errors.  The computer rebooted and during BIOS boot-up, the screen just locked

[GreenBeenie]

I should ad that I did try hitting the ESC key and it stayed at the screen shown for HOURS!  I hope there is a remedy for this.  I did save the old BIOS before installing the new one but since the computer won't load beyond this point trying to reinstall the old BIOS is not an option.  I tried to boot from USB WinPE stick but again no way to get to the Boot Options screen or anything else on this computer right now.  My goal was to install Windows 10, but clearly that is not on permanent hold. 😞

[GreenBeenie]

I will also add this picture that shows the BIOS version before the upgrade to 80.10.

[GreenBeenie]

I have ordered a replacement BIOS chip...well actually chips.  One with v 80.02 and another one with v80.10A.  I'll unsolder the current DOA BIOS chip (v80.00) and install a chip socket into the motherboard so that should there be any BIOS chip problems in the future it's just a simple plug and play repair.