System freezes booting windows.

[ralf777]

Dear colleagues, I found a solution for our HP 285 G3 MT Business PCs which had the same problem applying the F.57 BIOS firmware update. In some cases we could not switch off the PCs, in some cases they would not start any more. These were about 15 PCs and HP refused to help because we are out of guarantee. That's the sad thing. But there's also a good thing HP has done and a very easy solution which worked for us:

1. download the appropriate (i.e. older) firmware for the the defective PC on another working PC (in our case it was Version F.55)

2. have a USB-stick which can be formatted and place it into the working PC

3. start the sp*.exe file and accept Admin rights

4. for us we had the possibility to apply the data files onto the stick which has to be formatted by the firmware tool

5. wait until the applicationto the stick is done

6. place the stick into the defective PC (it should be off at that time)

7. press the WINDOWS+B keys and hold them

8. switch on the defective PC and keep WINDOWS+B pressed until the first of eight beeps occur

9. wait. In a few seconds the firmware should be programmed

This way was successful for three PCs now so I guess it should work for the others too....

Best regards from Germany

Ralf Baumann it-management

[eStian101]

Hi. same thing here. I've been unable to roll back to F55 using the windows key + B method.

Until i found this sollution.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/Computer-is-freezing-after-Bios-Update/m-p/861...

FYI, I disabled wifi, virus scanner, skype, zoom etc before running afuwinx64.

After the above completed successfully I had to install

https://www.diskgenius.com/ (or similar)
to delete the previous faulty bios F57 file still stored in the recovery EFI/partition. It tried to slip back in after a few reboots (!)
Look for the two "EFI/HP/Bios/previous and new folders" and delete the 2 files in each of them.
Do not delete the bios files in the Current folder as it will hopefully provide a rollback option for you in the future.

2 days I've spent pondering.
I take no credit for the above.

That said. I found that a temporary fix is to switch off "set the time automatically" in Settings > Time & Language / Date & time (rightclick the clock, bottom right, "adjust date and time". the bug in f57 somehow affects the Windows Time Service.

Hope this helps someone....
kindest regards
Stian Haugli