Boot Device Not Found after BIOS update in UEFI mode, HP G6-2104so

[Yolozz]

Hi!

Yesterday I updated my bios from F.26 to F.29. What made me switch was the "Note: HP strongly recommends transitioning promptly to this updated BIOS version. " Apparently some major security issues were fixed so i downloaded the installer and ran it, everything went fluently as it seemed. Last thing it did was writing boot block or something and then it rebooted and i was prompted with:

Boot Device Not Found
Please Install an operating system on your hard disk
Hard Disk (3F0)
F2 System Diagnostics

For more information please visit: hp.com/go/techcenter/startup

Did the Diagnostic Tests - Everything passed (memory, hdd)

Restored Factory Default from Bios. Put windows 8 installer onto USB drive. Rebooted and then pushed f9 to get into Boot Options Menu. There was nothing. The boot options menu was clear. Thought I could simply do startup repair from the installer but no, can't boot off the usb stick (Sandisk Cruzer Blade 16GB). Also, I changed the boot order from  the BIOS, it still failed to boot.

Then I switched legacy mode to enabled. Now I could boot off the USB stick, then I tried to fix the bootloader from command prompt to switch back to uefi mode. Rebooted and it still doesn't boot from UEFI mode.

UEFI Boot Order from bios looks like this:

Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive

USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk

USB CD/DVD ROM Drive

OS boot Manager

! Network Adapter (since i disabled Internal Network Adapter boot)

Legacy Boot Order

Notebook Hard Drive

Intrnal CD/DVD ROM Drive

USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk

USB CD/DVD ROM Drive

! Network Adapter

Everything looks fine from the BIOS.

So **bleep** is up? I'm gonna create a bootable linux usb stick and backup all my data before I proceed because Legacy mode seems to work good. 

Any ideas on this to get my windows 8.1 UEFI installation to boot again? 

I was thinking could it be a BIOS issue? Or did something wipe the efi bootloader or sth like that?

As a side note, when I installed windows 8.1 i formatted the whole disk. 

I thought about flashing the oldest, F.05 bios with the  PhoenixTool method from there since it was the only bios that worked with PhoenixTool. http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Notebook-PC-Questions/How-to-use-the-HP-BIOS-update-uefi-utility/...

Though I'm not so sure about how safe this is and if it even works, I don't want to end up bricking the BIOS( and the motherboard).

Need some help on this! Thanks!

[Yolozz]

Im not 100 percent sure its the right forum for this.

Anyway, im writing this from a ubuntu live usb and legacy mode is enabled. Currently copying stuff over from my windows partition, everything works good.

Im hoping that things will get working again after formatting the whole drive and i can install windows from scratch under uefi mode... Im hoping it was the windows installation messing with the other bootable devices under uefi.

[Malygris1]

Hi Yolozz,

Welcome to the HP Support Forums!

I understand that you are unable to see any boot devices after updating your BIOS. I am happy to help you.

From what you describe, it could have been a problem with the BIOS flash process or the BIOS itself.

You can try reflashing the BIOS version you loaded, and if that does not work  you can look at a BIOS restore.

See: Restoring the BIOS

This would roll back the BIOS to the previous version. However it is quite likely with the reformat you performed the archive of the previous BIOS is gone.

So in that case you can try reloading your previous BIOS found on the product support page.

HP Pavilion g6-2104so Notebook PC Drivers

If the issue is not resolved with a BIOS restore, then I would contact phone support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-phone-assist.html

[Yolozz]

Hi! Thanks for replying. I reinstalled windows. UEFI with CSM (Legacy boot) works just fine. Is it possible that the bios flash cleared nvram and that the efi boot manager entries are gone? Thanks! I'm afraid of reflashing the bios though 😄

EDIT: and yes, the hp_tools partition is long gone, so I can't restore bios to an older version.

[Yolozz]

Anyway, I'm not gonna mess around with it until april 2015 when windows 10 gets released 😛 Maybe some future bios update corrects this. 😛

Thanks though!

[Yolozz]

Okay,  I figured, the UEFI boot manager entries must be gone.

Is it possible to add or restore them? Even though I can only boot anything with CSM enabled?

And one more thing I found out. I enabled network boot from the bios and network boot showed up on the UEFI boot manager!!! I don't think that's gonna help though.

[Yolozz]

also, i tried to pxe boot (uefi), with tftpd64 but it fails. It fails to get ip. I used a standard crossover cable for this. 

i set up tftpd on a secondary asus computer with windows 8.1 x64 image, start network boot ipv4 from hp, and log shows that pxe boot request ip 0.0.0.0, then it gets assigned ip 192.168.1.50, and then it shows that ip 192.168.1.50 is being acked and i have no idea what to do.

[Yolozz]

Okay, I think I might even get it booting. If i do, I will get a linux iso and try to add the uefi boot manager entries back.

[Malygris1]

As an FYI, in the Restoring the BIOS process, it refers to dealing with the case of a deleted HP_Tools folder.

The newest version of the UEFI Softpaq I found was HP UEFI Support Environment

if you need it for later.

I hope this helps.

[Yolozz]

Hey, do you know if flashing the bios adds the uefi boot manager entries back or not? As far as I know it doesn't, am I right? 

As a side note, yesss, I finally got windows installer to boot over network and uefi 🙂 Do you know if windows installer adds an entry to the UEFI boot manager during the installation progress or I have to do so manually from command prompt?

Thanks for the info, btw, might come in handy later on 🙂