840 G5 reset nightmare

[h0race01]

Hi 

I've just done a reset of my 840 G5 to reinstall Windows 11.

I selected the option to remove everything for a cleaner job. I stayed around for the first few restarts then left it overnight to complete. 

It didn't go well. 

I'm stuck at the power on authentication screen (which appears after the Sure Start screen). My fingerprint is now no longer recognised. Likewise my password. 

Pressing escape or F10 brings up the message in the bottom left of the screen saying entering setup, but it boots back into the authentication screen. 

I have a horrible feeling about this. Is there a solution other than new motherboard or binning the laptop? 

I really don't understand what has happened here. 

Many thanks for your advice. 

Martin 

[h0race01]

Well, some intense googling suggests that I'm scuppered here.

It appears I now own a laptop-shaped paperweight. 

If, as my research indicates, the fingerprint and password are stored on the bios chip, how did a simple reinstallation of Windows 11 remove them? 

If there really is no solution, I suppose I'll have to scavenge whatever parts I can for ebay and bin the rest. 

I believe HP used to offer a solution in the form of a file to use at boot up, but no longer. Is that the end of the story? 

If anyone has any ideas here, I'd be eternally grateful. 

[h0race01 · Accepted solution]

Just to close this off (in case it is of use to someone else).

HP support did their best, but concluded that a new motherboard was the only option. That will cost more than the laptop is currently worth, so not a viable option for me.

The thing I will stress is that everything was working fine until I did a reset (in the usual way - system / recovery / reset this PC). That process has effectively killed my machine, which is crazy.

I'm done with HP now.