Corrupt bios on HP Laptop - 15-ef1013dx

[Coolie1156]

Hello everyone, a colleague of mine turned off his HP Laptop - 15-ef1013dx right in the middle of a bios update and now his bios is corrupt. I visited HP support and understood the HP bios recovery process, which seems pretty straightforward. The problem I'm having is the actual recovery file downloaded from HP support called "sp139498" that simply refuses to run whatever I do. I'm running windows 10 enterprise 64bits. So far I've tried every possible setting in compatibility mode. Tried  A different laptop running windows 10 pro 64bits and compatibility settings. Actually reformatted another laptop and installed windows 11 just to try the windows 11 version of this update called "sp113982". It does the same thing every time. The archive utility decompresses the files to the SW Setup folder. I get a file called WinFlash.exe. It refuses to run no matter what computer or os or setting I choose. This utility is required to create a USB BIOS recovery drive, but I'm unable to create it due to this issue. The laptop shows a "corrupt bios" message, along with a web link on how to create a USB bios recovery drive. I'm an experienced IT guy but running out of hope and patience. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do next I'd gladly hear them. Thank you

[Nirvana_95]

Hi @Coolie1156 

Welcome to the HP Support Community. Thanks for bringing this to our notice.

I understand your concern and situation, It looks like the BIOS has corrupted your PC 

I would suggest you recover the BIOS by following the steps here: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_3932413-2337994-16 

You can also follow the YouTube link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpiGUojtr3E 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. 

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping. 

[Nirvana_95]

Hello!

We haven’t heard from you in a while, this post is with reference to the thread you had created at your  

friendly neighborhood (HP Support Community). 

I would like to know if the resolution we provided worked for you? If you have any other queries, feel free to reply at any time, and thank you for being a valuable member of our HP Family. 

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, go to the public post & give us a virtual high-five by clicking the "Thumbs Up" icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on my public post. 

Have a great day ahead! 

[Coolie1156]

Hello Nirvana_95. Thank you for your reply. The laptop's bios is indeed corrupt. When I boot the laptop it seems to scan the usb drive looking for a bios recovery image. The problem is I cannot create the proper recovery USB key. When I go to HP's support website and download the utility called WinFlash.exe that is supposed to create the USB, WinFlash.exe does not open. I have tried running it on 3 different computers and different OSes Win 10 home/pro/enterprise/ windows 11 and compatibility mode. I double-click the winflash.exe and nothing happens. Is there an alternate place I can download the file or another way to create a USB Bios recovery usb drive, or a way to recreate the HP Tools recovery partition ? Thank you for your help

[Nirvana_95]

Thanks for your response.

In that case, I would suggest you perform a clean reinstallation of the Operating System. Here is a link that will help you create the media in a 32GB USB drive: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04346420 

Let me know how it goes.

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. 

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping. 

[Nirvana_95]

Hi @Coolie1156 

I hope you are doing good.

We reached out but never heard back. Do you still need assistance? Let me know if there is anything else you need assistance with.

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. 

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping. 

Have a great day! 

Thanks! 

[Coolie1156]

Hi. You cannot reinstall the os on a machine that does not have a working bios. You will not be able to press F12 or choose a bootable device. Without the bios the laptop does not know which drive is installed on the motherboard or the amount of memory available or anything at all really and mine is corrupt. What I'm looking for is an alternate way to create a bios recovery USB. As stated earlier the computer looks for the bios recovery files when i boot it up. I'm simply unable to provide them. The software that was supposed to create it (Winflash) does not start or work at all on any computer I've tried. Do you have a link to download the actual bios file so that I can put it on the USB? Do you have a different version of winflash that actually works?

[Nirvana_95]

Thanks for getting back to us.

Here is the latest BIOS link that you can download on a USB drive: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp139001-139500/sp139498.exe 

Let me know the outcome of it.

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. 

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping. 

[Nirvana_95]

Hello!

We haven’t heard from you in a while. 

Let me know if the link shared was helpful. Awaiting your response.

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, go to the public post & give us a virtual high-five by clicking the "Thumbs Up" icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on my public post. 

Have a great day ahead! 

[Coolie1156]

When I download the bios file, it creates a folder named swsetup. Inside it contains winflash.exe. Winflash.exe does not run no matter what laptop or os I try with it. Do you have the files that are inside winflash.exe or another way to create the usb (from cmd for exemple)