Update BIOS in Ubuntu

[_sym_]

I have overwritten Windows 10 with Ubuntu LTS 16.04 and now I would like to update my BIOS.  Is there any way to update the BIOS without reinstalling windows? 

I have tried manually extacting the BIOS exe file, but the file contents do not seem to support DOS. 

I have looked at the "repair system" option in the BIOS, but there is no option to update the BIOS in that menu.

One option is to install windows to a separate usb drive, but then I would need to buy a separate drive for that.

Is it possible to update the BIOS in windows recovery mode without actually installing windows?

[Huffer]

Can you still get into UEFI mode with esc + f2 as you power up? If I recall correctly you can make a usb BIOS update disk and then install it through UEFI which is OS independent. The problem may be that some of this functionality is stored on a hard drive partition you may have nuked. But I also believe you can put the UEFI tools on a bootable thumb drive. 

This is the description of the UEFI diagnostic download:

This package provides the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI for the supported models running a supported operating system. The HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI provides UEFI based hardware diagnostics for the supported models which is used to validate if a system is functioning correctly. In addition, it provides support for updating and managing the system BIOS and other device firmware on the system.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-250-g5-notebook-pc/10180321

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[_sym_]

I assume you are referring to the instructions below, under "Updating the BIOS when Windows does not start":

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c00042629

The problem is that I don't see the "Firmware Management" option in the UEFI menu list.  I see the other options in the UEFI menu, such as "system tests" and "system information". 

Is it possible that the "Firmware Management" option does not show up unless a usb stick with the BIOS update is already inserted into the device?

[_sym_]

Is it possible that I need to install the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI tool (6.4.1.0 Rev.A) on a separate computer and create some kind of usb boot stick with it?  I'm not sure how that works.  This question below looks very similar to what I'm trying to accomplish.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/No-Firmware-Management-option-i...

[_sym_]

I appreciate your help on this.  I have tried creating the bootable usb stick using the BIOS update exe, but that did not allow me to update the firmware.

Then, I tried your suggestion of creating a bootable USB stick using the PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI tool, which worked.  Although, I still had to manually copy the BIOS firmware file to the USB stick after using the Diagnostics UEFI tool.

The only problem I have now is that I need to manually select the correct firmware update and I do not see the correct version.  My BIOS says my System Board ID is 81EB.  But, the only version that I see on the USB stick is 81EC.

I don't want to flash the wrong version and the system board ID does not match.  Am I doing something wrong?

[_sym_]

Instead of updating from the EUFI diagnostics tool, would it be possible to just boot into windows from a USB stick with this tool?

https://www.pcmag.com/article/352209/how-to-run-windows-10-from-a-usb-drive

I assume that I could just make a bootable windows usb stick to boot into windows and run the BIOS update application normally, without having to actually re-install windows to the hard drive.

[_sym_ · Accepted solution]

I solved my problem by creating a bootable usb stick with the UEFI diagnostics tool and then extracting the firmware files from the official BIOS update application using another Windows PC and copying all the firmware files to Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/new

Upon booting the diagnotics boot stick, I was then prompted to update my BIOS and I did not need to select any specific BIOS update file.  So, I did not have to look up my system board ID information at all.  The official directions say the firmware file must be manually selected, but that is not true if the firmware files are copied to the "new" directory.

[udoyen1]

Hello, can you please share how you were able to create the bootable usb as I have down loaded the diagnostic tool for UEFI

[_sym_]

1) Download the following:

HP PC Hardware Diagnostic UEFI  6.5.0.0 Rev.A

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp82001-82500/sp82129.exe

HP Notebook System BIOS Update F.44 Rev.A

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp91501-92000/sp91628.exe

2) Quick Format USB stick then run the BIOS update on a Windows PC and install to USB stick.

3) Copy all directories from USB stick to a temporary directory on your PC.

4) Quick Format USB stick then run Hardware Diagnostic UEFI application and install to same USB stick.

5) Use the BIOS update files you copied to your PC and copy them from  the "current" directory to "new" directory on USB stick.

cp /Windows_PC/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/Current/* /USB_stick/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New/

cp /Windows_PC/HP/BIOS/Current/* /USB_stick/HP/BIOS/New/

6) Boot PC with USB stick by pressing "esc" key and then select "F2" to proceed with BIOS update.