failed bios update on 15z-cw100

[warbitzd]

Hi, I tried that holding down win + B for a couple of minutes, I also tried the +V key to. It still goes straight into bios recovery.

Thanks, any other ideas?

[warbitzd]

If you are reading this you are screwed, HP won't help you unless you are under warranty even though they admitted that the BIOS update fried the laptop. They will charge you $450 to replace the MB (not worth it) so go by a new one.

LAST HP product I ever buy!

[warbitzd · Accepted solution]

In a last ditch attempt to fix the laptop I bought a bios off of ebay for $25 and following this video I removed the bios with a heat gun and then soldered back on with an iron (I tried a few time to solder back on with the heat gun but it didn't work).

I was skeptical but it works now to my sons delight 🙂 I still won't buy another HP product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEcvVWcdXk0

[warbitzd]

An alternative would be to purchase a CH341A bios programmer (I found the best deals on AMZ) you will also need the 1.8v reducer and clip to connect to the chip. The whole kit was $15. The thing that took the most time was researching how to make a bios file which turned out to be easy enough.

backup the corrupt bios using CH341 and save it, Using 08615.bin file from the HP service pack open the file in HxD and the corrupted bios and tile them so you can see both. Copy the top 16 line (which is serial/model number) from the old and past them into the new bios (replace them so not to increase file size) and save it.

Use the CH341 to erase/write/verify the new bios file. Laptop should boot now, if you get manufacture programming mode is in unlock mode error follow this link to fix it. https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/manufacture-programming-mode-i...

more info on the ch341 is at the link below

https://www.onetransistor.eu/2017/08/ch341a-mini-programmer-schematic.html

You may be wondering why I added this, well after replacing the bios on the MB, I tried to flash the latest HP bios and it blew up again. I knew I could change out the chip but would be stuck on an old bios version so programming was the only way to go for me.

Hope that this helps someone avoid the hours of research that I did getting here.