BIOS Rollback Failure

[sigxvicious]

Hello,

I have been trying to fix my partner's laptop for a solid month (narrowing down the issue took this long alongside all failed solutions). At the moment am trying to rollback BIOS from F.46 to F.43 but am getting a failure. Tried the following:

1) Using HP BIOS Update tool with the version for their laptop from 2015. It said that the ability to update BIOS has been blocked.

2) Made a USB drive with the installer from the tool and started the recovery tool on boot which gave me options to manually apply an image in order to either rollback or update. It failed.

3) Tried to use *.rom file in UEFI Bios Updater but it persistently insisted it is not UEFI.

And can try nothing else due to a whole lot of crap Windows Update has caused because AMD fed it horrid drivers. Essentially - newest package which came along with spring update blocked BIOS functions and settings - it has only security and boot ones (yes - did turn off secure boot) but no advanced settings or option to update BIOS from BIOS level. Resetting it to defaults does absolutely nothing.

In result nothing works properly. The first sign had been screen tearing which I assumed was caused by wrong drivers so tried to install others - ended up trying every version under the sun, including modded ones but all of them either crashed or caused massive issues (tearing, pixelation - you name it). Windows Activation and Update went to hell as well - did fix the activation with Windows Repair Tool (from tweaking.com) and tried plenty steps to restore Update itself (turns out that system files got deleted and took them off healthy machine). Got as far as error 0x80007006.

It turned out that while drivers seen both integrated graphics and discrete ones, they are still not showing up properly due to BIOS. Apparently AMD's new drivers blocked it to avoid overclockers and miners. I assume it is why everything is malfunctioning as well. No amount of system reinstalls or clean driver installs will help unless that is fixed so any ideas?

The system laptop is HP Pavilion 15 from 2015 with AMD hardware: A10-5750M with HD 8610g and R7 M260. Operating system is Windows 10 Home 64 Bit, was Windows 7 but it upgraded (parter is not very technical so did not stop automatic upgrade when it started, however it did work up until March).

[CF4]

Hi

Take a step back...

First of all ensure your data is backed up.

Make a Recovery Media

(supplement it with a W10 .iso - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10).

Locate and write down the Windows Keys, use Belarc Advisor, Piriform Speccy and KeyFinderInstaller.

print out as much as you can about software licences etc.

Give us the SKU for the machine please, line 9 msinfo32.exe  probably.

Next is a lot of what you already have done...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02693833

Turn off the notebook.
Plug the notebook into a power source using the power adapter.
With the notebook off, press and hold the Windows logo key and the B key at the same time (WinKey +B).

NB: On some notebook models, it might be necessary to press and hold the Windows logo key and the V key (WinKey +V).

While pressing those keys, press and hold the Power button on the computer for 2 to 3 seconds, and then release the Power button but continue to hold the Windows logo key and the B or V key until the HP BIOS update screen displays or you hear a beeping sound (usually 8 beeps).

Then we can try to tiptoe to a solution.

If if in doubt please ask.

[sigxvicious]

I have been using the wrong key combination (esc + F2) while rebooting thus Windows + B did start the BIOS update from image but ... it still refuses to roll back and despite having USB drive with F.43 booted - it keeps reinstalling F.46 over again. I have tried to format USB drive manually with FAT32 as someone apparently did say NTFS file system during format could have caused it not to properly install but got same result.

Oddly enough, F.46 does allow R7 M260 to properly show in system info and to various drivers (always seen it in device manager though) - however it still does not work despite being detected, it simply makes applications using it blank or it black screens and reboots whole computer. Am not even certain if HD 8610g is working properly either as did not see it at work when laptop worked (as partner used discrete ones for most due to us working with 3D graphics and photo editing a lot) so it tearing and making colours all 8-bit at times and only certain spots might not be just it being unsuitable. No other settings beyond boot and security password ones in BIOS appeared so possibly just flashing it allowed card to be seen but not used (or something similar - not great with words as sick).

The drivers I used were:

1) None-beta version of the ones that initially buggered the system as going back to older version usually worked for my Intel / NVidia systems - that was AMD Adrenaline 18.2 (beta is 18.4)

2) 14.2 AMD drivers which were the ones laptop came with and worked continuously despite not being for Windows 10 (did not work after update).

3) 15.11 beta ones from Guru3D as they were supposedly meant to be most stable version - they do not cause black screens as much but still all gpu consuming applications appear as blank.

4) 15.2, 16.1 and plenty other old version from AMD.

5) 16.1 with 15.11 with OPENGL support from a forum user on Guru3D and other different versions of this such as 16.2 with 17.11 and so on - we do need OPENGL properly working for projects. Same result as 15.11.

6) Modified UNIFL drivers for switchable graphics from leshcat which are for mix of Intel and AMD but only installed their drivers for HD 8610g and R7 M260.

7) Various packages of drivers from Windows Update Catalogue which given me pretty much same results as 15.11 but mostly crashed immediately and made R7 M260 appear with a yellow warning sign in device manager.

I did try various versions of HDMI Audio and AMD SMBus drivers but they have not changed anything with any driver version.

Windows Update itself only gives the aforementioned 0x80007006 error, Windows Update assistant does not open while Troubleshooter says it is due to drivers being installed. Sometimes the R7 M260 ones appear as pending in Update but retrying goes back immediately to the error number. Did try installing May cumulative update manually and it worked but fixed no issues (so if there is one out there that does it ... would love to know the number - the manual ones did not even install after the March one but managed to get them to work. Hell, even drivers itself did not install then).

MS INFO (all of it from now since might have something useful I do not see; secure boot is on at the moment and drivers are mismatched as was making a mess in general to see if anything changed besides card showing up). SKU is there and it is L2U60EA#ABU (I do recall that HP Support program was showing something completely different and started with P: did lead to same laptop with same specs but did not save that model number).

We do have everything backed up just in case (and I have dozens of system images with keys and licences backed up as Windows is lovely in various issues).

EDIT: I did forget to mention that one of first things I done after Updating option was half-back (since automatic one is inexplicably off: I did all possible group policy edits and restarted services after I restored them from healthy Windows 10 installation alas ... I still assume it is BIOS issue dictating all this) was a re-roll to 1709 which worked but done nothing to restore functionality to drivers, Update or BIOS.

[CF4]

Hi

So it's a

HP Pavilion Notebook - 15-p289sa (ENERGY STAR)

This package provides an update to the System BIOS.

The update installs on supported notebook models using a supported Microsoft Windows Operating System.

It is necessary to restart the system to complete the installation.

PURPOSE: Routine
SOFTPAQ FILE NAME: sp87479.exe
SOFTPAQ MD5: 72eeab0ff793ecccac360b0f476d890e
SUPERSEDES: SP79605
EFFECTIVE DATE: April 30, 2018
CATEGORY: BIOS
SSM SUPPORTED: No

HP System Software Manager (SSM) is a free utility that enables you to do the following:

Deploy software update packages and system ROM updates from a single File Store to multiple desktop, workstation, and notebook computers simultaneously.

Usually a Backup Bios is stored on the hard disk and is used to recover a corrupt one. 

So you may have the situation where the F46 is going to predominate whatever.

[sigxvicious]

Any idea how to replace the recovery BIOS version with one I need to install so it does not override with the corrupted version? Or rather where is it even stored?

But yes - that is the model number and this is the current BIOS package for it. Either something blocked its proper functions or the one uploaded already includes same corruption as the one from Windows Update. This is why have been trying to install an earlier version.

Curiously - MSI Afterburner crashes immediately not even reading the system. Nope, nothing is overclocked - I just wanted to use their monitoring and see what info it gives me. None - is the answer as BIOS also does not list any graphics or frequencies or such.

Laptop does do basic stuff as not exploding when watching a video but we both are graphic designers who work with 3D models (plus we have projects together but not living at same place due to recession ... so my partner has no working machines as their Mac died a year ago but it was old). Just as everyone else - we're not filthy rich enough to buy new computers (I had to do so last year as desktop died - it was also old).

Sorry for waffling, just wishing stuff worked as behind on plenty projects.

[CF4]

Hi

A spare backup is supposedly on the Hard Drive, so dis-connect it.

Roll-back of a BIOS is prohibited, so that's another hurdle.

Try a NON MS OS - https://lubuntu.net/downloads/ - with the hard disk unplugged it should just run, rather lumpily from a DVD/USB stick.

[samapatti]

Hi, even though your problem is not the exact one I have had trying to roll back the BIOS on a similar Notebook (at least based on the Maintenance and Service Guide I found for the Pavilion 17 and 15 Series), where it mentions the mainboards of both with AMD Dual-GPUs - whereas one is part of the APU ( HP Pavilion 17-F067NG ).

But, my bestie, who gave it to me after getting a new and much more powerful Desktop PC, found a solution to my days of frustration trying to fix this – also me being convinced it was a BIOS-issue.

Interestingly, it was not (for me at least). So, I can only offer this relatively simple procedure and recommend you first download the latest mentioned Graphics Driver on HP's Support Site for your Product or via the HP Support Assistant Windows Program, as CF4 has already mentioned.

Before installing these Graphics Drivers though, I would recommend trying to uninstall the current / newer ones and delete their source files, if possible, so you can have a "clean install" of the latest working ones for your System (on my Laptop, any older versions do not work because AMD's Support for the integrated Graphics of the APU has stopped in 2015 and only the support for the dedicated M260/270 GPU isn't enough for the system to work stable, so you must use the latest driver, that supports both - which is the one mentioned on the HP Support Site I've linked).

Alrighty, once you have managed to get this done, see if the system runs ok and relatively stable (I also recommend setting certain Energy Saving Options to "never" when plugged in (setting the time value to "0" will do that, where a number value is needed) because it has turned out, that the Energy Saving Options can also mess with the whole system stability and Graphics stability.

Anyway, if you've made it that far and your System should present you with a "Black Screen" of Death by any chance when booting (before the Windows Login or after), just go to the Device Manager again (where you need to go to de-install Graphics Drivers for both GPUs in the first place already, too - and can click the button to remove source files - but please do NOT remove source files for the right/correct driver version, IF you should need to do that - which will only be necessary should you get a black screen of death anyway   ), de-install the Driver(s) of both GPUs again without deleting the source files and restart your system to let it re-install them again.

If you shouldn't run into this trouble, I hope it is resolving the whole problem with your AMD-system, too, though.

Should you not be so fortunate, I hope someone else will present you with an unexpected solution still.