HP ZBook 15u G6 hibernates due to thermal event

[Robert_T]

Laptop regularly self-hibernates after a thermal event. Problem started following an upgrade to the latest BIOS on the 10/10/2019. Problem occurs after almost exactly 2 hours, with a few extra occurences over shorter periods. The problem occurs when the machine is under extremely light load, typically with the CPU cores running at less than 40C.

Windows Event Log show:

The system was hibernated due to a critical thermal event.
Hibernate Time = ‎2019‎-‎10‎-‎20T17:36:09.261312500Z             
ACPI Thermal Zone = \_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.HEPZ             
_HOT = 353K

 Timings from last power up event until thermal event:

10/10/19 - 01:59:51 03:13:19
11/10/19 - 02:00:59 00:50:09 00:42:01
14/10/19 - 00:02:50 00:34:52 01:04:09
15/10/19 - 02:00:57 00:04:03
16/10/19 - 01:07:00 00:22:08
17/10/19 - 02:00:55 02:00:58
18/10/19 - 02:00:57 00:54:00 02:00:58
19/10/19 - 02:00:56
20/10/19 - 02:00:57 02:00:58

The 2 hour mark cannot be a coincidence, as this has occurred 10 times give or take 60 seconds!

Using a CPU core monitor utility, it does indeed appear to get a high temperature reading on multiple cores, but only momentarily, and the fan does not cut in as it would when the machine is under load, leading me to believe this is a false reading.

The system resumes without problem, so no data is lost, but it is extemely annoying.

The following software was installed on the 10/10/19, coinciding with the start of the problem:

HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI sp98383 v. 7.2.1.0

HP BIOS and System Firmware (R70) sp99341 v. 01.03.00

The machine perfomed flawlessly for a month before the update (new machine), hence I suspect the update.

The only fix I have tried thus far is to limit the maximum CPU utilization to 90%, which does not seem to have done anything.

Any help would be appeciated.

[Robert_T]

BIOS update just appeared in HP Support Assistant.  Have now installed:

HP BIOS and System Firmware (R70) sp99568 v. 01.03.03

Note that this failed twice after selecting it for download and install, with the Support Assistant seemingly closing without starting the installed, requiring a reboot before it would launch again.  After the second failure I clicked "Install Now" from the last Action Log entry and this successfully kicked of the installer.

We will see whether it makes any difference to the problem...

[Robert_T]

Have since had two more thermal events since the BIOS update, so it doesn't look like this has helped.

Have now installed another update, which may or may not help:

Intel Management Engine Driver sp99230 1932.12.0.1298

[Robert_T]

Still suffering from thermal events, so we await another BIOS update...

[Robert_T]

This is still ongoing.  Every 2 hours it suffers a thermal event and hibernates itself.  If the machine is left in sleep mode, the timing alters and if it goes past 2 hours it seems to trigger a thermal event about 5 minutes after resuming from sleep.  This really is an awfully annoying problem.  Please FIX IT!

[Robert_T]

Having got thoroughly fed up of the machine hibernating itself every 2 hours, I finally decided to try downgrading the BIOS to the original version. Accorinding to an advisory on the support website, this is not possible.  So I am stuck with a broken BIOS and quite possibly a broken skull from banging my head against the wall.

Edit: Immediately after posting this, I re-read my initial post and discovered that the first BIOS version that exhibited the problem was actually 01.03.00, which is no longer available.  Whilst I didn't note the version of the BIOS installed before the first update, the two versions of the BIOS available under "previous versions" are 01.02.01 and 01.01.06, and the advisory above states that you can't downgrade to 01.01.06.  So I have just downgraded to 01.02.01, which appears to have installed successfully but for an error about being unable to install the firmware for the USB-C controller as it is a lower version (i.e. downgrade not allowed).  So now we wait to see whether we can get past 2 hours....

[Robert_T]

I have now downloaded and installed:

HP BIOS and System Firmware (R70) sp99214 v. 01.02.01

The machine has now been running for 7 hours straight with no unscheduled hiberates, so it this confirms that it was indeed a buggy BIOS or Firmware update.  The recommended solution is therefore to downgrade to this version.

I will be treating any future BIOS updates with a lot of caution, and will only be installing them if they show that they address the issue.  Having the machine hibernate every 2 hours, regardless of what you are doing, such as being in the middle of a video conference, is absolutely not acceptable.

[Robert_T]

What genius designed the BIOS update tool?  Just resumed the machine from a normal hibernate and it launched into BIOS update for the buggy BIOS version 01.03.03, caused the resume to fail and returning the machine to the state whereby it powers off every 2 hours.

I am guessing that this is Sure Run restoring OS files back to its "happy state" (read also "broken state"), so I have now turned this off and will see if that prevents future reversions.  If it does, then I need to figure out how to tell it refresh its idea of the "happy state" to include the BIOS updater for the earlier BIOS.

I'm afraid my opion of the quality of HP software has now reached rock bottom.  Not only do you release a buggy BIOS, but your own BIOS update tool doesn't take into account your own security software.  This will probably fall on deaf ears, as it doesn't appear that anyone from HP actually reads these forums.

Oh, and I now need a new wall from headbutting it so hard!

[pevsonic]

It could be that the new BIOS file is in your EFI partition still so the bios spots it and updates. Not sure how windows lets you access it as it tries to hide everything of importance, but id check and manually delete it from there if its present

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