HP doesn't recognize certified refurbished Laptop, bios problems and more.

[SaladSnake]

So it isn't just about HP not recognizing this computer on it's website or with the recognition tool. The problem's a  edited*** not sure if it started after this but I feel it might've, this is a friend's laptop but she's not that tech savvy. So anyway I had just installed Windows 10 on her new SSD drive and it's installing drivers, running through updates, and it's on battery, it asks to restart, so I do, after that there's a black screen with the HP logo and it says its installing an update, it does this then goes into Windows when it immediately bluescreens [still on battery] so it finally boots back into Windows and I check what updates it installed and apparently it was installing a freaking firmware update? 

Since then it has been blue screening at random with different messages each time so I'm wondering if that firmware update on battery messed it up? [or it could be a red herring and it's a ram issue] but yeah I had never seen or known a computer to install firmware updates via Windows Update.

Anyway so I'm like okay it's a firmware update, bios/uefi maybe, I go get the bios update/recovery tool from HP, I try to get it to recognize it since the model # on the BIOS shows up as 17-by0xxx or something, and it's not recognizing it with the product number which ends in UAR both in the BIOS and the bottom of the laptop [Certified Refurbished] the auto detect also says it can't recognize the laptop. I remove the R from the UAR in the product name and voila it finds the laptop the model # is 17-by0063cl I download the BIOS update and some drivers to try to ease the random blue screen problem. 

The BIOS update doesn't seem to work or do anything gives some weird error message sometimes and nothing happens. 
So I try to boot into the BIOS recovery with Win Key + B with the flash drive created by the BIOS update tool and also nothing.

Honestly I think part of the problem there is that the original product number 4BW35UA#ABA but in the BIOS it has been modified by the "refurbishing certification" process and thus HP can't detect it and perhaps the BIOS Update tool thinks its not the right computer either [though it is] . [To corroborate all this I looked up the serial, it asked me for the product number, i put the one in the bios/sticker and it said it didn't exist, that's when I deleted the R and it worked]

Oh also, funny enough, she has another laptop the EXACT same PN and model #, HP treats it the same way, can't recognize it, the BIOS update tool on that one also fails in the same way, thankfully that one was plugged in when the initial Windows updates were happening where it installs that firmware update. So I feel this verifies my theory that the "certified refurbished" process messes with the computers ability to receive proper driver/bios update support from the support site. All because of that extra R added to the product number in the bios/system's firmware

Ideally I would of liked to talk to someone in HP support because I feel like firmware updates via windows update is pretty.. risky.

But also... how do you use the advanced option in the BIOS Update tool? 

it'll put the image somewhere how do I flash it to the computer? Would it still fail given the discrepancy in product numbers in the BIOS thanks to the dumb refurbishing certification that modified the product number?
 

Sorry about the length of the post.

[asmita6658]

Hi @SaladSnake

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

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Have a great day! 

[SaladSnake]

Thank you I will be in touch with them now, I appreciate the help will keep updated.