I just installed Linux Mint on a dual boot with Windows 10 on my 8460p... need to update firmware an

[mike0921]

I just installed Linux Mint 19.3 alongside Windows 10 Pro on my EliteB ook 8460p. I now need to update the BIOS Firmware to fix a hiccup when using Linux as well as update the driver software for the Synaptics touchpad. The other day I found the two updates and was going to install them today. I wanted to review the procedure and verify the versions of the two updates I downloaded. at hp.com, or maybe hp123.com, but Windows 8.1 is the latest OS and neither of the downloads I found the other day is anywhere on the site nor the installation instructions to review.

The "help" instructed me to go to the Microsoft Store, download the HP Systems Information App, run it and come back with the information needed for them to help me. Hardware specifics etc...

The MS Store could not download the App. I followed their instructions to restart my laptop and then continue. I did so and the result was the same. Error code: Code: 0x803FB005. with the instructions to file a report. I have 6 GB of ram and a 160 GB SSD, M2 I believe. The laptop was refurbished at a non-profit organization and sold to me. Windows runs so darn slow and that's why I am installing Linux and going through this learning curve. Well, that and the associated Windows update bugs of the last few years...

I would really appreciate any advice, thoughts and help anyone might have. The updating of these two drivers has been the only issue of this whole process. The dual boot thing has been so much easier than I expected, Mint 19.3 is so much faster and smoother than Win 10, runs on so much fewer resources, and the software is there to replace everything  I used in Windows. And so far free!  And the Linux OS distro can utilize all the data files I have created over the years and years of using Windows. It reads Windows files with no problem, just different apps to learn.

Thanks for any help you might provide.  I just don't want to make things worse than they are (trying to update these two drivers, or one driver and a piece of firmware...)  and to not get much more frustrated, trash the machine and go spend money not budgeted right now and buy a minimum specced and cheap replacement. Or go back to pencils, erasures, and paper... lol I do like the Mint 19;3, sooo much faster and nothing I have read in my research contradicts my first and early impression that dropping windows is something I should have done long ago... especially as they seem to have decided to go to a subscription-based model to keep their profit where they want. And I am a die-hard HP customer. I have been for some 30 years...

Again thanks in advance,

Mike

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@mike0921 

Lots of us that have been running Linux distros and Windows OSs for a long time maintain dual-boot PCs.  And one of the primary reasons is that firmware updates are nearly always distributed as self-extracting archives or are contained in archive files -- but either way, they require Windows to execute.

If you are not able to run those updates in Windows, the problem may be that BIOS updates from HP are keyed to specific Windows versions.  So, if you are running  Win10, while you can download a BIOS update meant to run in Win8x, it will not run in Win10.

You can look online for apps that allow you create Windows boot media that will launch WinPE when booted.  And if you are able to add the firmware updates to that boot media, you may then be able to run it.

That's all I can suggest.