his BIOS update is blocked on this device

[raviya_voldo]

Hello i have a HP Pavilion - 15-au172tx notebook and i have been having a display randomly turning black when i'm doing video editing, gaming or sometimes even web browsing..

after lots of research on forums and trying everything from uninstalling drivers, to reinstalling windows i'm starting to think that this issue is related to BIOS drivers..

so i tried to update BIOS driver today but i the "Update" option is blocked and says " This BIOS update is blocked on this device.".. my current BIOS version is F. 14 and what i'm trying to install is F.56..

why am i getting this option blocked and how do i fix it?

Please refer to the screenshots.

any advice would be appreciated..thank you.

[WAWood]

@raviya_voldo 

First of all, your presumption that the fix is "BIOS drivers" is incorrect.  BIOS is firmware that allows the hardware to communicate with the OS using drivers.  Drivers are not BIOS, and BIOS is not drivers.

You need to connect an external monitor and see if it blacks out when the screen does.  If it does not, then it is the screen itself, or maybe internal ribbon cables, not the BIOS and not the drivers.

[raviya_voldo]

Thanks for your reply..

---

BIOS is firmware that allows the hardware to communicate with the OS using drivers. 

---

Well is it illogical to think that my outdated BIOS firmware has a problem when communicating  with my monitor or the GPU?

BIOS is the only driver(firmware) that i haven't updated since i bought this laptop..that's why i decided to update the BIOS firmware.

I have connected and been using a secondary asus monitor with a HDMI cable for a long time now..it also happens in the second monitor but more frequently and somewhat differently..

in my laptop display when the black screen happens there's no other option than to put the laptop to sleep using the power button an reawake to get the display back..

but in the secondary monitor what happens is that monitor looses signal when doing somewhat visually heavy tasks watching HD videos on browser,browing heavy websites,after effects ETC..

what i do to fix it is i change the secondary monitor refresh rate to 59Hz and revert back to 60Hz from the intel HD graphics command center panel..this gives the secondary monitor kind of a refresh and doesn't lose the signal for about 15 mins and then again loop continues..

sometimes when the laptop monitor blacks out completely, secondary monitor looses the signal for a sec and come back but stays on..

i even tried changing the HDMI cable but nothing helps..not sure what to do anymore..hope you can help

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @raviya_voldo 

The only suggestion I can offer if you want to update the BIOS would be to see if one of the older previous versions will work.

If it does, then you can try to update it to the newest one.

There are a couple of things to note...

1. I am very surprised that the oldest BIOS update available for your PC is F.36.

When you look at the incremental jumps from F.36 to F.56, there are quite a few.

My question is...what happened to all of the BIOS updates between F.14 and F.36?

Seems very odd to me.

2.  Look at all of the BIOS release notes for the current and previous versions.

There are only two of them that actually do something  regarding stability and performance and those are F.42 & F.45.

See if you can update to F.45 because that would also contain whatever F.42 fixed.

Then see if you can go on to F.56 if you want.

If that doesn't work either...I wonder if HP has the right BIOS update files on your notebook's support page.

I cannot answer that question, because I do not work for or represent HP.

[raviya_voldo]

Thanks for replying.

"what happened to all of the BIOS updates between F.14 and F.36?"

- I didn't think it was a big deal until you mentioned it to me.. maybe there was something wrong with all the versions between F.14 and F.36 and hp pulled them out..now i feel like this old BIOS firmware could be real culprit this display issue..

"I wonder if HP has the right BIOS update files on your notebook's support page."

- when i run hp auto detection kit it recognizes my notebook as  "HP Pavilion - 15-au172tx" ..so the drivers in that page should be right BIOS update files for my notebook right?

when i google the term "HP Pavilion - 15-au172tx" it shows the support page of it and seems like the drivers in that page are the same as the auto detected results..

autodetected drivers page;- https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-15-au100-notebook-pc/12499208/model/134...

google result drivers page:- https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-15-notebook-pc-series/12499208/model/13...

"See if you can update to F.45 because that would also contain whatever F.42 fixed."

- Thanks you so much for the suggestion..i'll try that but this is my first time updating BIOS. is there a possibility of this BIOS update bricking my PC?..is there a way to backup the current BIOS driver and revert back to it if something goes wrong?

[WAWood]

@raviya_voldo 

I could be wrong .. but I would be very surprised if a BIOS changes fixes this issue.  More likely, it sounds like the video chip is failing -- especially since the external monitor shows the same issues.

But, I avoid BIOS changes myself, so I am not an expert on what those will or will not do -- @Paul_Tikkanen knows much more about BIOS issues than I do.

[raviya_voldo]

"it sounds like the video chip is failing"

- But this has been happening since 2018..if the video chip is failing it should be completely broken by now right?

is there a way to run the laptop monitor or the secondary monitor using the nvidia GPU(940MX 4GB) instead of the integrated intel GPU?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

BIOS updates always come with possible risks.

The only advice I can give you is to make sure the PC is connected to A/C power and the battery is at least 50% charged.

Then you run the BIOS update, cross your fingers and hope it works.

If the video chip is failing, you would need a new motherboard.

If the BIOS update fails for some unforeseen reason, you will need a new motherboard.

So the way I look at it, you have nothing to lose by trying to update the BIOS.

I have never had a BIOS update fail on me on any HP notebook or desktop PC I have owned.

[raviya_voldo]

i see..i'm scared to take the risk of updating BIOS since everything i work on is in this laptop.

when i search the model number "Au172tx" in this forum there are several posts with people who had the same issue as me.

some seem to think that it is caused my mobile signal, so i even tried keeping my phone far away from the laptop..still black screen happens.. 😕

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