Pavilion G6: Windows 10 BSOD Error

[chrispilot2293 · Accepted solution]

Heres a big update! 

I managed to get my old G6-1c43nr running smoothly on Windows 10 using this meathod! (Please note that not all G6's can use this meathod and you should proceed at your own discression!)

Steps to fix this error:

1. Download BIOS revision F.46 (You most likely have F.48 or F.49) if it is available for your laptop (Go to the Windows 7 Drivers section>BIOS>Previous Versions).

2. Install the older BIOS

3.After installing the older BIOS, your laptop most likely will not boot fully, it should give a BSOD and restart, let it do this twice and the third time it should attempt to perform a startup repair THIS WILL (AND SHOULD) FAIL!

4. After startup repair fails, click on "Advanced Options"

5. Click Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Start-up settings

6. Click restart

7. When you see the start-up settings screen, press "4" on your keyboard

8. You will then boot into safe mode, do not log into your computer when presented with the login screen, just press Power>Restart

9. You should be able to fully boot into Windows now

10. Put the computer to sleep and wake it, it should now fully work!

The issue was that the newer BIOS breaks the way Windows 8/10 read the SATA configuration and downgrading the BIOS fixes it.

Enjoy!

[bjf2000]

I'll try it. I definitely had suspicions about the SATA driver, but after trying a couple different flavors of them (see earlier posts), I threw up my hands.

What gave you the idea of trying an older BIOS?  Is this being discussed elsewhere?

Why do you say the startup repair "should" fail?  It shouldn't ultimately fail. If it does, how do you later successfully boot (because booting into safe mode doesn't repair anything, and you don't mention doing anything once there)?

It almost sounds like the BIOS is taking the system out of AHCI mode (that's not settable in the BIOS, but it is enabled in the latest BIOS), which accounts for Windows belching when you try to boot it after the BIOS downgrade. I think startup repair is supposed to remedy AHCI mismatches (the way it's set in the BIOS vs how it's set in Windows).

Do you show AHCI being enabled in Windows now (what is the name of the disk controller in Windows)?  If not, then a smoother way of going about this may be to disable AHCI in Windows before rebooting for the BIOS update. 

Anyway, idle questions at this point. If it works, it works.

[bluenote73]

Interested in your results bjf2000, please report back. Thanks Chrispilot!

[jffhjff]

Would just doing a BIOS rollback and a fresh W10 install not accomplish the same thing?

I wonder if HP will release W10 compatible drivers and updates for these laptops or if they are considered obsolete already...

[chrispilot2293]

It now shows up under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" as "AMD SATA Controller"

and I am not sure if changing the registry entry to expect IDE would do the same thing, but I just did it this way and it works, and yes, it was mentioned in this thread: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/G6-laptop-not-waking-from-sleep-... by jayaprix and I thought I would give it a shot, and it worked!

[bjf2000]

Wow, I wish I'd found that thread before. Some of us around here were baffled why there weren't a lot of threads about this historically once it was discovered that Win8--out for ages--had the same problem.

You're right, just doing the Registry change won't. I meant doing it before applying the BIOS so that Windows is no longer expecting AHCI (which I'm guessing the BIOS disables, but that's only a guess). That could prevent the boot trouble. It can't leave you worse off.

Here's the article on how to disable or enable AHCI, for anyone interested:

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/22631-ahci-enable-windows-8-windows-10-after-installation.html

Sorry to keep pestering you, but if you compare your Registry against that, do you show AHCI as off or on (the name of your disk driver was inconclusive).

Update: I did later try making the Registry changes back to IDE before applying the BIOS and rebooting, but that didn't avoid the post-BIOS blue screens for some reason, I still had to go through the earlier procedure of multiple boots to get into Safe Mode. So, bottom line, don't bother with the Registry, just apply the BIOS and go through the earlier steps and it'll eventually be fine.

[Captainweasel]

Yes! It worked! It totally  worked! Except for the lag in starting up (which, admittedly is a bit less) my start up, sleep and hibernate problems have been solved!   I do hope folks pick up this fix before thrashing their G6s! I really dunno how to thank you enough!

[jffhjff]

I'm happy to report that downgrading to BIOS F.46 worked for me on my HP G6 1C40CA and it fixed the standby/hibernate resume crashing problem. Only thing I noticed with this older BIOS is that the CPU and motherboard temperatures are no longer reported to 3rd party apps such as Everest. Minor annoyance but oh well.

Here's to hoping that HP reads these forums and releases a functioning BIOS!!

[MonksDream]

@chrispilot2293 - As a VERY appreciative owner of a HP Pavilion g6 laptop I can report that I followed your instructions and they worked successfully and flawlessly. Kudos to you, sir/madam! I sing your praises!

[Kintozero]

I would like to report that downgrading the BIOS to F.46 also worked for me; thank you very much! I have a HP Pavilion G6-1d60us if you are curious. To find yours, restart your computer and keep hitting 1, and write down your product number. Then on http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers enter your product number on the right "Enter My HP Model Number". On the next page on the right, click "change" next to "software available for your operating system".  Change "version" to "Microsoft Windows 7" and on the left click "update". Scroll down to BIOS and click "previous versions" and to the right of F.46 click "download".

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-g6-1d00-notebook-pc-series/5186811/model...

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp55501-56000/sp55938.exe

One last thing; I would advise you to write down or PRINT THESE INSTRUCTIONS!! (I mean chrispilot2293 instructions at the top of this page). Booting into looping BSODs is scary & having these instructions handy is a good idea. Don't trust yourself to remember!