ZBook 14: Bios recovering from hash mismatch...???

[fredZB]

I have a brand new Zbook 14 on which I have installed Windows 8 pro, and then Windows 8.1. Each time I perform a cold boot, it boots once, flashes a message saying that it did not work (it goes too fast to be read) and then boots up and enters a bios menu saying: "The bios has recovered its identity data from the Embedded Controller due to hash mismatch". Then there is a 10 second countdown before thecomputer successfully boots up.

If I perform a warm boot, then this message does not show up and the boot proceeds smoothly.

I submitted this problem to HP online help, and the suggestion was to send the computer for repair. They changed the disk (256 Gb SSD), updated the BIOS again (which I did before), erased my install of Windows 8.1 and returned me the machine. Alas, after re-installing Windows 8.1 and basic applications, the same message came up again.

Any cue of why such an error happens?

[Skylarking]

I'd always first look at BIOS updates, Option ROM updates, ME firmware updates, etc, etc, whenever such early boot issues occur. Then i'd look at BIOS settings.

Anyway there seems to be similar issues with Elitebooks so read this and this thread and hopefully they answers some of you questions and helps resolve your problems.

Skimming the threads, it seems the problem is a combination of BIOS, BIOS setting, and driver interworking issues but i didn't read in any detail, i'll leave that for you

On the driver update front, i would check the Support and Downloads page for the latest updates manually. It can sometimes take longer for the updates/information to propagate to the update repositories and then to your machine via the HP Support Assistant. I don't use this tool as i prefer to understand/read about what i'm patching/updating rather than have a 'process' automatically update. Doing manual updates, i've avoided many issues by not automatically jumping on (especially Windows) updates when they are first released. 

[fredZB]

Thank you for your post. It seems this error is indeed found on other HP computers. I had a look at the event viewer in the control panel, and it keeps track of this. Ccleaner also complained that an 800 Mb (!) memory dump is generated while windows revovers from this error.  The events which are listed in the events viewer are:

-!Error Kernel boot: Windows ailed fast startup 0XC0000001

-!Warning ACPI: The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested. The BIOS might be trying to access the EC without synchronizing with the operating system. This data will be ignored. No further action is necessary; however, you should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS.

-!Error EventLog-System: the previous system shutdown was unexpected

-!Error BugCheck: The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x00000113 (0x0000000000000017, 0xffffe001fbd03540, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 092914-14890-01

-xCritical: Kernel-Power: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. 

-!Warning Win32k: A multi-touch device reported inconsistent contact information.

-!Warning e1dexpress: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-LM.  Network link is disconnected.

-!Error hpCasl: |[hpcasl]Command::Get{hpCasl.enReturnCode(string,object&)}|An exception occurred Specified cast is not valid.

-!Error hpCasl: |[hpcasl]Command::Get{hpCasl.enReturnCode(string,object&)}|An exception occurred Specified cast is not valid.

- etc..

It seems that the problem is on the side of HP, with the BIOS. On my machine, the BIOS version is L71 ver 1.20

[fredZB]

Problem solved on my machine.  I am no sure what worked as I did 2 things (and did not check the results in the interval):

- I reverted the BIOS to the standard configuration

- I updated the Intel and AMD drivers of my video. The reason? my computer regularly failed to wake up after entering into sleep mode.

[fredZB]

Problem came back after a recent upgrade proposed by HP. Yuck.