HP Bios Config Utility not Applying Changes to BIOS on HP 6200 PRO

[dcraft1793]

Hello all,

I've finally decided to turn to the support forums after hours of trying to diagnose and alleviate this issue myself.

For some reason, the HP Bios Configuration Utility will not update the settings on some of the HP 6200 PROs. It appears to be working (see attached picture), but changes are not being saved upon reboot. However, When I boot to the BIOS and make the changes, they do save and are applied to the next reboot.

Has anyone else had this problem?

The getconfig output is posted below.

I am running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit with Service Pack 1

The desired boot sequence is included in the attached bios_changes.txt file.

I downloaded BCU version 2.6.13.1 to replace my 2.6.3.1 per Richard's suggestion. I still get the same results. I don't want to use 3.2.3.1 because I don't want to have to use password files.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[richard429]

Thank you for the additional info.

This is being investigated.

Thanks,

Richard

I work for HP but am not a company spokesperson. Participation in the community forums is voluntary.

[vtby]

Hi dcraft1743,

I'm trying to duplicate the issue; I really appreciate if  you could give me detailed steps to reproduce it.

Thanks.

[dcraft1793]

Sorry for taking awhile to reply.

I think I have figured out the issue.

The problem lies with the fact that I am changing the bios password before hand. Let me back up:

I am attempting to change these bios settings during the reimaging process. I run a batchfile from the SetupComplete.cmd file which runs on first boot after reimaging.

The batch file looks like this:

BiosConfigUtility64.exe /nspwd:"password" /cspwd:"password""" /cspwd:""
BiosConfigUtility64.exe /Set:"bios_changes.txt" /cspwd:"password"

The problem only occurs in this case when the bios password is already set to password. When it attempts to change the password, it replies with

"Attempt to change the password, but correct password not provided."

which is as expected. However, the next time one attempts to change the password to something new (say "password1"), providing the correct current password (which is "password"), I get the error 

"Failed to change the Setup Password. This may not be a supported platform or the new password is not valid for this platform."

And the behavior of not actually changing bios settings starts as well. The only way to alleviate the problem is to reboot the machine.

The problem seems to be the inclusion of the extra double quotes in the provided password ("password"""). The reason I need to do this is at one point in time, we accidently set a bunch of bios passwords to include a double quote at the end. This should be fine, however, as the BCU has a special way to include double quotes (from the output of BiosConfigUtility64.exe /?)

NOTE: Use "" to specify double quote in passwords.
Ex: /nspwd:"1234567""8" for 1234567"8

Basically, I ran into a perfect storm of three factors being true:

1. My bios password was already set to what I wanted it to be set to
2. I was not including the desired password with the /cspwd argument to account for case 1
3. I WAS including a password with /cspwd that had a double quote at the end, which seems to cause a bug.

I have yet to apply my findings, but wanted to report back so anyone who is interested can try to reproduce my issue.

[vtby]

Hi dcraft1743,

After upgrading the system BIOS from version 2.24 to 2.25, I have tried to run BCU 2.60.13.1 with your provided "bios_changes.txt" on my 6200 system and it seems the boot sequence is being saved upon reboot.

Try to re-flash the BIOS and run again to see the problem resolves.

Attached are

1.txt = my system's repset file prior runing BCU

3.txt = my system's repset file after executing BCU with your bios_changes.txt

Note:

Below are the settings failed to change due to they have invalid setting name or value and that is not BCU's issue.   BCU creates a settings file with everything the BIOS passes it.  If the BIOS is not returning a named setting that is expected, BCU does not have the ability to create the setting name or any of its possible values. 

NIC PXE Option ROM Download

                              *Enable

                              Disable

S5 Wake on LAN

                              *Enable

                              Disable

Boot Order

                              Network Controller

                              Ethernet controller

                              ATAPI CD-ROM Drive

                              USB device

                              Hard Drive

                              Diskette Drive

                              PnP Device #2

                              PnP Device #3

                              PnP Device #4

                              PnP Device #5

                              PnP Device #6

                              PnP Device #7

                              PnP Device #8

                              PnP Device #9

                              PnP Device #10

Thanks.