HP bricks ProBook laptops with bad BIOS delivered via automatic updates — many users face black screen after Windows pushes new firmware ( www.tomshardware.com )

On May 26, a user on HP's support forums reported that a forced, automatic BIOS update had bricked their HP ProBook 455 G7 into an unusable state. Subsequently, other users have joined the thread to sound off about experiencing the same issue.

This common knowledge regarding BIOS software would, then, seem to make automatic, forced BIOS updates a real issue, even if it weren't breaking anything. Allowing the user to manually install and prepare their systems for a BIOS update is key to preventing issues like this.

At the time of writing, HP has made no official comment on the matter — and since this battery update was forced on laptops originally released in 2020, this issue has also bricked hardware outside of the warranty window, when previously users could simply send in the laptop for a free repair.

Overall, this isn't a very good look for HP, particularly its BIOS update practices. The fragility of BIOS software should have tipped off the powers at be at HP about the lack of foresight in this release model, and now we're seeing it in full force with forced, bugged BIOS updates that kill laptops.

recursive_recursion ,
@recursive_recursion@programming.dev avatar

On the offhand chance that someone with a bricked HP laptop stumbles here looking for what to do (prob via smartphone or public library computer),

  • I'd recommend on removing the M.2 SSD (gumslice-shaped PCB that contains your data) to protect your data
    • this can be found by googling your laptop's serial number and looking for the manual, after downloading the PDF file you'll be able to open it with Firefox
    • you'll typically need a philips-head screwdriver to remove the laptop's case and remove the SSD

I'm assuming the users might be coming from Windows

hopefully this helps someone out there

breakingcups ,

I'd strongly recommend against that at this point since it will be useless without your Bitlocker key form the laptop's TPM.

SaltySalamander ,
@SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

Since probably 99% of Windows PCs don't run Bitlocker, I think your recommendation is a bit overblown.

jj4211 ,

Even if it isn't "bitlocker" branded, most Windows PCs ship with "BitLocker" enabled. The distinction between Windows Home disk encryption and "BitLocker" is that BitLocker additionally allows external management of the key material, while Home only supports the TPM and your microsoft account for the key/recovery codes.

SaltySalamander ,
@SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

most Windows PCs ship with "BitLocker" enabled

No, they simply do not. Microsoft branded hardware, sure. But I've never seen a Dell or an HP with Bitlocker enabled from the factory, and at this point I've put my hands on thousands of them.

jj4211 ,

I can tell you every factory preload of windows on a Lenovo I have seen for the past few years has disk encryption on by default (windows home, so not "bitlocker", but it's the same thing with respect to being tied to TPM.

breakingcups ,

When did you last check the statistic you just pulled from your ass? Bitlocker is on by default on all machines that support it, which is all pc's and laptops being sold the past few years.

The only exception used to be when you bypass oobe to create a local user account, which also isn't supported anymore.

SaltySalamander ,
@SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

Part of my job description includes repairing PCs. I see quite a lot of them over the course of a month. I also set up lots of new PCs for people when they buy them. All I see Bitlocker enabled on by default are Surface devices and the occasional Lenovo laptop/tablet hybrid POS. So I pulled that statistic from my own personal observations.

dumbass , (edited )
@dumbass@leminal.space avatar

HP:

https://media1.tenor.com/images/5651bfc7c7aa0e23468cc0a0e65c4f04/tenor.gif?itemid=17367995

Just one extra free bit of advertising for Linux.

Kbobabob ,

What does a motherboard BIOS have to do with Windows other than that was how the update was delivered? I swear Lemmy loves to shoehorn Linux into any article that even mentions Windows.

bane_killgrind ,

If they were running Linux the HP update utility would not be running.

CileTheSane ,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

What does a motherboard BIOS have to do with Windows other than that was how the update was delivered?

So what does this have to do with Windows and Linux other than the fact that Linux wouldn't have a mandatory unskippable update?

solsangraal ,

i rarely victim-blame, but if you're buying HP anything, then yea...

nifty , (edited )
@nifty@lemmy.world avatar

At one point they didn’t suck so much, but everything has been infected with enshittification

Takios ,
@Takios@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I remember warning labels on BIOS updates that basically said that if nothing is broken, don't do the update because the risk of bricking the device did not outweigh any potential benefits. That vendors are now pushing mandatory BIOS updates through Windows Update is terrifying.

vithigar ,

When I heard that BIOS updates were going out automatically via Windows update I had just assumed the devices in question must be using an A/B update scheme to prevent the risk of accidentally bricking the system, because obviously they should.

Absolutely insane that's not the case.

far_university1990 ,

Why can even touch bios from system? That sound like horrible attack vector. If can infect bios, no reformat or reinstall will remove virus.

Aux ,

You're not touching BIOS from the system. The software just downloads a cryptographically singed binary and reboots into BIOS. Then BIOS checks if the file is ok and proceeds to flash itself.

Vilian , (edited )

attack vetor if the person has physical access to your device, or the bios connect to the internet, at that point fuck it

far_university1990 ,

No meant like if can infect system, could touch bios and infect, so make virus stay forever.

Which sound horrible.

Also Intel ME can connect to internet and is below BIOS. Agree, fuck it.

barsoap ,

They really, really, should be doing A/B systems. Or just have an absolutely minimum loader that can load from EPROM/flash or USB so when the system storage gets messed up, you can still launch the updater from USB. That bios loader doesn't need to know more than how to talk to storage and shovel bytes to the CPU, maybe blink a LED, it's simple enough to be able to be actual ROM, never needing to be updated.

Wait, no: SD cards can talk SPI... it's not going to be fast but it's only a few megs anyway. The EPROM or Flash you're using probably speaks SPI, already. You could literally make a system which can load the BIOS from SD card for the cost of a card cage and maybe a jumper. You could have gigabytes of bios storage for three bucks by using off the shelf cheap SD cards, forget A/B storage you could do the whole bloody alphabet and people could replace the thing easily.

nickwitha_k ,

Here's some extra fun: there's a decent chance that you only need a cable with JST or DuPont connectors. I've seen a fair number of laptop motherboards with unused SPI headers/connectors just hanging out. My understanding being that they're for possible accessories or, literally for flashing/debugging the bios.

sir_pronoun ,

Ugh. Microsoft really trying to advertise for Linux again

skillissuer ,
@skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

on these laptops you can update bios from bios, just needs to be connected via ethernet

aniki , (edited )

But that's not automatic or forced. Linux would never automatically update a BIOS.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Is it even possible to update BIOS on Linux? AFAIK, the installers are either for Windows or directly through the BIOS itself.

aniki , (edited )

I think its highly manufacturer dependent but I install BIOS updates from Ubuntu on all my Dells.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux

Vilian , (edited )

yes, but the manufacturer need to support, thinkpads update bios fine under linux for example, usinf fwupd

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Right, but so few do that. In general, updating BIOS through Linux isn't really a thing.

jj4211 ,

Updates for my laptop show up in the 'update' view of Discover. I currently manually decide whether to proceed, but the 'click to update all' I suspect is close enough for most people to be fully automatic, and perhaps even is fully automated for some people.

FenrirIII ,
@FenrirIII@lemmy.world avatar

HP did the damage.

Linkerbaan ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

This is a classical example of user error.

They made the easily preventable mistake of buying HP.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

PEBCAHP

Thann ,
@Thann@lemmy.ml avatar

Problem between keyboard and wallet

voodooattack ,

using windows*

jj4211 ,

fwupd under Linux also pushes firmware updates, if you let it.

Vilian ,

yeah, it couldn't help with company stupidity

spaghettiwestern , (edited )

HP laptops are garbage. This is the hinge of my HP X360 laptop after 6 months of occasional use: https://i.imgur.com/LhZWBIt.jpg

Omega_Jimes ,

They're very inconsistent. I've had an x360 since 2020 and, aside from the hinge being weak, it's still going. I'm also pretty careless with my equipment. My wife uses it now.

But then, I've seen more than one like yours that has seemed to evaporate like a cheap t-shirt.

spaghettiwestern ,

HP has known the hinges are defective since they introduced them. There are so many people having problems a class action suit was filed about it.

Iloveyurianime ,

Hp means Hinge problem as every single one of their laptops have some problem with their hinges

terminhell ,

Check the torq of the hinge screws. They tend to come loose over time and can rock a little. This can cause the plastic to break that holds the female standoffs that it attaches too.

michael_palmer ,

I have an HP 530 from 2007, and its hinges are fine. I upgraded it to 2 GB of RAM (I have core2duo model) and installed Linux Mint. I use it at work to open the corporate web portal and watch youtube, which is only possible with a modern web browser.

baatliwala ,

Damn that laptop is unhinged

andros_rex ,

They don’t play well with Linux. Occasionally my HP laptop will turn back on SecureBoot with no warning. There’s also like a full minute of delay between opening the thing and keyboard strokes registering. (Iirc, HP is so Linux hostile it’s not really supported by Arch)

spaghettiwestern ,

Must depend on the model. I've been running Mint on that (repaired) X360 for years without significant problems outside crappy Realtek wireless module issues.

Anti_Iridium ,

Mine will start immediately after shutting down. I have never found a solution other than holding the power button

terminhell ,

If it's not a touchscreen, it's fairly easy to repair. Still shouldn't have broke in the first place, but it's just the back panel cover.

I've repaired hundreds of laptops across multiple vendors on all kinds of damage, fwiw.

Aux ,

Touchscreens are also easy to repair, they just have two more wires in the ribbon, that's all.

terminhell ,

Depends on the model. Some are more involved than others.

Aux ,

Yeah, agree. But it doesn't have to be that way. Some companies are just lazy, sadly.

axo ,

That problem has every consumer laptop.
Lenovos Ideapads and Thinkbooks do the same. As well as the Asus, Acer, etc notebooks from the cheaper end.

I do those hinge repairs from time to time for customers and its rarely a thinkpad, elitebooks, probook, etc.

sag , (edited )
@sag@lemm.ee avatar

Thanks for Update HP But I use Linux :)

Kbobabob ,

And presumably not an HP motherboard, so this doesn't really apply to you.

Tuuli ,

I had Windows push a bios update on my HP omen desktop. It completed the update but wouldn't get back up after restart. The fans went crazy for a moment and then it was dead. Luckily I had warranty left. They replaced processor and motherboard. Good job HP/Microsoft.

Ballistic_86 ,

HP is the one responsible here, Windows is just the delivery service HP uses to deliver their updates.

I’m all for hating on Microsoft, but you don’t blame the UPS driver for delivering a bomb to your house.

NutWrench ,
@NutWrench@lemmy.world avatar

Microsoft has no business forcing firmware updates on anything. This is something HP should have handled. Those laptops are THEIR products, not Microsoft's.

octopus_ink ,

Those laptops are THEIR products, not Microsoft’s.

Microsoft: All your PC are belong to us.

PlasticExistence ,

What you say!!?

octopus_ink ,

Move, Zig!

bluewing ,

"Hit the road Jack"

WaterWaiver , (edited )

This is something HP should have handled.

If a bad update is rolled out then it's the responsibility of the software maker partner (HP) and the distributor (Microsoft), not just one or the other.

Those laptops are THEIR products, not Microsoft’s.

Both Microsoft and HP have branding on their laptops and a responsibility post-sale for the reliability of their systems. Hardware, firmware and OS responsibilities are all party to this chain of failure.

x0x7 ,

This logic breaks down when you realize the laptop is mine, and not HP's or Windows. And any software that is mine, my copy of windows should also be mine and not microsoft's, can modify my device if I have selected some of my software to do that.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Well, you might want to avoid fwupd too then

madscience ,

Fwupd is a pull model, not a pushed automatic update. Who the fuck doesn’t read release notes and do due diligence before running fwupd?

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Every fucking Ubuntu user where it's installed by default in Software Center?

jj4211 ,

Fedora pulls fwupd by default. If you use one of the 'check for updates' UIs, fwupd, dnf, and flatpak sources are all polled.

fury ,

How do these things not have unbrickable A/B firmware partitions by now? Even I have that on a $2 microcontroller. Self-test doesn't pass after an update? Instant automatic rollback to the previous working partition.

cmnybo ,

It's pretty ridiculous not to have a way of recovering from a failed update.

On my desktop, I just have to plug a flash drive with the BIOS image into a specific USB port and press a button on the motherboard. It doesn't matter if the BIOS is broken and it doesn't even require a CPU or RAM to be installed.

far_university1990 ,

Gigabyte?

adarza , (edited )

do they even use 'dualbios' anymore? all i've seen lately is 'q flash' (for updating bios without a cpu or video present) on their boards.

cmnybo ,

It's an Asrock board.

axo ,

HP notebooks can do that too though

dorumon ,
@dorumon@lemmy.world avatar

My motherboard legit does this. Though it's probably more so it's an industrial one with like 8 SATA ports than anything else.

Aux ,

Plenty of motherboards do that and plenty of laptops. It's just HP sucks big time, not only their printers. Fuck HP.

DudeDudenson ,

Hate to be that guy, but I bet someone somewhere did the math of how much extra profit they can get from people having their device bricked and just getting a new one vs how many of them actually do the warranty claim

Kongar ,

The article doesn’t say/clarify. Was it some crap HP software that performs driver updates, and it decided to force a bios flash? Or was it windows update itself?

If it was windows itself, holy crap, that’s a serious over reach on Microsoft’s part. Like “this is insanity windows needs to be removed” bad.

Linkerbaan , (edited )
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

Years ago Windows used to not provide drivers. This lead to many users never downloading drivers for their devices. Users ran their devices for years without trackpad, Wifi and GPU drivers etc. The drivers were also scattered all over the internet.

These days vendors can supply Windows with drivers and even Bios updates.

It is very unlikely Microsoft pushed these drivers out themselves. HP likely provided the Bios update..

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

The irony here is that if you've an HP laptop you'll still need to download certain drivers from HP to get things to work at 100%, for instance you may get all the hardware working after running windows update but your special brightness or wtv keys won't work unless you go into HP's website and download a thing.

efstajas ,

It was most likely HP, through Windows Update (which handles device-specific driver etc. updates that OEMs are in control of). Microsoft doesn't concern itself with pushing BIOS updates to some random 4-year old HP model

Kyrgizion ,

since this battery update was forced on laptops originally released in 2020, this issue has also bricked hardware outside of the warranty window, when previously users could simply send in the laptop for a free repair.

I hope HP aren't surprised when they get accosted with bricked laptops through their execs' windshields at random intervals...

SirSamuel ,

If i knew of any execs near where i live they would be getting a front row seat to my reenactment of the Office Space printer scene.

It's rare for me to viscerally hate someone just for existing, but if i met an HP exec I would have to exert quite a bit of self control to not beat them until I lost feeling in my hands

far_university1990 ,

It's rare for me to viscerally hate someone just for existing

Microsoft exec as well

x0x7 ,

If you don't use HP and you don't use windows you won't have the problem. You should be boycotting HP as a part of BDS anyway. https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp

"But I already bought an HP." If you had adopted BDS much earlier like you should have you wouldn't have these problems.

echodot ,

I wish HP made good products so I could not buy it to boycott them. But I already don't buy their crap.

Psythik ,

Since when does Windows Update touch the BIOS? How is that even possible?

WaterWaiver ,

Windows update fetches all sorts of things now. If the hardware advertises X device then Windows update will check if it has anything for it. Approved vendors can provide all sorts of guff. Historically that has included drivers that intentionally brick your devices. HP probably packaged up some software that updates the BIOS and got it into the Windows Update DBs.

zaph ,
@zaph@sh.itjust.works avatar

About halfway through windows 10 iirc

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