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I am using this particular HP Laptop:

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04919819#AbT1

When I go to my "System Diagnostic" Options then I am unable to find any option to update the BIOS.

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I am running Linux, so the only way for me to update the BIOS is via USB and not from within the OS, as HP does not provide in-OS BIOS Update for Linux.

What am I suppose to do ?

ng.newbie
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    Your BIOS may not be the [latest](https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-15-ac100-notebook-pc-series/8499326/model/9329831/swItemId/ob-232451-2). To run BIOS update using Linux see [this answer](https://superuser.com/a/1570765/8672). – harrymc Jul 22 '20 at 18:57
  • What is the nature of the USB disk with the BIOS update you are trying to use? Is it not just a bootable disk that you boot to use? The service manual for this model doesn't have instructions for updating the BIOS outside of Windows which would give a suggestion either way. – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 21:29
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    @rakslice I created the BIOS from there Wizard. So shouldn't that just make it bootable ? And yes it does not show up in the boot devices. But I don't think the USB stick is suppose to be bootable, it is just there to have the files in it so the updation program can read it from the USB stick. – ng.newbie Jul 23 '20 at 14:51

3 Answers3

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If you're using a USB stick prepared by the Windows BIOS update download (e.g. sp96831.exe) "HP System BIOS Update Utility", using its second option "Create Recovery USB flash drive", that utility provides the following instructions on screen to use it:

To recover a device with the flash drive, please follow these instructions:

  1. Power off the device to be recovered.
  2. Insert the flash drive into a USB port.
  3. Power on the device.
  4. The device may reboot up to 3 times, with indicator lights on the keyboard flashing or the screen appearing blank for a short time.

The recovery USB flash drive is intended as a last resort "to use on devices with corrupted BIOS", so it's not clear to me if there's anything you would need to do differently to use it on a system with an intact BIOS, or if it works exactly the same, or indeed if it's even possible to use it at all.

If these HP EFI files error, if they ran at all, they will try to leave behind a log file on the disk that may give you a clue what's wrong.

For reference, the utility simply puts a bunch of files on my existing FAT32-formatted flash drive, all under a main Hewlett-Packard folder:

Folder PATH listing for volume HP_TOOLS
Volume serial number is B094-7398
F:\HEWLETT-PACKARD
+---BIOS
|   +---Current
|   |       080C1.bin
|   |       080C1.s12
|   |       080C6.bin
|   |       080C6.s12
|   |       080CD.bin
|   |       080CD.s12
|   |       08135.bin
|   |       08135.s12
|   |
|   +---New
|   \---Previous
\---BIOSUpdate
        CryptRSA.efi
        CryptRSA32.efi
        HpBiosMgmt.efi
        HpBiosMgmt.s09
        HpBiosMgmt.s12
        HpBiosMgmt.s14
        HpBiosMgmt32.efi
        HpBiosMgmt32.s09
        HpBiosMgmt32.s12
        HpBiosMgmt32.s14
        HpBiosUpdate.efi
        HpBiosUpdate.s09
        HpBiosUpdate.s12
        HpBiosUpdate.sig
        HpBiosUpdate32.efi
        HpBiosUpdate32.s09
        HpBiosUpdate32.s12
        HpBiosUpdate32.sig

To run an EFI file from a USB stick using GRUB

Here's how to run an EFI file from a USB stick using a GRUB install on the hard drive already booting using UEFI. (This has not been tested on the HP model in question, so I don't know if this HpBiosUpdate.efi is even usable in this case, but it might be worth a shot.)

Plug in the USB stick and boot to GRUB and go to the GRUB shell (usually c for command line). Double check that you can see an extra hd device for the USB stick:

grub> ls
(hd0) (hd1) (hd1,gpt3) (hd1,gpt2) (hd1,gpt1) (hd1,gpt0)

You may see LVM volumes, more partitions, less partitions, etc. depending how you have your system set up, but the main thing is that I can see a separate hd for the USB stick, (hd0) in this case, with no partition of its own -- the partition won't be visible yet if the USB stick is only MBR partitioned and the module for reading MBR partition tables (part_msdos) is not loaded. Substitute your USB stick device for hd0 below.

If nothing at all shows up for the USB stick: I don't know if this applies to the HP machine in question, but I find on UEFI laptops in general that UEFI does not consistently enable USB at startup so GRUB will fail to even see a USB stick on some boots without explanation. If so just try again, and if that never works, try different ways of booting (warm boot, booting using the devices list, etc.) To help with this I use a USB stick with a light that is on when it is powered so I know immediately if it is off and I'm going to need to try booting again.

Load the DOS partition module:

grub> insmod part_msdos

You should now see the partition of hd0:

grub> ls
... (hd0) (hd0,msdos1) ...

Take a look around:

grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)
Partition (hd0,msdos1): Filesystem type fat - Label `HP_TOOLS`, ...
grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)/
System Volume Information/ Hewlett-Packard/

Ok, looks good. Let's do the boot:

grub> insmod chain
grub> set root=(hd0,msdos1)
grub> chainloader /Hewlett-Packard/BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.efi
grub> boot

Note that once root is set the GRUB shell will have Tab-completion for putting in the chainloader filename starting with /.

It appears even if these HP EFI files error, they leave behind a log file (E.g. HpBiosUpdate.log) on the disk which you can even cat from GRUB.

rakslice
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  • Several sources, which are quite dated, suggest to me that for a BIOS to update to, rather than one that is to serve as a backup in case there is a problem, it should be in the `New` folder. I wonder if it is as simple as moving the files there from `Current`. https://forum.manjaro.org/t/hp-bios-firmware-updating/67950 https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/How-to-use-the-HP-BIOS-update-uefi-utility/td-p/337347/page/9 – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 23:26
  • For reference, HP's generic guide for a BIOS update on consumer notebooks is here: https://support.hp.com/emea_middle_east-en/document/c00042629 For updating from USB, it shows a system that also has InsydeH20 UEFI setup, but has a more sophisticated semi-graphical Diagnostics than is seen in forum posts about 15-ac179tx, that has the "Firmware Management" section where you can apply the BIOS update from whatever folder it's in just by navigating to it. – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 23:47
  • If memory serves )it was a coupe of years ago) I was able to update a bios by disconnecting the HD and network. Inserting the stick. Doing an EFI boot. That dropped me into the EFI shell because there was no valid boot-device. Form the EFI shell I then manually started hpbiosupdate.efi. Before I did that I copied the content of current/ to new/ because I also found multiple people on the internet who recommended that. I don't know which set was actually used. – Tonny Jul 23 '20 at 08:08
  • @rakslice @Tonny Yeah, I don't have that nice UI where I can just go to BIOS Update by navigating to it. How can I get an EFI shell ? Is it the same as the GRUB shell ? I tried booting `hpbiosupdate.efi` by selecting it, but it errors out saying: **The Selected boot device failed. Press enter to continue.** – ng.newbie Jul 23 '20 at 14:47
  • The EFI shell is different from the GRUB shell -- GRUB is the bootloader installed on your drive with Linux and not be accessible if you disconnect the HD. – rakslice Jul 24 '20 at 20:54
  • I added some instructions for booting an EFI file from GRUB in case that works better than navigating to the EFI file in the firmware. – rakslice Jul 24 '20 at 21:54
  • Also a note about the log file – rakslice Jul 24 '20 at 22:23
  • If someone doesn't have any Linux installation with GRUB, they can get themselves a second USB stick that has just GRUB on it that can help them follow these steps here: https://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/download/supergrub2diskdownload/super-grub2-disk-beta/ – Max Jan 05 '21 at 04:54
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You are looking in thew wrong place...
The UEFI of most HP laptops, including this one, contains 2 programs: The actual UEFI BIOS itself and the Diagnostics tool.
You are looking in the Diagostics tool, but the Bios update is in the BIOS section of the UEFI.

Tonny
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  • To get into the UEFI setup from grub-efi, go to the grub prompt (follow the on screen instructions on the grub boot menu to get to the grub command line, or just hold down shift before it loads while booting) and then enter `fwsetup`. – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 20:56
  • (Using an OS facility like grub's `fwsetup` command to get to UEFI setup is most useful for systems where no boot key combination to do this is available in some modes. However according to the maintenance and service manual that HP points to for this model, there is one: press Esc and then F10.) – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 21:20
  • Judging by forum posts, there are no options in the UEFI setup of this model related to updating the firmware, other than maybe changing the boot device if that's part of the process – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 21:43
  • @rakslice You’re right I think. Most HP laptops have a update bios item in the bios, except some consumer models. This could be one. In that case you can only update from inside Windows and/or using a Freedos boot usb stick. Instructions for the latter were awful (incomplete and wrong) last time I needed them which was 3 or 4 years ago. – Tonny Jul 22 '20 at 21:52
  • Aha: a note on the Manjaro forum about doing a BIOS update from USB stick on some unspecified HP laptop (a bit different judging by its use of `.sig` instead of `.s12`) has this hint: "if you can not access the BIOS update function in the BIOS, you must set an administrator password and reboot laptop" https://forum.manjaro.org/t/hp-bios-firmware-updating/67950 – rakslice Jul 22 '20 at 23:19
  • @Tonny If you see edits, then you will notice that there is no BIOS Update option in the BIOS Setup area which I got to by pressing F10. – ng.newbie Jul 23 '20 at 14:43
  • @rakslice Pressing F10 does not do anything useful. I have provided the screenshots of the BIOS Setup I received when I pressed F10. It has no BIOS Update option. `fwsetup` just brings me back to the BIOS screen I get when I interrupt the startup via `Esc`. No options exist in my BIOS so far it seems for up-gradation. – ng.newbie Jul 23 '20 at 14:45
  • @rakslice So just setting the admin password will give me the BIOS Update option ? Seems weird. – ng.newbie Jul 23 '20 at 14:48
  • @ng.newbie Re admin password: seems like a bug, if true – rakslice Jul 24 '20 at 21:52
  • That manjaro forum post link is dead / aged out; here's a snapshot for posterity: https://web.archive.org/web/20201202042142/https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/t/hp-bios-firmware-updating/67950 – rakslice Nov 01 '22 at 19:57
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Your pictures looks like AMI BIOS. It should be possible to use the forced refresh function for AMI BIOS.

Method:

Format your USB flash drive with FAT32 or FAT, please back up your files before doing it

Copy your BIOS file to the root directory of the flash drive and rename it to "AMIBOOT.ROM"

Turn off your computer and insert the USB flash drive

Hold down the Ctrl+Home keys and turn on the PC power

Keep Ctrl+Home until your BIOS update is complete

See also https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/support/faq_content.php?S_ID=392