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

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

148 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (4 children)

after Windows pushes new firmware

If a Linux distro pushed bad HP firmware, people would be blaming the Linux distro. Why does Microsoft get a free pass?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

I think it's HP that pushed the update though. So I'm guessing that it's their driver that they broke not windows in general.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

It's not really Microsoft's fault, they're just delivering what HP releases via the firmware update channel.

I mean, Microsoft are a bag of dicks, but not on this one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Some Linux distros probably did push the bad HP firmware. Vendors push updates via fwupd.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

They don't get the blame, but they definitely will earn a conspiracy charge. They didn't commit the crime but they drove the van.