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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]

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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] 9 points 5 months ago (7 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

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.

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