Thought Leadership
HP is looking into reports that BIOS updates are crippling expensive business notebooks. The culprit appears to be automatic delivery through Windows Update.
Anyone who has owned a high-end HP notebook over the past few months and installed a BIOS update may have run into trouble. Several forums are filling up with accounts of machines that no longer boot after the firmware was refreshed. Alongside those, users complain about noticeably louder fans and about blue screens.
One specific case dates back to April. Back then, the owner of a ZBook Ultra G1a, a far from cheap mobile workstation, reported that their device froze during startup after the update. A glance at Reddit and other forums shows he was not an isolated case.
Critical Update, Automatic Installation
The trigger appears to be a BIOS update that was classified as critical and distributed via Windows Update. That classification comes with an unpleasant side effect: Windows installs critical updates by itself, without asking. And that is exactly what spells trouble for those affected.
Specifically, users point to BIOS versions 01.04.03 and 01.04.05 as problematic on the ZBook Ultra G1a. On the EliteBook X G1a, it is versions 01.03.11 and 01.05.00.
Prevention is possible, since the BIOS includes a switch that bars the operating system from initiating updates. But once the faulty version is already installed, rolling it back becomes a test of patience. Some users managed to recover via the network downgrade function, though only with HP’s own USB-C to Ethernet adapter.
A Familiar Pattern
None of this is new territory for HP. Back in 2024, an update wrecked some ProBook models so thoroughly that they could not be salvaged, leaving their owners to foot the bill for repairs.
The timing is awkward, too, because Microsoft is currently working to make Windows more stable and is scrutinizing third-party drivers in Windows Update more closely. That same channel, after all, is also used to push BIOS and other firmware updates onto machines.
Asked by The Register, HP said it was aware of the reported BIOS problems and was looking into the matter. Anyone affected should contact support.
There is an added twist in a piece of news from May 20: Richard Hughes of the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) announced that HP is joining Lenovo and Dell as a premier sponsor of the open source firmware update project. One can only hope HP contributes nothing but money there and leaves its current update troubles at home.
