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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 4 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] aniki@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] aniki@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

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

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

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.