Windows 10: Trying to downgrade the latest HP Bios

Hi. So i've been to the HP support forum and they are nice but so far haven't really been all that helpful. I'm still stuck.

The issue is I recently updated to the latest bios for my HP -15 laptop, F38 by insyde, and since I've done that the machine has gotten progressively slower and is running hotter - fan is on a lot. I'm not 100% sure it is the new bios but I've done a lot of other things - repair installs, going back to win 8.1 and back up to win 10 etc lots of fun and I'd like to give a downgrade of the bios a try to eliminate that as possible cause.

So on the hp site they have you download the bios file for your model laptop. You then double click it and it has an installer thing in it. It offers this:





Since it is an older bios, one that I know works well for me, F25, it won't let you update it through windows which is the first choice. So I tried the next choice and you basically install the bios files to a usb flash drive. The next step is to turn off computer, put the flash drive in, press windows key + B and hold power for 3 seconds. Release the power and hold windows key and B until a bios utility comes on the screen. Another version of instructions has you release win key and B along with power at 3 seconds. No matter what I do though, nothing happens, no bios screen and no update of bios. Reading on the forum, this seems to be a common experience with people who have tried it. It's like it doesn't work. I tried different usb ports, usb drives... no difference.

Another option is to rollback the bios by pressing some keys. This doesn't work either though since it doesn't have the previous bios and only offers to reinstall F38. So I can't roll back.

If I press esc as the computer boots, there are a few options.. including system diagnostics and in there a firmware setting option. It looks like it offers a choice where you can point it to a bios to install but I don't know how to do that or if are any other ways to get the bios on.

I've tried also to put the most recent bios before F38 -f37, and same story. It's like it doesn't want you to do it and is blocking efforts. I know its an important update, it has the Spectre fix, but surely it there are problems there has to be some way to downgrade back down to an earlier bios?

:)

 

Critical_Process_Died - Windows 10-

Don't get too locked into MS providing the solution: for this error (coming out of sleep, in my case) with an HP Pavilion G6, the solution (as mentioned on the HP forum) turned out to be to
downgrade the BIOS.

The "latest" BIOS (which wasn't really all that new itself) created this issue when using Win81 or Win10, but not Win7. For other models, perhaps updating the BIOS is what's in order. I'd check your vendor's forum to see if there are model-specific tips there.

 

No HDMI signal at all after installing Win 10 upgrade

"Upgraded to Win 10 software from ATI didn't solve the problem. Downgraded to older Win 7 drivers provided by HP, still no luck."

To be clear, I tried the latest versions of the drivers from Intel and ATI as well as the Win 7 and Win 8 versions. Interestingly, the Intel auto-detect was not able to detect any Intel products. Bios does not address the problem either.

 

Sounds nasty and vexing. This BleepingComputer thread may be helpful (and then again, it may not): How To Force HP Bios Update - Windows 7
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thanks Ed. I may post over there to see if they have any ideas. I wasn't able to get anything from the link you posted.

 

Sorry it didn't provide any relief for you. If the HP forums don't offer any solutions, you might try the BIOS forums over at Win-RAID.com (look for the Storage Drivers and BIOS Modding entry, then post into BIOS modding to ask for help: you may get lucky).
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thanks anyway Ed. I started a thread over at BC and no luck so far. It may really be locked since it is a critical update. My bad for updating to it so quickly. Anyway, if it is locked, maybe they will unlock in future or provide a better update. Disabling spectre protection on inspectre tool does improve perfomance (which i've read indicates it may be a problem with the bios update and windows update software interaction) so this is a workaround I guess. Thanks again!