Bricked from Windows Update BIOS - HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m and No Support from HP

[MichiganBroadband]

***Updated***  Long difficult to read/follow RANT removed. 
Not happy with HP at all in how this has been executed and not being supported.
 

HP all in one 1 week out of warranty This it is for an end customer.
I did not buy or advise buying this myself and really never would.

Windows update BIOS upgrade bricked this system.
HP offers absolutely NO support, no BIOS re-flash image or utility for this system.
I have not been able to yet find any way to fix the system.
System still has video and a bootloader that says the bios flash update failed can can't find bios image.
Not completely dead but appears to be missing it's bios image.
Built in bios reflash works but just re-flashes the upgraded bios which just repeats the boot loop error above.
Opening up and clearing the CMOS/removed the CMOS battery made no difference at all.
Product I am dealing with link: HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

Frustrated, could use any help and insight especially from anyone that has been through this exact same problem.

 

[Needfuldoer]

What do you call that formatting?

 

Quote

HP all in one 1 week out of warranty
Windows update BIOS upgrade bricked the system.
HP offers absolutely NO support, no BIOS re-flash image or utility for this system.
I have not been able to find any way to fix the system.
System still has video and a bootloader that says the bios flash update failed can can't find bios image.
Not completely dead but appears to be missing it's bios image.
Built in bios reflash works but just re-flashes the upgraded bios which just repeats the boot loop error above.
Opening up and clearing the CMOS/removed the CMOS battery made no difference at all.
Frustrated, need help.

Long ticked off frustrated version:
I am really Pi**ed about this!
I realize I may not be thinking clearly and am looking for any suggestions.
I have done bios updates so many times and have had maybe one failure in 20+ years.
I've done hundreds if not thousands of them.
I know what I'm doing.
I make sure the system is healthy and I make sure it's on battery backup power and I WAIT until the update is truly finished.
Sometimes they take awhile.
And I almost ALWAYS have a backup of the bios and a way to flash it back before I do an update.
This time my customer let Windows update update the bios, It asked and I say go ahead. after making sure it was on a good battery backup.
Everything proceeded as normal.
The BIOS actually flashed properly witout error.
Is was not a mismatch per the bios update software onboard.
However I now have nearly a brick.
there is a loader there that gives me video and says the bios flash failed and it reboots over & over.
I need try clearing the CMOS yet, I am pretty sure that will not fix anything. and it's nearly impossible to open up without breaking the plastic. it is designed not to be serviced and is worse than normal.. I have opened many all-in-ones.
This one is extra special and I'm probably going to break it trying.
The HP forum is useless and terrible.
And HP does not give you any kind of support or way to deal with this at all when it is one week out of warranty like it is.
No parts, nobody to call nobody to chat with no nothing.
$500 computer 1 week out of warranty.
Also NO drivers or bios images can be downloaded for this HP all-in-one.
This is absolute total crap at it's crappiest.
This is a brand new customer, they are of course upset that I tol them it should be ok to let Windows do all of the updates in the "advanced section" where they update hardware drivers and the BIOS.
I could lose the customer or have to foot the bill for a replacement computer II expect to keep them after this.
This was my day to make a good first impression and is why I am so upset.

 

Try making a BIOS recovery flash drive following the instructions here:

 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_3932413-2337994-16

 

You'll need a second, working PC to create the drive.

 

If you post the exact model of PC it is, maybe we can find the BIOS that goes with it.

[CommanderAlex]

First I'm reading this as if it's the customer...then I'm reading it as the tech support agent's POV...confused on what's going on other than a bricked BIOS. 

[MichiganBroadband]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Try making a BIOS recovery flash drive following the instructions here:

 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_3932413-2337994-16

 

You'll need a second, working PC to create the drive.

Hi and thanks for responding so fast. 
I am not sure if you read my entire post.
And this is a genercic answer that any google search will turn up in 10 seconds about this issue.   
I know it's rather long. 
I have already tried all of the things that should be tried unless as an experienced professional I am somehow missing something. 
"

• Go to the HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads page.

• Navigate to the product page for your computer." 
  
  
  ****THERE ARE no drivers and downloads listed at HP for the computer****  
  AND THIS IS THE PROBLEM. 
  
  I need a bios image or a bios recovery utility and HP is not making this available.
  Meanwhile HP has pushed out a bad BIOS upgrade that bricks this model of computer.  
   
  
   

 

[MichiganBroadband]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

First I'm reading this as if it's the customer...then I'm reading it as the tech support agent's POV...confused on what's going on other than a bricked BIOS. 

Sorry I could have been much clearer and concise.
It's BOTH. 
This customer did this but under my supervision I told them to go ahead and apply the windows advanced updates... should be ok. 
Now it's my problem to figure out. 
I've done this for a long time and have always been able to find support and reflash resources. 
And I've only had a BIOS update truly fail in about 20 years.. and not by luck, by experience. 
This is an HP issue on all sides of it beside me allowing it to happen. 
It's a risk I am used to because I usually work with hardware that is actually supported by where it was purchased from. 
This is HP not supporting the product or the customer.
Thanks. 


 

[Needfuldoer]

23 minutes ago, MichiganBroadband said:

And this is a genercic answer that any google search will turn up in 10 seconds about this issue.   

What did you expect? You only told us that it's an HP all-in-one, not a specific model. How are we supposed to help you when you give us no information to work with, except in broad generalities?

 

23 minutes ago, MichiganBroadband said:

I have already tried all of the things that should be tried unless as an experienced professional I am somehow missing something. 

Sometimes experience can blind us to the obvious.

 

23 minutes ago, MichiganBroadband said:

• Go to the HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads page.

• Navigate to the product page for your computer." 
  
  ****THERE ARE no drivers and downloads listed at HP for the computer****  
  AND THIS IS THE PROBLEM. 

And what computer might that be?

[manikyath]

i see a combination of problems here...

- you bought an HP all-in-one.. of all the decent HP products that exist among the cesspit of HP garbage, you bought the cessest of cesspit options.

- it's a week out of warranty, there isnt a single brand that'll deal with your support ticket a week out of warranty, especially if it is structured as poorly as your post.

- your post is so poorly formatted that i cant even begin to give you suggestions for what to try...

 

however.. give this a watch:

 

[kb5zue]

Something just isn't right here.  I have read, and re-read, every post given to this subject and for some reason I just can't find what model number is for the broken product.  Sure, everyone now knows the problem PC is an HP product, but no where in all of the posts concerning the problem does the OP say what model the problem PC is.  

 

How can the original poster expect anyone to be able to do some honest research along with provide some honest help if the model of the PC with the problem is not known?  So, what is it?  If you provide that, then, just maybe then, we will be able to help.

 

And no, there isn't a single PC maker that will provide support for an expired warranty.  If they do, it is because the WANT to help, not because the MUST have to help.

 

Take care and GOOD LUCK, you're going to need it.

[BondiBlue]

I'm not sure how you can expect anyone here to offer any help when you haven't given us any details about the specific model number of the computer. HP AIO is about as descriptive as saying a four door sedan from Ford. That tells us the manufacturer, and it tells us the basic type of product, but nothing about the age, specifications, etc. 

 

Also, your post is very strangely laid out and hard to read. Not sure if you copied and pasted the text from somewhere else, but it shows up as individual lines spaced far apart. 

[BiotechBen]

Speaking from my personal experience with HP,  eing out of warranty sucks, which is why I will do the extended warranty. Had a bad image get pushed to my system, caused it to boot loop. Got a hold of customer support and was polite and firm, not backing down, saying "you pushed a bad image, that is not MY fault, what are you going to do to fix it". I had a pool floaty chair looking bubble envelope overnighted to me, sent it to their service center, got the computer back 36hrs later fully functional with new main board, all of this happening over a single weekend. 

[MichiganBroadband]

4 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

What did you expect? You only told us that it's an HP all-in-one, not a specific model. How are we supposed to help you when you give us no information to work with, except in broad generalities?

 

Sometimes experience can blind us to the obvious.

 

And what computer might that be?

Sorry I was extremely blind!  
Didn't see the absolute formatting mess or the fact that my link to the actual product page did not survive!   
Had to grab the phone and then rush out the door. 
Actual product I am dealing with is:  HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support 

Sorry for my outright stupidity here.



 

[MichiganBroadband]

4 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

What do you call that formatting?

 

 

Try making a BIOS recovery flash drive following the instructions here:

 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_3932413-2337994-16

 

You'll need a second, working PC to create the drive.

 

If you post the exact model of PC it is, maybe we can find the BIOS that goes with it.

 

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

i see a combination of problems here...

- you bought an HP all-in-one.. of all the decent HP products that exist among the cesspit of HP garbage, you bought the cessest of cesspit options.

- it's a week out of warranty, there isnt a single brand that'll deal with your support ticket a week out of warranty, especially if it is structured as poorly as your post.

- your post is so poorly formatted that i cant even begin to give you suggestions for what to try...

 

however.. give this a watch:

 

Yes very very sorry about that formatting mess! 
Also the product link got lost in that mess as well. 
I cleaned it up a little. 

Problem at this point as you might be able to see from the product page is that HP is witholding or not making availble ANY drivers or BIOS images
or recovery tools for this. 

HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support


 

[MichiganBroadband]

I didn't actually buy this crap. 
I'm not expecting full support or to create a ticket. 
I would expect the ability to download a bios image, 
I would expect HP NOT to push out a faulty BIOS that bricks systems via Windows update or expect them to make sure this does not happen.
And I'd further expect them would give people that run into this awful issue a way to fix it.   

 

[MichiganBroadband]

4 hours ago, manikyath said:

i see a combination of problems here...

- you bought an HP all-in-one.. of all the decent HP products that exist among the cesspit of HP garbage, you bought the cessest of cesspit options.

- it's a week out of warranty, there isnt a single brand that'll deal with your support ticket a week out of warranty, especially if it is structured as poorly as your post.

- your post is so poorly formatted that i cant even begin to give you suggestions for what to try...

 

however.. give this a watch:

 

"I'll download the latest firmware wherever that is he says".

You realize my big bitch session is that they are not providing any way to get the firmware yet they sent out an update via Windows update that bricks these.

 
 

[MichiganBroadband]

It actually has something of a bootloader still on it. 
as it's not a black screen. 
Telling me "The BIOS update failed and can't find the BIOS image" every time you turn it on.
Presuming this bootloader *may* be looking for a copy of the BIOS image *somwhere* to recover or flash.
 
 

[MichiganBroadband]

5 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

What do you call that formatting?

 

 

Try making a BIOS recovery flash drive following the instructions here:

 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_3932413-2337994-16

 

You'll need a second, working PC to create the drive.

 

If you post the exact model of PC it is, maybe we can find the BIOS that goes with it.

Very sorry:  HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support 

 

I really meant to include that at the top.

 

[MichiganBroadband]

1 hour ago, BondiBlue said:

I'm not sure how you can expect anyone here to offer any help when you haven't given us any details about the specific model number of the computer. HP AIO is about as descriptive as saying a four door sedan from Ford. That tells us the manufacturer, and it tells us the basic type of product, but nothing about the age, specifications, etc. 

 

Also, your post is very strangely laid out and hard to read. Not sure if you copied and pasted the text from somewhere else, but it shows up as individual lines spaced far apart. 

I screwed it up as the phone was going off and as I had to run out the door. 
Very sorry about that. 
Didn't even realize the messed up formatting or missing product link until I got back a few hours later. 
I sure saw a facefull when I got back here

 

[MichiganBroadband]

2 hours ago, kb5zue said:

Something just isn't right here.  I have read, and re-read, every post given to this subject and for some reason I just can't find what model number is for the broken product.  Sure, everyone now knows the problem PC is an HP product, but no where in all of the posts concerning the problem does the OP say what model the problem PC is.  

 

How can the original poster expect anyone to be able to do some honest research along with provide some honest help if the model of the PC with the problem is not known?  So, what is it?  If you provide that, then, just maybe then, we will be able to help.

 

And no, there isn't a single PC maker that will provide support for an expired warranty.  If they do, it is because the WANT to help, not because the MUST have to help.

 

Take care and GOOD LUCK, you're going to need it.

Yep it was all messed up. 
Really bad day, family crisis My head was not on when I made that post. 
HP All-in-One - 22-df0120m Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

 

[MichiganBroadband]

1 hour ago, BiotechBen said:

Speaking from my personal experience with HP,  eing out of warranty sucks, which is why I will do the extended warranty. Had a bad image get pushed to my system, caused it to boot loop. Got a hold of customer support and was polite and firm, not backing down, saying "you pushed a bad image, that is not MY fault, what are you going to do to fix it". I had a pool floaty chair looking bubble envelope overnighted to me, sent it to their service center, got the computer back 36hrs later fully functional with new main board, all of this happening over a single weekend. 

Did you have a black screen brick or did you have like I do with a stupid graphical bootloader screen that says "the System BIOS Update failed unable to update BIOS image file" ERROR and reboots in 15 seconds. 
There is something of a bootloader here, it is not completely dead. 
If I do the win+B routine on powerup it completely reflashes the bios again, (takes 4-5 minutes) sames as when it updated. Then reboots and comes back to this error screen and reboots. 
It seems to have a copy of the New bad bios somewhere (not the hard drive) but on chip and will reflash it with the Win+B recover bios routine. 
But is flashing something bad that does not work and goes back to this boot loop. 

 

[manikyath]

4 hours ago, MichiganBroadband said:

It actually has something of a bootloader still on it. 
as it's not a black screen. 
Telling me "The BIOS update failed and can't find the BIOS image" every time you turn it on.
Presuming this bootloader *may* be looking for a copy of the BIOS image *somwhere* to recover or flash.
 
 

have you tried going trough the steps of the cloud recovery tool HP does actually list for this thing?

[Needfuldoer]

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

have you tried going trough the steps of the cloud recovery tool HP does actually list for this thing?

Yeah, that's probably the only option HP support will give you. With any luck it might include BIOS recovery, since it's their "magic fix-it-all" solution for their consumer machines.

[manikyath]

37 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Yeah, that's probably the only option HP support will give you. With any luck it might include BIOS recovery, since it's their "magic fix-it-all" solution for their consumer machines.

i'd guess that if the bios is looking for a recovery image, that's actually exactly what it is looking for.

 

HP's UEFI on most of their systems is incredibly resilient against a 'complete brick', it seems to be in a state where it cant self-recover (at least.. from how far i can make sense of OP's ramblings), so it's looking for the toolkit to boot into that.

[BiotechBen]

8 hours ago, MichiganBroadband said:

It actually has something of a bootloader still on it. 
as it's not a black screen. 
Telling me "The BIOS update failed and can't find the BIOS image" every time you turn it on.
Presuming this bootloader *may* be looking for a copy of the BIOS image *somwhere* to recover or flash.
 
 

Immediately went to "HP BIOS repair" and would get less far each successive time.

[BiotechBen]

25 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i'd guess that if the bios is looking for a recovery image, that's actually exactly what it is looking for.

 

HP's UEFI on most of their systems is incredibly resilient against a 'complete brick', it seems to be in a state where it cant self-recover (at least.. from how far i can make sense of OP's ramblings), so it's looking for the toolkit to boot into that.

It is supposed to have a backup image saved in a recovery partition on the drive, except if the board doesn't support bios flashback like mine, it's kinda a moot point.

[MichiganBroadband]

15 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Yeah, that's probably the only option HP support will give you. With any luck it might include BIOS recovery, since it's their "magic fix-it-all" solution for their consumer machines.

Yep-  tried that.
And it does not boot.  Does not include any kind of BIOS recovery.
It's pretty much just a windows re-imager.. and requires a working BIOS to do anything.