Upgrade firmware on HP Probook 6460b

Question

This guide is for Microsoft Windows 8.1: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-6460b-notebook-pc/5045594

But I do not have Microsoft Windows 8.1.

The existing BIOS has a menu for updating it (ESCF10 > Update System BIOS). Here it says:

Place the System BIOS and Signature file on a FAT32 partition either on the system hard drive or on a removable USB Key under the "Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\New" folder.

Add or verify the HP Bios update utility (HpBiosUpdate.efi) and signature file are located on the same FAT32 partition under the folder path: "Hewlett-Packard\BIOSUpdate".

The system BIOS will be update on the next restart.

It also tells me that the current BIOS revision is 68SCE Ver. F.61..

On a Microsoft Windows 10 machine I have been able to unpack https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp85501-86000/sp85528.exe

It contains 68SCF.CAB which contains efibios.sig, Rom.bin, Rom.sig, ver.sig, ver.txt.

By renaming the 68SCF.CAB to ROM.CAB the program HPQFlash.exe can run. It writes this to the USB-disk:

./HEWLETT-PACKARD
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/Current
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/Current/N24ET53W.BIN
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/Current/N24ET53W.SIG
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/New
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/New/N24ET53W.BIN
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BIOS/New/N24ET53W.SIG
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.s12
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.s09
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.sig
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.s12
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.sig
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/CryptRSA.efi
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.efi
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.s09
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/CryptRSA32.efi
./HEWLETT-PACKARD/BiosUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.efi
./System Volume Information
./System Volume Information/AadRecoveryPasswordDelete
./System Volume Information/IndexerVolumeGuid
./System Volume Information/WPSettings.dat
./System Volume Information/ClientRecoveryPasswordRotation

When using that the update fails. It writes a log (HpBiosUpdate.log):

05/02/20 08:02:41  EFI HP BIOS Update 2.7.1.0 Started
05/02/20 08:02:41  Failed init of SMBIOS data

Is there a way to install the upgrade of the BIOS (F.67 Rev.A) using GNU/Linux (possibly including FreeDOS or Wine)?

https://support.hp.com/ro-en/document/c00042629 section Update the BIOS manually from a USB Flash drive (outside of Windows) — Vlastimil Burián, May 02 '20 at 05:05
@LinuxSecurityFreak That also requires Microsoft Windows 8.1. Just on another computer. And I do not have that. I have access to a Microsoft Windows 10 machine, and on that it does not work (it will not write to USB). — Ole Tange, May 02 '20 at 07:30
I'd advise you to install Win 8.1 into VirtualBox then, and do the procedure from it. Cheers. — Vlastimil Burián, May 02 '20 at 07:39

Nate Dogg · Answer 1 · 2020-10-31T05:53:37.417

I found the solution to this finally after a Google search of the Failed init of SMBIOS data error.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/Probook-6560b-BIOS-issue-with-update-from-FLASH-drive/td-p/5074627

Check the HpBiosUpdate.log file in the Hewlett-Packard\BiosUpdate folder for the .bin file that is failing to be read.

10/31/20 05:18:59  HP BIOS Image Interface Protocol Version 1.0
10/31/20 05:19:00  BattInit: Protocol 2010.
10/31/20 05:19:00  All Required Protocols Located
10/31/20 05:19:01  Lang reported as eng.
10/31/20 05:19:01  Language Selected is currently (eng).
10/31/20 05:19:01  Failed Reading BIOS Image Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\New\68SCF.bin

Now, you should go to the Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\New folder and rename the .bin and .sig files to what that .bin filename is. In my case, I had blank .BIN and .SIG files and renamed them to 68SCF.bin and 68SCF.sig. I only did this in the Hewlett-Packard\BIOS\New folder, ran the update again and this time it worked just fine.

Upgrade firmware on HP Probook 6460b

1 Answers1