Chosen Solution
Hey everyone, To preface things, I have an HP Pavilion Laptop, model HP Pavilion - 15-cw100. I updated my BIOS to the latest version (F.48.Rev.A) through HP’s official website. However, once the writing to the BIOS was complete, I got an error saying “Verification of flashed BIOS Image failed”. With this, the system went into a boot loop where it would boot to the HP BIOS Recovery and repeat the flashing process only to return the same error message. I then attempted to recover the BIOS using an external USB, and I attempted to flash F.48.Rev.A with the USB, and I got the same message. Upon analyzing the logfile, I got something that mentioned “Verify of Block 46 Failed”. I then repeated the process with versions F.47.Rev A and F.46.Rev.A only to receive the exact same error. When recovering the BIOS with F.42.Rev.A, however, it successfully recovered the BIOS and displayed “The system BIOS recovery is complete”. I let the laptop sit and perform its reboot sequence, and the laptop turned off after a few minutes. Now, when I turn on the laptop, I see a black screen and the laptop turns off after a few seconds, and this process repeats again in a loop. Some things I have done to try to fix this: I removed the NVMe drive, battery, and reseated the RAM. I’m running the laptop only off of AC Power as of right now.I have tried both the Win + B and Win + V Keyboard combos with a USB containing a recovery BIOS as suggested by the HP Troubleshooting Guide, but the laptop simply turns on to a black screen and turns off after a few seconds and loops.I pressed and held the power button for a few minutes with the laptop not being connected to power, to maybe power cycle it.Followed whatever was suggested in the post Here, with the user having the same model of laptop as me. As of right now, I’m open to doing anything to the laptop to try to fix it, as the laptop is almost a year out of warranty. Thanks in advance.
Using something called a CH341a Programmer, I was able to successfully repair the laptop. This involved locating the BIOS Chip, figuring out what model it is, backing up the original BIOS Firmware (a .bin file), and finally, flashing the new BIOS Firmware with the appropriate serial information added. Thankfully, HP Makes it easy to get the BIOS Firmware Image – you just run the HP BIOS Updater tool and select the option that says “Copy BIOS Image to any file location (Advanced Users)”. Here’s a great resource to help find out what your Board ID is so you can flash the appropriate BIOS Image: https://github.com/ISpillMyDrink/UEFI-Re… One thing to note is that adding the serial information is a difficult task once the chip is flashed – hence you should backup the original BIOS Firmware so you can extract the serial information and add it to the new BIOS Image before flashing it to the BIOS Chip. To add the serial information to the new .bin file, you can either use a hex editor or you can use UEFITool. I just went ahead and used HxD, a hex editor, and copied over the serial information (which in my case was the data from hex address 00000000 to 0002a000) to the new BIOS image. Your hex addresses may be different, and in that case, you can request help from members of servers that specialize in these types of repairs for more help as to how to properly extract serial information. This is very much a last-ditch DIY repair, so I strongly suggest you remain cautious throughout the entire process; any mistakes you make have the potential to permanently damage your system. With that said, a great place to start would be with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0rAM-N… The owner of that YouTube video also runs a Discord server where you can get more knowledge on how to do this procedure correctly. I was graciously assisted by some of the server’s members, and that’s pretty much how I, a complete beginner, was able to get this arduous process done. It’s difficult for a beginner, no doubt, but it can be done with a lot of effort.
Hi @robbalista, Looks like you have done the CMOS reset procedure. Have you tried an external monitor to see if that displays anything? May be worth trying below now that you “down-dated” the BIOS. For what it is worth this was on the HP site: “. . . recommend you to perform the following steps to isolate the issue and arrive at a fix: Remove the battery. . . Disconnected AC adapter from the laptop. Press and hold the power button for 15 seconds. Reconnect the battery and plug the AC adapter. F6 + Power Button CMOS Rest (? reset?) combination of windows button and letter ‘V’ then push the power button ones and release the windows and letter ‘V’ after 5sec.”
