Okay, so one of the headaches of dealing with BIOS updates on HP thin clients is that they automatically assume that you run Windows embedded/LTSC or ThinPro/Igel (both of them are Linux based), and their BIOS update process is designed more towards large corporate shops, with scripted bundles more for unattended situations. In most cases it involves access to a Windows machine somewhere.
However, if you use their bigger thin clients like mini servers, you would probably run into an issue where you want to do the update in their BIOS via a USB drive, check the results and then fire up the host OS ASAP.
One of the sillier HP BIOS update procedures would be to use their utility (written by AMI) to make a USB thumb drive that has the correct files, stick the drive into the machine, hit F10 to go into BIOS, and then within the BIOS menu, select the option to use the files in your USB thumb drive to run the updates.
The issue here is that the utility was written back in the days of Windows 7 and requires a vulnerable driver (the one from AMI that bitbangs the BIOS EEPROM) to be loaded regardless of whether it actually asks it, and ever since WIn10 2H22, the Windows vulnerable Driver blocklist has been silently killing the utility. You could in theory turn off the vulnerable driver blocklist but that'll mean turning off some modern Windows security features like core isolation and whatnot. To figure out a way around this, I had to do this on my Framework 13 machine...so you don't have to.
So, what does the BIOS menu expect from the thumb drive in terms of contents before proceeding with the BIOS update?
The drive must:
Once it's downloaded and unpacked (7z/p7z on Linux, Keka in MacOS) into a folder, it should contain 4 subdirectories...
Go into the ToolLess Subdirectory and you should see "HP" and "BCU".
Go into HP, and you should see 3 subdirectories...BIOS, BIOSUpdate and UeFIBCU
Inside the BIOS directory, you should see Current and New. Make a new one called "Previous"
And then go back up the subdirectory tree until you get back to "HP".
Insert a FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive onto your machine and just copy the entire "HP" directory (subdirectories and all) into the thumb drive. It's fine if the drive has other contents but the "HP" folder has to be from that recently unpacked executable archive.
Next up, eject the thumb drive and stick it onto the device, then hit F10 to raise the BIOS. Once inside the BIOS, go to File -> Flash System BIOS -> Update System BIOS from USB.
As long as the drive is recognized and readable by the BIOS, it should not return an error message and proceed to the next screen, which is the actual BIOS updater.
Note that the BIOS update usually require at least one reboot, and you'll need to repeatedly hit F10 on power-cycle to get back onto the BIOS afterwards as virtualization is usually turned OFF after the update, and you'll need to turn it back on (it should be under Security -> Device options or something like that), hit F10 to save that setting, save / exit the BIOS, then hit F10 repeatedly again on the next power-up to verify that this is done. But once it's done, it should be done. If the utility reports missing files, make sure that the thumb drive is formatted to fat32 (or re-format it), copy the folders, and try again.
This procedure has been tested on the t640, t740 and t755 - not sure about the t730 but it should be the same or very similar.
However, if you use their bigger thin clients like mini servers, you would probably run into an issue where you want to do the update in their BIOS via a USB drive, check the results and then fire up the host OS ASAP.
One of the sillier HP BIOS update procedures would be to use their utility (written by AMI) to make a USB thumb drive that has the correct files, stick the drive into the machine, hit F10 to go into BIOS, and then within the BIOS menu, select the option to use the files in your USB thumb drive to run the updates.
The issue here is that the utility was written back in the days of Windows 7 and requires a vulnerable driver (the one from AMI that bitbangs the BIOS EEPROM) to be loaded regardless of whether it actually asks it, and ever since WIn10 2H22, the Windows vulnerable Driver blocklist has been silently killing the utility. You could in theory turn off the vulnerable driver blocklist but that'll mean turning off some modern Windows security features like core isolation and whatnot. To figure out a way around this, I had to do this on my Framework 13 machine...so you don't have to.
So, what does the BIOS menu expect from the thumb drive in terms of contents before proceeding with the BIOS update?
The drive must:
- Be around 4GB or less with decent read/write speeds (technically 16GB should be fine, but I would recommend staying below 8GB just to be on the safe side)
- Be formatted to FAT32 (doesn't have to be bootable)
- Contain a folder called HP (which contains a whole lot of files)
- Contain a subdirectory called "Previous" within the HP\BIOS directory.
Once it's downloaded and unpacked (7z/p7z on Linux, Keka in MacOS) into a folder, it should contain 4 subdirectories...
Go into the ToolLess Subdirectory and you should see "HP" and "BCU".
Go into HP, and you should see 3 subdirectories...BIOS, BIOSUpdate and UeFIBCU
Inside the BIOS directory, you should see Current and New. Make a new one called "Previous"
And then go back up the subdirectory tree until you get back to "HP".
Insert a FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive onto your machine and just copy the entire "HP" directory (subdirectories and all) into the thumb drive. It's fine if the drive has other contents but the "HP" folder has to be from that recently unpacked executable archive.
Next up, eject the thumb drive and stick it onto the device, then hit F10 to raise the BIOS. Once inside the BIOS, go to File -> Flash System BIOS -> Update System BIOS from USB.
As long as the drive is recognized and readable by the BIOS, it should not return an error message and proceed to the next screen, which is the actual BIOS updater.
Note that the BIOS update usually require at least one reboot, and you'll need to repeatedly hit F10 on power-cycle to get back onto the BIOS afterwards as virtualization is usually turned OFF after the update, and you'll need to turn it back on (it should be under Security -> Device options or something like that), hit F10 to save that setting, save / exit the BIOS, then hit F10 repeatedly again on the next power-up to verify that this is done. But once it's done, it should be done. If the utility reports missing files, make sure that the thumb drive is formatted to fat32 (or re-format it), copy the folders, and try again.
This procedure has been tested on the t640, t740 and t755 - not sure about the t730 but it should be the same or very similar.
